The ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 OLED Review: For The Creator In All Of Us
by Brett Howse on March 7, 2022 8:30 AM ESTSystem Performance
The M3500 version of the ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 comes in two choices of AMD H-Series processors with the 6-Core Ryzen 5 5600H, which offers twelve threads and a 4.2 GHz maximum boost frequency, or the Ryzen 7 5800H which bumps up to eight cores, sixteen threads, and a 4.4 GHz maximum frequency. The system is offered with 16 GB of RAM that is soldered in, and up to a 1 TB SSD.
On the graphics side, ASUS offers the NVIDIA RTX 3050 with Studio drivers. ASUS sent us this device prior to the Ryzen 6000 launch, but Ryzen 6000 and Ryzen 5000 both feature a Zen 3 CPU core and the big change with Ryzen 6000 is RDNA2 graphics, rather than Vega. Since the Vivobook Pro features a much more powerful dedicated graphics card the integrated graphics change is not as significant on this device.
Ryzen 5000 “Cezanne” has been a fantastic platform for AMD, offering great CPU performance and excellent power efficiency.
To see how the Vivobook Pro 15 performs it was run through our standard laptop test suite. Sadly we have not had a lot of comparable systems in to test over the last year, with perhaps the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio – at least on performance – being the most similar. The Laptop Studio has a slightly more powerful GPU in the RTX 3050 Ti, but only has a quad-core Tiger Lake H35 CPU so it will be interesting to see how it compares to the 16-thread Ryzen 7 5800H. Several systems with lower power 15-Watt chips are also included in the graphs to give a feel for where this entry-level content creator notebook fits in compared to more portable devices. As always, if you would like to compare any system we have ever reviewed, all of the data is in the online Bench tool.
PCMark 10
UL’s PCMark 10 suite is a comprehensive system test which offers a variety of workloads to stress different parts of the system including CPU, graphics, and storage. The Vivobook Pro 15 performs very well here thanks to the RTX 3050 and strong Ryzen CPU and tops this comparison.
Cinebench
With sixteen threads, the Vivobook Pro’s Ryzen processor does very well on the CPU-focused Cinebench test. Zen 3 is slightly behind Intel’s Tiger Lake in terms of single-threaded performance but the extra CPU cores shine in the multi-threaded variant of this benchmark.
Handbrake
AMD’s Ryzen 7 also does very well in our transcoding benchmark. The extra CPU threads put it at the top of the software transcoding test, and the dedicated RTX 3050 graphics allow for extremely quick transcoding in hardware using the NVENC option in Handbrake.
7-Zip
The open-source 7-Zip file compression tool includes a built-in benchmark which tests compression and decompression speeds. The Ryzen 7 5800H does very well here as the tool is able to take advantage of the extra CPU cores during this test.
Web Tests
Web performance is tied not only to the CPU and its ability to quickly ramp up to its maximum frequency, but also is heavily impacted by the underlying web browser’s scripting engine and its efficiency. As such we ensure all of the systems are tested with the Chromium Edge browser built into Windows 10. Browser performance does change over time with updates though as the browsers are updated.
The Ryzen 7 5800H does very well, edging the H35 Tiger Lake platform in the Surface Laptop Studio in the Speedometer 2.0 test, and really stretching its legs on WebXPRT 3. As a note, WebXPRT 4 is now officially live, so we will be transitioning to it over the next several reviews.
Storage Performance
AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series does not support PCIe 4.0 for storage unlike Intel’s Tiger Lake platform so for SSD the device is limited to PCIe 3.0 x4. ASUS shipped the review unit with a SK Hynix BC711 drive which is a low-power version the 4D 128-layer M.2 2280 drive from SK Hynix.
Performance from this drive was excellent. Despite not being PCIe 4.0, it still proved to be one of the quickest drives we have tested in the PCMark storage test suite, which utilizes real-world storage traces.
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reuthermonkey1 - Monday, March 7, 2022 - link
I do appreciate that they denoted it does not use a USB-C charger, for example.philehidiot - Monday, March 7, 2022 - link
The Linux point is definitely a good one. I am very tempted to put Linux on my next laptop as my old one uses OSX, which I really like over Windows, but hate what Apple do to customers.If a laptop can run a specific Linux distro without excessive hassle, that would be a superb test for me. It has the potential to be a rabbit hole, so I'd suggest something like "n hour Linux install and config test" - set a specific time limit for a competent Linux user and see if they can install a popular distro, and have it configured to run all the hardware properly, within that timeframe.
I also like the proprietary charger idea. That stuff boils my piss.
brucethemoose - Monday, March 7, 2022 - link
Sometimes there's a huge difference between popular distros, usually because they run a really old kernel (Ubuntu/Debian/Mint) and/or don't support proprietary drivers (Nvidia, wifi) ootb (Fedora).And sometimes there are specific community fixes that take seconds to install, but that you might not otherwise know to look for.
Basically, I'm saying this is a tough ask for a reviewer, and such a linux "test" could be very misleading. You are better off diving into the online communities for a particular line/brand yourself.
TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, March 8, 2022 - link
Basic things, like if it instlals, and if the dual graphics work without hassle, are simple for a reviewer to check with a couple different distros.jospoortvliet - Saturday, March 12, 2022 - link
Just test Ubuntu. Sure there are lots of distros and I personally am not an Ubuntu fan at all but reality is that it just makes sense with its user base and with the aim of keeping it simple.Oxford Guy - Sunday, March 13, 2022 - link
It really is unfortunate how Apple has not chosen to take the high road when it comes to respecting the agency of individual consumers. That is both about its high level of spying and its incessant changing of UI. It’s also about force-feeding people what certain developers there want them to eat — like relentless punishment for using low power mode in iOS.Unfortunate but not at all surprising, since these companies don’t work for ordinary individuals at all. On the contrary…
TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, March 8, 2022 - link
It's a pain, but barrel chazrgers have two notable advantages: more resistance to force damaging the connector and port, and (IDK if its true on this machine) they can be mounted seperate fromt he botherboard, allowing easy replacement. USB C cant do this.phoenix_rizzen - Monday, March 7, 2022 - link
Would it be possible to run the graphics tests again using the integrated GPU? Would be interesting to see just what the difference is between the iGPU and dGPU. Or is that even possible on AMD-based laptops (I have no experience with laptops that include dGPU)?Could also be interesting to see what (if any) impact switching between the GPUs makes for battery life.
Alistair - Monday, March 7, 2022 - link
no point with ryzen 5000 though, you want ryzen 6000 for thatbrucethemoose - Monday, March 7, 2022 - link
Most laptops are basically unusable on battery with a loaded dGPU, unless its something barely better than an IGP.As for IGP perf, you have to stick to low intensity games on the IGP. Vega 8 is nearly an order of magnitude slower than my 2060, which is somewhat comparable to this 3050.
This is kinda why Ryzen 6000/Van Gogh are so exciting. For the first time ever, gaming on battery may actually be practical.