ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 review – another decent 14-incher

This is the last device from the newest VivoBook S-series to come on our desk. After the S15 S530 and S13 S330, today we are taking a look at ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 in what is potentially one of the great and budget-friendly multimedia devices. From what we know from the other two devices, we are expecting to see a good blend between premium features, cost-cutting, and hardware, capable of decent performance.

With that said, the VivoBook S14 S430 is available with the entire range of Core iX Whiskey Lake CPUs – from the Core i3-8145U to Core i5-8265U and finally the flagship of Intel ULV processors (by the time of writing this review) – the Core i7-8565U. Additionally, ASUS is offering you a laptop with an IPS display, NVMe SSD drive, and an optional NVIDIA GeForce MX150 or the MX130 in some regions – Lenovo Ideapad 330s (14″) – be afraid!

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-vivobook-s14-s430/

Contents


Specs Sheet

ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 tableau des caractéristiques techniques

Acer
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14.0”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), IPS
HDD/SSD
256GB M.2 NVMe SSD
Fente M.2
1x 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x2 Voir photo
RAM
4GB DDR4, 2400 MHz
Dimensions
323 x 226 x 18 mm (12.72" x 8.90" x 0.71")
Poids
1.40 kg (3.1 lbs)
Matériau du corps
Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
Ports et connectivité
  • 1x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB Type-A 2.0
  • HDMI
  • Lecteur de cartes Micro SD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth 4.2
  • Prise audio combo audio / microphone jack
Caractéristiques
  • Lecteur d'empreintes digitales
  • Caméra Web HD 720p
  • Clavier rétro-éclairé
  • Microphone
  • Intervenants
  • Lecteur optique
  • Fente de verrouillage de sécurité

What’s in the box?

Its box is not fancy at all – it features only the laptop, some paper manuals and a 45W power adapter (65W if you get the dedicated GPU version).


Design and construction

ASUS has chosen a blend of aluminum and plastic panels for their VivoBook S14 S430. Usually, it is a great meeting point between what is considered premium and what is thought to be budget-oriented. So, in this case, the 1.40 kg body looks astonishing from the outside. Its profile is 18mm thin and the hinges utilize the already familiar ErgoLift design, that lifts the base of the device in order to enhance the cooling and the ergonomics when typing.

Its aluminum lid doesn’t let you open it with a single hand, however, it feels really good on the outside. On the inside, however, we see a plastic frame around the screen. It has super thin bezels on the sides and on the top of the display, however, the bottom “chin” is huge. Additionally, there is some gap between the display itself and the bottom part of the plastic frame.

Further below we see a backlit keyboard with a decent travel and clicky feedback. All-in-all it is pleasing to type on it, although there is the slightest of bends when you press harder on the keys. Additionally, beneath it is located the touchpad with a glass surface and a fingerprint reader. Both of them are super snappy, with the fingerprint being one of the fastest we’ve tested.

On the bottom, you can see two ventilation grills – one right beneath the fan and one in the middle of the device. In addition to that, there are two speaker cut-outs on either side of the plate, while the hot air exhaust is placed in between the base and the lid of the machine.

Ports

On the left side you are going to see two USB Type-A 2.0 ports and a MicroSD card reader, whereas on the right there is the charging plug, a USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1), an HDMI port, USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) and an Audio Jack.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

Getting inside of the ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 happens as easily as its 13-inch and 15-inch brothers. Just unscrew a total of 9 Phillips-head screws and pry the bottom plate up with a plastic tool (if you don’t want to scratch your device).

As we remove the bottom plate we see a well-known cooling solution. One copper heat pipe leading from the CPU directly towards the heatsink, which is cooled by the fan. In addition to that, you can easily spot the “socket” for the GPU and its memory chips. When a GPU is present, however, there should be a second heat pipe in order to increase the thermal capacity of the cooling system.

Right beneath the processor, there is the RAM DIMM. As you can see it is free for use, meaning that there are 4GB of RAM soldered to the motherboard. Additionally, there are an M.2 PCIe x2 slot and a SATA connector, placed on the left and below the RAM DIMM, respectively.

Last but not least, there is the battery pack, which is rated at 42Wh and has a 3-cell design.


Display quality

ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 is equipped with a Full HD IPS screen, model number BOE NV140FHM-N49 (BOE07F7). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.161 x 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are comfortable. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 304 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 293 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 12%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6590K (average) – matching the 6500K optimum for sRGB. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is 6470K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 65% Brightness (White level = 141 cd/m2, Black level = 0.114 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is acceptable – 1230:1 (1170:1 after profiling).

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows ASUS VivoBook S14 S430’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers only 53% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 32 ms – a rather slow panel.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness at any level. This makes it comfortable for extended periods of use, without harm to your eyesight in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusions

ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 has a Full HD IPS panel with a good contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles, and relatively adequate default settings. Additionally, its backlight doesn’t flicker. On the downside sits the poor color coverage of the display.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 configurations with 14.0″ BOE NV140FHM-N49 (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

En plus de recevoir des profils efficaces et favorables à la santé, en achetant les produits de LaptopMedia, vous soutenez également le développement de nos laboratoires, où nous testons les appareils afin de produire les examens les plus objectifs possibles.

Travail de bureau

Le travail de bureau devrait être utilisé principalement par les utilisateurs qui passent le plus de temps à regarder des morceaux de texte, des tableaux ou simplement à surfer. Ce profil vise à offrir une meilleure distinction et une meilleure clarté en conservant une courbe gamma plate (2,20), une température de couleur native et des couleurs perceptuellement précises.

Conception et jeux

Ce profil est destiné aux designers qui travaillent avec les couleurs de manière professionnelle, et pour les jeux et les films également. Design and Gaming pousse les panneaux d'affichage à leurs limites, les rendant aussi précis que possible dans la norme sRGB IEC61966-2-1 pour le Web et la TVHD, au point blanc D65.

Santé-Guard

Santé-Guard élimine le modulation de largeur d'impulsion nocive (PWM) et réduit le lumière bleue négative qui affecte nos yeux et notre corps. Comme il est adapté à chaque panneau, il parvient à maintenir la précision perceptive des couleurs. Santé-Guard simule le papier, ce qui réduit considérablement la pression sur les yeux.

Obtenez les 3 profils avec 33% de réduction


Sound

ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 has a relatively quiet sound with good quality. Despite the apparent deviations in the lows, the mids and highs are clear.


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for the ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 are available here: https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ASUS-VivoBook-S14-S430UN/HelpDesk_Download/

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 is equipped with a 42Wh battery pack.

We were able to extract more than 11 hours of web browsing and 10 hours flat of video playback from this unit. Additionally, gaming, despite not the best option, results in a little more than two hours of screen on time (with the iGPU).


CPU options

ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 can be bought with any of the latest Whiskey Lake processors of Intel – the dual-core Core i3-8145U, or the quad-core Core i5-8265U and the Core i7-8565U. However, in some regions, it is available with the previous year’s models from the Kaby Lake Refresh series.


GPU options

You can either stick with the integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 or get the device with NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (or the MX130, depending on the region).


Gaming tests

Apparently, the model without the dedicated GPU isn’t very potent in gaming.

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS25 fps– fps– fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS39 fps21 fps– fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core temperature (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i3-8145U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
ASUS VivoBook S14 S4303.34 GHz (B+59%)@ 68°C3.24 GHz (B+54%)@ 83°C1.97 GHz @ 56°C
ASUS VivoBook S13 S3303.58 GHz (B+70%)@ 68°C3.51 GHz (B+67%)@ 79°C2.77 GHz (B+32%)@ 72°C

Contrary to the 13-inch version of this very device, the VivoBook S14 S430 is running very conservative thermals. Despite the early over-3.00 GHz frequencies, at the end of the test, we saw it finish at 1.97 GHz and 56C, which is clearly thermal throttling. This is an 800 MHz lower frequency than its smaller brother, which come at the profit of 16C. This cooling is capable of more but it is probably not that effective as its smaller compatriot. We should remind you that the VivoBook S13 S330 is sharing its cooling design with the ZenBook 13 UX333, which can be considered as an advantage.

Gaming comfort

Expectedly, at this configuration, the fan was barely spinning. The hottest area we measured was 43.6C between the “-” and the “=” keys, coinciding with the location of the processor. However, just on the other side of the keyboard, the temperature was a full 20C colder, which is an advantage.


Verdict

ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 is one of the better devices for you to consider if you’re on the look of a 14-inch multimedia laptop. It is right in the same league with the Lenovo Ideapad 330s (14″), which could be considered as one of the best 14-inchers for its price. There are some differences between the two, but some of them are crucial. For example they both feature an IPS display with relatively adequate default settings, good contrast ratio and all the other goodies of an IPS panel, however, the VivoBook S14 S430’s screen doesn’t flicker, while the Ideapad 330s (14″) uses an aggressive PWM profile. On the contrary, the VivoBook’s keyboard is is a little susceptible to bends.

This is only one of the goodies the VivoBook S14 S430 has to offer. Additionally, it has an astonishing battery life – 11 hours of web browsing and 10 hours of video playback should be enough to last you through the entire work day. Its input devices are on the upper point as well – the keyboard has a long and tactile travel, while the touchpad is accurate and features a glass cover on top of it. Additionally, the device features one of the fastest fingerprint readers on the market.

If you are looking for performance from this notebook, we have to recommend buying the Core i5-8265U or the Core i7-8565U versions of the device. Although the Core i3-8145U is good enough for day-to-day usage, you are certainly going to find the difference if you are using a photo or video-editing software. Additionally, you can always expand either your memory or storage, since there is a dedicated RAM DIMM, an M.2 PCIe x2 slot and SATA connector.

With everything of this in mind, the ASUS VivoBook S14 S430 is clearly a better device than the S14 S410, however, you can find similarly good laptops like the ThinkPad E490 (which offers Type-C charging), HP ProBook 440 G6 and even the budget Ideapad 330s (14″).

Pros

  • Very good battery life
  • Thin and light bezel-less design
  • Very high contrast and decent brightness (BOE NV140FHM-N49)
  • It doesn’t use PWM to adjust screen brightness (BOE NV140FHM-N49)
  • Barely audible under heavy load
  • Decent upgradability options


Cons

  • Not very high-quality plastic on the base
  • Narrow color coverage – 53% of sRGB (BOE NV140FHM-N49)
  • Lacks USB Type-C charging

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-vivobook-s14-s430/

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Sam Meehan
Sam Meehan
4 années il y a un an

how much ram this laptop can use?