ASUS VivoBook 15 M513 review – a budget solution with a plethora of configuration options

The VivoBook brand has always been about the younger generation. An undoubtable advocate for that are the colorful design options they offer, across their entire gamut of devices.

And today, we have the VivoBook 15 M513, which comes in a whopping 6 different color options. Additionally, the laptop now comes with the AMD Ryzen 4000U processors, which stand pretty high in the most powerful CPU charts out there, especially, considering the 15W ones.

Nevertheless, this laptop is not only a way to express yourself. In fact, it looks so versatile, that it can easily be your daily driver, office machine, and even entertainment provider at the end of the day. Without a hassle.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-vivobook-15-f513-x513-k513-s513/

Contents


Specs Sheet

ASUS VivoBook 15 F513 (X513 / K513 / S513 / M513) - Specs

  • Innolux N156HCA-EAB
  • Color accuracy  4.1  3.1
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 8000GB SSD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2280 M.2 NVMe slot 
  • RAM
  • up to 40GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Home, Windows 10 Home, No OS, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 42Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 359.8 x 235.3 x 18.6 mm (14.17" x 9.26" x 0.73")
  • Weight
  • 1.80 kg (4 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • HDMI
  • Card reader
  • MicroSD
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 mm combo
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Speakers
  • Optical drive

All ASUS VivoBook 15 F513 (X513 / K513 / S513 / M513) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, you will the laptop, protected by an anti-static cloth, some paper manuals, beneath it, and a tiny 45W power brick.


Design and construction

This notebook’s design is pretty similar to the previous VivoBooks we’ve tested. It combines a metal lid with a plastic body, which feels surprisingly rigid, when you twist it, apart from some tiny pops coming from the chassis. In terms of measurements, we are talking about weight of 1.80 kg and a profile of 18.6mm.

Unfortunately, the lid cannot be opened with a single hand. Nevertheless, the bezels around the matte display are decently-sized, and there is a camera above the panel, just to be useful in the world we live in.

Next, there is the base that suffers from some deck flex. The keyboard, itself, is decent with an optional backlight, 1.4mm key travel (which is a bit average), and clicky feedback. In conjunction with the tradition, ASUS has a painted rim around the Enter key, to make it more distinguishable we presume. It also features a NumberPad segment, while the Power On/Off switch is located on the top right corner. Additionally, it has an indicator that shows whether the laptop is turned On or Off.

The touchpad, on the other hand, has a smooth surface, while the tracking is fairly decent.

Moving to the bottom panel, we find the speaker cutouts, as well as the ventilation grill. Hot air, respectively, is blown towards the bottom of the display, from in between the base and the lid.

Ports

So, about the I/O… In 2021 we see two archaic USB Type-A 2.0 ports on the left side of the notebook. In our view, this is unacceptable, even though it might be a somewhat minor cost-cutting measure. Nevertheless, on the right, there is the power plug, an HDMI 1.4 connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1), an audio jack, and a MicroSD card reader, rounding for a pretty good port selection.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

Getting inside of this notebook is as easy as undoing 10 Phillips-head screws, and then prying the bottom panel with a plastic tool.

Once inside, you will notice that the laptop is powered by a 42Wh battery pack. Interestingly, there is a metal retention bracket that not only holds the battery in place but also acts as a support to the structure of the chassis. Additionally, you will need to remove it to install a 2.5-inch SATA drive.

There are configurations of the laptop coming with either 4 or 8GB of soldered memory. On top of that, you can upgrade it via the single RAM SODIMM slot, which fits sticks as large as 32GB. As for the storage, there is the aforementioned 2.5-inch SATA drive bay, as well as an M.2 NVMe slot.

Cooling-wise, there is one very thin heat pipe, that is responsible for taking those temperatures down. Also, the fan profile looks rather thin. On the bright side, the heat sink is quite large, which may benefit the thermal efficiency of the setup.


Display quality

ASUS VivoBook 15 M513 is equipped with a Full HD IPS panel, model number Innolux N156HCA-EAB (CMN15E7). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at a distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

It has comfortable viewing angles. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness of 336 nits in the middle of the screen and 309 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 13%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6280K – warmer than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

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. The contrast ratio is good – 1360:1.

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 on 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 15 M513’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 15 M513 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 = 23 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


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 15 M513’s backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. This makes it comfortable for long work periods, without introducing any additional eyestrain 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 Blue light, the TL;DR version is – light 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.

Conclusion

ASUS VivoBook 15 M513’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, good contrast ratio, and a non-flickering backlight (doesn’t utilize PWM). Unfortunately, it covers only half of the colors of the sRGB gamut, and this is one of its few disadvantages.

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 15 M513 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS Innolux N156HCA-EAB.

*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.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

ASUS VivoBook 15 M513’s Harman Kardon speakers produce a sound of very good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be downloaded from here: https://www.asus.com/Laptops/For-Home/VivoBook/VivoBook-15-M513/HelpDesk_knowledge/?model2Name=VivoBook-15-M513

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. Despite the rather small 42Wh battery pack, we got a quite respectable Web browsing score of 13 hours and 45 minutes. When you look at the HD video playback, however, things get more in check with the hardware with a battery life of 7 hours and a half.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.


CPU options

As of now, this laptop can be purchased with two AMD processors – the Ryzen 5 4500U, and the Ryzen 7 4700U. Essentially, the same series also comes with Intel CPUs, as well as the new Ryzen 5000U ones from AMD.

ASUS VivoBook 15 F513 (X513 / K513 / S513 / M513) CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the ASUS VivoBook 15 F513 (X513 / K513 / S513 / M513) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which ASUS VivoBook 15 F513 (X513 / K513 / S513 / M513) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.


GPU options

Graphics-wise, you get the integrated Radeon RX Vega 6 and Vega 7 solutions, but depending on the configuration you can get the GeForce MX350 as well.

ASUS VivoBook 15 F513 (X513 / K513 / S513 / M513) GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the ASUS VivoBook 15 F513 (X513 / K513 / S513 / M513) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which ASUS VivoBook 15 F513 (X513 / K513 / S513 / M513) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS57 fps40 fps25 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS70 fps39 fps23 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 frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

AMD Ryzen 7 4700U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
ASUS VivoBook 15 M5133.01 GHz (B+51%) @ 72°C2.74 GHz (B+37%) @ 81°C2.22 GHz (B+11%) @ 66°C
ASUS VivoBook 14 M4132.89 GHz (B+45%) @ 71°C2.68 GHz (B+34%) @ 77°C2.70 GHz (B+35%) @ 81°C
ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM4202.90 GHz (B+45%) @ 65°C2.78 GHz (B+39%) @ 69°C2.47 GHz (B+24%) @ 65°C
Lenovo Yoga 6 (13)2.64 GHz (B+32%) @ 69°C2.72 GHz (B+36%) @ 85°C1.55 GHz @ 65°C
ASUS ZenBook 14 UM4332.79 GHz (B+40%) @ 64°C2.64 GHz (B+32%) @ 70°C2.07 GHz (B+4%) @ 58°C
HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000)2.87 GHz (B+44%) @ 60°C2.63 GHz (B+32%) @ 71°C2.13 GHz (B+7%) @ 69°C

Interestingly, the VivoBook 15 M513 was showing a lower performance at the end of the test, compared to its smaller brother – the VivoBook 14 M413. At first, we thought that the 45W power adapter might be the culprit behind that, but then again, the smaller laptop uses basically the same charger, so the enigma remains unsolved.

Comfort during full load

The laptop is neither too loud, nor too warm on the outside, so comfortable work is ensured even during an extreme workload.


Verdict

Ultimately, this laptop can be considered as a budget offering from one of the boldest brands on the market. Ultimately, the VivoBook 15 M513 doesn’t look like something special, but its main selling point will definitely grab the young target group. Yep, it comes in 6 different colors, which is nice, but is purely subjective, especially since some retailers won’t bother stacking on all color options.

Nonetheless, the device has some strong points as well, including the processor choice. We had the Ryzen 7 4700U, which offered decent performance, and pretty good efficiency. Interestingly, the integrated graphics didn’t really impress. However, the power efficiency resulted in a Web browsing screen on time of 13 hours and 45 minutes, which sounds great, considering the rather small 42Wh battery pack. On the other hand, it “only” lasts 7 hours and a half of video playback.

ASUS VivoBook 15 M513’s IPS panel (Innolux N156HCA-EAB (CMN15E7)) has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, good contrast ratio, and a non-flickering backlight (doesn’t utilize PWM). Unfortunately, it covers only half of the colors of the sRGB gamut, and this is one of its few disadvantages.

Ultimately, this is one of the few notebooks left on the market that have a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay for storage expansion in addition to the M.2 slot for quick NVMe SSDs. Also, you get either 4 or 8GB of soldered DDR4 memory, further expandable by a single SODIMM slot.

There is one thing that could have been great – the I/O. It sports a total of four USB ports, one of which is a Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1). There also is a MicroSD card reader, and an HDMI connector. Unfortunately, two of the three USB Type-A ports only reach 2.0 speeds, which translated to English means that if one of the ports is a Camaro, the other two are the lowest tier Ford Fiesta.

Nevertheless, the laptop is still usable, and our configuration that had an M.2 SSD inside was blazingly quick in daily usage. Although the power curve is set in a way that you won’t be able to extract the maximum out of the processor in longer loads, you will have no problem with multimedia consumption, and office work.

Pros

  • Adequate pricing
  • Reasonably comfortable keyboard with optional backlight
  • Lack of PWM (Innolux N156HCA-EAB)
  • Expandable memory + M.2 NVMe and 2.5-inch SATA drive slots
  • Plethora of colors to choose from
  • Optional Wi-Fi 6 and fingerprint reader


Cons

  • Power limited in long extreme workloads
  • Covers only 52% of sRGB (Innolux N156HCA-EAB)
  • Two of its three USB Type-A ports are of 2.0 speeds

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-vivobook-15-f513-x513-k513-s513/

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Mike
Mike
2 years ago

Hi, can you please tell me what wifi card is in the model with Ryzen 5 5500U? Thanks

Anonymus
Anonymus
2 years ago
Reply to  Mike

You can see on the photo at “Max CPU Load” that it has an Intel AX200NGW WiFi 6 card.