ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 OLED (N6506) review – Killer Display, Lasting Battery, Minor Compromises


    Design and construction

    The design of the ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 OLED (N6506) is clean and non-intrusive, especially in Earl Grey color. The base is stable, we spot a tiny amount of bends below the Arrow keys but that’s okay. The lid is made of metal and it flexes a bit more than usual when we tried to twist it. The dimensions are good for a 15-incher with potent hardware – 1.80 kg and 19.9 mm profile thickness.

    The lid can be opened effortlessly with a single hand and the hinge mechanism is pleasantly smooth. Still, the unit is a bit bouncy during angle changing.

    The OLED display with an infinite contrast ratio is surrounded by thin bezels. Okay, the lower one is a bit thicker than the other three.

    The top bezel houses a 5MP IR Web camera with a privacy shutter and AI Noise Cancelation.

    The laptop can lay almost fully flat on an even surface. The base sits pretty high off the ground which positively affects the cooling solution. The dual-tone ErgoSense backlit keyboard is comfortable for work with its long key travel and clicky feedback. Also, the board has a NumPad section and the keycaps offer quiet operation – nice!

    No complaints regarding the touchpad. It’s decently sized, and it’s smooth and accurate. The built-in DialPad can be seen in the top left corner of the pad. This feature is very useful for creative apps.

    On the bottom plate, we can spot four rubber feet on the sides plus a plastic one in the middle alongisde two speaker cutouts. The hot air is guided via three vents – two on the back and one on the left. Just a small amount of hot air reaches the display under heavy loads because the hinge cover stands right in front of the back vents.

    Ports

    On the left, you get a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port and an SD 4.0 card reader. The majority of the connectors are on the right side – a power plug, LAN, HDMI 2.1 TMDS, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, a Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, and an Audio combo jack. Both Type-Cs support Power Delivery and DisplayPort functions.



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    Simone
    Simone
    2 years ago

    Does the laptop support the installing of a 32GB stick of memory in the sodimm slot or intalling it results in the system not booting up, not recognize the memory or behave strangely? On the zephyrus g14 2022 Asus claims a maximum memory of 32GB but I knew of people reaching 48GB with no problem changing the 16GB stick with a 32GB one.
    Thank you in advance.

    Simeon Nikolov
    Admin
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Simone

    According to ASUS, the maximum amount of RAM supported is 24GB. However, since the CPU can support up to 96GB, the Vivobook Pro 15 OLED likely wouldn’t have issues running with up to 56GB of DDR5-5600MHz RAM (8GB soldered + 48GB in the SODIMM slot).

    Nick
    1 year ago
    Reply to  Simone

    Yes. But 32GB is a 2 rank memory, so the frequency will be lowered to 4800 and the total speed will be around 40GB/s. 

    Andreas Abrahamsson
    Andreas Abrahamsson
    2 years ago

    Thank you for such a comprehensive review. I would really appreciate if you could incorporate the fan noise for a normal workload – web browsing, movies, etc. This is often left out in favor of fan noise at full load, which is seldom relevant.

    How would you categorize the fan noise under normal office work, please?

    Jiaxiang
    Jiaxiang
    1 year ago

    It’s basically silent, occasionally there is some fan noise but it’s very quiet. Does get very loud sometimes during intensive workloads, but silent mode should do the trick in most cases.

    Sammy Saeed
    Sammy Saeed
    2 years ago

    Is the GPU eco mode disabled when the laptop is connected via the power brick? 🙁

    comment image

    With my current asus laptop I usually always have eco mode on even when connected to power to keep my laptop cool (often have it my lap or chest)

    Oridini
    Oridini
    2 years ago

    For the display what is the max brightness in HDR (small window and full screen)? Also what is the colour accuracy like in HDR?

    Simeon Nikolov
    Admin
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Oridini

    Measuring color accuracy in HDR mode is more complex and influenced by various external and internal factors, which is why our current measurements are limited to SDR mode. Additionally, manufacturers typically prioritize more attractive picture over color accuracy in HDR. If you aim for the most realistic colors, working in SDR mode is the better option.

    Regarding the size of the white window when measuring screen brightness, we’ve conducted tests with both 10% fill and fullscreen fill. In both cases, the max brightness was similar, just below 400 nits.

    Nick
    1 year ago

    Did you really get 25 hours of browser time or is that a mistake? 
    I have this laptop at idle on minimum brightness consumes about 9 watts, that is about 8 hours of idle time with no applications running. 
    Any activity increases the consumption and the actual browser time is about 6 hours. 
    But I have a second module 32 GB, maybe the reason is this, or the drivers are not installed correctly. Installed different Windows builds several times, different drivers – nothing helps. 

    Jiaxiang
    Jiaxiang
    1 year ago
    Reply to  Nick

    Hi,
    I have this laptop, and with browsing on chrome, I only get 2-3 hours. Could you tell me what settings you are using?
    Even though they said 25 hours, 6 hours is still better than the 3 hours that I’m getting.
    I’m on silent mode, and it’s fairly new. I usually just use google docs and some other websites like amazon, makerworld, but nothing super power intensive.
    Thank you!!

    Nick
    1 year ago
    Reply to  Jiaxiang

    Just use Optimal Operation mode to disconnect Nvidia from the battery (this is crucial) and Standard or Quiet cooler mode.
    If only 2-3 hours in this case as well, 
    1. Look in Task Manager to see which applications are loading the CPU and/or graphics card
    2. Install drivers for your laptop from the official Asus website, because other, even newer drivers not from Asus may not work correctly. 

    Jiaxiang
    Jiaxiang
    1 year ago
    Reply to  Nick

    Thank you so much for your helpful response! I looked in the Task Manager and found that a few background apps like steam were using a lot of resources, so I just closed out of them, and with a few chrome tabs, I also let MyASUS auto install some drivers, and I’m getting much better battery life! (Nvidia was already disconnected and quiet mode was on before.)

    Thanks for your help! I’m getting around an estimate of around 5 hours, seeing that I lost around 50 percent after 3 hours.

    Jiaxiang
    Jiaxiang
    1 year ago

    Hi,
    Please tell me how you got it to 25 hours of battery life!!! I can’t even get 3 hours on this thing and I’m just doing basic web browsing with google docs!
    Anything helps!!
    Thank you so much!