Asus Vivobook 16X OLED Review: Roomy OLED Laptop for Less

Its big OLED display is a stunner for this laptop's price, but we have some notes for the rest of the Vivobook 16X's midrange package.

 

There is one reason and one reason only for purchasing the Asus Vivobook 16X OLED laptop: its spectacular 16-inch, 4K OLED display. The screen has stunning clarity and contrast and color accuracy that's clearly and unmistakably better than what you'd get from a midrange laptop with a typical LCD display. The 16-inch size is incredible, too, with a 16:10 aspect ratio for abundant workspace.

Outside of the OLED panel, the Vivobook 16X is a middling midrange laptop. For its $1,200 price, we're fine with the laptop's 12th-gen Core i7 H-series processor, even if it's now a generation behind. But somewhere along the way, Asus cut corners with the hardware because it's a step behind similarly configured laptops we've tested. Plus, the display would be much more useful for content creators if Asus had fitted it with a budget Nvidia RTX GPU. Add to those the plasticky, flimsy feel and a 720p webcam that disappoints in resolution and clarity and the Vivobook 16X OLED is tough to recommend. Still, if you can pick it up at a discount, the drawbacks might be worth overlooking for the Vivobook 16X's incredible and spacious 16-inch, 16:10, 4K OLED display.

Asus Vivobook 16X OLED F1603

Price as reviewed	$1,200
Display size/resolution	16-inch 3,840 x 2,400 OLED display
CPU	2.3GHz Intel Core i7-12700H
Memory	16GB DDR4 3,200MHz RAM
Graphics	128MB Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Storage	512GB M.2 NVMe SSD
Ports	1x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A,1x HDMI 1.4. 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack 1x DC-in
Networking	Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) (Dual band) 2*2 + Bluetooth 5.3
Operating system	Windows 11 Home

Our non-Pro Vivobook 16X OLED test system produced uninspired results in lab testing. It trailed similarly configured systems on Geekbench 5 and was at or near the back of the pack on our Cinebench and 3DMark tests. In addition to an undersized SSD for graphics pros, its lab performance is another disappointment for anyone looking to use the 4K OLED for media editing. Meanwhile, its runtime of just over 7.5 hours on our battery drain test was merely average.

Hollow and flimsy

Unlike the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED models, the Vivobook 16X OLED features an all-plastic chassis. When I first picked up the laptop, I was dismayed to feel the lid and bottom panel flex between my thumb and fingers, especially the lid. It flexed to the point of feeling hollow. After opening the laptop, I felt the same troublesome flex with the keyboard deck. A metal lid and keyboard deck would have gone a long way to making the laptop feel a bit more premium. As constructed, it feels like you are getting a premium OLED display wrapped in a budget enclosure, which averages out to a midrange laptop.