Introducing a simple laptop that’s also budget-friendly, and there are quite a lot of interesting things that I want to highlight. So, this laptop is priced at RM3,199 and it has an Intel Core 5 Processor 120U with a 16-inch IPS LCD screen and 16GB of RAM in total.
Now, the specs alone do not tell the full story about this laptop, so let’s go through it in detail.
When we first look at this laptop, it looks like any other Vivobooks that we’ve used so far. It’s made mostly out of plastic – which is okay since it is going to be more lightweight than the more “premium” metal ones.
It still has this ASUS logo badge which I have no idea why they did this. It’s going to catch on dirt and it’s not that simple to clean – but it does have ASUS Antimicrobial Guard Plus surface coating to prevent bacterial reproduction.
Now, the specs on this laptop are – as mentioned earlier, the Intel Core 5 Processor 120U with integrated graphics, alongside 16GB of DDR4 RAM at 3200MT/s and 512GB of SSD.
We have to do a bit of codename deciphering here. The Intel Core 5 Processor 120U is using the Raptor Lake architecture – which means it’s practically based on the 13th Gen processor architecture. If the processor name has the word “Ultra” in it, then that’s the using the new Meteor Lake with the new Intel Arc integrated GPU and AI capabilities.
Either way, how’s the gaming capabilities of this processor in this laptop? Actually, quite good.
Genshin Impact ran great at the lowest graphical settings and able to maintain near 60fps throughout the entire gameplay session. Surprisingly, the fan in this laptop is rather quiet too and the highest temperature I’ve seen is only around 75°C.
Halo Infinite ran great above 30fps at the lowest graphical settings and I had a good time on this laptop. By the way, the speaker also sounds decent on this laptop.
Counter Strike 2 is a game that ran around 60fps at the lowest graphical settings but I did not enable V-sync during this recording. I urge you to enable V-sync for this laptop because screen tearing is rather intense.
And speaking of the screen… the screen on this laptop isn’t exactly the best. It’s a pretty basic IPS LCD screen that only covers 61.24% of sRGB and 43.70% of DCI-P3 color gamuts, but with a very low ΔE number. At the maximum brightness, it’s at around 300 nits – which is adequate for indoor usage but it’ll struggle if I’m sitting beside a bright window.
Honestly, this screen is still good enough for office usage. Since the colors aren’t that vivid or contrasty, I do think it’s a bit more comfortable to look at texts on a monochromatic background. But of course, watching movies or even YouTube videos just doesn’t look as good. Still, we can try to upgrade the screen if we want to – watch our experience here.
I’m not sure if this laptop’s screen can be swapped so do it at your own risk.
Alright, upgradability. This laptop uses Philips screws which is great – but there really isn’t much to do when we open up this laptop. For our configuration, 8GB RAM is already soldered but another 8GB is provided by the RAM in that SODIMM slot. This is recommended since the RAM works in dual-channel mode.
The WiFi card is a basic Intel AX101 WiFi 6 card, and that single SSD slot is used by the included 512GB Micron 2400 NVMe SSD. I mean, we can swap these two out but I only recommend you to swap that SSD to a 1TB or 2TB if you really need it.
And the battery life. This laptop comes with a 42Wh battery – pretty small but we can still get about 6 hours on this laptop while browsing the web and streaming YouTube Music and occasionally some YouTube videos. I am using it on the silent power profile, at about 50% brightness.
I’d say, pretty good overall. There is no lag while I was using this laptop even on the silent power profile.
As for the ports, we have a lot of them on this laptop. They’re at most 5Gb/s which is fine. Surprisingly, we can charge the laptop using that single USB-C port. That’s magnificent.
By the way, this laptop only uses 45W maximum. That doesn’t mean the laptop will take up 45W all the time. Still, I was surprised by the performance this laptop offers.
The single USB 2.0 port is on the left side and it is made for external mouse usage.
Now, the trackpad is actually quite good. It even has a fingerprint reader to quickly unlock the laptop too – but the palm rejection is just not the best.
As for the keyboard, it’s the usual great ASUS laptop keyboard. The keys have great travel distance, bouncy, and just fun to type on. It does have a number pad so if you want to do your accounting using this laptop, then go ahead.
Should you buy the ASUS Vivobook 16 A1605?
So, at the end, this laptop is RM3,199 and I think it’s quite good in terms of value. Sure, the screen is might be a problem for certain use cases, but the performance is actually really good. We can even play some games on it and I think that’s great.
However, if you want something at around the same price but with more performance, then take a look at this MSI laptop. I’ll leave it at the end screen here – and if you have any questions about this ASUS Vivobook 16 A1605, leave them in the comments section below. I think it’s a great laptop for many people.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews! Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
