The Acer Aspire 5 and HP 15 Laptop are brighter, measuring at 258 nits and 222 nits, respectively, though even those models are below the industry average of 268 nits. In the case of the latest refresh of the Asus VivoBook 15, you're paying for less performance and less battery life and opting for a less vibrant display. The VivoBook's Intel Core-i3 processor and 8GB of RAM are quite able, despite their mediocre benchmarks. The quality of the sound that comes from the built-in speakers, and how well the sound card handles audio delivered to high-quality headphones through the headphone jack.

With up to an Intel® Core i5 processor and Intel UHD graphics ASUS X515 helps you get things done swiftly and efficiently. But after about an hour of working with the keyboard, I found myself frustrated by the distance between the keys. It made episodes of vintage TV shows like Baywatch, already with a worn-in color palette, look older than they are, while movies like the recent remake of Emma were extremely hard to see in dark scenes.Its wide-view FHD panel features an anti-glare coating to reduce unwanted distractions from irritating glare and reflections, so you can truly focus on what’s in front of you. The chiclet keys are comfortable to type on, and there is ample backlighting to get work done with the lights down low.

The 10th Gen Intel Core i3-1005G1 is a 10th-generation mobile chip that offers strong performance matched with efficiency, and the 18GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage give it a serious boost over similar machines with the 10th generation processors. ASUS X515 has a dual storage design to give you the benefits of superfast data performance and a large storage capacity. You can listen to music and watch a movie without headphones, but the sound will seem as if it's strained. Many cheap laptops, as you might already know, look tempting on paper but few deliver on their promised features and performance. A metal support brace underneath the keyboard provides a much more stable platform when typing and using the touchpad.Besides providing structural rigidity, it also strengthens the hinge joint and protects internal components. It's too bad the camera is an after-thought even on budget laptops because there are so many students and professionals who could benefit from the presence of higher quality video. But as this Asus VivoBook 15 review showed, performance doesn't particularly impress, which doesn't make it a laptop worth an upgrade. In exchange, you get numerous ports, a thin chassis, and a nearly edge-to-edge widescreen display, but this Asus VivoBook 15 review will show how the result is merely a reminder of the compromises one has to make to save money. Although this beat out the Acer Aspire 5 (6:55) and the HP 15 Laptop (4:57) in lab tests, it's at the tail end of the spectrum compared to the average of other budget laptops tested (6:39).