Asus Vivobook 16 (2025) review: It’s not glamorous, but it’s affordable

Asus is a master at innovation, and the best Asus laptops are among my favorites in the industry, but not everyone wants or needs to spend over $1,000 on a premium laptop, and that’s why the Asus Vivobook 16 (2025) is here.

For $799, the Vivobook 16 delivers decent performance with its new Snapdragon X X1-26-100 processor, long battery life, a smooth touchpad, and a big screen for a budget laptop.

Unfortunately, you’ll need to compromise on the quality of that display, which is to be expected, but the keyboard is disappointing.

But as laptops are getting more expensive, we were expecting more compromises coming whether we like it or not. It may not be the best laptop, but the Asus Vivobook 16 is a solid Windows 11 laptop overall.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Specs and benchmarks

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Price and configurations

There’s only one model of the Asus Vivobook 16, which costs $799. It’s outfitted with a Snapdragon X X1-26-100 processor, Qualcomm Adreno iGPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD, and a 16-inch, 1920 x 1200, 60Hz, 16:10 display.

This is one of the more affordable laptops around, but if you want something even cheaper, check out our best budget laptops page.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Design

I worry about budget laptops because they often take on a tacky or clunky look, but the Asus Vivobook 16 is clean. It’s not stylish per se, but its dark blue chassis with smooth curves can blend in most environments. The lid is stamped with a silver Asus Vivobook logo that’s simple yet elegant.

There shouldn’t be a question about durability despite it being a budget laptop. Asus tested it against the MIL-STD 810H military standards, which accounts for drops, extreme temperatures, and more.

The interior is more of the same, sporting a clean dark blue colorway all around contrasted with a black keyboard and a wide touchpad. Meanwhile, the bezels on the display are quite thin and feature a dotted texture all around. There’s also a webcam on top with a privacy shutter.

At 4.14 pounds and 14.06 x 9.87 x 0.70~0.78 inches, the Asus Vivobook 16 is on the heavier and chunkier side compared with premium ultrabooks. But it’s more than portable and can fit in most laptop bags. Here’s how it compares with laptops in its class:

• Acer Aspire 14 AI: 3.2 pounds, 12.56 x 8.86 x 0.46~0.67 inches
• Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i 14 Gen 7: 3.7 pounds, 12.3 x 8.9 x 0.69~0.74 inches
• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: 2.45 pounds, 13.9 x 8.89 x 0.46 inches

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Ports

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What the Vivobook lacks in style it makes up for in ports. Here’s what you get:

• 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
• 2x USB 4.0 Gen 3 Type-C with support for display / power delivery (data speed up to 40Gbps)
• 1x HDMI 2.1 TMDS
• 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack

Need more ports? Check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Battery life

One of the worst things a budget laptop could do is falter on battery life, and I was worried about that with the Vivobook, but it excelled, thanks to its Qualcomm Snapdragon X chipset.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which requires it to continuously surf the web over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the Vivobook lasted 14 hours and 6 minutes. That outlasts both the Samsung and Lenovo, while just dropping short 8 minutes of the Acer.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Display

Unfortunately, one of the few sacrifices with a budget laptop is the display. The Vivobook’s 16-inch, 1920 x 1200, 60Hz, 16:10 display is no exception.

I watched the recent Lilo & Stitch trailer, and Stitch’s blue fur looked lifeless on screen, like he was born when the original came out. The shadows in Lilo’s room had me squinting to see the items on her shelves due to the poor brightness. At 1200p, the panel is sharp enough to capture the strands of hair on her head.

The Vivobook clocked in 48% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 305 nits of brightness, which is roughly the same as the Acer and Lenovo, but the Samsung scored more color than most premium laptops.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Keyboard and touchpad

My fingers explored each key of the Asus Vivobook 16 and found them quite squishy and unsatisfying. It’s fine for a budget laptop, but if you’re getting something exclusively to type all day, maybe get something else.

I hit 79 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is slightly below my 81-wpm average. The keys are decently spaced, but I can’t get over the squishy keys.

The 3.5 x 5.3-inch touchpad is surprisingly smooth and delivers a bassy click, which isn’t what I expected out of a budget laptop, so it’s a nice win.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Audio

The bottom-firing speakers are a bit quiet, but for a budget laptop, the sound isn’t bad at all. Compositions sound balanced albeit lacking in bass.

I listened to one of my favorites, “Dangerous” from Epic: The Musical, and Odyssesus popped off with crisp and clear vocals backed by quiet but present synths. The bassier instruments were held back, but overall each instrument managed to stick out instead of muddling together.

You can adjust the sound with the Dolby Access app, which includes a full EQ and presets for Game, Movie, Music, and Voice. There’s also a Dynamic setting that adjusts your sound based on what you’re listening to, and you can use that to get the loudest sound.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Performance and heat

The Asus Vivobook 16 sports the lowest tier Snapdragon X chipset, dubbed the X1-26-100. There isn’t a lot of horsepower, so don’t plan on doing any intensive tasks. The 16GB of RAM does help, but my hands-on experience was meh.

I had three tabs open, and Microsoft Edge slowed down to a halt and I couldn’t do anything but force quit the app. However, after that I popped open a couple dozen tabs and a handful of YouTube videos, which didn’t cause much slowdown. So it should be fine for your average web browsing.

The Snapdragon X X1-26-100 processor surpassed the Aspire 14‘s Intel Core Ultra 5 226V, the IdeaPad Flex 5’s Intel Core i5-1235U, and the Galaxy Chromebook’s Intel Core 3 100U on the Geekbench 6 overall performance test and our HandBrake benchmark.

It also rocked a speedy SSD, falling short of only the Aspire 14 by roughly 150 megabytes per second.

Meanwhile, the hottest it got (after watching a 15-minute video) was 93 degrees Fahrenheit. It was located between the F10 and F11 buttons on the keyboard, which isn’t a good spot for the hottest temp to be, but at least it remained comfortable.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Gaming and graphics

I shouldn’t need to say this, but I will anyway, don’t try to game on the Asus Vivobook 16. Not only does the Qualcomm Adreno iGPU underperform but the ARM architecture severely limits the games you can play (as I learned while gaming on the Surface Laptop 7).

It clocked only 17 frames per second on the Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark (Medium, 1080p). The bare minimum for playability is 30 fps. The IdeaPad Flex 5’s Intel Iris Xe Graphics didn’t do any better, and the Galaxy’s Intel Graphics couldn’t even run it because it’s a Chromebook.

However, if you want to game, the Aspire 14 did manage a playable 54 fps on the test.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): AI features

You get the usual AI features with a Copilot+ laptop thanks to the Vivobook’s Snapdragon X chipset. Copilot features include Recall (PC history), Live Captions (real-time subtitles), and Cocreator (art generator).

There’s also two Asus-branded AI features, which are the AI Audio settings in the MyAsus app. It lets you adjust the noise-canceling in the speakers and microphone.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Webcam

Premium laptops don’t even have webcams down pat, so I didn’t expect the Vivobook’s 1080p shooter to be any different, and I was right.

My skin looked more olive than usual and the colors in the My Hero Academia poster behind me were drained of life. Meanwhile, my hair blended into one pixelated mess, and the rear window was overexposed, but at least it didn’t consume the surroundings.

Asus Vivobook 16 (2025): Software and warranty

With any Asus laptop, you get the MyAsus app. This gives you access to settings for performance, fans, driver updates, hardware scans, and warranty information.

The Vivobook 16 comes with a one-year limited warranty.

Bottom line

The Asus Vivobook 16 (2025) offers decent performance, long battery life, a smooth touchpad, and a big screen. I’m not the biggest fan of the Vivobook 16, but it is a solid Windows 11 laptop. The biggest issue I have with it right now is its price.

The Acer Aspire 14 AI is cheaper and it offers a clicky keyboard and slightly longer battery life.

However, if you really want a 16-inch budget laptop, the Vivobook 16 is a decent choice.