Asus VivoBook 15 X505ZA review: Butter smooth performance with poor screen-viewing angles

Asus VivoBook 15 X505ZA

Price: Rs 30,990 onwards

Specs: 15.6-inch IPS, 1920 x 1080 pixels, AMD Ryzen 3/Ryzen 5 processor, 4/8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, AMD Radeon GPU, 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB Type-C, HDMI, Ethernet, SD card reader, WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4.2, 3-cell battery, Windows 10, 1.6kg


When it comes to lightweight Windows laptop on a budget, there are very limited options available for consumers. Earlier this year, Asus had launched the VivoBook X507 which we recommended as one of the top choices in the sub RS 30,000 segment. Now, Asus has launched another lightweight laptop option for the budget conscious consumer with the VivoBook 15 X505ZA.

The X505ZA carries over most of the design elements we liked from the X507. At 1.6kg, it is surprisingly lightweight for a laptop with a 15.6-inch display. This is mainly because the X505ZA has a plastic body. The good thing is that it has a brushed metal finish on top as well as the palm rest which gives it a premium appearance.

On the left side is the charging port, Ethernet, HDMI, USB 3.0 port and USB Type-C port while the right side has 2 x USB 2.0 port, 3.5mm audio jack and the SD card reader along with indication LEDs. Asus has given a chiclet style keyboard which has good amount of travel for comfortable typing. However, there is no numpad – this is better than having a numpad with small keys which is uncomfortable to type. The only issue we have is that the keyboard is not backlit. The large trackpad works great and also offers various multi-touch gestures that come in handy during day to day use.

One of the highlights of the X505ZA is its screen. You get a 15.6-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The screen is anti-reflective and has a 7.7mm bezel which means you get a 15.6-inch display in the body of a standard 14-inch laptop. The screen’s brightness and colour rendition is good but much to our dismay it suffers from poor viewing angles. The images turn pale and the blacks turn to greys resulting in poor visibility if you move the laptop screen away from a 70-80 degree viewing angle. In our opinion, this is a big flaw on the laptop.

This is the first time Asus has joined forces with AMD for the Ryzen processor on budget laptops. Our review unit was powered by the Ryzen 5 processor with 8GB RAM and 1TB hard-drive. For basic day to day usage, the laptop worked butter smooth. We were even able to do photo editing with multiple layers on it using Adobe Photoshop without any issue.

In gaming, Counterstrike ran smoothly but it’s not a laptop for gaming – games such as Call of Duty ran in low graphics and suffered from frame drops in graphics intensive scenarios. The other big letdown was the 3-cell battery - a full charge struggled to last more than 4 hours even with basic usage. Thankfully, it supports fast charge and went from 10 to 70% battery in an hour’s charging.

There were some other aspects that impressed us on the X505ZA too. We loved the loud speakers of the laptop – good enough to use as bedside music player. Including an LED indicator on the power key was also a good design touch in our opinion. Similarly, there were a few letdowns also. Asus did not include a fingerprint scanner for biometric security on the X505 – it was present on the X507. Also, the VGA webcam quality is pathetic – better left unused.

Overall, the Asus VivoBook X505ZA could have been a great laptop for the budget conscious buyer. However, its poor screen viewing angles is a big negative point. It would be better to invest in the X507 or the Lenovo Ideapad 330.