ASUS Vivobook S 14 14" M5406WA-AH94 Cool Silver 2024 Review

The Ryzen AI 9 365 is a 100th-percentile monster that demolishes CPU benchmarks, and you get it plus a vivid OLED screen and 24GB of RAM for around $900. It's an absolute productivity beast, but the abysmal GPU and skimpy ports mean this is purely a workhorse, not a do-everything laptop.

The Ryzen AI 9 365 inside this Vivobook sits in the 100th percentile of our laptop CPU database, which is a fancy way of saying it's the fastest chip we've tested in this category. Paired with 24GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD, it rips through everything from massive spreadsheets to code compilation without breaking a sweat. The 14-inch OLED screen, while only 1080p, delivers inky blacks and punchy colors that owners consistently rave about. If raw processing power on a budget is your jam, this thing delivers in spades.

But that CPU dominance comes with a few asterisks. The integrated Radeon graphics land in the 18th percentile, so gaming or GPU-heavy creative work is a non-starter. Port selection is painfully sparse, with just two USB-A ports, and reliability scores are below average at the 58th percentile. You're essentially buying a CPU with a laptop attached, but at around $900, it's a spectacular deal for the right person.

Let's talk numbers. The Ryzen AI 9 365 basically laughs at CPU benchmarks, landing at the very top of our charts. For tasks like rendering, compiling, or heavy multitasking, this Vivobook outpaces laptops costing three times as much. It's genuinely absurd what ASUS packed into a 14-inch chassis. The 24GB of RAM, while an odd quantity, sits in the 66th percentile and handles heavy browser tab abuse and memory-hungry apps without flinching. The 1TB SSD is also mid-pack at the 69th percentile, but perfectly snappy for everyday use.

Now for the reality check: the integrated Radeon graphics are weak sauce. That 18th percentile GPU ranking means this laptop chokes on anything more demanding than streaming Netflix or editing a few photos. If you fire up a game from the last five years, you'll be staring at a slideshow. Battery life is a mixed bag too. Owners report around 10 hours of video playback or light office work, but expect that to drop to roughly 6 hours under serious load, and performance takes a noticeable hit when unplugged.

At its normal street price of roughly $900, this Vivobook is a screaming deal for a CPU that tops our charts. The price variance across retailers is wild—we've seen listings from $980 all the way up to an absurd $26,793—so ignore the outliers and look for the sub-$1,000 listings. The typical Amazon price puts it in direct competition with mid-range ultrabooks, none of which come close to this level of CPU performance. If your work is CPU-bound, you're getting workstation-class speed for the cost of a budget laptop.

Compared to the Apple MacBook Pro M5 Pro, the Vivobook offers comparable or better multi-core CPU grunt for less than half the price, but it gets destroyed in GPU tasks and display resolution. The MSI Prestige and Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro outclass it in port selection and build quality, but their CPUs sit firmly below the Ryzen AI 9 365 in our rankings. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i stomps the Vivobook for gaming and graphics work but costs more and weighs over half a pound extra. This ASUS is a specialist: it beats everything on CPU horsepower per dollar, but every competitor here offers a more well-rounded package.

Skip this if you need any sort of GPU horsepower—content creators, 3D modelers, and gamers should look elsewhere because the integrated graphics are simply too weak. The port selection is also a dealbreaker if you regularly plug in external drives, monitors, or wired peripherals. Several owners mention WiFi instability, so if rock-solid connectivity is critical, the below-average reliability score should give you pause. Basically, anyone who needs a well-rounded laptop with strong graphics or tons of I/O will find this Vivobook frustratingly limited.

If you're a student, programmer, or office warrior who needs elite CPU speed and a gorgeous OLED screen on a tight budget, the Vivobook S 14 is a no-brainer. The combination of a literally unbeatable processor and a sub-$1,000 price makes it a productivity monster. Just be prepared to live with a sticky trackpad, questionable WiFi, and basically no graphics power. For that target audience, it's a phenomenal deal; for anyone else, it's a one-trick pony that leaves too much on the table.