ASUS Vivobook 16 (A1605V) Laptop Review – Great Value with Modern Upgrades.

The new Intel Core Lineup is definitely addressing some of the crucial and essential needs to the users that is in need for a new laptop just for the start of 2024. So the Intel Core lineup is a set of refreshers of mobile processors design to balance on both efficiency and to keep those performance, as well as certain instructions up to date. Lets just get on to the ASUS Vivobook 16 A1605V in this review and find out more about it.

Design and Aesthetics

The ASUS Vivobook 16 A1605V is mostly based on last year’s Vivobook base design which sometimes, might be hard to distinguish and it is perfectly fine, since this is still has all the classic yet pleasing looks to it. The body or chassis is mostly made of high quality plastic mix aluminum that is still highly nice to look at, and in this case, the Vivobook 16 is mostly adopted on a flat like design that has no curvy edges, making it suitably for office and professional travel use. Speaking of travel, the Vivobook 16 is weighted at 1.88KG which is considerably light judging that this is indeed a 16 inch laptop.

Apart from that, the keyboard has a good1.4 mm key travel too coupled with white LED backlight that is really complement the color of the keyboard, either in silver or black, depending on the color of the laptop that you choose, but I find the silver color is more classy and kind of stand out compared to the traditional colors available. One complain though, the keypad side is kind of compact therefore needs time to get use to it. Other than that the trackpad is fairly large along with a fingerprint sensor that is compatible with Windows Hello authentication with Microsoft Windows account along with a 720P webcam with privacy shutter.

There is plenty of ports at your disposal, 3 USB A port, a USB C port which support data, display and charging, 1 HDMI port and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. This also enables you to have up to 3 displays at once including the laptop display while you can charge your laptop with the USB C port in case you forget to bring the supplied charger.

The rest remains a standard for most ASUS laptop, including the ASUS Antimicrobial Guard Plus and
US MIL-STD 810H military-grade standard for extra strength protection against bacteria and accidental drops.

Display & Audio

The display is a 16-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 1920 x 1200. The ASUS Vivobook 16 (A1605V) has a productivity-focused front view with an 86% screen-to-body ratio and a widescreen of 16:10 aspect ratio, making it ideal for work-related apps like Microsoft Office Suite as well as some of your streaming content. With a maximum brightness of 300nits, this is undoubtedly suitable for most indoor and outdoor settings. Because this is a matte display, it works well in a variety of settings because it is not glaring but yet pleasing. The sole disadvantage is the 45% NTSC color gamut, which may not be ideal for precise color picture processing.

In terms of audio, the speakers are at the bottom. Over time, it works as it should for normal conference, listening, music, and some movies, but because this laptop is part of the Vivobook series with noise cancellation, serious multimedia content is not the main focus, and during our test, it did sound bland at some levels and definitely lacked bass, but it is still pleasant to our ears with no statics detected. If you need to fine-tune it, ASUS includes a Dirac tuning program and MyASUS noise cancellation options for your microphone.

Performance, Software, Experience

In terms of hardware, the ASUS Vivobook 16 was equipped with either the new Intel Core 5 120U Processor with integrated Intel Graphics, which supports the most recent DirectX 12 feature levels. It does come with 8GB of soldered DDR4 3200Mhz RAM by default, but there is a slot for an extra 8GB of RAM, which I strongly suggest since it allows you to take use of the dual channel RAM speed potential, effectively enhancing performance on workloads and editing chores. Although there is only one NVME storage slot defaulted at 512GB, but it is still user replaceable.

The included Wi-Fi combo card, the AX101NGW, is from Intel, and while the brand isn’t an issue, the 1X1 mode limits you to only 150MBPS when operating in the 2.4Ghz channel, whereas in the 5Ghz channel only, you can get a decent 1.2GBPS link (with a capable router, of course), which is still modern in terms of transfer speed, but simply set the preferred connection to 5Ghz first in Windows when necessary to get the best speeds.

There is not much of included software, keeping things simple with a fairly close to standard Windows 11 OS along with just a few ASUS centric apps such as MyASUS. This keeps the laptop snappy at all times with close to no stutters.

I’m leaving the benchmark numbers here, but if you want to ask about my experience with it, I’m more than happy, particularly since this laptop can last you at least 7 hours without needing to recharge and can handle any light games to medium work in everyday usage. Gaming is doable as long as you understand what to expect from the mentioned specs.

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Conclusion

The ASUS Vivobook 16 (A1605V) is another modern offering that provided what is solely important only for a Laptop with a bigger aspect ratio over the screen and does include what’s necessary combining good user experience and peace of mind support from ASUS with 4A Guarantee (2years) on 24/7 Always-on Support, All-around Coverage. Despite that, the laptop is also cater for those who needed something big in screen size, fairly comfortable typing experience and still holds some of the multimedia centric feature for business conferencing and streaming, making it a starter all rounder laptop that is still worthy to take a look at with an inexpensive price tag.

Price & Availability

The ASUS Vivobook 16 (A1605V) is now available for RM3099 with 2 years of warranty from ASUS Malaysia. For more information, CLICK here to find out more and Click Here to know where you can get one.