When companies attempt to blend consumer technology with fashion, there's often a disconnect between functionality and aesthetic appeal. The ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED BAPE Edition builds off an already solid 15-inch laptop and incorporates A Bathing Ape’s aesthetic. It not only differentiates the laptop in a striking stealthy look, but adds additional accessories that curate a unique experience.
Style Meets Substance
7/ 10The ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED BAPE Edition offers a unique blend of technology and fashion, one that successfully combines ASUS' solid laptop foundation of its Vivobook S 15 OLED with A Bathing Ape's distinct aesthetic. It's equipped with a stunning 3K OLED display, a sizable keyboard and trackpad, and decent performance.While certain aspects, like the webcam and speakers, may lag behind other competing laptops, the Vivobook S 15 OLED makes up for it in other aspects, like its lightweight portability, making this laptop ideal for those who value both style and practicality.
Before diving into the review of the Vivobook S 15 itself, what is the difference between a regular Vivobook S 15 OLED and the BAPE Edition?
The most obvious difference is the design. The BAPE Edition has a stunning visual layout, featuring a BAPE camo pattern that extends across the laptop's body and its suite of accessories. At first glance, the midnight black colorway is understated but is visible under certain light, creating a nice balance between being unique and drawing too much attention. This camo pattern also extends to the trackpad as well.
Then there are the accessories. Each BAPE Edition Vivobook has a set of custom accessories, including a Baby Milo figurine, a mouse with two changeable plates, a carrying bag, and stickers, all designed to complement the laptop's BAPE branding.
Every accessory follows the same consistent design language of the BAPE camo, which also extends to the custom wallpaper preloaded onto the device.
In terms of design, the Vivobook S 15 OLED offers a premium and well-built chassis that’s on par with many other productivity laptops in its category. Aside from the stealthy BAPE camo design that spans the entire lid of the laptop, ASUS did a superb job making this feel very chic.
The laptop is a mix of metal and plastic, dramatically cutting back on the overall weight, making the Vivobook S 15 OLED only 1.60kg (3.5lbs) and 1.79cm (0.7 inches) thick. In day-to-day use, I found that it wasn’t any less cumbersome to carry than my 14-inch MacBook Pro because of how thin and light it was in my backpack; it’s a truly portable 15-inch laptop to carry.
When you finally open up the Vivobook, you’re greeted with an expansive 15.6-inch 120Hz 3K OLED display, and it’s incredible.
This display has everything you’d want. Featuring slim bezels all around with an 86% screen-to-body ratio, it's HDR-capable, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, 600 nits of brightness, and a 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio. It's a stunning viewing experience all around.
In use, there’s nothing bad to say about the display, aside from maybe its 16:9 aspect ratio, which could have benefited from something a bit taller like 16:10. But that’s just nitpicking; the Vivobook S 15 OLED is excellent for content streaming, surfing the web, games, and just about everything in-between. I think the combination of OLED, resolution, and refresh rate is the biggest selling point of this laptop’s display, and in a space where Microsoft and Apple each have their premium laptop display offerings, the deep contrast and vibrancy of an OLED panel shines in ASUS’ Vivobook.
Moving onto the deck of the laptop, it features a full-sized backlit chiclet keyboard with a number pad, along with a sizeable trackpad with the same BAPE camo aesthetic.
The keyboard and trackpad experience is quite good, with the keys having a 1.35mm travel distance and generally having good tactility, falling just shy of Microsoft’s Surface laptops or Apple’s MacBooks. That said, this is still a very solid keyboard, with no deck flex and evenly lit keys.
ASUS included a BAPE camo sticker pack in the box that you can apply to this keyboard, but this stealthy black look already looks really good, and you’re better off not sacrificing the backlit keys.
Overall, ASUS did a superb job with the design of the Vivobook S 15 OLED. Aside from the aesthetics of this BAPE Edition model, the two major strengths of this laptop’s design remain its portability and display, offering a relatively thin and light laptop that houses a massive screen.
When it comes to the performance of the Vivobook S 15 OLED, there is nothing to disappoint you here. ASUS has equipped this laptop with either an Intel Core i5-13500H or i9-13900H processor, with Iris Xe graphics and up to 1TB of M.2NVMe PCIe storage, paired with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM.
Our review unit sports the top-of-the-line i9 processor with 16GB of RAM, and on Geekbench 6, the laptop scored 2,341 on single-core and 10,806 on multi-core. For context, my 10-core M1 Pro MacBook Pro scored 2,106 on single-score and 9,602 on multi-score. On 3DMark’s Time Spy, the Vivobook S 15 OLED (plugged in) scored 1,986 overall, with a graphics score of 1,744 and a CPU score of 9,345.
Based on these benchmarks, the i9 processor performs on par with other devices within its category, albeit, only slightly outperforming Apple’s M1 Pro processor from a couple of years ago. However, this Intel and Apple Silicon performance gap is certainly getting smaller, and the Vivobook S 15 OLED will handle small-to-medium workloads just fine.
I heavily used the laptop for web browsing, content consumption on YouTube and Netflix, coding on PyCharm, and photo editing in Photoshop and Lightroom—and it didn’t skip a beat.
In terms of ports, the Vivobook S 15 OLED is stacked, coming with a USB 2.0 Type-A, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, one Thunderbolt 4 that supports both display and power delivery, a HDMI 1.4, a 3.5mm audio jack, and finally a DC-in power.
While a lot of these legacy ports may not be the fastest, the versatility of having them around without needing a dongle is immensely convenient.
If there were one apparent weak point for the ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED, it would be the webcam and speakers. It's equipped with a 1080p webcam that has a physical privacy shutter to block the camera, and Harman Kardon tuned bottom-firing speakers.
Generally speaking, you’re not going to be disappointed by the audio and camera setup of this laptop, but compared to other laptops at this price point, such as Microsoft’s Surface Laptops and Apple’s MacBooks, both of which deliver a much more emphasized sound space that retain quality even at higher volumes, the ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED lags behind.
The same can be said of the camera; other laptops tend to sport better hardware and software support for superior image quality.
In terms of battery life, the Vivobook S 15 OLED sports a 75WH battery and, with the included power adapter, can charge at 90W. If there’s any hardware combination that is sure to win, it’s a large battery paired with an OLED display—this 15-inch laptop performs exceptionally in terms of battery life.
On most typical days of mostly web browsing and content consumption, I was able to comfortably get 9-10 hours of screen time before needing to plug in, and on more intensive days where I had multiple apps open, including Adobe apps and a Python IDE in the background, I was getting just under 8 hours. For me, that was enough to get through a full day without needing to charge before I got home, though, expect to carry a charger if you plan on gaming or video editing.
I think many people will love the battery life on this device, especially if you’re relying on it to get through a full work or school day.
The ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED BAPE Edition is one of those rare devices that illustrate how fashion can intertwine with technology without sacrificing functionality. With its chic BAPE-inspired design, comprehensive suite of custom accessories, and robust performance, it's a laptop that doesn't compromise much.
The laptop's eye-catching yet understated BAPE camo aesthetic, coupled with its lightweight build, makes it a stylish and practical choice for those who want something unique that isn’t too flashy. Aside from its design, the laptop’s stellar OLED display is ideal for those who want a multimedia device that pairs wonderfully with content consumption and gameplay.
Overall, this laptop is a perfect match for those who appreciate style without compromising on performance and battery life; it's well-suited for students and professionals looking for a dependable, versatile 15-inch laptop that is truly portable.
If you find yourself drawn to devices that blend lifestyle and technology in a seamless package, the Vivobook S 15 BAPE Edition is an excellent choice. Its performance, coupled with its distinct style, ensures that it stands out in a sea of conventional laptops.
The ASUS Vivobook S 15 OLED BAPE Edition offers a unique blend of technology and fashion, one that successfully combines ASUS' solid laptop foundation of its Vivobook S 15 OLED with A Bathing Ape's distinct aesthetic. It's equipped with a stunning 3K OLED display, a sizable keyboard and trackpad, and decent performance.While certain aspects, like the webcam and speakers, may lag behind other competing laptops, the Vivobook S 15 OLED makes up for it in other aspects, like its lightweight portability, making this laptop ideal for those who value both style and practicality.
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