Cheat sheet

• Asus calls the Vivobook 13 Slate the world’s first 13.3-inch OLED Windows detachable laptop and a ‘personal’ OLED TV
• The key highlight of the Asus Vivobook is the 13.3-inch FHD (1920×1080 pixels) OLED display with a 16:9 aspect ratio display and a peak brightness of 550 nits
• It’s incredibly thin (7.9 mm) and portable
• A detachable keyboard and stylus pen (both bundled) allow it to transform into a laptop and a serious productivity device
• We’re puzzled with Asus’ choice of the Intel Pentium Silver N6000
• Battery life is impressive; it clocked around 8-9 hours of video playback

During our product briefing with the Asus team, I heard the term ‘personal TV’ more than once. It’s probably the best use case scenario to recommend Asus’ new 2-in-1 portable companion – the Asus Vivobook 13 Slate OLED. Asus calls it the world’s first 13.3-inch OLED Windows detachable laptop. A lot of the design decisions are centred around this device’s pitch as a binge-watch companion and it does score on that front. But is there more to the Asus Vivobook 13 Slate OLED than just an immersive OLED screen?

Premium design

Think of this as three separate pieces of kit that come together, almost seamlessly. There’s the 13.3-inch OLED slate or tab that you can flip through graphic novels or do a spot of gaming when you’re curled up in your couch. There’s a kickstand that allows you to convert this into a personal TV of sorts. It gives you good viewing angles and offers a decent degree of flexibility as well.

The third piece in the puzzle is the keyboard. It’s quite comfortable to use; the keys have 1.4mm of travel and I like the reassuring clacks. My typing speeds (tested on 10fastfingers.com) on the Asus Vivobook 13 Slate OLED were quite similar to my regular MacBook. We also approve of the large and wide trackpad. At about 785gm, with a thickness of 7.9mm, it’s quite slinky but it does get a tad heavy once you add all the extra kit. Asus has bundled a smart laptop sleeve in the box.

Binge-watch companion

If there’s one reason we’d recommend the Vivobook 13 Slate OLED, it’s for the 13.3-inch 16:9 OLED HDR display, (1920×1080 resolution / 550 nits of peak brightness). Colours are quite punchy; I checked out the latest The Batman trailer where the blacks were quite deep, and also watched a few episodes of Inventing Anna on Netflix where the colours of the NYC skyline montages played out quite well on this screen. The Dolby Atmos Quad speakers back this screen reasonably well but don’t expect to bring the house down.

Hardware

We’ll say this straight off the bat: this one’s not for power hungry users who need to use their laptop for video editing or multi-tasking with editing or other intensive apps and games. Performance is certainly not zippy given Asus’ choice of an Intel Pentium Silver N6000 chipset for this laptop. We tried Vivobook 13 Slate OLED with the top-end hardware variant (8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage). It had enough firepower to switch between office apps, browsing and Netflix. There are two USB-C ports and a handy Micro SD card slot. I also enjoyed using the Asus Pen 2.0 (part of the retail bundle), a handy inclusion. I wish Asus allowed this useful stylus to magnetically snap on to the Slate and charge automatically.

Bottomline

If you’re looking for a binge-watch screen that can also double as a productivity device, the Asus Vivobook Slate is certainly worth checking out. Battery life was quite solid – about 8-9 hours of video playback in our tests. The battery powers up in quick time (Asus pegs this at 0 to 60 percent in 39 minutes) with the charger in the box. Asus has also cleverly opted for a 16:9 aspect ratio; this gives the large 13.3-inch screen an edge over some of the high-end tabs out there. It, however, might still end up being a niche device given the wide array of options at this price range.

The Asus Vivobook Slate OLED comes in three hardware variants that start at Rs 45,990. The top-end 8GB/256GB version that we tested costs Rs 62,990.