Asus Vivobook Go 15 15.6" FHD Core™ i3-N305 256GB SSD 8GB W11 S COOL SILVER

The ideal budget laptop blends everyday usability, reliable performance, and a touch of creature comfort. Essentially, it should be functional without leading to buyer's remorse for not spending more. The Asus Vivobook Go 15 (in the model E1504FA-AS54 we tested) looks promising on paper, with a full-featured Windows OS—not the limited Windows in S Mode—and a super-low starting price of $299 for a base model (and $382 in our test configuration). Unfortunately, outdated hardware and significant usability issues make it difficult to recommend even for basic use. For better value, consider any pick in our budget laptop roundup, or explore Chromebook options if you can forgo Windows. The Vivobook Go 15's silvery exterior lends it a stylish appearance that belies its economical price. The sturdy plastic exhibits minimal flex, even when I unwisely lifted it by a corner. Although the lid displays a bit more flex, it remains within acceptable limits. The somewhat ostentatious Vivobook badge on the lid doesn't detract from its overall classy look. Measuring 0.7 by 14.2 by 9.2 inches, the Vivobook Go 15 shares similar dimensions with the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i 15 and is fairly light for a 15.6-inch laptop at 3.6 pounds. Although its screen bezels could be slimmer, the laptop is sleek enough for its price. The port selection includes two USB Type-A ports, one USB Type-C port, an HDMI monitor output, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Notably, one of the Type-A ports is the antique USB 2.0 and the HDMI port is limited to version 1.4, resulting in a flickery 30 instead of 60 frames per second for 4K output. The power adapter relies on a traditional barrel-style connector instead of USB-C. My $382 review model combines a six-core AMD Ryzen 5 7520U processor, AMD Radeon 610M integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB solid-state drive. Despite its contemporary name, the processor is a relic, built on AMD's "Zen 2" architecture that debuted in 2019.

The Vivobook 15 is a 15-inch budget alternative to the Acer Aspire 5 but with some of the same problems. If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. When I first opened the Vivobook 15 at 9AM on a Thursday, I worried I might’ve opened the wrong box. Given the product’s $549 price point (MSRP, it’s currently going for $299 at Office Depot), I’d been expecting a much more plasticky and cheap-feeling build. This is a nice computer. It would be nice in the $800 category; it’s undoubtedly the most premium build you will find for $300. I literally texted a friend, “Look how nice this Vivobook 15 is,” alongside a photo, as I was turning it on. (This is just a thing that will happen to you if I have your phone number; consider yourself warned.) The chassis, it would turn out, is far and away the best thing about the Vivobook 15. I spent a full day using the test unit, which includes an 11th Gen Core i3-1135G4, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. It’s a very functional 15-inch Windows laptop with a lot of great things about it. There’s even a backlit keyboard and a numpad, which are bonuses at this low price. But ultimately, the battery life was a major letdown, and I wish it had held up to this gorgeous chassis. My first order of business for this morning was to get one of our buying guides updated, which involved rounding up and reading through a bunch of my old reviews and scrolling through large spreadsheets of benchmark results, measurements, and other features. The Core i3 processor was more than capable enough to keep this workload going. I could layer Google Meet calls overtop of that with no issue, slowdown, or significant fan noise.

ASUS Vivobook Go 15.6” Slim Laptop, AMD Ryzen 5 7520U, 8GB, 512GB, Windows 11 Home, Cool Silver, Military Grade Durability, Fast Charging, Webcam Shield,... $424.00 BUY AT AMAZON Amazon.com Amazon price updated: May 21, 2026 10:49 pm The ideal budget laptop offers decent everyday usability, good performance, attractive styling, and seamless portability. In short, it should check all boxes in terms of form, function, and design without pushing the buyer into spending too much. The Asus VivoBook Go (model E1504FA-AS54) appears to be a suitable daily machine on paper, boasting a premium design and a full Windows OS (not limited to Windows in S Mode) – and the price is reasonable for what it offers. Where the high-end Vivobook laptops flaunt OLED panels as top-end upgrades and the latest chips, this model features a practical 15.6-inch FHD display, AMD Ryzen 5 processor, 8GB RAM, and 512GB SSD storage alongside Windows 11 Home pre-installed. Cramming a display with punchy colors into a sub-$500 notebook is a quick and sure way to increase the limited appeal of a budget laptop. So, if you’re properly in the market for a budget laptop that you don’t intend to take on mammoth spreadsheets, complex 3D animations, and large-scale scale-video editing, the Vivobook Go E1504FA-AS54 might easily be your next favorite daily-use device. Here’s my full review. Here are the specs on the Asus VivoBook Go E1504FA-AS54 laptop in this review: The VivoBook E1504FA-AS54 uses plastic for the most part, which makes it incredibly light. Asus has done a good job of offering a metal-like silver finish on the lid; it’s fairly fingerprint-resistant and smooth to the touch. However, I just wish the VivoBook branding was placed more unobtrusively. The laptop has a 180-degree lay-flat hinge and a physical webcam shield for privacy, which adds to the much-needed functionality.

ASUS VivoBook Go 15 – Here’s a hard thing to do: Make a laptop with a great screen, decent keyboard and acceptable trackpad. It’s harder to spec out the laptop with a power efficient CPU, good amounts of RAM and well-sized SSD. Doing all this while maintaining good battery life makes it even trickier. Last and most complex, is to keep the price down. That is, at least, what I’ve seen ASUS achieve with their Vivobook 15. Here’s the thing I like about the VivoBook 15: It doesn’t pretend to be a high end laptop. The spec is modest: All this, for R12999. For me that is a bargain. At the same price point, you’d look at paying around R2000 to R3000 more for a similar specification. As expected, the VivoBook comes with Windows 11 Home. Whether Microsoft has resolved the performance issues on AMD CPUs or not, I was not able to get clarity. The Ryzen 5 7th generation mobile CPU performed great. There were no bottlenecks running day to day tasks but that’s no surprise. You’re not going to get high end performance but it’s not going to slow you down. That means you could do some basic video editing, some graphics work and be able to play some eSports titles. Anything above that and the VivoBook will begin to heat up and throttle. Where it does succeed is in the battery life and productivity. It’s good a 42Wh battery. That means you’ll get 6-8 hours of run time. The actual design size of the battery is 50Wh, but I suspect that’s to cater for a longer lasting battery. Since you’re only going to charge once a day or twice a day, I don’t see the battery losing life being a major issue. I’ll also applaud the brightness and quality of the OLED screen ASUS gives you with one of these. At the price point it’s the best-looking screen I’ve seen. It’s also got a lay-flat hinge, which is a decent bonus. I’ll also applaud the keyboard. ASUS have been making some of the most comfortable keyboards in the market and this is no different. There’s adequate travel and good key responsiveness.