At $999, this laptop makes dazzling OLED affordable

Asus recently launched its Vivobook Go 15 OLED laptop, an Australia-exclusive model offering an OLED display for less than $1,000.

It follows the company’s reveal of its 2023 laptop range earlier in the year, with a major focus on “OLED for everyone”. This particular laptop favours portability, geared towards general work use and enjoying entertainment on its sharp display. At 1.63kg, it’s by no means as slender as the 1kg flagship Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED, but it’s a decent weight for a 15-inch laptop.

Portability in this instance doesn’t mean compromising on available ports. On the Asus Vivobook Go 15 OLED is a USB-C port, two USB-A ports, an HDMI output and an audio combo jack. On the inside, the laptop includes up to an AMD Ryzen 5 7520U CPU, a Radeon GPU, 16GB of LDDR5 RAM, and a 512GB PCIe SSD. Naturally, the higher the spec, the more the price increases, but you have some decent options.

As for the eponymous OLED screen, the Vivobook Go 15 brandishes a 15.6-inch display in Full HD (1920 x 1080). In this price range, the 60Hz refresh rate is a reasonable compromise given this isn’t the sort of machine you’d use to play blockbuster games on max settings. Asus rates the laptop’s battery at up to 10 hours of continuous video playback, which isn’t huge, although less than an hour of charging gets you back up to 60%.

Affordable OLED laptops signal a shift in display technology. Previously reserved for ‘premium’ devices like TVs, bringing OLED to the mainstream is a conscious effort, according to Bradley Howe, Head of Consumer for Asus Australia.

“This year, we wanted to redouble our efforts to make OLED accessible to everyone, and that involved including the technology in all our devices,” Howe said. “We are striving to bring OLED’s five key benefits to our customers: high contrast, high colour accuracy, certified blue light protection, high power efficiency, and fast response time.”

Why OLED in laptops is a big deal

OLED, short for organic light-emitting diode, is a display technology widely regarded for its vibrancy and contrast. Because it only illuminates the pixels required in an image, there’s little-to-no bleeding between colours and different lighting. A bright object against a dark background won’t cast a halo-like effect, meaning you see the image as intended – which is great for movies or any visual work.

Asus has its own spin on the display technology called “Lumina OLED”, equipped with several features aimed at expanding upon the existing benefits. For example, Lumina displays encompass 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut, capably reproducing more than a billion colours. Colour accuracy is vital for creatives like visual artists and designers to ensure accurate representation of their work. Need to work in sRGB? No problem: Asus Lumina OLED lets you switch between different gamuts as needed.

“Asus Lumina OLED has been innovated and iterated in pursuit of providing all users with the very best technology at an accessible price point,” Howe said. “What made this possible was the breadth of talent within our technical teams, coupled with the growing maturity of the technology.”

Early instances of OLED screens resulted in concerns over ‘burn-in’, where continual use combined with static imagery left residual marks behind. These days, it happens rarely and only in extreme cases, thanks to various techniques employed by manufacturers.

Asus Lumina OLED laptops enable two main features by default: Pixel Refresh and Pixel Shift. If you leave your laptop idle for an extended period, Pixel Refresh evenly lights and dims each pixel. Meanwhile, Pixel Shift moves displayed static content almost imperceptibly to activate different pixels. In addition to other adaptive technologies, they help prolong the display’s life.

Asus Vivobook Go 15 OLED release date and price

Rolling out across Harvey Norman and Officeworks stores soon, the Vivobook Go 15 OLED starts at $999 depending on the configuration. There’s a listing online with all the details, and here’s what you’ll pay for the various models in-store:

• E1504FA-L1503W model: $999 at Harvey Norman
• E1504GA-L1180W model: $999 at Officeworks
• E1504FA-L1272W model: $1,299 at Harvey Norman

“OLED is a core feature of our family of devices, and we will continue to provide a suite of models that serve the burgeoning community of creators, from casual creators to professional users,” Howe added. “Users can expect ASUS to continue to challenge what is possible, refine our features and continue to push the boundaries of innovation.”

If you’ve ever used an OLED screen, you’ll know it looks spectacular across all uses. Many of us spend most of our day staring at a laptop screen, so it’s great to see more affordable OLED options on the market.

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