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Asus Vivobook F510UA, FHD Laptop, Intel Core i5-8250U, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD $499 USD (~$687 AUD) Delivered @ Amazon

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Great deal for this laptop, currently ~$100 USD off. Comes to USD $520 ( ~ $687 AUD ) for shipping to NSW.

Powerful 8th Generation Intel Core i5-8250U 1.6GHz (Turbo up to 3.4GHz) processor
14.2” wide, 0.8” thin and portable footprint with 0.3” NanoEdge bezel for a stunning 80% screen-to-body ratio
15.6” anti-glare Full HD WideView display with ASUS Splendid software enhancement
8GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB HDD; Ergonomic chiclet keyboard with fingerprint sensor
Comprehensive connections including USB 3.1 Type-C (Gen1), USB 3.0, USB 2.0, and HDMI; Lightning-fast 802.11ac Wi-Fi keeps you connected through any congestion or interference

Price History at C CamelCamelCamel.

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closed Comments

  • 14.2" or 15.6"?

    • +2

      15.6”

      • 14.2” wide, 0.8” thin and portable footprint with 0.3” NanoEdge bezel for a stunning 80% screen-to-body ratio

        What is this 14.2" means?

        • +1

          Pythagoras

      • +8

        Had to read it 3 times. A 15 inch screen fitted into a 14 inch (wide) frame. Most confusing description ever.

        • +2

          Sorry, just came from Amazon’s description of the product

        • @superbb:
          Yeah of course, not blaming you :)

          I also thought it was a 14 inch screen first, which would have made it more interesting. And even after understanding what they are trying to say, it still doesn't make sense. How wide is a normal 15 inch laptop? Is this one significantly narrower? Who knows, it's not a metric anyone uses.

        • +3

          @fruxo: it's 15.6". But in a small light frame. I own one - it's great. I put a Samsung Evolution 850 M.2 in mine.

        • +3

          @fruxo: a 15.6" screen is 13.6" in width, with 14.2" body width means 0.3" each bezel(14.2-13.6)/2. So the bezel should be 0.3*2.54=0.762cm.

        • @Make it so: does this have extra slot for m2 ssd? Can I keep the 1tb and add a second ssd

        • +1

          Yes it has a M2 slot and you can use both at once, note the M2 SSD has to be a SATA model, it is not NVME/PCIe compatible

        • +3

          @VAA: Yes. I added a 250GB Samsung Evolution 850 M.2 and kept the other for storage. Just install it, clone partitions across from HDD to SSD using Macrium Reflect (free), and change boot device (hold F2 to get into Bios). I think I had to disable fastboot first, and turn off secure boot.
          Make sure Windows isn't installing the Fall Edition while you're doing it! Maybe turn off WiFi.
          Re-enable fastboot after you're done.

        • @RedSky1: thanks. Is it 2280 size.

  • can the HD be upgraded to normal sata SSD? or would it need M2?

    • I found a video here
      Not too sure if it can have a sata or m.2 ssd, but this person is upgrading the ssd on it.

    • +4

      Either. But M.2 slot is SATA3.

  • +5

    1.68kg so reasonable for a 15in.

  • +1

    Would love to know of any 13 to 14 inch screen laptops where theyre doing deals for ultrabooks. Such a hard choice. I love my 15.6" laptop as it stays at home 90% of time but always dreamed of the battery life and portability of an ultrabook 1 or 2 " smaller :( any recommendations??

    I assume the 13 or 14 " laptops screens get to you if you use it as a desktop replacement??or do most find the screen size fine?

    • +3

      Dell XPS13 or Latitude.

      • Its been well over a decade but has dell gone past the "dont expect to last long" days??i notice itd products arent cheap compared to asus and lenovo and ofc the perennial cheapy acer. But is the quality and power alot better?

        I saw the xps 13 in a magazine today. Does it come recommended based off good battery life , portability and power??

        Having used a 15.6" as a desktop replacement would anyone recommend 13" as being too small for long term use? Go up to 14"? Or stick with 13 to meet midway on portability and weight vs screen size for desktop replacement?

      • -1

        Googled xps 13 and wondering if i should be targeting 8th gen not 7th gen i5 and i7 cores given it says gen 7. Know nothing about cpu and hardware but looking for something to last a good 5 plus yrs on my travel. Browsing. Odd multimedia and doing things but nothing intense like graphic design or hardcore internet.

        Assume it would be good to have a build in card reader slot. Couple usb slots. Is it the future to have usb c or should i stick to usb 3?

        Is it also normal to get the usual ethernet slots or hdmi/display out ports??not sure if hdmi is the current display port standard still these days.

        Seems like ultraportablea and laptops all now no longer come with dvd/ cd drives or removable batteries?how on earth do people run backup restores which used to burn the factory reset Operating system etc. To disc incase of a recovery??

        Are built in batteries i would assume a daylight robbery to get them replaced when they lose life over a few years. Old school removable batteries i could remove them as i plug in as a desktop replacement all night after work and on weekends…. dont these new age laptops suffer by being built in?

        • Welcome to 2017.
          * It is normal to not have ethernet now that wireless is ubiquitous. The exception is field tech and higher security areas that can't use wireless - there are USB adaptors if you need them, but you can also fine many laptops that have them anyway.
          * Unless you're talking pure Apple, standard USB ports will be around for many years to come.
          * Batteries these days last much longer than the life of the laptop. With battery life exceeding 10 hours in many cases, the need to carry a spare is redundant, unless you're out in the field where you'll want to be getting a specialised laptop anyway
          * USB storage is much cheaper these days and is convenient, reusable, compact and more reliable than CD/DVDs. Many people backup to the cloud also.

    • If you use it at home as a desktop replacement just have a screen on your desk you can connect as a second screen whenever you're working on it.

      • True. I just thought a 15 inch laptop screen in use takes up alot less room on a small study table. Versus having a laptop. Seperate monitor,keyboard and mouse. Works well at work with the docking station and being work ofc.

    • Regarding screen size: Just do what everybody else does - keep a 24" IPS screen on your desk and connect your laptop to it when you get home.

  • I guess this wouldn't fare well for video editing?

    • Sort of, preferably you would want an i7 for editing.

      • +7

        i7 is marketing. This i5 is 4 Cores / 8 Threads. Would do well given it's a laptop (Desktop parts are faster)

        • i7 is much higher on Passmark though

        • @Fobsessive: real-world tests were negligible though. The main benefit of mobile 8th-gen Core processors is that the i7 ultrabooks are likely to be the only ones that have 16gb RAM onboard. They have a max capacity of 32gb, but this would only be possible on those that are expandable or aren't soldered.

        • @Bedgrub: I did not know until after my comment that 8th gen i5 closed in on the gap. I was predicting 9th gen i5 to catch up to 3rd gen i7

    • +7

      For the price i think it would do great since it uses an 8th gen quad core CPU, if it had an SSD it would probably edge out the 13 inch macbook pro quite easily

    • +1

      [@superbb], [@GossipGoat], I know this is a lot more expensive but would the following be better? It's USD 799.99 on Amazon but Ozbargain won't let me post the link.

      Acer Aspire E 15, 15.6" Full HD, 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8550U, GeForce MX150, 8GB RAM Memory, 256GB SSD, E5-576G-81GD

    • +1

      Probably not too well unless you're not in a hurry or ambitious with your projects. The CPU will handle it fine but the GPU will probably be your bottleneck… even adding more RAM won't help you that much unfortunately. Still, if all you want if short homemade FHD videos, with little to no animations/effects/etc, you're good!

      • Would the following be worth the extra money? It's USD 799.99 on Amazon but Ozbargain won't let me post the link.

        Acer Aspire E 15, 15.6" Full HD, 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8550U, GeForce MX150, 8GB RAM Memory, 256GB SSD, E5-576G-81GD

        • +1

          The cpu is marginally better but both are 4 core with hyper threading. it has a SSD already but is it worth an extra $400? probs not

        • @idontalwaysnotlie: Thank you.That's the answer I was looking for!

        • +1

          @Sydneyshopper17:

          Look for something with a dedicated GPU… on a notebook, probably a GTX1060 would be a good start!

    • +4

      OK there is a lot of out of date information in some of the replies up above. People like to talk first before they know what they are even talking about…

      Straight up as far as the CPU itself goes, the i5-8250U has plenty of grunt for video editing. Compared to previous generations of the same 15W chips, this generation doubles both core and thread count on the i5. It also increases potential turbo clock speeds. So it's extremely close to both past and current generations of i7 as the i7 did not get a similar upgrade. A couple of poorly researched replies here indicate an i7 would be much better, and score higher. Well it's true in that an i7 is of course the faster chip, but not by much at all.

      In PassMark the i5-8250U scores 7577 points in multi-threaded and 1911 in single-threaded. The i7-8550U scores 8017 in multi, and 2050 in single. That's less than 10% in both cases. Far from being a worthy upgrade, and not worth spending extra on unless it's at a very minimal difference in cost.

      What would help most is installing a fast SSD and reloading the operating system onto the SSD. That will make the machine far more responsive in general, not just for video editing but for doing literally anything from booting up and opening a single word document to multitasking with several programs in the background. You'll see significantly more benefit going from a slow HDD to a SSD than you would going from the 8th generation i5 to an i7.

      • OK for basic video editing … yes these CPU's are fast for overall TDP but they will throttle after rendering for a minute or two, whereas a desktop CPU won't throttle and keep running 50-100% faster for hours.

        Really depends on the length of video, resolution, type of compression and types of effects.

        Agree re SSD, although interesting most video editing is about streaming - not huge amounts of seeking required. Ie SSD'S not a performance improvement for video editing generally.

        Cheers

        • -1

          Hmm, they may throttle a little but that's entirely up to the cooling capacity of the laptop, and as you say what sort of load you are putting on it. As well as other environmental variables such as ambient temperature and airflow around the machine. It certainly won't throttle much more than an i7 in the exact same laptop would, I was never comparing to desktop chips just the 15W i5 vs 15W i7. It's still going to be as good a chip you can get for video editing in a laptop under $1000, and if kept dust free, in a reasonable temperature it won't throttle too badly.

          BTW it's not true that desktop chips don't throttle. Desktop chips will still throttle just as often if the cooling and ambient temperature is terrible enough!

          R.e SSD, it's all about the little improvements. Any program will appear more responsive to the user running a SSD, even if the work done in the program doesn't use the drive much. Loading the program up, opening option windows and using some features in the program, the difference may be milliseconds but it adds up to a much smoother feel. Especially when the user knows their way around the program and the bottleneck is no longer how fast can the user read and understand the information on the screen, rather it's how fast can the computer react to your actions. The time taken to render video itself may not be affected but the program will feel much more fluid in general use, at least it has in all editing and "larger" programs for me in over 6 years of running primary drive SSDs :) Your PC is also less likely to "freeze up" momentarily due to running more background tasks as data can flow from storage drive -> RAM -> CPU and back much faster.

          I work on hundreds of computers a year (through business and enterprise) so get plenty of hands on experience with machines still running HDDs…enough to know the differences in general use that's for sure. I push SSDs on users that are running only emails and word, the response time benefit is there for small programs like that, and it is also there for bigger programs. Not to mention they have better power usage and substantially fewer drive failures. One drive failure is potentially hours or days of lost ability to work, now there's a massive difference in how much editing you can get done :P

        • +1

          @Zenskas:

          The throttling in most cases has nothing to do with the capacity of the cooling, it's just how the chip is designed with such a low TDP. This video at around 3:52 with the graph shows the behaviour. The Mi notebook as in the video typically doesn't peak above 60c under sustained CPU/GPU load.

          With some laptops like the Mi, you can "increase" the TDP like here for much better sustained performance.

        • -1

          @donnot: Ahh I understand what you are saying, I was thinking "thermal throttling" is what you are talking about. Yes they can throttle due to power too, that is true.

          In saying that, my original points still stand - overall sustained performance will still be better than last gen, it's still got great performance in video editing for a laptop at this price (beating out last gen 15W i7s), and it will still be ideal for someone with this budget looking for reasonable performance they can take on the road.

          Nobody really said it but would it be fair to say I'm not talking about any super resource hungry video editing, as someone looking for that kind of thing is probably not also looking at $700 laptops! I guess it could be said that my original statement on it having plenty of grunt for video editing would not be true depending on what exactly you are working on.

      • I am not a computer expert so this helps a lot, thank you. One question I have is does the graphics card make a huge difference? I read people mentioning a GeForce might be better over this? Also, would I be able keep the HDD (for storage) if I installed a SSD?

        • +1

          No worries :)

          A dedicated graphics card could make a difference if the programs you are running are able to leverage additional hardware acceleration and computational power of a dedicated graphics card which it can't already get from the onboard graphics chip. You'd have to do some research to look into whether or not addition graphics card performance can be useful in the specific programs that you are running, and if so which graphics cards that program supports. An example of a good modern chip to look for in modestly priced laptops is the Geforce MX150.

          Yes this laptop has both a M.2 slot for SATA drives, and a 2.5" bay for SATA drives. I'm assuming the 1TB HDD is occupying the 2.5" bay, so you would need to look at getting a M.2 SSD. This laptop seems to not support NVMe SSDs so the M.2 drive must use the SATA interface. Examples of good M.2 SATA drives are the Samsung 850 EVO and Intel 545s series drives. You should be able to get M.2 variations of those drives in 250GB sizes for under $130. Then you have 250GB of fast storage to load the OS and your apps onto with 1TB of slow storage which you can use for any large video content you are working on.

        • @Zenskas: Thank you! Do you think the graphics card will be enough for Adobe Lightroom and Premiere Pro (assuming I add a SSD)? Doesn't look like it's included in the list :(

          https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/system-requirements.htm…
          https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/system-requirements.html

        • +2

          @Sydneyshopper17: SSD won't make or break Adobe programs so you don't actually need it, but as I've said above it will make a noticeable difference in how fluid the programs "feel" in general use.

          The i5-8250U has an Intel UHD 620 built in, plenty for Lightroom Classic which only calls for a Skylake or newer GPU supporting DX12 for acceleration (this chip is two generations newer so that's fine). For Premiere Pro, as you've said it's not actually on that list for supported GPU acceleration. However older Intel chips like the HD 5000 and 6000 are, alongside some older Iris Pro chips too. The UHD 620 is faster and newer than the HD 5000, so unless there is some silly incompatibility with Premiere and newer better cards I can't see why it wouldn't do the trick. Make sure you are running the latest versions of the programs and GPU drivers, it should work well. I also noticed the list only goes up to some much older NVIDIA cards, I can only assume newer and better cards work just as well unless someone else can say otherwise?

        • @Zenskas: Excellent, thank you so much for your help, I think I'm convinced ;)

      • Sir for the price is this a very very good buy?

  • +1

    Great specs for the price. From the Amazon reviews it seems the only real con is the battery life isn't great. And you'd have to look at paying to replace the HDD with an SSD.

    Can't tell if it's a plastic or aluminium body though?

    • Unfortunately plastic according to reviews.

  • +3

    It is showing up a total of US$520.88 delivered for me (NSW).

    The same deal as previous, but with slightly better delivery cost now I guess, although the exchange rate isn't as good as previous at the moment.

    Nonetheless still a good deal for the spec.

    • Thanks for that, will include in description

    • The price hasn't changed since the 10th of October according to CamelX3. So yes, looks like the delivery cost & exchange rate are the only things which have changed since then

  • Good price but I need a portable 13.3" or smaller. Please share if anyone can find a good deal.

  • Oooof, so tempted! To bad not touch screen

  • How does this compare with this laptop? Is the extra $300 worth it? I am a pc rookie!

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/340313

    14inch / Gen 8 i5-8250U / 8gb DDR4 / 256gb SSD / touch screen FHD

    • +3

      The Lenovo has better build quality, car better keyboard, touch screen, SSD. Could be worth the $300 extra.

      • far better*

        Note that it is a consumer grade IdeaPad, not a business grade ThinkPad

  • Good deal can’t up vote you though… blah blah blah 😩

  • Why is this so cheap? I just bought an Ideapad 720S 8th Gen with the same CPU for $1600 :s

    I wonder what the price difference makes

    • The gaming GPU is a difference.
      Did you buy from Lenovo's Aus website?

      • Yeah lenovo website, only place I could find it available, whys that?
        720S has only Intel UHD 620 for graphics which all of these CPU's have integrated.

        • I think many Lenovo laptops are only sold online. Btw, the Intel UHD 620 is still an integrated graphics card.

        • @Fobsessive: Yeah I know, that's why I'm confused how the vivobook is so much cheaper when it has basically the same specs. #BuyersRegret

        • @Jatacid: Ouch, you got ripped off so hard by Lenovo…$1600 would get you a midrange gaming laptop

        • @Fobsessive: what kind as example? I don't want asus or dell due to terrible experiences

  • Can anyone explain why it will ship to my PO BOX but not my residential address?

    Exact same post code but when I select through the different addresses I have on file one will say it will ship and the other will say it does not ship! It has happened a few times but was hoping someone may know the reason behind this!?

  • +2

    Any warranty ?

  • +8

    As to the question, Why is this so cheap? It's a lower end laptop. Plastic.
    Keyboard is supposed to be average to poor, and the touch-pad the same. Battery life has been reported as 4-6 hours on average with light use which isn't the best. It's just supposed to resemble a more expensive ultra-book from afar.

    That said, the I5-8250U is a great mid range processor, quad core with hyperthreading, it beats a few of the last gen I7's - it is easily good enough for most uses.
    The screen is supposed to be decent, 1080P, IPS, colourful, although not Adobe RGB perfect & I read there is light bleed/light uniformity issues reported on some units, however it still has decent levels of contrast and good viewing angles.
    The Ram is up-gradable to 32GB, and it can take both a M2 drive (sata only-no Nvme/PCIe) and a 2.5" drive at the same time.
    The wireless AC is supposed to be quite fast.
    Speakers supposed to be reasonably good.
    Due to it being all plastic and, reduced thickness and dimensions, it's lightweight for a 15" laptop @ 1.7kg
    Most importantly the price is hard to beat for what you get.

    I have ordered one after reviewing all the comments on Amazon and other reviews. I intend on installing a SSD that I already have. It's going to be used for net surfing, video watching & programming. It would also probably make a decent platform for virtual machine use due to the 8 thread CPU and can be maxed out with 32GB

    • +2

      Keyboard and touchpad are fine. Screen quite good and IPS. Speakers have good range. Battery life up to 8 hours is achievable.

      • Awesome. Probably once the Windows 10 (mostly hidden) updates settle down, brightness is turned down to a reasonable level for normal in home usage, get rid of the bloatware, and use a power saving power profile, it probably does okay on battery life given the low power usage CPU without dedicated video.

        • I don't think it has bloatware.

  • Does this output 4k 60hz via usb c?

    • No, it doesn't. I believe you need a ThunderBolt 3 port for that which this laptop lacks. TB3 can't be found on low-cost laptops.

  • +2

    Keyboard is a bit so so. Mine dips in, in the middle. If I was using it to
    type on all day I would be bummed about it, but as I only use it to surf the net
    it doesn't bother me. The touchpad is fine, works well. Speakers are OK without being fabulous and
    the screen is great coming from a 768 laptop.Changing to an SSD and taking out the mechanical drive
    yielded slightly better battery,which for me is around the 5 to 6 hour mark. All in all for the specs and
    price its not a bad laptop.

  • Does anyone know the warranty situation with this?

    • +1

      Someone posted the same question on Amazon, the answer was:

      "On the back of the box it says '1 year international warranty'"

      How hard it is to claim within Australia I don't know.

  • I know this is a lot more expensive but would the following be better? It's USD 799.99 on Amazon but Ozbargain won't let me post the link.

    Acer Aspire E 15, 15.6" Full HD, 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8550U, GeForce MX150, 8GB RAM Memory, 256GB SSD, E5-576G-81GD

    • +2

      Yes it would be better, but not really in the same class as this ASUS F510UA. The MX150 is latest gaming gaming capable on lower settings and having a SSD out of the box will make it fast. However the $800 USD price tag will mean you have to pay import fees and it's size and weight class take it out of the ultra book territory. The landed price in Australia would be $1200+ and that almost pushes you up in to low end DELL XPS or ASUS UX430 or similar bracket when found on a good sale, both higher end machines. That said, if that is what you are after it would probably be okay :)

      • Thank you. I realised afterwards that the shipping and import fees on that one made it a lot more expensive so like you say, not really a good deal lol.

  • Pity about the weak battery life on this one, otherwise it would be a good cheap alternative to XPS. Also has the benefit of dedicated navigation keys (page up, down, etc.), but no numpad.

  • Would there be import fees on this?

  • Back in stock.

    • Well, it was for like 3 hours..

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