ASUS Vivobook S 14 (M3407H) Laptop Review

The back side is also blind.

The left side is occupied by two USB-C ports supporting image output and charging, USB-A, HDMI , and a combined audio output.

The right side, in turn, offers access to another USB-A port. A pair of status indicators (power and charging) are also located here, which is a bit odd, as it would be more logical to place them on the side where the power adapter is connected, i.e., on the left.

The front panel is almost entirely occupied by the display, which is slightly recessed relative to the frame to provide protection. It’s quite thin on the sides, but thicker at the top and bottom. The company name is engraved in the center at the bottom, while the IR-enabled camera, sensors, and three microphones are symmetrically positioned at the top.

The keyboard features an island layout. There’s no numeric keypad, which accounts for the laptop’s compact size. Most of the keys are standard size, with the exception of the arrow keys and the top row of F1-F12 keys, which are complemented by the Esc key, the combined Delete/Insert key, the Print Screen key, and the power button. These keys are half-sized.

At first glance, the power button seems inconveniently located, as there is a risk of accidentally turning off the laptop. However, it requires much more force to press, so it does not work with a normal touch.

The layout is generally standard, but there are some differences. First, the right Shift key has been replaced by a Copilot button. Second, the Up and Down arrow keys are combined with the Home or PgUp keys, though the latter are unlabeled. Third, as mentioned earlier, the Esc, Delete/Insert, Print Screen, and Power keys are located next to the function keys. The font is fairly familiar, so character recognition is straightforward. It’s written in white, making it easy to read against a dark background.

The keys have 1.7 mm of travel and require medium pressure to press. They offer a distinct tactile feedback and a soft click. Overall, the keyboard is comfortable and perfect for typing. A nice bonus is the white backlight with three brightness levels, which can be turned off if needed.

Below the keyboard is a fairly spacious touchpad. It has physical right- and left-click buttons, but they’re not dedicated. The touchpad offers good precision and responsiveness, and supports gestures for adjusting volume, backlighting , rewinding audio files, and launching the proprietary ScreenXpert app.

Display

The ASUS Vivobook S14 (M3407H) is available in several display configurations. Ours features a 14-inch OLED panel with a 1920 x 1200 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio, 300 nits of brightness, and a 95% DCI-P3 color gamut. It also has TÜV Rheinland certification for low blue light emissions.

The laptop’s display is excellent for its price range. Its advantages include a more comfortable aspect ratio, allowing for more information to be displayed, fairly accurate color reproduction, wide viewing angles, high detail, and the absence of blue light, which can cause eye strain and negatively impact overall health.

The only disappointing thing is the low brightness and glossy finish, which makes the image appear dull and difficult to read in bright light due to glare. However, the image is perfectly readable under artificial light or in cloudy weather.

A welcome feature of ASUS laptops is the proprietary MyASUS app, which offers extensive customization options. For the display, you can activate OLED Care to refresh pixels after 30 minutes of inactivity, preventing burn-in; adjust OLED Flicker-Free Dimming to reduce PWM flickering; select a color gamut (Native, sRGB, DCI-P3, P3) or color mode (Normal, Vivid); adjust the Eye Care blue light level; activate e-book mode ; and manually set the desired color temperature.

Communication capabilities

The ASUS Vivobook S 14 (M3407H) wireless modules include Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. The former provided a high-speed internet connection throughout the entire apartment, while the latter allowed me to listen to music through Bluetooth headphones without interruptions or lag. As an experiment, I also connected a mouse and keyboard through it—the connection quality was excellent.

Audio playback is handled by a pair of Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers. Despite the laptop’s compact size, they deliver high-quality, loud sound, sufficient to eliminate the need for external speakers. Furthermore, the aforementioned MyASUS app lets you enable noise cancellation, which will muffle all background noise and emphasize the voice of the person you’re talking to—useful when calling colleagues or friends. You can also select one of several sound presets designed for different content types (Dynamic, Music, Games, Movies, and Voice). You can also create three custom sound profiles.

The three-microphone system also leaves no room for complaint. They pick up voices perfectly, even from a distance of 2-3 meters, so there’s no need to use a separate microphone or headset for calls. Furthermore, the device supports multiple sound profiles for single or multiple voices, with noise reduction or original sound, and directional or omnidirectional recording.

Performance and OS

The ASUS Vivobook S 14 (M3407H) is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 220 processor , positioned as a powerful solution for slim devices with long battery life. Manufactured using a 4 nm process, it features six cores, each running in two threads. The base frequency is 3 GHz, with a Turbo Core frequency of 4.9 GHz. The TDP ranges from 15 to 30 W, depending on the workload.

Coupled with 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD, the device handles multitasking well, including office applications, browsing, instant messaging, simple graphic editors, and even light video editing.

The RAM is contained within a single soldered module, but it can be expanded thanks to an additional slot. This brings the maximum RAM capacity to 32 GB. Storage can be expanded, but only by replacing the existing one, as there is no additional slot for a second SSD.

Gaming performance is low due to the integrated AMD Radeon 740M graphics. To be fair, online games like World of Tanks run at 50-60 fps on medium settings, which is quite good. However, single-player AAA titles, even those from 10 years ago, only run at the lowest settings, with a frame rate no higher than 20 fps. This is a modest result, so in terms of gaming, you can only rely on online play.

The cooling system does its job quite well, but its noise level directly depends on the selected operating mode. There are four modes: “Full Speed,” “High Performance,” “Standard,” and “Quiet.” Switching between them is done via the MyASUS app or by pressing the FN+F key combination.

The ASUS Vivobook S 14 (M3407H) is sold with or without Windows 11 Home. Choosing the former will save you a fair amount of money, but you’ll have to install the operating system and drivers yourself. In my opinion, it’s better to opt for a ready-made solution and avoid potential problems. However, the choice is yours.

The system doesn’t include any extra software, the only exception being the proprietary MyASUS utility, which I’ve mentioned several times above. Besides accessing advanced settings, it’s a decent tool for device diagnostics, allows you to contact technical support, displays information about the remaining warranty period, and includes a couple of additional programs – ScreenXpert and GlideX. The former allows for easy connection of multiple screens, while the latter creates a convenient workspace for using multiple devices.

Autonomy

The ASUS Vivobook S 14 (M3407H) has a 70 Wh battery, which, combined with energy-efficient hardware, provides up to 20 hours of battery life. Of course, this can be achieved with minimal use and with the screen brightness reduced to the minimum.

The ASUS Vivobook S 14 (M3407H) is charged using a 65W power adapter. It charges the battery to approximately 60% in an hour and to 100% in an hour and a half. You can also activate gentle charging via MyASUS, which will only charge the battery to 80%. This feature will significantly extend the battery’s lifespan and is useful if you frequently use the laptop plugged in.

Conclusion

The ASUS Vivobook S 14 (M3407H) is an excellent laptop, ideal for mobile office work. Its advantages include a compact size and weight, a decent OLED display, a rugged case, decent performance, an effective cooling system, expandable RAM, a responsive touchpad with gesture support, a comfortable backlit keyboard, modern wireless modules, a camera with a privacy shutter, high-quality speakers, noise-canceling microphones, user-friendly setup software, long battery life, and fast charging.

The only drawbacks of the model are the glossy display coating and its low brightness, which makes it difficult to use in bright sunlight.

Considering the above and the starting price of 45,000 rubles, the ASUS Vivobook S 14 (M3407H) is an excellent choice for students, office workers, and remote workers in general.