Best of · UK · Field of 4
As an Amazon Associate we may earn from qualifying purchases. We have not handled these products. Everything below is judged on published specifications, the owner ratings on the UK listings and our own product reviews, and the ranking stays independent of what any of them pay.
Illustration · Vivid RepairsLaptop / 2026
Our pick
ASUS Vivobook 16 X1605VA Laptop
ASUS Vivobook 16 X1605VA Laptop | 16.0" WUXGA 16:10 Screen | Intel Core i9-13900H | 16GB RAM | 1TB PCIe SSD | UK Layout Backlit Keyboard | Windows 11
Amazon confirms the live price, seller, stock and delivery. Prices here are read from the live listing through the day; a pick Amazon cannot supply is marked as such, and where the list has one in stock it is offered.
Ranked on fit for the job in the title, not on raw specification. Tap any one to jump to the argument for it. Prices are the live Amazon UK figure, read today; a pick with no figure is out of stock and says so in its entry.
01 / Our pick
Rated 4.2 by 109 owners. Our review scores it 8.0.
Amazon confirms the live price, seller, stock and delivery. · Read the full ASUS Vivobook 16 X1605VA Laptop review
02 / Best Build Quality
Where it gives up
250-nit TN display with poor viewing angles and limited colour accuracy. Battery life falls short of claims at 5.9 hours mixed use versus 9 hours advertised.
Rated 4.4 by 212 owners. Our review scores it 7.0.
Out of stock at Amazon UK since 9 October 2026. Amazon confirms the live price, seller, stock and delivery. · Read the full ASUS Laptop Vivobook 15 X1504ZA 15.6 inch Full HD Laptop review
Rated 4.5 by 218 owners. No editorial score for this one yet.
Amazon confirms the live price, seller, stock and delivery.
Every one of these still earns a place. Shorter entries because the decision is simpler: they do one job well and they tell you what they can’t do.
04Best ValueOur review scores it 7.0. ★★★★½ 4.5 from 165 ratings.
The rules this ranking ran under, in plain sight: what we read, what we weighed and what no merchant can move.
How we picked
Our editors evaluated 4 Laptop options against the criteria readers actually weigh up: price, real-world performance, build quality, warranty, and UK availability. Picks lean toward what we'd recommend to a friend buying today, not specs-on-paper winners.
§ Editorial · The full guide · five proofs, nothing hidden
The shortlist told you what we picked; this zone shows the working. Come in through whichever doubt you’re carrying, or read straight down; we’d rather you checked us than trusted us.
Proof A · The spec sheet
↑ All doubts“Anyone can type a spec table.”
Here’s the sheet the desk works from, kept deliberately factual. Every row is written to be checked against the retailer’s current listing, and you should check. The table scrolls sideways inside its own frame; the page underneath stays still.
| Product | Best For | Key Spec | Price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASUS Vivobook 16 X1605VA (Core 5-120U) | Best Overall Value | 16" WUXGA, 16GB, 512GB SSD | Check price | ★★★★☆ (4.4) |
| ASUS Vivobook 16 X1605VA (Core i9-13900H) | Best for Raw Power | i9-13900H, 16GB, 1TB SSD | £759.35 | ★★★★☆ (4.2) |
| ASUS Vivobook 15 X1504ZA | Best Compact Windows | i5-1235U, 16GB, 512GB SSD | Check price | ★★★★☆ (4.4) |
| ASUS Chromebook 14 CX1405CTA | Best for Students | Celeron N50, 4GB, Wi-Fi 6 | £215.56 | ★★★★½ (4.6) |
| ASUS Chromebook 14 CX1405CTA (Amazon Exclusive) | Best Budget | Celeron N50, 4GB, microSD, 1.39kg | £198.99 | ★★★★½ (4.5) |
| ASUS Chromebook 14 CX1405 Budget Laptop | Best for Battery Life | 13h rated, fanless, backlit keys | Check price | ★★★★½ (4.5) |
Proof B · What the numbers mean
↑ All doubts“I can read a spec sheet myself.”
You can, and you should. What follows is the part a sheet can’t do: the working between what these products have and what your desk actually needs, kept word for word.
Every laptop in this roundup sits comfortably below the £1500 ceiling, and most of them sit a long way below it. That's the good news up front. The Best ASUS Laptops Under £1500 shortlist here splits cleanly into two camps: three Windows Vivobooks with 16GB of RAM and proper SSD storage, and three ASUS Chromebook 14 machines built for browsing, docs and all-day battery. None of them game. All of them run integrated graphics. What separates them is screen size, processor grade, keyboard backlighting and how long they last off the mains. We ranked all six on published specifications, verified Amazon owner ratings and our own research-led reviews, then matched each to the buyer it actually suits.
Proof C · The write-ups
↑ All doubts“You’ve read the same three reviews I have.”
Four write-ups, none folded away. We don’t lab-test, so every line below sticks to what can be defended: the published sheet, the owner ratings on the UK listings and our own reviews.
The processor is the whole story here. A Core i9-13900H in a sub-£700 laptop is unusual, and it's the reason to pick this over the Core 5 model at the top. Our review calls it a productivity powerhouse that punches above typical laptop weight: heavy multitasking, big spreadsheets and lots of open apps are where it earns its keep. Storage doubles to a 1TB PCIe SSD, so you get twice the local space of every other machine on this page.
Two extras separate it from the number-one pick. The memory is DDR5 rather than DDR4, and the keyboard is a backlit UK layout, which our review lists as a genuine plus for long typing sessions in low light. WiFi 6E adds the 6GHz band, handy in a flat full of competing networks. The manufacturer rates fast charging to 60% in around 49 minutes, which softens the blow of the smaller 42Wh battery.
Now the compromises, and they're real. The graphics are still integrated Intel, so gaming and GPU-heavy creative work (4K export, 3D rendering) are off the table despite the i9 badge. Charging is proprietary DC-in, meaning no topping up from a USB-C power bank or a spare charger, a nuisance if you travel light. Our review also notes sustained loads over many hours can trigger thermal throttling, pulling performance back from peak, and the plastic chassis lacks the feel of aluminium rivals. Owners rate it 4.2 stars from 104 ratings, a touch below the Core 5 version, and our score of 7.5 reflects that power-versus-polish trade. If your work is CPU-bound and you want the most processor for the money, this is the pick. Everyone else is better served by the cheaper, higher-rated Core 5 model above. We covered this in our ASUS Vivobook 16 X1605VA (Core i9) review.
The reason to choose this over the two 16-inch Vivobooks is footprint. At 15.6 inches it's a smaller, more bag-friendly Windows machine, while keeping the pairing that matters at this money: 16GB of RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD. Our review notes the 12th-gen i5-1235U handles everyday tasks without thermal throttling, and the 1.4mm key travel makes for comfortable typing. It carries 4.4 stars from 212 owners, the largest rating sample of the three Windows models here.
The display is where the savings show. It's a 250-nit TN panel, and our review calls out poor viewing angles and limited colour accuracy. Next to the IPS screens on both 16-inch Vivobooks, that's a real step down: colours shift when you tilt the lid, and it struggles in a bright room. Battery is the other soft spot, with our review noting roughly 5.9 hours of mixed use against a 9-hour claim, and no Power Delivery on the USB-C port so you can't charge from a standard USB-C brick.
ASUS lists MIL-STD 810H testing here too, and our review points to comfortable surface temperatures during extended use plus resilient build. There's no keyboard backlight, which limits dim-room work just like the top pick. Buy this if you want proper Windows performance in a 15-inch body and can live with a basic screen. If the panel matters more than size, spend a little more on the Core 5 Vivobook 16 above for its IPS display. Our full ASUS Vivobook 15 X1504ZA review has the specifics.
Same Chromebook DNA as the model above, one useful addition. This Amazon Exclusive lists a microSD card reader, so you can add cheap storage on top of the 64GB eMMC, which matters when the base drive is small. It also weighs a featherweight 1.39kg and the specs put battery at 12 hours, a nudge past the standard CX1405CTA. There's a 180-degree hinge for laying it flat.
It runs the same Celeron N50 and 4GB LPDDR5 memory, so the multitasking ceiling is identical: fine for browsing, email, docs and streaming, tight the moment you pile on tabs. The webcam here is a 720p unit rather than the 1080p listed on the non-Exclusive version, a small downgrade for video calls. We hold no published review score for this exact model, but owners rate it 4.4 stars across 195 ratings, a far bigger sample than the 7 on the standard CX1405CTA. If you want the cheapest sensible way into ChromeOS with expandable storage and all-day battery, this is it. Spend up to the Vivobooks only if you need real Windows software.
Two things set this one apart from the other Chromebooks: it's fanless, so it runs completely silent, and it lists a backlit chiclet keyboard, the only ChromeOS machine here with one. The specs also rate battery at 13 hours, the longest figure on this entire page. Our review scores it 7 out of 10 and calls out excellent all-day battery, fast ChromeOS boot and a decent keyboard for extended typing.
It runs a Celeron N4500 with 4GB LPDDR4X, an older memory type than the LPDDR5 in the two CX1405CTA models, and the same 64GB eMMC storage that our review notes is slower than SSD. The display is IPS Full HD but our review flags it as dim in bright environments, and the speakers are tinny with no bass. The 4GB RAM limits multitasking just like its siblings. Owners rate it 4.5 stars from 164 ratings, the strongest rating of the three Chromebooks here. Pick this over the Amazon Exclusive CX1405CTA if a backlit keyboard and silent fanless running matter more to you than the microSD slot and newer memory. Our ASUS Chromebook 14 CX1405 review covers it fully.
Proof D · Method & disclosure
↑ All doubts“You’re paid to say this.”
This page carries affiliate links; they never set the order. We don’t lab-test: rankings come from published specifications, the owner ratings on the UK listings and our own reviews.
We ranked these six ASUS laptops on published manufacturer specifications, verified Amazon UK owner ratings and rating counts, and our own research-led reviews. Nobody here has handled the machines: our reviews assess specifications and aggregated owner feedback rather than bench results, so you won't find measured figures we didn't take. Where a listing claim and the specifications on record disagreed, we said so or left the point out. Prices move daily, so we describe value by bracket and let the live price shortcode carry the number. The order reflects value against intended use, not raw power alone.
Proof E · The verdict
↑ All doubts“Every guide crowns something.”
A crown that can’t be argued with isn’t proof of quality; it’s proof nobody checked. So rather than restate the winner’s virtues, we defend the crown against the strongest cases to take it.
ASUS Vivobook 16 X1605VA Laptop
Cross-examination · Three challengers, taken seriously
Owners rate it 4.4 from 212 ratings. Our review scores it 7.0 against the winner’s 8.0. The crown holds on the ranking rules: the order above was set before any link was attached, and its case is argued in full in the write-up above.
At £198.99 today against the winner’s £759.35, its strongest case is the £560 it hands back. Owners rate it 4.5 from 218 ratings. If the cheaper pick covers the job you actually do, take the saving with a clear conscience. The crown stays where it is because rank follows fit for the job in the title, not the receipt, and its full argument is in the write-up above.
Owners rate it 4.5 from 165 ratings. Our review scores it 7.0 against the winner’s 8.0. The crown holds on the ranking rules: the order above was set before any link was attached, and its case is argued in full in the write-up above.
The original verdict, preserved in full
For most buyers the ASUS Vivobook 16 X1605VA with the Core 5-120U is the machine to get: the large 16:10 IPS screen, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD cover study and home-office work well, and its 4.4-star rating from 201 owners is the most reassuring sample on the page. Need more processor and 1TB of storage? The Core i9-13900H version steps up, as long as you accept proprietary charging and no gaming. And if your work lives in the browser, the Amazon Exclusive Chromebook 14 CX1405CTA is the standout budget pick, with all-day battery and expandable storage for a fraction of the price. Match the operating system to your work first, then let RAM and battery decide.
We read everything, we hide nothing, and we sign what we publish. Corrections are welcome and printed when we’re wrong.
The Vivid Repairs desk
Vivid Repairs · 25 September 2026
End of the full guide · Back to the doubt index ↑ · The FAQ is next ↓
Look for at least 8GB RAM, SSD storage (preferably 512GB), and a Full HD display. Intel or AMD processors from the last few generations offer solid performance for everyday tasks. Build quality matters too, so check reviews for keyboard feel and screen quality.
8GB is the sweet spot for most users in 2026. It handles multiple browser tabs, office apps, and light multitasking comfortably. If you're just browsing and streaming, 4GB works but feels sluggish. Power users should consider 16GB, especially for photo editing or running virtual machines.
M.2 is just the physical form factor, a small stick that plugs directly into the motherboard. Both deliver fast boot times and app loading compared to old hard drives. NVMe SSDs (which use M.2) are faster than SATA SSDs, but for everyday use, you won't notice much difference.
It depends on the model. The Vivobook 15 and 16 have one accessible SODIMM slot alongside memory soldered to the board, so a module can be added within the limit ASUS states for that model; the Chromebooks here have their memory fixed at the factory. Check the exact model's specification page for the slot and the supported capacity before buying an upgrade, and keep the seal intact if the warranty asks for it.
No. Every laptop here runs integrated Intel graphics (Iris Xe on the Vivobooks, UHD on the Chromebooks), which rules out modern gaming and GPU-heavy work like 4K video export or 3D rendering. If gaming matters, look at a dedicated ASUS TUF or ROG machine instead. These are built for study, office work and web browsing.
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That’s the field: four asus laptops under £1500, ranked for the job in the title and nothing else. We read the published specifications, the owner ratings and our own reviews; we haven’t handled these products, and no maker moves the order. Figures checked against the live Amazon UK listings, page updated 25 September 2026.
The Vivid Repairs desk
