A Step by Step DIY Guide to How To Build TV Lift By Yourself?

Automation gradually becomes an ordinary part of an everyday human life. In the past, automatic technologies could only be spotted on plants and factories. Today, automated devices are employed for most various domestic purposes. The particular case is convenient TV lifts. And if a few years ago it would have taken a good penny to buy the lift, now, an amateur may as well build one manually with pretty reasonable expenses. Do you want to find out how to construct a TV lift individually? We’ll describe the process in a nutshell in this article ‘How To Build TV Lift By Yourself?’

How To Build TV Lift By Yourself?
How To Build TV Lift By Yourself?

What parts will we need to Build TV Lift?

Our future TV lift will consist of the following individual parts:

  • linear actuator
  • adapter with a remote control;
  • wires;
  • mounting brackets;
  • floor cabinet without drawers (i.e. the one with the doors only);
  • an elongated hinge.

Additionally, you’ll need a saw as well as a set of tools for fixation of screws and bolts.

Let’s get to work!

How To Build TV Lift By Yourself - Living Room

 

 

Following is a step-by-step tutorial on the general individual construction of a custom TV lift.

Step #1: Prepare the cabinet for the TV lift installation

There are two ways to prepare the cabinet: get a cabinet with a lift-up lid at once (like on the picture) or construct such a lid yourself. In the latter case, you will need to first measure width and thickness of your TV panel. Next, you will need to cut out a sufficient space in the upper panel for a TV to fit when rising. You can attach the cut-out lid to the base with screws and an elongated hinge. In order for it to not flap down every time it is not supported by anything, make a small wooden piece that would keep the lid in the horizontal position.

Step #2: Install a stand

According to practice, the most reliable way to attach the lift’s ‘leg’ to the base are mounting brackets. In this case, you must fix them to the back side of the cabinet with the help of screws. It’s important to make sure that the brackets are able to hold the weight of a TV.

Step #3: Connect the actuator to the TV and then the network

Now, it’s time to connect and enable the performance of a linear actuator with the help of an adapter (we believe that an adapter with remote control is the best option for our case). It’s crucial to watch wires (You shouldn’t bend them too much or chafe with other parts of the construction). Now, we can install a TV onto the stand.

Step #4: Put the cabinet together

You had to pick apart the cabinet to assemble all the previous parts. Now it’s time to put everything back in place – with a lifting construction inside.

Step #5: Test the construction

That’s it, the automated TV lift is ready! You can test it out immediately. Usually, it takes about 30 seconds for a linear actuator to lift a TV from the bottom to top.

Want to see a more detailed tutorial? Welcome to our YouTube, where you will find a bunch of tutorials and guides on creating TV lifts (12).

Conclusion

How To Build TV Lift By Yourself - Auto Lift

As you can see, the construction of a TV lift with your own hands isn’t a difficult task. Be sure to pick a reasonably priced yet reliable linear actuator, which would support the weight of your TV and feature sturdy mountings. Come and take a look at actuatorzone, there’s a wide range of high-quality products.

Tips For Buying New Gadgets – Buying Guide for Gadget Lovers

Stop buying new gadgets in a rush!  If you are thinking to buy a new gadget, do not rush into Buying. Ask yourself, are you buying the right gadget for yourself? Knowing a few features of a gadget does not make you an expert. Before buying a new gadget you must consider some factors that will enhance your buying decision. Today we bring an Article from Marvin about Tips For Buying New Gadgets

Tips and Techniques for buying New gadgets
Tips and Techniques for buying New gadgets

In today’s era, we all love to have gadgets. In fact, I must say that who does not love to have a bucket full of latest and unique gadgets. Moreover, all the gadget lovers want to buy a gadget as soon as it arrives on the market shelf.

Expensive Gadget does not Always mean Performance

But I am alarming all the gadget lovers, stop buying gadgets without looking at the performance and features of it. It’s not necessary that a new gadget will always give high performance. Moreover, it’s also a wrong perception that expensive gadgets are of high quality.

Buying a new and expensive gadget immediately is just a wastage of money and nothing else. Unfortunately, I have wasted money by buying some poor quality gadgets. In fact, I have some terrible experience buying new gadgets. Still, my love for gadgets does not decrease.

But to avoid more wastage of money I have done research for a few months. Through this research, I have bought some amazing sports gadgets that are matchless in features as well as price. Moreover, I found a huge difference in my buying process. Once you go through this article, you will also find that you were buying a wrong gadget.

Although, I look at the features and price of the gadget before buying. But sometimes we all are impressed by the design, color, and appearance of the gadget. Because it was looking shiny and attractive on a gadget stores shelf, thus we want to purchase it.

Now I have learned that all that glitter is not gold!

Sadly, I have spent a lot on purchasing sports gadget. I was in the habit of buying new hunting gadgets as soon as they arrive in the market. Unfortunately, I spend a high budget on a hunting gadget that not even spend two seasons with me. It fails to give high performance in the second season and all my money wasted.

But I am glad that after doing long research, I have bought a new sports gadget. Happily, it’s my third season with this best hunting crossbow and it has the same high performance as it was on the first day.

Also, Check:

Three important Tips For Buying New Gadgets

Here I will explain three important tips and techniques that must be considered while buying a new gadget.

  • First and foremost point is to understand that all the new and expensive gadgets are not of high quality. It’s a myth that expensive products are of best and top quality
  • Secondly, before buying a gadget, either it’s a sports gadget, or any other gadget, look at its features in detail. Make sure that you are getting enough features against the price of the gadget
  • Thirdly, read out the reviews of other people. This is the most important factor to consider. Moreover, read out the reviews and feedback of experts and then make a buying decision

I can bet you that after going through these three points you can have an amazing gadget. Although, all the tips are worth considering still the last one is very essential. There is a number of websites that provide authentic reviews on the gadgets. Taking assistance from those reviews and feedback will have a great positive impact on your buying decision.

Cutting long story short, do a detailed research before buying any kind of gadget. Either you are buying smartphones, laptops, sports gadget or any other gadget. Make sure that it’s not only a shine but a high performance and top-rated gadget.

The Almighty Xiaomi Pocophone F1

The Almighty Xiaomi Pocophone F1
The Almighty Xiaomi Pocophone F1

With the minimalist style that has been all the rage for a while now, your EDC (Every Day Carry) should consist of two things: the best money clip you can find on the market (because a true gent should always carry cash, at least for tipping) and a good phone. And if you are a type of person who does not like to conform to all the (pricey) trends in the mobile phone industry, then keep on reading, as here we will introduce a new big player on the market – the almighty Xiaomi Pocophone F1. This “Master of Speed” from the Chinese tech giant, Xiaomi Pocophoone F1 is a premium mid-range product that is quite assertively taking over the world. Incredible specs and lower prices? Well, this is most appealing!

The Almighty Xiaomi Pocophone F1

The Almighty Xiaomi Pocophone F1
The Almighty Xiaomi Pocophone F1

When it comes to design, the Pocophone F1 has a polycarbonate body, which means that it has a better chance of surviving multiple drops on the ground unlike all those (very) costly glass phones. We most certainly appreciate resilience over a fancy finish. You can enjoy this polycarbonate model that is available in three colorways: Graphite Black, Steel Blue, and (our favorite) Rosso Red.

However, if you want to pay some extra money to be a bit more stylish then you have the option of getting a so-called “Armored Edition” model. This model comes only in black and has a first-class, real woven Kevlar fabric on the back. This one will not stop a bullet, but it looks quite amazing and has an awesome in-hand feel and grip. Note that all models are made with a thin aluminum frame. Power and volume buttons, which are also incredibly responsive, have a right side position, while the round fingerprint sensor that is placed on the back is easily accessible with either hand as well. Just above that fingerprint sensor is a rear dual camera.

Xiaomi Pocophone F1 Features

The Pocophone F1 features an 18.7:9 Full-Screen Display with a resolution of 2246 x 1080 FHD+ at 403 PPI – but with rounded corners like any other modern smartphone. This Great Phone supports the standard display and gesture-based features (for example, double-tap and raise-to-wake). This great phone also offers sunlight and night display, an adjustable reading mode, and a rich custom color temperature adjustment. An impressive display, brightness, and vividness of colors on such an affordable phone! It also sports a USB Type-C charging port and a 3.5mm audio port (a.k.a a standard headphone jack).

The moniker of the Pocophone F1 is ‘Master of Speed’ and it is not a joke! It runs on the Snapdragon 845, Qualcomm’s current flagship processor. This means you get a powerful and the most advanced AI engine. This AI Engine lets you enjoy an incredible performance providing you with lower power consumption. This is also a gaming worthy smartphone for any hardcore gamer. The engineers have thought of everything – even the ways to keep cool as well as fast!

Performance

With a liquid-cooling mechanism, LiquidCool Technology, regardless of how much you use the phone, you will have no problem keeping it up and running smoothly. No slow response time and no frozen frames, the Pocophone F1 keeps its cool and stays fast always. The almighty F1 has an incredible high-capacity 4000mAh battery (and supports Quick Charge 3.0) that keeps the phone going for 30 hours of calling or 146 hours of audio playback on a single charge. That battery provides enough power to let you use your high-performance phone long enough to make you tired!

The Almighty Xiaomi Pocophone F1
The Almighty Xiaomi Pocophone F1

The Pocophone F1 has a hybrid SIM tray, which means it lets you use two side-by-side cards, or, although we believe that it has enough capacity, you can still expand internal storage options of 64GB, 128GB or 256GB with a microSD card. There is an option of dual apps support – for example, you can have two versions of Viber as each of them would be connected to each SIM card. You can also customize the look and feel of the phone via the theme store. The detailed process of rooting your Redmi Note 10 Pro, along with the other related aspects are discussed. Also provides details of how to root Redmi Note 10 Pro.

Xiaomi Pocophone F1 Camera

The 12-megapixel plus 5-megapixel AI dual camera has dual-pixel autofocus and can instantly autofocus even in dark environments. In the primary lens, the camera has a large 1.4μm pixel sensor. Also, the AI cameras have the option of intelligently distinguishing across 206 scenes. Thus automatically adjusting the exposure, saturation, and many other photo optimizations. This phone has a whopping 20MP high-res front camera coupled with 1.8μm large pixel (4-in-1 Super Pixel) technology.

Unlike other products from Xiaomi (which are also great by the way), things are taken to another level with their incredible sub-brand Pocophone F1, which has been built with the idea of gaining new markets and going global. The overall experience that the high-performance Pocophone F1 offers is just incredible. And, considering the performance-to-price ratio, we warmly recommend this product.

How good is Xiaomi Mi Mix 2?

How good is Xiaomi Mi Mix 2? If you are looking for high-quality tech products that are also affordable and accessible to everyone, then your search is over with Xiaomi– the world’s fourth most valuable technology start-up and now one of the highest praising companies that keeps its prices low while offering high-end quality goods. One such product is the user-centric Mi MIX 2, an Android smartphone with some great specs, which is also very reasonably priced. Here we are going to take a quick look at Xiaomi’s pursuit for the ultimate perfection.

How good is Xiaomi Mi Mix 2?How good is Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 2

Xiaomi’s goal has always been to offer the best possible user experience with unique and affordable products, which is something they very well achieved with Mi MIX 2. Innovative and refined, this is a smartphone that completely exceeded our expectations with its improvements in software and hardware design. It certainly shows the passion behind Xiaomi’s team and their willingness to create a product with the unparalleled user experience.

Aesthetically, Mi MIX 2 has one of the best, head-turning and most impressive designs in the world. So, it is no wonder why this phone has its place in the Design Museum in Helsinki and Pompidou Centre. Unlike Xiaomi’s sub-brand (and another best buy product), the Pocophone F1 that has a polycarbonate body, this smartphone has a four-sided curved ceramic backplate and 18-karat gold-plated decorative camera rim, making it absolutely gorgeous. It is extremely thin and light, offering an amazing feeling in your hands. Still, don’t be afraid of dropping it on the floor by accident, aerospace-grade aluminum alloy makes it extremely resilient. 

To this date, Mi MIX 2 remains one of the best phones Xiaomi has produced, with its convenient 5.99-inch 1080p IPS LCD display and an exceptional design. This amazing smartphone is compatible with most carriers anywhere in the world – so, no matter where you are, be sure this phone has global LTE connectivity, and you’ll have no problem using AT&T or T-Mobile, for example.

How good is Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
How good is Xiaomi Mi Mix 2

Photo credit: mi.com

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 Hardware

Its hardware is also outstanding. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, with either 6 or 8 GB LPDDR4X RAM, the Mi MIX 2 is fast, offering any multitasker a run for their money. It certainly gets the job done, however, if you need an unbelievably fast phone, then maybe you should turn to the ‘Master of Speed’, the Pocophone F1, which is powered by Snapdragon 845.

Click here for How to Install TWRP and Root Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite.

There are three internal storage options (64, 128 or 256 GB), as well as dual SIM connectivity that accepts Nano-SIM. Xiaomi updates Software on this phone constantly, so no worries there. Another great characteristic is that it includes radios for usage around the world! The Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 runs on a 3400mAh non-removable battery, with a USB-C reversible connector that supports Quick Charge 3.0. And, believe it or not, this phone’s battery life is a day and a half on average. But it can easily be up and running for two days straight. This is an incredible feature, at this price range.

How good is Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
How good is Xiaomi Mi Mix 2

Photo credit: mi.com

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 Camera

This exceptional smartphone features a 4-axis OIS camera system (Optical Image Stabilization. Which means wonderful photos in all situations and there are two cameras. A 12-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 5-megapixel on the front. The latter is very interesting and unconventionally placed. The camera sensor is in the bottom bar, which may be a bit inconvenient to some unaccustomed users.

Here are some things you should also know about this phone: Philippe Starck, a world-renowned designer has designed this phone; it has a gold award from a premier international design competition, IDEA. IDEA recognizes and promotes brilliance in multiple industries and disciplines; Design Museum in Helsinki added Mi MIX 2 to its collection; both Mi MIX 2 and its predecessor Mi Mix are a part of the permanent collection in one of the most popular art museums in the world – Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France; and last year this superb phone won iF Design Award at the world-renowned design competition.

How good is Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
How good is Xiaomi Mi Mix 2

Photo credit: mi.com

With a magnificent experience when it comes to viewing, as this phone really rocks the all-display design so well, the Mi MIX 2 is a global-ready phone in the Android world – Google Play Services are pre-installed, so you are good to go! If you are looking for high-quality tech product that is also affordable and accessible to everyone then we believe your search is over with Xiaomi Mi MIX 2. Attractive, pleasing, reliable and with brilliant internal specs, this is one of the hottest smartphones available on the market. And no, it will not cost you a small fortune just to own it.

Apple May Refresh The iMacs – Spotted On Geekbench Running 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8700 And i7-8700K !

iMac-27-5K Apple may Refresh the IMacs
iMac-27-5K Apple may Refresh the IMacs

Apple may actually bring updated iMacs running Intel’s 8th Gen Coffeelake Processors alongside the iMac Pro in December or in early 2018. We just caught several iMacs running on the 8th Gen i7-8700 & i7-8700K Processors on Geekbench. This suggests that Apple May Refresh The iMacs. The scores are as expected to crash the board on both Single & Multi-threaded side. These seem to be the 27 inch 5K models so, Apple is probably bringing the 2018 Models of the 27 inch iMac. Have a look at the scores from both the 8700 & 8700K models…

 

iMac Running Coffeelake i7-8700
iMac-27-8700-1 Geekbench Apple may Refresh the iMacs
iMac-27-8700-1 Geekbench Apple may Refresh the iMacs

 

iMac Running Coffeelake i7-8700K
iMac-27-8700-1 Geekbench Apple may Refresh the iMacs 2
iMac-27-8700-1 Geekbench Apple may Refresh the iMacs 2

Currently the 7th Gen 4-core i7-7700K ships with the i7 models of the 27 inch 5K iMac so, the new 6-core i7-8700K will definitely bring huge improvements over the last gen iMacs. And I know the 18-core iMac Pro is also coming out next month. But, not everyone can afford that & maybe many people cannot even utilize that super-multicore power. So, the 6-core iMac Pro will be a great option for those people.

The pricing may or may not bump up but, with the base components, the 5K 27 inch iMac with the i7-7700K & AMD RX580 Graphics starts at 2499 for 8GB RAM & if you bump that up to 16 Gigs, it’ll cost you 2699. So, even more, the price increase isn’t really an ideal thing to do. It’s better if Apple at least sticks the old prices.

 

Source: Geekbench ( 8700 | 8700K )

ASUS Zenfone 5z Overtakes OnePlus 6 In Geekbench Multicore Score

The initial Geekbench scores for the OnePlus 6 (running final software) was caught less than 12 hours ago. Now, GeekBench has benchmarked 8GB RAM model of the ASUS Zenfone 5z as ASUS_Z01RD. This version of ASUS Zenfone 5z overtakes OnePlus 6 with its initial firmware. Zenfone 5z had to go on sale in June, there are zero chances that this is a Final version of the firmware.

ASUS Zenfone 5z Overtakes OnePlus 6
ASUS Zenfone 5z Overtakes OnePlus 6

The Geekbench score for the Zenfone 5z reached 2471 in Single-core and a whopping 9209 in Multi-core. This is much higher than the OnePlus 6 (SC: 2402 and MC: 8931) specially in-terms of the Multi-core performance.

The A11 Bionic in the iPhone X reaches the 10000+ mark almost everytime. But, in the world of Android Smartphones, a Multi-core score (with the Snapdragon 845) of 9209 is actually pretty amazing.

The OnePlus 6 is going to be unveiled on May 16th in London & reach other countries eventually within a couple of days. The Zenfone 5z will come out sometime in June. So, if ASUS actually keeps the pricing of the Zenfone 5z (ASUS announced its price for 549 Euros & projection for the US is $500) lower compared to the OnePlus 6. At that price segment, ASUS might turn the market towards themselves. Is it really going to happen? Well, let’s wait for both of these devices to come out.

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review – (Vivobook S15)

ASUS Vivobook S510 Introduction

The ASUS Vivobook S510UN is one of the Powerful mid-ranger Laptops by ASUS in a comparatively thin & light form factor that is geared towards Productivity but it can also do some lightweight gaming. It comes with the new Quadcore 8th Gen Intel Kaby Lake-R CPUs & Nvidia’s new MX150 GPU. We spent some time with the S510 & we think we have done enough testing to give our full review of the device. Many of you guys were interested in the device so, this is our ASUS Vivobook S510 Review aka ASUS Vivobook S15 Review.

Amazon India (i5 Model | i7 Model)

Flipkart (i5 Model | i7 Model)

 

ASUS Vivobook S15 Specifications

 

Dimensions: 361.4 x 243.5 x 17.9 mm (WxDxH)

Display: 15.6 inch, 60Hz, 1920 x 1080 IPS LCD Display

Processor: Intel’s 14nm Kaby Lake-R Core i7-8550U (15W TDP, Boost upto 4.0 GHz, 8MB L3 Cache)

RAM: 16GB 1866 MHz DDR3 Memory

GPU: NVIDIA MX 150 (384 CUDA Cores)

VRAM: 2GB GDDR5

Storage: 128GB SATA3 SSD (Toshiba THNSNK128GVN8) + 1TB  5400 RPM HDD (2.5 inch Seagate ST100LM035)

Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac , 2×2

Bluetooth: Bluetooth v4.1

Ports: 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0, 1x Type-C USB3.1 Gen1, 1x 3.5mm Audio combo Jack, 1x HDMI

Audio: Dual Down Facing Stereo Speakers

Webcam: 480P VGA Webcam

Battery: 42Whrs, 3 Cells

Weight: 1.7 Kilograms

 

Design & Build Quality

The Vivobook S15 has quite an elegant design. It’s not as good as a Zenbook UX430 but, it still kinda has some attractive looks to it. Right now it’s available in Gold color only but, it looks good. The Bezels are kinda minimal & ASUS calls it their Nano-edge Display. That also adds a better look for when the device is in use.

ASUS Vivobook S510 S15
ASUS Vivobook S510 Review

So, let’s dig a little deep now. The Vivobook S15 comes in a Plastic construction with Aluminium on the top. The Build Quality is solid with very minimal flex in the Keyboard area & on the Top. The Keyboard is one of those Chiclet-style ones with decent keystrokes & decent key travel. However, if you’re used to that extra number pad on the right in older ASUS laptops, it is not present in this device. The Trackpad uses a Glass Surface & there is also a Fingerprint Scanner that makes it possible to log in with Windows Hello biometrically.

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review
ASUS Vivobook S510 Review

The Hinge is also very well tuned & but, it isn’t one hand openable if that matters to you. There is some flex to the Screen but, considering the price, this is not unexpected. Overall, I’d say it’s a great build quality for the money. This is a mid-level device so, I wasn’t expecting a good build at all so, good job ASUS.

ASUS Vivobook S510-Review
ASUS Vivobook S510-Review

There is also a decent selection of ports to work with. On the left, we have Two USB Type-A Ports & a full-size SD Card slot. These USB Ports are basically USB 2.0 ports. The Indicator LEDs are also located on the left.

 

On the right, we have one USB 3.0 port, one HDMI port, one USB 3.1 Type C Port & the 3.5mm Headphone Jack. The USB C port is not Thunderbolt 3. The Charging port is also located on the right but, there is no Ethernet Port if you’re looking for that.

 

There are two speakers located at the Bottom-front of the device & there are around 10 screws to get inside the device. If you want, you can upgrade the RAM, HDD & the SSD.

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review – The Display

The Vivobook S15 is rocking a  15.6 inch 1080P IPS panel with a Refresh Rate of 60 Hz. The Display has that warmer color tome again that ASUS has been shipping with most of their newer laptops. It’s one of those 45% NTSC IPS panels so, in terms of color accuracy, it’s not a great Display for Content Creation but, it’s made for Productivity & Lightweight Gaming and for those purposes, it’s actually a nice Display.

ASUS Vivobook S510 Display
ASUS Vivobook S510 Display

If I have to complain about something, it would be the Brightness. ASUS didn’t mention any Nits rating on their website but, I feel the Brightness is probably around 250 nits, give or take a little bit. So, for me, it’s a little less especially if I’m using the laptop outside in Daytime. But, ASUS has included an Anti-glare Matt Finish on the Display so, reflections are not a huge issue unlike some Ultrabooks out there. The Slim Bezels & 80% Screen-to-body Ratio does make the device look good so, that’s another good side of the Display.

I also found the Display to be quite nice for media consumption. That warmer color tone might not be the most color accurate thing, but Photos & Videos sometimes actually look better with that tone & maybe that’s why ASUS is shipping their laptops with it. On a laptop build on these purposes, it actually does a nice job. But, it’s not the most desired thing for High-end Professional laptops like the Zenbook Pro UX550 that is also made by ASUS. But, for the Vivobook S15, I have no complaints on that.

 

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review – The Performance

The Vivobook S15 is rocking the latest 8th Gen Intel Core CPUs inside. Our review unit is rocking an i7-8550U but, it is also available with the i5-8250U as a cheaper option. These new 8th Gen Kaby Lake-R U-series CPUs have been bumped up to 4 Cores compared to the older 7th Gen U-series CPUs that used to have only 2 cores. Oh & all cores are Hyper-Threaded if you’re curious.

The Base Clock is set to 1.8 GHz but, when needed the CPU can use 4GHz on the Boost Clock to pull the load off. The L3 Cache has also been increased to 8 Gigabytes. Now, I know many of you guys want to see, how well the 8th Gen i7-8550U did when compared to its predecessors in Benchmarks. So, I’m leaving a Geekbench comparison chart below for reference.

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review - Cores
ASUS Vivobook S510 Cores

Coming to Real-life Performance, I had no issues with day to day usage for productivity. The system felt snappy & responsive. If you want to Edit Videos though, I have edited both 1080P & 4K footages on this device. You can do it but, it is a 15W CPU so, while in rending, a Laptop with a 45W CPU will finish rendering the Video much faster compared to these 15W CPUs. If you’re working with 60 FPS or higher Frame Rate footages, this time difference will become more noticeable because in general, a 1080P 60 FPS video takes more time to render compared to a 4K 30 FPS video of the same length.

The Performance – Video Editing

I have compared the render times of the Vivobook S15 with the 15W i7-8550U with my ROG G501VW with the 45W i7-6700HQ and as expected, these were the results.

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review Video Editing
ASUS Vivobook S510 Review Video Editing

There is also a dedicated GPU which is the MX 150 from NVIDIA. Now, the previous gen MX 130 was one of the super low-performance GPUs that NVIDIA was currently making but, things have changed a lot for the MX150. It has around 384 CUDA cores which alongside the other specifications, are very similar to the GT 1030. So, the MX 150 is kinda like the unofficial GT 1030 for Laptops.

The Performance is better than I expected. The MX 150 is around 30-35% Faster than the GTX 940MX & it is even around 5-7% faster than the GTX 950M. Though it’s not as good as a 960M, if you want you can do some light-weight gaming on it while maintaining respectable frame rates.

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review Performance
ASUS Vivobook S510 Review Performance

So, overall it’s good for lightweight gaming. But, the 15W CPU thing is still true here. So, if you really want bang on Gaming in your Laptop, go for a 45W CPU & maybe something like a 1050Ti at least. But, if you want to do some regular Gaming on the Vivobook S15, you can.

Lastly, let’s talk about the Battery life. ASUS claims around 8 Hours of Battery Life. That may be true in some particular use case scenarios but, in my case, I was getting around 6 hours with regular kind of stuff like Web Browsing, Taking Notes, Watching Videos etc. If you’re doing something like Video Editing or Gaming, the Battery life will be shorter. However, this laptop comes with Fast Charging & it can juice up to 60% in around 49 minutes.

The Audio Output

There are two down-firing Speakers on the bottom-front of the device. They get reasonably loud but, not like super loud or something. The clarity is ok, it sounds good. The Bass is however kinda minimal on these two. Now, as it’s a Bottom firing speaker system, if you’re using the Laptop on a Table, that will give you a better sound experience compared to using it on your Lap.

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review Audio
ASUS Vivobook S510 Review Audio

Now, if you want to Play Games on it, I won’t suggest using the speakers for that. It’ll be better if you use headphones for gaming. However, when you’re on Headphones, ASUS does have an IcePower tuned custom Audio Wizard for different scenarios.

 

So, the Speakers are not as good as like something on the ROG GL553 but, they are better than many of the Ultrabook & 2-in-1 Laptop speakers that, I’ve heard recently. The Audio Output via. Headphones are quite good.

The Verdict

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review Verdict
ASUS Vivobook S510 Review Verdict

The model we were testing was the version with top features with the i7-8550U, MX 150 GPU with 2GB VRAM, 16GB DD4 RAM, 128GB SATA 3 SSD & 1TB of HDD storage. However the base variant costs around 59990 INR with the i5-8250U, MX 150 GPU with 2GB VRAM, 8GB DDR4 RAM & 1TB of HDD storage. Fully featured variant costs around 79990 INR.

So at that price point, is this thing worth the money? Let’s have a look at the Pros & Cons of the device real quick.

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review – Pros

  • The new 8th Gen Quadcore U-series CPU gives a nice performance bump over the last gen 7th Gen Dual Core CPUs in Multicore stuff.
  • The MX 150 GPU is much better compared to the 940MX which many of the competitors are offering at similar prices.
  • The Fingerprint Scanner is a nice edition in terms of security.
  • The Build Quality is really nice for the Price.
  • The Battery Life is also very good in this Laptop.

ASUS Vivobook S510 Review – Cons

  • The Brightness of the Display is lower than preferred.
  • Content Creation can be done but, it’s not the ideal machine for that purpose.
  • The 480P Webcam is unusable for Video Calls most of the time.
  • The USB Type-C Port does not have support for Thunderbolt 3.

So, if you want a Laptop mainly for Regular Productivity Stuff & Lightweight Gaming, This is a really nice option. There are other laptops available that have very similar specifications but, come at a higher price point. I think ASUS has priced these devices really well especially the base i5-8250U variant. So, if you feel that, the Vivobook S15 is completing your checklist, you can definitely consider this one.

One thing to keep in mind is that, don’t buy this Laptop to play AAA titles at 1080P Max Graphics settings. For that, look for those gaming laptops that come with 45W CPUs & better GPUs. The Vivobook S15 can handle games like that but, you need to drop your graphics settings a bit to get better Frame Rates.

 

Ok, so that wraps up our review for the ASUS Vivobook S15 (S510) with the new Intel 8th Gen Kaby Lake-R CPUs. If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments section below. If you want to pick  Vivobook S15 up I’m leaving the links below.

Amazon India (i5 Model | i7 Model)

Flipkart (i5 Model | i7 Model)

ASUS Zenfone 5 Max Received Wi-Fi Certification

The Wi-Fi Alliance has certified a new ASUS device ASUS Zenfone 5 Max with the Model Number ASUS_X00QD which by the previous ASUS Naming Policy, seems to be the Zenfone 5 Max.

ASUS Zenfone 5 Max has Received Wi-Fi Certification
ASUS Zenfone 5 Max (ASUS_X00QD) Has Received Wi-Fi Certification

The certification clearly shows that the device supports Dual Band (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz) 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi. Also, the device is running on top of Android 8.0 Oreo.

Now, if you remember we have mentioned Zenfone 5 Lite ZC600KL in a previous article & ZC generally means a bigger battery so, there is a chance that ASUS X00QD is the exact same model.

However, all the information are pointing towards the launch of the Zenfone 5 2018 series to be on this MWC 2018 so, maybe we’re really close to having a whole new series of ASUS Zenfones. But, we hope that they make all the models available in major countries unlike they did with the Zenfone 4 Series.

Source: GizmoChina | Via: Android Authority