Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED (M3500) vs Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020)

Please select specific configurations for the laptops to get a more accurate comparative review
CPU
Apple M1
RAM 16GB
Storage

Review

Evaluation of Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED (M3500) and Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020) important characteristics
Performance
System and application performance
Gaming
Performance in popular 3D games
Display
Viewing angle, color accuracy, brightness
Battery Life
Potential battery life in light and average use
Connectivity
Ports, webcam and other interfaces
Portability
Design, materials, durability and usability
Pick the usage scenario that best matches your needs
Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Please input up-to-date prices for the selected laptop configurations to get an accurate value-for-money index.
Currency
VS
35.9
(Mediocre)
Value Index
64.5
(Average)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between the notebooks
Advantages of the Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED (M3500)
  • Includes an old-school USB-A port
  • Features a bigger (~26%) battery – 63 against 49.9 watt-hours
  • Provides 50% higher max. screen brightness: 600 vs 400 nits
Advantages of the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020)
  • Easier to carry: weighs 360 grams less (around 0.79 lbs)
  • Higher number of cutting-edge USB Type-C ports: 2 versus 1
  • MacBook with the Apple M1 chip maintains its performance even when running on battery power.
  • Around 12% better multi-core CPU performance in the Cinebench 2024 test
  • 61% sharper screen – 227 versus 141 pixels per inch (PPI)
  • Much smaller footprint: 24% more compact case (100.1 vs 131.3 square inches)

Tests and Specifications

Comparison table of test results and technical specs

Case

Weight 1.65 kg (3.64 lbs) 1.29 kg (2.84 lbs)
Dimensions 359.8 x 235.3 x 18.9-19.9 mm
14.17 x 9.26 x 0.74-0.78 inches
304.1 x 212.4 x 16.1 mm
11.97 x 8.36 x 0.63 inches
Area 847 cm2 (131.2 inches2) 646 cm2 (100.1 inches2)
Screen-to-body ratio ~79.3% ~79.4%
Side bezels 7.2 mm 8.8 mm
Colors Blue Silver, Gold, Gray
Material Plastic Aluminum
Transformer No No
Opening angle 135° 130°
Size comparison
Cooling solution
Cooling system Active Passive
Vapor chamber No No
Liquid metal No No
Number of fans 2 -
Noise level (max. load) 48.3 dB -

Display

Size 15.6 inches 13.3 inches
Type OLED IPS LCD
Refresh rate 60 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate - No
PPI 141 ppi 227 ppi
Aspect ratio 16:9 16:10
Resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels 2560 x 1600 pixels
HDR support Yes, HDR10 Yes, HDR10
Sync technology No No
Touchscreen No No
Coating Glossy Glossy (Antireflective)
Ambient light sensor No Yes
Screen space comparison
Vivobook Pro 15 OLED (M3500)
15.6″ (16:9 ratio) = 104 in2
MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020)
13.3″ (16:10 ratio) = 79.5 in2
~30% more screen space
Display tests
Contrast 1000000:1 1069:1
sRGB color space 99.9% 99.8%
Adobe RGB profile 95.8% 85.9%
DCI-P3 color gamut 100% 98.6%
Response time 3 ms 35 ms
Max. brightness

Battery

Capacity
Voltage - 11.4 V
Full charging time 1:30 hr 2:23 hr
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Fast charging Yes Yes
Charging via USB (Power Delivery) No Yes, 65 W
Charging port position Right Left
Charge power 120 W 30 W
Cable length - 2 meters
Weight of AC adapter 450 grams 172 grams

CPU

CPU name
Base frequency 3.3 GHz 3.2 GHz
Turbo frequency 4.2 GHz -
Cores 6 8 (4P + 4E)
Threads 12 8
L3 Cache 16 MB -
Integrated GPU Radeon RX Vega 7 Apple M1 GPU
Fabrication process 7 nm 5 nm

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

Graphics Card

GPU name
TGP 35-50 W 15 W
Nvidia Optimus Yes -
Type Dedicated Integrated
Fabrication process 8 nm 5 nm
GPU base clock 1185 MHz 450 MHz
GPU boost clock 1417 MHz 1278 MHz
FLOPS 5.8 TFLOPS 2.6 TFLOPS
Memory size 4 GB System Shared
Memory type GDDR6 LPDDR4X
Memory bus 128 bit 128 bit
Memory speed 12 Gbps 4.27 Gbps
Shading units (cores) 2048 1024
Texture mapping units (TMUs) 64 64
Raster operations pipelines (ROPs) 40 32
GPU performance 5.8 TFLOPS 2.6 TFLOPS

GPU Benchmarks

Blender GPU 979 235
Solar Bay 19431 6004
Expected FPS based on average performance across 9 popular games. Details

RAM

RAM size
Channels 2x8 GB 2x4 GB
Clock 3200 MHz 4266 MHz
Type DDR4 LPDDR4X
Upgradable No No

Storage

Storage size
Bus PCI-E Gen 3.0 (4x) Custom
Storage type SSD (M2) SSD (M2)
Channels 1x256 GB 2x128 GB
Upgradable Yes No
Total slots 1 -
NVMe Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers 2.0 2.0
Dolby Atmos No Yes
Loudness ~79.3 dB ~79.6 dB
Microphones 2 3

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard v6 v6
Bluetooth v5 v5
Fingerprint Optional Yes
Infrared sensor No No
Optical drive No No
Webcam Above the display Above the display
Webcam resolution 1280 x 720 1280 x 720
Ports
USB-A 3x USB 3.2 No
USB Type-C 1x USB 3.2 2x USB 3.1
Thunderbolt No Thunderbolt 3
HDMI 1x HDMI 1.4 No
DisplayPort No No
VGA No No
Audio jack (3.5 mm) Yes Yes
Ethernet (RJ45) No No
SD card reader Yes No
Proprietary charging port Yes No

Input

Keyboard
Keyboard type Island Island
Numpad Yes No
Backlight Yes Yes
Key travel 1.35 mm 1 mm
Touchpad
Size 13.0 x 7.5 cm 12.1 x 8.1 cm
Surface Plastic Glass
Windows Precision Yes No
*Disclaimer! Ports, speakers, display, and other specifications can vary depending on the laptop's specific configuration or region.

Cast your vote

So, which laptop would you choose?
75 (64.7%)
41 (35.3%)
Total votes: 116

Comments

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