ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 review – ASUS is back with a budget-conscious 2-in-1

You know, ASUS has a subbrand for everyone – the ROG and TUF are for gamers, ZenBook is for classy people, and VivoBook? Well, VivoBook is for the youth. People with passion, and fire in their hearts, that are looking to explore every single centimeter of this world… or at least ASUS likes us to think that.

The VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 is their brand new 2-in-1. It was about time they do something about their VivoBook Flip series, as the last one we tested was a couple of years ago. Today, we see an AMD-equipped device that has nowhere to hide. It comes with a 1080p IPS panel with a stylus-enabled touchscreen, an optional fingerprint reader, and of course – Wi-Fi 6 support.

Considering the power it is bearing, and the price it comes at, this notebook can compete with the Ideapad Flex 5 (14). To be honest, the latter isn’t too hard to beat with its overheating internals and poor color coverage.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-vivobook-flip-14-tm420/

Contents


Specs Sheet

ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 - Technische Daten

  • Innolux N140HCA-EAC
  • Farbgenauigkeit  5.8  3.5
  • HDD/SSD
  • bis zu 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 36GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Home, Windows 11 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro
  • Batterie
  • 50Wh, 3-cell, 42Wh, 3-cell
  • Gehäuse Material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • Abmessungen
  • 324 x 220 x 18.2 mm (12.76" x 8.66" x 0.72")
  • Gewicht
  • 1.50 kg (3.3 lbs)
  • Ports und Konnektivität
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • Kartenleser
  • MicroSD
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ac/ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio-Buchse
  • 3.5 Combo Jack
  • Merkmale
  • Fingerabdruckleser
  • Web-Kamera
  • HD
  • Beleuchtete Tastatur
  • Mikrofon
  • Array Microphone w/ Cortana Voice Rec.
  • Lautsprecher
  • Speakers by Harman Kardon
  • Optisches Laufwerk
  • optional
  • Sicherheitsschlitz
  • Kensington Lock

What’s in the box?

Aside from the mandatory paper manuals, the laptop, itself, and the 45W tiny power brick, ASUS provides a stylus inside the package. Also, they are offering an optional leather sleeve, and an optical mouse in some regions – a nice touch.


Design and construction

Typically for a relatively budget-conscious device, the predominant material in use is plastic. However, there is a metal (most probably aluminum) lid cover, which makes the latter extremely tough in combination with the glass screen cover. Other than that, we tried twisting the chassis of the VivoBook Flip 14 TM420, and things were not pretty – it was squeaking and screaming for help, as the plastics were popping and the chassis was bending. Keep in mind we are never too harsh, so chances are not low for it to break if you are too aggressive. Also, in terms of measurements, it stands at 18.2mm and weighs 1.50 kg, which is neither the thinnest nor the lightest. However, this really helps it feel more solid than it is.

Unsurprisingly, the lid can’t be opened with a single hand, as the 360° hinges are very stiff. Thankfully, though, the lid is protected by glass, as we said, and there is a camera above the glossy display. Ultimately, the bezels on the top and the bottom aren’t amongst the thinnest out there. On the bright side, the backside of the base lifts up after you open the lid beyond 90°, which is very good for ventilation… in theory.

Next comes the keyboard. The layout is very good, and there are a backlight and a highlighted Enter key. You won’t be able to find the Power button there, however, as it is located on the right side of the base. One thing we noticed is that the keycaps produce a slight noise when you do the slightest of touches on them. It feels like they are not stable enough and they are shaking, thus producing the aforementioned noise. On the other side, the keyboard feels comfortable for typing with its clicky feedback and decent key travel.

As far as the touchpad, it is not the best, we’ve seen, nor it is the biggest. However, it has a glass surface, making it extremely smooth, while its tracking is nice, as well. Also, it features a fingerprint reader embedded in its top-right corner. Sadly, the area of the touchpad above and on the right of the sensor does not detect input.

Next, we move to the other side of the device, where we see something surprising. There are only two speaker grills, and nothing else. While the hot air is exhausted from the left side, the cool air is drawn in through the keyboard. This renders the lifted backside mechanism pretty much useless…. except for ergonomics. Of course…

Ports

On the left side, there is a security hole, and a single USB Type-A 2.0 port, while on the right, you’ll find the charging brick, an HDMI connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port, an audio jack, a MicroSD card reader, and the Power button, itself.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

Like most laptops nowadays, you need to remove the bottom panel to access the internals. To do this, undo all 10 Phillips-head screws, and pry the panel with a plastic tool.

As far as the cooling goes, there is one heat pipe that drives the heat from the CPU up to a heat sink, located on the side of the notebook. Then, a medium-sized fan blows the heat away from the chassis.

In terms of memory, there are plenty of options to choose from. For starters, all configurations come with either 4GB or 8GB of soldered memory, which is further expandable to 12GB or 16GB via a single SODIMM slot. Storage-wise, the things are a bit more simple, as there is only one M.2 PCIe x4 slot, which is already occupied, so you need to remove it to install a bigger or a faster one.

Last but not least, comes the battery. This unit is equipped with a rather underwhelming 42Wh unit.


Display quality

ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 has a touchscreen Full HD IPS display, model number Chi Mei N140HAC-EAC (CNM14D4). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.161 x 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Its viewing angles are excellent. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 259 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 250 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 13%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6600K (average) – slightly colder than the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 75% Brightness (White level = 144 cd/m2, Black level = 0.11 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is not bad – 990:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is an essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers just 51% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display can reproduce dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 25 ms


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420’s display is using PWM to adjust the brightness up to 65 nits. After that it’s flicker-free. Moreover, the PWM it uses has a very high frequency, making the display comfortable for long hours of work and safe for your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusions

ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420’s IPS touchscreen panel has comfortable viewing angles, a good contrast ratio, and doesn’t use aggressive PWM for brightness adjustment. However, the color reproduction it offers is mediocre with only 51% of sRGB coverage and rather poor color accuracy. Altogether, this is not ideal for professional work, should this be your intention.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 configurations with 14.0″ Chi Mei N140HCA-EAC (CMN14D4) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

Mit dem Kauf von LaptopMedia-Produkten erhalten Sie nicht nur effiziente und gesundheitsschonende Profile, sondern Sie unterstützen auch die Entwicklung unserer Labore, in denen wir Geräte testen, um möglichst objektive Testberichte zu erstellen.

Büroarbeit

Office Work sollte vor allem von Benutzern verwendet werden, die die meiste Zeit mit dem Betrachten von Textstücken, Tabellen oder einfach nur mit dem Surfen verbringen. Dieses Profil zielt darauf ab, durch Beibehaltung einer flachen Gammakurve (2,20), einer nativen Farbtemperatur und wahrnehmungsgerechten Farben eine bessere Deutlichkeit und Klarheit zu liefern.

Design und Spiele

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Gesundheitsschutz

Health-Guard eliminiert die schädliche Pulsweitenmodulation (PWM) und reduziert das negative blaue Licht, das unsere Augen und unseren Körper beeinflusst. Da er für jedes Panel maßgeschneidert ist, schafft er es, die Farben wahrnehmungsgetreu zu halten. Health-Guard simuliert Papier, so dass der Druck auf die Augen stark reduziert wird.

Erhalten Sie alle 3 Profile mit 33% Rabatt


Sound

ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420’s speakers produce a clear sound with relatively good quality. Although the low, mid and high tones are clear of deviations, the Harman/Kardon speakers don’t produce a lot of punch.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.asus.com/Laptops/For-Home/VivoBook/VivoBook-Flip-14-TM420/HelpDesk_Download/?model2Name=VivoBook-Flip-14-TM420

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook’s 42Wh battery lasts for 9 hours and 48 minutes of Web browsing and 6 hours and 17 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

This device can be purchased with either the Ryzen 3 4300U, Ryzen 5 4500U, or the Ryzen 7 4700U processors.


GPU options

On the GPU side, you only get the integrated solutions, which are respectively the Radeon RX Vega 5, Radeon RX Vega 6, and the Radeon RX Vega 7.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS103 fps64 fps55 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS101 fps72 fps42 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

AMD Ryzen 7 4700U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM4202.90 GHz (B+45%) @ 65°C2.78 GHz (B+39%) @ 69°C2.47 GHz (B+24%) @ 65°C
Lenovo Yoga 6 (13)2.64 GHz (B+32%) @ 69°C2.72 GHz (B+36%) @ 85°C1.55 GHz @ 65°C
ASUS ZenBook 14 UM4332.79 GHz (B+40%) @ 64°C2.64 GHz (B+32%) @ 70°C2.07 GHz (B+4%) @ 58°C
HP Envy x360 13 (13-ay0000)2.87 GHz (B+44%) @ 60°C2.63 GHz (B+32%) @ 71°C2.13 GHz (B+7%) @ 69°C

This is the best laptop we’ve tested with the AMD Ryzen 7 4700U up to date by a comfortable margin. Its almost 2.50 GHz at the end are achieved with a temperature of 65°C and very low noise levels.

Comfort during full load

In addition to the low levels, the palm rest area of the device is cool, and the left part of the keyboard, where the fan is situated (the IR images show that we were right, and it draws air from the keyboard. However, there is a clear hotspot around the F11 and F12 function keys. This is the place where the voltage regulation happens – right above the processor.


Verdict

In conclusion, we would like to say that the VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 is a stunning looking piece of machinery. The color, the styling, the design – simply beautiful. Also, it was extremely snappy thanks to its fast NVMe SSD and the almighty Ryzen 4000U processors, which have the power to skip past any light-to-medium workload. And on top of that, you have one free RAM SODIMM slot for upgrades, providing the option for dual-channel memory, which boosts the graphics performance by quite a lot.

However, it is no surprise that this laptop is not perfect. We found the rigidity of the chassis to be compromised, as it twists and bends, and also produces some peculiar noises at the same time. Additionally, it features the well-known ErgoLift mechanism that lifts the backside of the base, but in this case – it has no effect on the airflow, as the cooling fan draws cool air from the keyboard, instead of the bottom panel.

ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420’s IPS touchscreen panel has comfortable viewing angles, a good contrast ratio, and doesn’t use aggressive PWM for brightness adjustment. However, the color reproduction it offers is mediocre with only 51% of sRGB coverage and a rather poor color accuracy. Altogether, this is not ideal for professional work, should this be your intention.

And while the battery life was decent when browsing the Web – almost 10 hours, the screen on time drops significantly (to just over six hours), when you are watching HD videos.

Thankfully, you have the option of Wi-Fi 6, although you have to contact your seller first because there are versions of the machine equipped with only the older standard. By the way, there is an interesting feature we would like to add, regarding the stylus usage. There are some microabrasions in the glass surface, that give feedback through the stylus, similar to the one when you’re scribing on paper. At first, it feels very freaky, and we thought that we scratched the screen. However, when you throw the insecurities out of the room, you get a very lifelike experience.

So, what do we get from all of our tests? The VivoBook Flip 14 TM420 is a low-voltage performance monster, it can chew through low-demanding games, enabling you to play titles like CS:GO and DOTA2 with a lot of eye candy, but its display is not-good-enough for professional work.

Pros

  • Comes with optional leather case and stylus inside the box
  • Great performance and good cooling
  • Fingerprint sensor, MicroSD card reader and optional Wi-Fi 6 support
  • Doesn’t use aggressive PWM for brightness adjustment
  • Offers decent upgradeability


Cons

  • Flexy chassis
  • Covers only 51% of the sRGB gamut and has mediocre color accuracy
  • Its 42Wh doesn’t last too long

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-vivobook-flip-14-tm420/

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Maryam
3 Monaten vor

How does the ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TM420’s AMD-equipped configuration contribute to its performance, and how does it compare to competitors like the Ideapad Flex 5 (14)? Additionally, can you elaborate on the significance of features like the 1080p IPS panel, stylus-enabled touchscreen, optional fingerprint reader, and Wi-Fi 6 support for users exploring the ASUS VivoBook series?
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