ASUS M580VD-EB76 Review – A VivoBook for Gaming

There are tons of gaming laptop out there on the market. Going after the perfect gaming experience can get very expensive. If you’re looking for an affordable gaming laptop that can play recent titles, then the ASUS M580VD-EB76 is here to be discussed.

In this ASUS M580VD-EB76 review, we talk about the pros and cons of this gaming laptop and see if this laptop is worth the price tag.

Design

When it comes to the design of this laptop, we’re not going to see a bezel-less screen or a super small footprint. If you’re a fan of such modern engineering, this laptop may not be the one for you.

All this warning is not to say that this is a bad design. We’re saying not to have too many expectations only of getting disappointed later.

The ASUS M580VD-EB76 comes with a more traditional approach to design which has also allowed it to keep the costs down as well.

The laptop is made from a combination of metal and plastic that has worked well for ASUS in the past. The gold champagne color is a good touch and gives the laptop a premium feel.

The dimensions of the laptop are 15 x 10.1 x 0.8 inches. The weight profile is better than other laptops in the category at just 5.1 pounds.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is a standard full-size keyboard from ASUS. The keys are easy to type on, and you can get good typing speeds without any issues. The key travel is a bit low at 1.4mm. If you’re used to mechanical keyboards, then this keyboard can be a bit hard at first.

The arrow keys are a bit narrower than the other keys which is something you should note. The backlight is pretty cool when using it in a dark environment. Some have found ununiform lighting towards the middle of the keyboard, but not in our case.

The touchpad is accurate and registers every single tap you make. The surface is smooth, and your finger will just glide on it. You can make all the gestures that are available in Windows 10 without having to try it more than once.

Multimedia

The first thing that grabs your attention when you open the laptop is the screen. The ASUS M580VD-EB76 comes with a 15.6″ display that has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Having a full HD display gives you good pixel density even for a 15.6″ screen.

The screen is a good fit for watching movies and TV series. You can surf the web without any issues. Thanks to the screen size, you can also snap two windows aside for efficient multitasking.

The anti-glare display reduces reflections and makes your attention stay on the contents of the screen rather than on the reflections.

But ASUS has done some cost cutting here, and it shows.

The screen comes with a TN (Twisted Nematic) panel which has poor viewing angles. IPS panels offer excellent viewing angles, and sadly, that is not the case here. If you’re to take any angle other than being in the front of the laptop, there is going to be some loss in the quality of the content.

The audio in the ASUS M580VD-EB76 is co-developed by Harman/Kardon. The speakers are impressive with 8cc chambers and come with smart amplifier technology that maximizes the volume without sacrificing the quality of the audio output.

ASUS says that the ASUS M580VD-EB76 laptop can output sound that is 320% louder than laptops in a similar size category. While we can’t confirm that, we can attest that the laptop can get really loud at times to even fill a medium-sized room.

Performance

The ASUS M580VD-EB76 gaming laptop has a lot of power at its disposal in the name of Intel’s i7 7700HQ processor. This one here is a quad-core processor that clocks typically at 2.8GHz.

With four cores, this processor can go through all your tasks in a jiffy. When there is a need for more power, the turbo boost kicks in and increases the clock speed to a maximum of 3.8GHz.

At maximum clocking frequency, the laptop does get a bit hotter than usual. You can hear the fans kick in when turbo boost is activated. As this is a gaming laptop, the cooling system is more than just impressive.

The cooling system has two fans and eight speeds that are adjusted automatically. Depending on how hot the laptop is, fan speeds are selected. This makes sure that the noise is minimal when the heating is minimal.

How good is this laptop for multitasking?

Very good.

The ASUS M580VD-EB76 comes with 16 gigs of DDR4 RAM, and that’s more than enough for the average user when it comes to multitasking. ASUS has included this memory as this is a gaming laptop. But the benefits don’t just stop with gaming.

You can run heavy applications side by side without compromising on the performance of the device.

Storage

There is a 1TB mechanical hard drive for storing all your priced data. In addition to this HDD, the laptop also has a 256GB solid-state drive as well. While the former gives you space, the latter will keep the performance on a check.

The operating system comes installed on the solid-state drive, and as a result, the bootup time is super quick. You can also move your frequently used games and application to the SSD for faster opening and closing times.

Gaming Performance

The ASUS M580VD-EB76 gaming laptop comes with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card with a dedicated memory of 4GB. This GPU is a 14nm chip that is based on the Pascal architecture.

When it comes to playing games, you can play modern games at reasonable frame rates with high settings. If you want to play with ultra settings, then this laptop might disappoint you.

The following are some games and their frame rates at high settings.

• Just Cause 4 – 32 FPS
• Darksiders III – 40 FPS
• Farming Simulator 19 – 60 FPS
• Forza Horizon 4 – 52 FPS
• Fortnite – 51 FPS
• FIFA 19 – 119 FPS

These frame rates should give you an idea of what games you can play on this machine.

Connectivity

There are a lot of connectivity options in the ASUS M580VD-EB76 model.

On the left side, you have the Ethernet port, a USB 3.0 port, an HDMI port, and also a USB 3.1 type C port. The USB 3.1 port is great for a number of reasons. You can hook up your laptop to a 4k monitor with this port. It also facilitates super-fast data transfers as well.

On the other side, there is an SD card reader, a couple of USB 2.0 port, a headphone jack, and a lock. Some might be disappointed at the absence of an optical drive. You will also not find a mini display port as well.

The laptop is also good in terms of wireless connectivity. There is support for both WiFi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1 which is neat. The 802.11ac WiFi can bring you really nice internet speeds. It is six times faster than the 802.11n WiFi.

Battery Life

The battery life of this laptop is not that great especially when there are laptops that offer 10 hours on a single charge.

The ASUS M580VD-EB76 is a gaming laptop, and gaming laptops usually don’t have great battery life. The laptop lasts for about 4 or 5 hours with light usage. But when playing games, you can expect it to drain at a much faster rate.

The reason for this battery life is that the laptop comes with a dedicated graphics card. It needs more power, and as a result, you’ll have to charge your device more frequently.

ASUS M580VD-EB76 Review – Bottomline

The ASUS M580VD-EB76 gaming laptop is one that comes with the disguise of a gaming laptop but is a lot more. It is an excellent multimedia device, and also is an excellent choice for work.

The combination of specs such as the Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB memory, and the Nvidia GeForce 1050, has made this device a fitting gaming machine at this price point.

If you want to get the absolute best gaming experience like 4k gaming, FPS in upwards of 100, and more, there are other expensive options at your disposal. But if you want to play the most reason games without compromising much on gameplay quality, then the ASUS M580VD-EB76 is the laptop you need.