A reimagining of the venerable cheap yet effective Eeebook concept Asus pioneered aeons ago , the Eeebook X205 is this generation’s uber cheap notebook du jour. The rig comes with an 11.6-inch HD non-touch display crammed into a casing that features a full size-keyboard but weighs under a kilo. Also jammed into it is an Intel Core N3735 processor, 2GB RAM and, depending on your budget, either a 32GB or 64GB eMMC storage running Windows 8.1 with Bing.
Storage can be supplemented via a microSD card that, on paper, supports up to 64GB cards but happily takes up to 128GB without a fuss. What really makes it stand out is a ridiculous 12 hours of battery life. It also ships with a free copy of Microsoft Personal 365 so you can get started crunching paperwork out of the box.
Build quality is excellent, with a light heft and carry weight, an excellent keyboard with good travel and play and a generously sized touchpad that supports multitouch gestures; handy when pinch zooming websites and images. The keyboard was great to work with and the screen offered great viewing angles. Combined, with the modest processor and ridiculous battery life, the X205 was a mobile productivity maven that can easily last a whole day and a bit more in the bargain.. It’ll also handily handle some last-gen gaming and will tackle games like Baldurs Gate and Puzzle Quest without a hitch though you have to be fairly frugal with your storage space unless you install all the erroneous stuff on your microSD card.
Battery life is phenomenal, easily lasting you over 10 hours or more web surfing, word processing and with a spot of movie watching thrown in for good measure.Some downsides were noted during testing though – the charging dock is a proprietary design; lose it and you’re done for. Effective onboard storage is also limited, with 20GB or so of effective space for the 32GB model and about 42GB for the 64GB model though the microSD card slot handily resolves that. If you’re on a budget, this is one of the best budget notebooks you can buy.
Review – Asus EeeBook X205
