ASUS EeeBook X205TA Laptop Review

A few years ago, a class of devices like netbooks became very popular. The idea of ​​small, light, compact laptops, whose performance is enough for surfing (hence the netbook) was liked by very many users. However, the rapidly soaring sales volumes soon came to naught due to the advent of tablets, which turned out to be even lighter, more compact and did not require a mouse and keyboard to control. However, netbooks have not disappeared altogether. Anyway, the mechanical keyboard is still much better than the virtual one if you need to work with text often: try blindly typing a couple of pages of text on a tablet. So also the keyboard eats half the screen area.

This is not to say that recent years have been wasted for netbooks. The main complaint to them has always been extremely poor performance, which is why even Windows XP did not work very fast. Although there were even such individuals who used netbooks to work in Photoshop with a connected external monitor (I, for example). The more interesting I was to look at the example of ASUS EeeBook X205TA, what these small devices have evolved today.

Specifications

Processor : Intel® Bay Trail-T Quad Core Z3735F 1.33 GHz
OS : Windows 8.1
RAM : 2GB DDR3L 1333 MHz SDRAM
Display : 11.6 "16: 9 HD (1366 x 768)
Graphics : Integrated Intel® HD Graphics
Data Storage : 32 GB eMMC
Card reader : Micro SD / Micro SDXC / Micro SDHC
Webcam : VGA
Wireless :
Wi-Fi
Bluetooth ™ V4.0
Connectors:
1 x 2-in-1 audio jack
2 x USB 2.0
1 x micro HDMI
Audio : SonicMaster stereo speakers
Battery : 38 Wh
Power Adapter :
Input: 19 V DC, 1.75 A, 33 W
Input: 100-240 VAC, 50/60 Hz
Dimensions : 286 x 193.3 x 17.5 mm (W x H x T)
Weight : 0.98 kg
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Appearance

I got a white-white laptop for review, although it is also available in dark blue, red and silver.









In fact, the first thing you notice is not the appearance, but the weight. The laptop is incredibly light, only 980 grams. The device is very compact, thin, moreover, instead of the hard drive, a 32 GB Flash-memory module is used for data storage, which gives considerable savings in weight and size.

But back to appearance.

The lid is made of glossy plastic with barely noticeable sparkles, shimmering beautifully at the slightest movement. Unfortunately, in the photo I could not pass it.



The bottom and the inner surface of the laptop are made of matte rough plastic, pleasant to the touch and "grip", which is important for the gadget, which involves very high mobility.

The battery is non-removable, on the bottom there are only small grids of stereo speakers.





On the left side is a power connector, card reader, HDMI port and audio jack.



On the right side there are only two USB 2.0 ports.



In front you can see three small indicators: power, charging and CapsLock. In the closed state, the laptop is only 17.5 mm thick.



There are two small plastic protrusions on the back of the cover. They serve as a kind of legs, on which the laptop begins to lean, when the lid opens more than 92-93 degrees.



It opens, by the way, widely, which adds comfort when working with a laptop while lying on the sofa and leaning it against legs bent at the knees.



The screen has a glossy surface, on the sides a plastic matte frame with a textured surface, 14.5 mm wide. Above is a webcam lens, a work indicator and a microphone hole.



The combination of “black top, white bottom” looks interesting and not boring.



The touchpad is large, especially considering the modest size of the laptop itself, many smartphones have displays smaller than this touchpad - 105 x 62 mm. Typically, touchpads of this size can only be found in larger laptops.

He barely drowned down on some fractions of a millimeter.

Display

Here an 11.6-inch TN matrix with a resolution of 1366 x 768 is applied. The image is very smooth, but the viewing angles are small. The stock of brightness is also small, so that in the bright sun will have to peer. The coating is glossy, but since the display is not touch-sensitive, there will be no problems with the constant fingerprinting.

Software

Works laptop running Windows 8.1. And it works very fast, not like devices 5-6 years old, grunting under Windows 7. Office 365 with an annual subscription is preinstalled here, and from proprietary applications, ASUS Smart Gesture, designed for flexible customization of touchpad gestures, can be noted.

Performance and work experience

The laptop is equipped with an Intel Quad Core Z3735F processor in the Bay Trail-T family, operating at 1.33 GHz. The manufacturer itself is positioned as a solution for the most affordable devices. As the video card is used built-in Intel HD with 1 GB of memory.

In my opinion, driving benchmarks on such devices is pointless. Laptop performance is enough for comfortable work of office applications, surfing with a dozen bookmarks in the browser, viewing HD-video and casual games. Actually, all that for which a laptop of this class is needed. Although in the "parrots" notebook power looks very modest.

Benchmark results:







The laptop showed good energy efficiency, it lasted a little more than 10 hours with active surfing and watching videos on Youtube every 15-20 minutes.

Conclusion

This small and lightweight laptop is not an office worker or gaming grinder. Its mission is to always be on hand in case you need to find something on the net, write a document, answer letters and have fun while sitting in a cafe or plane. Yes, his performance is low, but he solves all the problems described above with honor, not like my old netbook, unable even to show HD video without brakes.

ASUS X205TA can be called an element of the “urban EDC ”, while it’s not at all ashamed to appear in public with it. Its weight and volume will be invisible in any bag or backpack, and the long duration of work allows you not to worry about the outlet. What else is needed for a perfect descendant of the first netbooks?

Recommended retail price: 17 990 rub.