Do you guys remember Netbooks? Those little laptop-like devices that were half in size and 1/10th in features from a few years ago? You must be, they were quite a rage at the time. But then eventually they faded away from the limelight into oblivion.
When they were famous, they promised basic computing at a very basic and budget price and they did deliver that. That era was not long ago and somewhere near the advent of smartphones and other touch devices. The complete laptop was something not everyone could afford and not everyone even needed it.
But the Internet was growing fast and people needed a device like that. Chromebooks and netbooks aimed to serve the population strata which sought such devices.
It performed well too and everything was nice and good but then a lot of touch-based internet-connected devices got popular, i.e. tablets like iPad and other Android-based tablets, and the Netbook lost much of its fan base.
Last year, Netbook pioneer Asus announced the end of production of its netbook series the Eee PC series.
Well, they are making a comeback now, sort of. Asus announced at the IFA 2014 the return of its Netbooks, but with a different new name, it’s no longer a Netbook per se and can do a lot more than those devices and the branding has been changed from Eee PC to Eeebook, and the first model to debut from this new series is the Asus Eeebook X205.
Table of Contents
Asus EeBook X205 full review and specifications.
Pros: Lightweight, Value for money, Battery life.
Cons: Limited internal storage. Poor viewing angles.
Well, we won’t call the EeeBook X205TA the best product to have a comeback with but it’s definitely not the worst one. We’ll call it a good product overall and its performance is rather commendable and above all, it gets the job done!
Asus EeBook X205 review: Display and keyboard.
Asus Eeebook X205 has an 11.6-inch screen though I think 13 inches is a better size for a laptop screen in terms of portability but you won’t be complaining about this feature of Eeebook. What you may not like is the display and the viewing angle of the EeeBook. The device has a 1366×768 16:9 panel which is expected from a budget device like this.
The screen is glossy and the viewing angles are not good enough. Another thing is, the brightness in the device is not much so you won’t be using this one outdoors too. So bad because it is so lightweight and working in the open air is definitely a nice experience in itself.
The device is fanless according to the specifications which makes the EeeBook at 0.98 kg, lighter than the popular and much fancied Apple’s Macbook Air. The device is also slim, very slim.
At just 17.5 mm, it is very much slimmer than a regular-sized laptop. The keyboard is not back-lit which is a little bad considering the fact that you may want to work at night, but it’s still a really decent keyboard, and typing on the keyboard is an overall good experience in itself!
The sound of the EeeBook X205TA is impressive. The front-facing speakers produce decent audio which is good enough in quality and you won’t need any external speakers.
Asus Eeebook X205 has a power-efficient Trail- T Quad Core Z3735 1.33 GHz processor, which is common in many tablets too, and is very efficient.
The device comes with 2 GB of RAM in it which may not exactly make the device work like a regular workhorse and help with gaming but it will let you do the regular browsing and word processing and basic image editing without any glitches. It can also run 4k HD video without lags and can run some old games i.e. pre 2010 ones.
One of the best things about the Asus Eeebook X205ta is its battery life which Asus claims to be of 12 hours. And this is not really far from the truth as you can easily expect around 10 hours on a single full charge with average usage.
Asus EeBook X205 review: Battery life, storage, and other features.
The compact adapter that comes with the device is similar to the like of those that accompany some tablets and not like the regular laptop chargers that we are accustomed to. The touchpad is also large and very touch-sensitive in a good way and deserves a mention.
But the worst thing is the below-average storage which is just a paltry 32 GB of onboard storage of which only 20.8 GB is user accessible. The EMMC storage is fast than conventional hard disks but the limited storage makes the deal a little bit sour for the end user!
There is of course a card slot for a MicroSD card of up to 128 GB for optional extra storage but only 20.8 GB onprimary hard disk appears to be too little and will just break your heart and remind you of PCs from 10 years ago.
Though Asus has promised 500 GB of WebStorage for 2 years at no additional cost, storage on the cloud is quite different from storage on the local machine given the patchy Internet connectivity we have here in India. Asus is also including a 1-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365 (with 1 TB of online space). This is definitely a bonus and may help some prospective buyers make up their minds.
Asus EeBook X205 review: Issues.
There are some minor problems in the EeeBook which should be addressed, these include the position of LED indicators which are at such an angle that it makes noticing them quite difficult because the angle is away from the user.
There are only two USB ports in it both of which are 2.0 and both are very close to each other which means that you can’t attach a dongle and a pen drive at once. Left-handed users could also see the absence of a USB port on the left as a letdown.
Asus EeBook X205 Review: Gallery
Here’s our gallery for the ASUS EeBook X205TA in case you wanted to catch a quick glimpse of how it looks!
More than its features and specifications, the Eee PC was popular for its price which made netbooks so attractive years ago. And this hasn’t changed since then.
Asus has priced Eeebook X205 at 14,999 which is a great price for this kind of device. It may not get as popular as the Eee Pc, its predecessor, or generally any Netbooks and have its own storage restriction but it is good enough to be your secondary laptop and if you don’t expect much than a nice looking and low on low-performance device then this should be the first choice in a budget price.
Some extra storage could have made it an overall better device and Asus should really think about this to incorporate in future editions. The Asus Eeebook X205 has been available to buy in India on Flipkart since January 21, 2015.
Here’s our video review and hands-on for the ASUS EeBook X205TA in case you wanted to catch a quick glimpse of how it performs overall!
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Tags : Tech , Gadgets
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