Over the last few years, we have seen the netbook come and go, and we
have seen the rise of the iPad, Android tablets and Google's
ChromeBooks. The market for Windows-based products is declining.
ChromeBooks are doing the maximum damage to the sales of affordable
Windows based PCs in the west.
Microsoft in the last year has made many amends to its Windows business model and has been in damage control mode. The new Asus EeeBook X205T is a product born out of this new philosophy behind Windows. It offers Windows and a year's subscription of Office 365 in a tiny little notebook that costs less than Rs.15,000.
The idea is to take on ChromeBooks and cheap Android tablets, which are also starting to pick up in India. The problem with ChromeBooks is their dependence on the Internet. As the EeeBook X205T is based on Windows, it offers the best of Microsoft's Cloud, but with an OS that has years of legacy applications and is not as dependent on the Internet. On paper, the idea is good. Does it work for Asus and Microsoft? We find out in this review. Read on.
Design
The
EeeBook X205T is a boring device to be honest. From afar, it is like
any other netbook, which ran Windows 7. The white version, which we
tested, has cheap looking glossy plastic finish on the top. Its build
quality also fails to impress. After continuous rotation of the
clamshell hinge, we found that it creaked a bit. This, obviously, is not
an encouraging sign. Clearly, compromises have been made with the build
quality of the product, but considering the pricing of the product this
is not a surprise.
On the positive side of things, the device is very light unlike most laptops. Like a MacBook Air, it almost feels weightless at 1Kg, 980 grams to be precise. It is also not very thick at 17.5mm for a Windows based device. It scores highly in terms of portability. It is almost as portable as a tablet, and offers the power of full Windows applications something the iPad and Android tablets cannot.
Display
As
the EeeBook is a low-cost product, a special display was not expected.
While that indeed is the case, the 11.6-inch LCD display is not bad. It
has a resolution of 1366x768 pixels, and for a product of its class; it
gets the job done.
Mind you, on a tablet for the same price, you would probably end up getting a better display; however, the EeeBook X205T is decent for a Windows-based computer, and the price you pay for it.
It has decent brightness levels and its viewing angles are good enough for watching movies on the go. Under direct sunlight, its performance is not very good, but such is the case with most products in this price bracket.
The colour temperature of the screen is on the colder side of things, which means it has a slight blue hue to it. This in our opinion looked nice.
If you are stickler for accurate colours then probably this is not the notebook for you. It is not great for editing photos because the screen is not exactly accurate in terms of colour fidelity and is small.
The bigger issue is that the screen does not have touch input. In its current state, the Windows 8.1 interface works better with touch than a mouse and keyboard. This issue will remain for a few months until Microsoft releases Windows 10 later this year. Thankfully, the upgrade to Windows 10 will be free for the EeeBook X205T.
Keyboard and touchpad
The
keyboard and touchpad are the two critical user interface elements
found in a notebook. Both become even more important on the EeeBook
X205T as it lacks the touchscreen.
The chiclet keyboard on the device is well spaced and offers ample travel and tactile feedback while you are typing. We wrote the part of this review on this machine and we are happy to report after getting used to the size of the keyboard we could type at around 55 words per minute.
The touchpad is surprisingly large on the EeeBook X205T. It is almost as large as a touchpad you will get on a 15-inch notebook. Asus claims that it is 36 per cent bigger than a touchpad found on an average 11.6-inch notebook. We agree and the large size of the touchpad makes navigation easier. The touchpad also supports Windows 8.1 gestures, but in our tests, the gestures did not work consistently.
Overall, the gesture support is patchy at best. On the preloaded Internet Explorer web browser, scrolling was mostly smooth, but on a browser like Chrome, it was not. The bigger issue is that most people prefer Chrome over Internet Explorer. Pinch to zoom gestures also did not work smoothly across modern apps.
Software
The EeeBook X205T is powered by Windows. It runs on Windows 8.1 like most new computers in the world. Other than that it comes bundled with one year's subscription of Microsoft's Office 365 service which includes Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) on the web and natively.
As a part of Office 365, users also get access to 1TB of OneDrive storage. Asus on its part offers 500GB of extra cloud storage. In addition, the device comes with preloaded modern apps like Flipboard, Line messenger, Zinio, Trip Advisor and Twitter.
It also comes preloaded with McAfee Antivirus, which is known to slow down PCs. We wish Asus had forgone the preloaded antivirus as it is also quite cumbersome to remove.
The big deal out here is that you are getting a fully-functional Windows 8.1 PC for just Rs.14,999. Windows, currently in our opinion is a better bet than something like Chrome OS. This is particularly true in a market like India where connectivity is a problem.
Windows is not dependent on the web and has support for a massive library of apps. You can also carry around your videos and play some casual games on the device because it runs on Windows. A similar machine running Chrome OS, perhaps will not be as versatile considering the constraints on file format support, lack of internal storage, and the platform.
Performance
The Asus EeeBook X205T is powered by an Intel Atom CPU, which means that it is not as powerful as your average laptop that come with Pentiums or Core processors.
The Intel Atom CPUs have been made for low-cost notebooks like the EeeBook, tablets, and hybrids. The EeeBook X205 uses Intel Atom (BayTrail - T) Z3735 quad-core processor clocked at 1.83GHz. Besides this, it has 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. For a Windows PC, the internal storage is on the lower side, but Asus has also added a microSD card slot with support for 128GB of expansion.
For basic web browsing and word processing, this is ample firepower. We managed to have more than 15 tabs open in Chrome and we faced no issues. Therefore, this certainly was commendable performance.
Multitasking too was decent. At one time, we opened Chrome with five tabs, Microsoft Word, Gimp Photo, and VLC media player running a MP4 movie at 720p resolution. We faced no issues while doing so and even the movie played without any noticeable drops in the frame rate.
We also played many lossless .FLAC music files. We faced no issues and the device happily played ever file we threw at it.
Even for gaming, we managed to play games like ASPHALT 8, Star Wars: Commander and Age of Empires. There were minimal frame rate drops, and generally, the graphics of the games were decent.
The EeeBook offers ample performance for someone who likes just browse the web, type out word document or listen to music and watch movies. It is also decent for casual gaming. For a traveller or a power user, it makes for a great secondary machine considering its price.
It also makes a lot of sense over a tablet as it offers a big keyboard and trackpad and has connectivity options like two USB ports and a micro HDMI port.
Lastly, we also felt that the built-in speakers were surprisingly loud and good enough for watching movies. That said, when cranked up, the sound did become muddy, so if you intent to watch a lot of action movies or listen to metal music, brace yourself for a lot of distortion.
Battery life
In general usage, we found that the EeeBook easily lasted around 7 hours in usage. It has a 38Whr battery, which is not very large, however the battery life turned out to be good. This is largely due to the presence of the frugal Atom processor as a more powerful and power-hungry Core processor would not have lasted so long on a consistent basis. For a modern PC this is good battery life.
Our usage included lots of web browsing, light photo editing on Gimp Photo app, around 4 hours of office work and video and music playback using VLC media player.
Should you buy it?
The EeeBook X205T makes a compelling case for itself as a travel companion or a backup PC considering it only costs Rs.14,999.
It also makes a good laptop to buy for school student, as it is not
very expensive. In a market like India, a Windows-based product like the
EeeBook is essentially a ChromeBook killer, because it can do
everything a ChromeBook can and does not suffer from its disadvantages.
Frankly, it is very good for thing like word processing, web browsing, lightweight image editing and for snacking on videos and music.
Of course, the experience it provides is not on par with a high-end Windows notebook or even a similarly-priced tablet, but then again it is not targeting that audience. It is strictly meant for a person looking for an affordable machine with a keyboard and touchpad to get work done. For that, the EeeBook X205T fits the bill.
Microsoft in the last year has made many amends to its Windows business model and has been in damage control mode. The new Asus EeeBook X205T is a product born out of this new philosophy behind Windows. It offers Windows and a year's subscription of Office 365 in a tiny little notebook that costs less than Rs.15,000.
The idea is to take on ChromeBooks and cheap Android tablets, which are also starting to pick up in India. The problem with ChromeBooks is their dependence on the Internet. As the EeeBook X205T is based on Windows, it offers the best of Microsoft's Cloud, but with an OS that has years of legacy applications and is not as dependent on the Internet. On paper, the idea is good. Does it work for Asus and Microsoft? We find out in this review. Read on.
Design
The
EeeBook X205T is a boring device to be honest. From afar, it is like
any other netbook, which ran Windows 7. The white version, which we
tested, has cheap looking glossy plastic finish on the top. Its build
quality also fails to impress. After continuous rotation of the
clamshell hinge, we found that it creaked a bit. This, obviously, is not
an encouraging sign. Clearly, compromises have been made with the build
quality of the product, but considering the pricing of the product this
is not a surprise.On the positive side of things, the device is very light unlike most laptops. Like a MacBook Air, it almost feels weightless at 1Kg, 980 grams to be precise. It is also not very thick at 17.5mm for a Windows based device. It scores highly in terms of portability. It is almost as portable as a tablet, and offers the power of full Windows applications something the iPad and Android tablets cannot.
Display
As
the EeeBook is a low-cost product, a special display was not expected.
While that indeed is the case, the 11.6-inch LCD display is not bad. It
has a resolution of 1366x768 pixels, and for a product of its class; it
gets the job done.Mind you, on a tablet for the same price, you would probably end up getting a better display; however, the EeeBook X205T is decent for a Windows-based computer, and the price you pay for it.
It has decent brightness levels and its viewing angles are good enough for watching movies on the go. Under direct sunlight, its performance is not very good, but such is the case with most products in this price bracket.
The colour temperature of the screen is on the colder side of things, which means it has a slight blue hue to it. This in our opinion looked nice.
If you are stickler for accurate colours then probably this is not the notebook for you. It is not great for editing photos because the screen is not exactly accurate in terms of colour fidelity and is small.
The bigger issue is that the screen does not have touch input. In its current state, the Windows 8.1 interface works better with touch than a mouse and keyboard. This issue will remain for a few months until Microsoft releases Windows 10 later this year. Thankfully, the upgrade to Windows 10 will be free for the EeeBook X205T.
Keyboard and touchpad
The
keyboard and touchpad are the two critical user interface elements
found in a notebook. Both become even more important on the EeeBook
X205T as it lacks the touchscreen. The chiclet keyboard on the device is well spaced and offers ample travel and tactile feedback while you are typing. We wrote the part of this review on this machine and we are happy to report after getting used to the size of the keyboard we could type at around 55 words per minute.
The touchpad is surprisingly large on the EeeBook X205T. It is almost as large as a touchpad you will get on a 15-inch notebook. Asus claims that it is 36 per cent bigger than a touchpad found on an average 11.6-inch notebook. We agree and the large size of the touchpad makes navigation easier. The touchpad also supports Windows 8.1 gestures, but in our tests, the gestures did not work consistently.
Overall, the gesture support is patchy at best. On the preloaded Internet Explorer web browser, scrolling was mostly smooth, but on a browser like Chrome, it was not. The bigger issue is that most people prefer Chrome over Internet Explorer. Pinch to zoom gestures also did not work smoothly across modern apps.
Software
The EeeBook X205T is powered by Windows. It runs on Windows 8.1 like most new computers in the world. Other than that it comes bundled with one year's subscription of Microsoft's Office 365 service which includes Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) on the web and natively.
As a part of Office 365, users also get access to 1TB of OneDrive storage. Asus on its part offers 500GB of extra cloud storage. In addition, the device comes with preloaded modern apps like Flipboard, Line messenger, Zinio, Trip Advisor and Twitter.
It also comes preloaded with McAfee Antivirus, which is known to slow down PCs. We wish Asus had forgone the preloaded antivirus as it is also quite cumbersome to remove.
The big deal out here is that you are getting a fully-functional Windows 8.1 PC for just Rs.14,999. Windows, currently in our opinion is a better bet than something like Chrome OS. This is particularly true in a market like India where connectivity is a problem.
Windows is not dependent on the web and has support for a massive library of apps. You can also carry around your videos and play some casual games on the device because it runs on Windows. A similar machine running Chrome OS, perhaps will not be as versatile considering the constraints on file format support, lack of internal storage, and the platform.
Performance
The Asus EeeBook X205T is powered by an Intel Atom CPU, which means that it is not as powerful as your average laptop that come with Pentiums or Core processors.
The Intel Atom CPUs have been made for low-cost notebooks like the EeeBook, tablets, and hybrids. The EeeBook X205 uses Intel Atom (BayTrail - T) Z3735 quad-core processor clocked at 1.83GHz. Besides this, it has 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. For a Windows PC, the internal storage is on the lower side, but Asus has also added a microSD card slot with support for 128GB of expansion.
For basic web browsing and word processing, this is ample firepower. We managed to have more than 15 tabs open in Chrome and we faced no issues. Therefore, this certainly was commendable performance.
Multitasking too was decent. At one time, we opened Chrome with five tabs, Microsoft Word, Gimp Photo, and VLC media player running a MP4 movie at 720p resolution. We faced no issues while doing so and even the movie played without any noticeable drops in the frame rate.
We also played many lossless .FLAC music files. We faced no issues and the device happily played ever file we threw at it.
Even for gaming, we managed to play games like ASPHALT 8, Star Wars: Commander and Age of Empires. There were minimal frame rate drops, and generally, the graphics of the games were decent.
The EeeBook offers ample performance for someone who likes just browse the web, type out word document or listen to music and watch movies. It is also decent for casual gaming. For a traveller or a power user, it makes for a great secondary machine considering its price.
It also makes a lot of sense over a tablet as it offers a big keyboard and trackpad and has connectivity options like two USB ports and a micro HDMI port.
Lastly, we also felt that the built-in speakers were surprisingly loud and good enough for watching movies. That said, when cranked up, the sound did become muddy, so if you intent to watch a lot of action movies or listen to metal music, brace yourself for a lot of distortion.
Battery life
In general usage, we found that the EeeBook easily lasted around 7 hours in usage. It has a 38Whr battery, which is not very large, however the battery life turned out to be good. This is largely due to the presence of the frugal Atom processor as a more powerful and power-hungry Core processor would not have lasted so long on a consistent basis. For a modern PC this is good battery life.
Our usage included lots of web browsing, light photo editing on Gimp Photo app, around 4 hours of office work and video and music playback using VLC media player.
Should you buy it?
The EeeBook X205T makes a compelling case for itself as a travel companion or a backup PC considering it only costs Rs.14,999.
It also makes a good laptop to buy for school student, as it is not
very expensive. In a market like India, a Windows-based product like the
EeeBook is essentially a ChromeBook killer, because it can do
everything a ChromeBook can and does not suffer from its disadvantages.Frankly, it is very good for thing like word processing, web browsing, lightweight image editing and for snacking on videos and music.
Of course, the experience it provides is not on par with a high-end Windows notebook or even a similarly-priced tablet, but then again it is not targeting that audience. It is strictly meant for a person looking for an affordable machine with a keyboard and touchpad to get work done. For that, the EeeBook X205T fits the bill.
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