Update: The Asus X205 is now available in the USA, so we’re hoping to have info about a Canada release date very soon!
Reasons to buy the Asus X205:
- It’s cheap! At $200 for a fully functional netbook/laptop? Consider how much you pay for a tablet combined with a keyboard case. For example, the Nexus 9 tablet will cost you over $400, but the official keyboard case is about $130 on top of that. More than that though, consider that anything under 10-inches will not be able to provide a full sized keyboard.
- Portability. The Asus X205 is incredibly light and thin. It also features a fanless design so it’s going to run cool and you won’t have the concerns about covering up a fan port if you’re using it on a bed for example.
We’re going to have a lot of details on this new brand from Asus, but let’s give you an overview. You want a portable laptop with great battery life, cheap price and Windows operating system? If so, then check out the Eee Book laptops from Asus. Think of this as their netbook lineup (Eee PC) but instead it’s the next generation of those laptops. Thin, light, portable and cheap. With the advances with the Intel processors, the Eee Book won’t see much in the way of performance limitations. This will give you what you need with some down right incredible battery life. If you’re not fond of transforming your tablet into a laptop style device, then Asus may have the product for you.
We can say for certain it’s going to be $199. This is one of the first Windows with Bing laptops which must be under a certain price and have Bing as the default search engine so that manufacturers can get a reduced or even free installation of Windows. The Google Chromebooks have been eating away at Microsofts laptop market and the result will be good for consumers if this Eee Book is any indication. This is going to be good!
The reason the Eee Book line-up from Asus is going to be a winner: If you look at history, all indicators are the the EeeBook will be a smashing success. Asus are really the masters of a great price point and the Eee PC (netbook) proved that they gave the biggest bang for the buck. If you stop to consider the Eee Book X205, it’s ultimately the netbook 2.0. One could argue that the Eee PC line-up was underpowered and certainly the Atom processors were weak. Now we see the EeeBook and no longer are there limitations in terms of processing power. Sure, one could always desire faster, but for a portable device, I’m quite certain that nobody is going to be screaming about performance especially when you look at the $200 price. Shocking isn’t it? That price is hard to fathom but Google and their aggressive Chromebook strategy forced Microsoft into giving their software away so long as manufacturers followed their requirements. So in terms of this being a winner, I think there is no question of that. It’s a full fledged laptop that can go anywhere. It has great connectivity and storage expandability. It’s certainly not a “go to” device for power hungry tasks, but the reality is that processors are more about lowering power (saving battery) than about giving consumers more power. The X205 will have enough power to do what you need it for. Most of us are consuming media and working on business tasks. Those are easily accomplished with these Atom processors and 2GB of ram. I’m expecting the same success for Asus with the Eee Book as they had with the Eee PC.
A full review, photo gallery, specs rundown, price and release date upcoming shortly.
Quick Specs Rundown:
- Intel Atom Z3735 Bay Trail processor
- 1366 x 768 pixel display
- 2GB of RAM
- 32GB to 64GB of solid state storage
- 15GB of Microsoft OneDrive for life, plus 100GB of OneDrive and 500GB of ASUS WebStorage for two years
- up to 12 hours of battery life
- weighs less than 2.2 pounds
- less than 0.7 inches thick
- runs Windows 8.1 with Bing software
- available in black, white, red, or gold
- microSD card reader, micro HDMI port, and 2 USB 2.0 ports
- 802.11n WiFi
- 38Whr battery
Shortcomings of the EeeBook Laptop: At $199 you may be questioning the quality of such a device. In reality, what most of us don’t realize, is that a large chunk of a laptops price was simply having the Windows software installed. When Microsoft cuts the price of those installations, we get true hardware costs. So at this price point, don’t expect to be getting a junky Eee Book. They won’t be premium, but don’t expect this thing to be falling apart. Asus have been masters at getting price points low, but still maintaining decent or good quality that lasts. So I see from the specs a couple compromises that you need to be aware of.
I can tell you that for me, my good ‘ol netbook with HDMI has come in very handy over the years. You will be happy in that the EeeBook X205 does have HDMI, but it is a microHDMI port. That’s not convenient really. You’re going to need to buy, or I strongly suggest buying a microHDMI to HDMI adapter cable. You can easily find a cable of that sort for less that $10.
The other compromise is in the storage capacity. Remember those big 500GB hard drives on netbook and ultraportable laptops? Well in this case, the Eee Book laptops are going to be substantially less. I’m sure a lot of us are getting accustomed to smartphone and tablet storage which is indeed limited. You can however get a 64GB microSD card and make use of all the free cloud storage options to get a bit more space. This Eee Book does come with some additional free cloud storage.
No touch screen at this price folks. I wouldn’t suggest that this is a deal breaker for most people. In fact Microsoft may be leaning away from making Windows a touchcentric operating system and will make it more user friendly once again for those mouse/touchpad users.
EeeBook X205 Photo Gallery – High Resolution Images
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