ASUS EeeBook X205 review — Real steal at Rs 14,999 for light daily tasks
Decorous ergonomics, portability and an ultra-affordable price tag are the features that make ASUS’ EeeBook X205 desirable. This 11.6-inch notebook sports a glossy plastic built, which looks nice but does not feel so sturdy. However, the material contributes to the notebook’s lightweight and portability.
The ASUS EeeBook X205 has a unibody fanless design, which is made out of soft plastic that spreads across the lid, the base and the interior of the notebook, with just the screen’s border edges made of a harder black plastic. Although the notebook gives a brawny first impression, when you grab the notebook firmly the lid of the laptop flexes a little bit and you can hear a creaky noise that is generally associated with poor plastic. Also, the glossy finish on the lid of the notebook catches smudges easily.
The 11.6-inch ASUS EeeBook X205 weighs about 0.98 kg, and is slender with a 17.5mm thick chassis. It sports just two USB 2.0 ports on the right side. The left edge of the notebook accommodates a charging port, a microSD card slot, a micro HDMI port and a headphone jack. In the front of the laptop, right where the lid opens, there sit three LED indicators for drive activity, battery and caps lock.
Towards the front end of the bottom, the ASUS EeeBook X205 features SonicMaster built in speakers and microphone on the either sides. The speakers are decent, however you may witness that the audio scatters when played at full strength.
The ASUS EeeBook X205 features an 11.6-inch glare panel display of 1366x768 pixel resolution, with a VGA web camera sitting on the top, as usual. The video quality of the notebook is decent enough, however it seems to lack a little bit on brightness.
The maximum opening angle of the notebook’s lid (panel) is about 120 degrees. Additionally, the rear end of the back panel sports two tiny plastic feet, onto which the screen lifts up on when opened at its widest angle. These tiny feet leave more space underneath the laptop and give it a better balance.
Moving to the interiors, the ASUS EeeBook X205 houses a chiclet keypad, with a very conveniently placed trackpad on the centre on the keyboard, just below the space key. The typing experience is fairly good with a decent key travel. However, the quality of the keys is not too good, giving a plasticky feel.
Running on Microsoft Windows 8.1 operating system, the ASUS EeeBook X205 is powered by 1.33 GHz quad-core Intel Bay T Trail processor, with 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM and 32GB of embedded MMC flash storage, which is accompanied by an Intel HD graphics processor. However, the 32GB storage seems barely sufficient for a Windows 8.1 computer, as the 32-bit OS takes up about 16GB of the hard disk space. Additionally, the notebook features an in-built Bluetooth v4.0 for connectivity.
The notebook offers a decent user experience, however it is ideal for regular usage, which means that considering the specifications of the laptop, heavy software work such as Photoshop may slow down the machine spoiling the user experience.
The ASUS EeeBook X205 is fuelled by 38Whrs polymer battery. The company claims the notebook to offer a maximum runtime of 12 hours. However, the runtime will vary from user to user and will depend on the type of usage, namely browsing, gaming, multimedia or alike. A two-pin compact charging adapter also accompanies the notebook.
Priced at Rs 14,999, the ASUS EeeBook X205 is a fantastic deal for students, younger children, travellers, and for people who need an alternate machine for light work. Essentially, the notebook is good for light daily tasks, such as using the Microsoft office or viewing multimedia files. Heavy software use on this notebook is not recommended as it may begin to lag and wreck the user experience.
