ASUS X205TA-UH01-BK Signature Edition Laptop Review

ASUS X205TA-UH01-BK Signature Edition Laptop Review

11.6 inch ASUS X205TA-UH01-BK
via Amazon



ASUS X205TA-UH01-BK Signature Edition (CWF-01887) is a basic 11.6-inch HD display compact laptop with an Intel Atom processor, 32GB eMMC- embedded multimedia card and 12 hour battery life and appears to be a competitor of Chromebooks. Being a very low cost laptop, performance is fine for entry-level daily tasks- internet browsing, word processing etc. but would not be suitable for demanding tasks or heavy multi-tasking especially considering the burden of Windows 8 on the memory.

ASUS X205TA comes with the quad core Intel Atom Z3735F Bay Trail at 1.33 base speed (2MB cache) up to 1.83GHz with turbo and no hyper threading, 2 GB RAM for basic multitasking- right for the size and cost of this machine and is not user upgradeable, 32 GB eMMC (like a lighter version of SSD but with less speed) which you can expand via microSD card plus 100GB of free Asus Cloud storage and the 32-bit edition of Windows 8.1 operating system. The Atom Z3735 CPU has a Passmark benchmark score of 901 on the day of this review and a Thermal Design Power- TDP of less than 4 watts and this shows in very long battery life.

11.6 inch diagonal non-touch HD display with 1366×768 pixel resolution and TN panel (not IPS with larger viewing angles and obviously not Full HD- these things do cost money) offer adequate display for what this small computer is created to be and the graphics card is the basic Intel HD graphics (Bay Trail) which is not suitable for gaming purposes or complex multimedia- you simply can’t run the newer games even at the lower settings and resolutions but you can play older titles like World of Warcraft and Fifa 14 at lower settings and reasonable frame rates per second. You can do some simple photo editing but for more demanding stuff you will experience lags. You will have adequate sound quality through the dual front-facing stereo speakers and 480p webcam and built-in microphone are fine for casual Skype chats with family and friends.

ASUS X205TA-UH01-BK Signature Edition Laptop Review
Asus CWF-01887 weighs 2.2 pounds and has the dimensions of 0.7 x 11.3 x 7.6 inches and this is where this computer shines: Compact size and portability along with the 12 hour battery life from its 2-cell 38Wh battery (beats the Chromebooks). Keyboard is non-backlit and without the 10 key numeric pad (due to small size and lack of space) but has a centered trackpad that supports multi gestures and that is easy to operate. Connectivity is often limited on these very compact laptops and this happens to be the case with this Asus as there is no optical drive (you can always use an external DVD drive), no Ethernet and no USB 3.0 port but 802.11bgn wireless, Bluetooth 4.0, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port and a (MicroSD) Media Card Reader.

Conclusion: ASUS X205TA-UH01-BK is a good alternative to Chromebooks (similar performance and price) for those on a budget that want a very compact and portable PC with Windows operating system rather than Chrome OS. It is designed for simple home entertainment including light games or things like school assignments but not for anything that requires advanced power and performance- this one is good for light daily tasks and basic multitasking- net surfing with a few browsers open while listening to music or running Microsoft Word or Excel. If you care more about compact size, portability and don’t want to settle for Chrome OS, this one may well be worth it. Signature edition doesn’t include any third party junkware but offer improved security out of the box and come with a 1 year limited parts and labour warranty by Asus.

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