A few months back, Asus launched a new product in netbook category, the Asus EeeBook X205TA. The X205TA is an entry-level notebook device for people who are short on budget. The device packs amazing looks along with decent performance and amazing battery life. The EeeBook X205TA straight away competes with Acer Chromebook and HP Stream 11 device. Recently I got an opportunity to explore the EeeBook x205TA and perform tests on it. After using the device for almost a month, today I'm going to review it. Let's begin.
Design & Built Quality
Once you open the box and hold the device, the first thing you'll notice is that it is very light weighted and compact in size. It is 17.5 mm thin and weighs 980 grams or 2.16 pounds, which is incredibly light. The overall dimensions of Asus EeeBook X205TA are 286 x 193.3 x 17.5 mm, making it slimmer than other Netbooks & Notebooks in this price range. The EeeBook can be extended over about 120 degrees, the overall built quality is sturdy and holding the EeeBook feels good, thanks to the high quality material used by Asus. The EeeBook is made up of plastic but has a metal like finish. It is available in four different colors which are; Blue, Red, Gold & White. The White model has a glossy plastic flap, while other models have a matte finish. One thing I'd like to add is that Asus EeeBook X205TA is a fingerprint magnet (especially the Blue one) and it takes more than a casual wipe to get rid of them.Ports Available
Unfortunately, there are no USB 3.0 ports available on Asus EeeBook X205TA, all you get is two USB 2.0 ports on the right side, micro HDMI port, headphone jack which also is a mic jack on the left and a MicroSD card reader. There is also an inbuilt microphone.
Keyboard & Trackpad
Asus EeeBook X205TA uses a chiclet style keyboard with well-spaced keys, since it's not a full-size keyboard, a person who is switching from a full-sized keyboard to EeeBook will find initial days frustrating, but after a few days you'll get used to it, I went through this myself but with time, I got used to the keyboard. The keyboard layout might seem a bit cramped, but still is good enough for typing emails, documents, articles etc. The Trackpad on Asus EeeBook X205TA is even bigger than standard laptops, the dimensions of the trackpad are 4.1 x 2.45 inches. Asus claimed that the technology used in creating the trackpad is same as Asus touch screen smartphones. Overall trackpad response is good, but the buttons on the trackpad are very annoying. The trackpad supports gestures.
Display & Audio
Asus EeeBook X205TA comes with 11.6" Inch Display with resolution of 1366 x 788 pixels. The display is decent and vivid and according to me, did a great job. The text was sharp and clear, the colors were vibrant, the video playback was decent and EeeBook played HD videos & movies without any issue, though when playing High-bit rate HD videos, you'll see some pixel tears. Watching movies & HD videos on Asus EeeBook X205TA is a really good experience. The X205TA has two small stereo speakers on the bottom branded as SonicMaster by Asus, the speakers are loud & clear enough for a decent music experience, far better than any other netbook in this price range. When headphones plugged in, the X205TA delivered amazing audio that I almost lost myself in it. Overall the Display & Audio quality are much better than other netbooks in this price range, this makes X205TA a great device for movies & music experience.
Performance
Asus EeeBook X205TA houses an Intel Atom 1.33 GHz Quad-Core processor with 2GB RAM, 32GB Flash storage and Intel HD graphics. The specifications don't sound much impressive, but the performance of X205TA is really unbelievable. The device is capable of multitasking and long web browsing sessions. The transfer speed of the flash storage is faster than other similar netbooks. The user-available storage is 20GB, however you can expand the storage using MicroSD card or by using external hard drives. Asus X205TA also has an inbuilt VGA webcam for video calling purposes. When it comes to gaming, unfortunately you won't be able to play high-end games on it, this device was specially designed for web browsing, movie playback, writing emails, editing documents, etc. So if you are thinking to buy it for gaming purposes then forget it and go for a laptop or desktop. The overall performance of X205TA is decent and limited to certain tasks, this device is not meant for tasks which requires high graphics etc. The X205TA runs Microsoft Windows 8.1 out of the box.
Battery Life
The battery life of X205TA is very impressive. Since it has a low-powered processor and smaller display, the X205TA is one of the longest lasting netbook I've ever used. During my tests, I was able to squeeze out 11+ hours continuous web browsing on a single charge. The charger which comes with it is small and easy to carry, the X205TA lasts 11+ hours on average, while Asus claims it to last 12 hours or more. Anyways, I was really impressed by the performance of the battery.
Conclusion
I really liked Asus EeeBook X205TA, it is light weighted, thin and easy to carry around in a backpack or handbag (for ladies) - The display is great, performance is decent and the battery life is impressive. I would recommend X205TA to people who are looking for a portable computer and are short on budget, Asus X205TA lets you do all the things a computer can, you can browse the web for hours, watch HD videos, movies for hours, listen to music, edit documents, create PowerPoint slides, write emails, articles, run softwares and a lot more. X205TA is a best bet for programmers & coders who are on a limited budget, you can write programs, codes, scripts etc on EeeBook X205TA. I would not recommend it to people who are looking for a budget computer for gaming, heavy photoshop work, photography or for movie making / video editing purpose. Another down point of X205TA is low storage, but that can be solved with MicroSD card or by using an external hard drives. Asus also offers a 2 year subscription of 500 GB on their cloud service.
The Asus EeeBook x205TA is priced at Rs.14,499
About Jimmie Luthra
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