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Asus EeeBook X205TA Review: Follows you everywhere but can only do so much

The Asus EeeBok X205TA is highly portable, user-friendly, but lacks the capability of more powerful systems. Perfect as a work laptop.

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Even at first sight, it’s clear that the Asus EeeBook X205TA is not a digital powerhouse, it’s meant to be an unobtrusive companion. Just 17.5mm thick and weighing in at 980g, you’re not even supposed to realise you’re carrying the ultrabook around until you look for it. And while it isn’t the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, it’s certainly not ugly.

The 11.6” 1366x768p display is sufficient for regular work and browsing use, but you’re clearly not going to get the best movie watching experience on it. Then again, if you really want to watch movies on a portable screen, wouldn’t a smartphone be better? The 38Whrs battery promises a 12 hour browsing cycle, and delivers a good 8 hours of varied use; enough to last the average domestic or international commute time.

The sound is clear enough for a device this size, but is lacking in power. At first sight, the speakers seemed to be placed in a very odd fashion; front-facing speakers on the bottom of the ultrabook, but this soon makes sense. The speakers are placed between the edge of the laptop and the little bumps that are the rest pads. This makes sure your speaks remain unobtrusively on the bottom, while also not having the sound muffled by whatever surface you place the laptop on.

The EeeBook comes with a Intel Bay Trail-T Quad Core Z3735F 1.83 GHz Processor, 2GB RAM and 32GB of storage, as well as a MicroSD card reader, and HDMI out. This makes it the perfect accessory for a work meeting, allowing you to carry and project the screen with ease. It also handles basic software with no issue. The touchpad, however, seemed to be a bit sticky at times, requiring careful strokes rather than the frenzied action a deadline hour might cause. Another bummer is the glaring lack of a USB 3.0 port. If you need to transfer a large file to an external drive, you’d better be prepared to wait.

Lastly, the ultrabook seems to be a bit of a dust magnet, so keep this one safely packed away when you don’t need it.

What we liked:
Highly portable
Smart speaker location
No heating issue
MicroSD Card reader

What we didn’t like:
Slightly unresponsive touchpad
Average speaker intensity
Lack of USB 3.0

Specifications:
Processor: Intel Bay Trail-T Quad Core Z3735F 1.83 GHz
Storage: 32GB
GPU: Integrated Intel HD Graphics
RAM: 2GB DDR3
​Display: 11.6" 1366x768p
​OS: Windows 8.1

Price: Rs 14,999

Bottom line: The Asus EeeBook X205TA is like the little pug from the Hutch television advertisement that follows you around. It's really helpful, but eventually you might regret not having a dog that can, for instance, jump higher than your thigh. Buy this if you need something easy to carry to work everyday, or for travel/work needs. Buy it as an iPad replacement for movie watching on long trips. Buy this for your technologically impaired parents to use. DO NOT buy this if you need to run demanding software, Asus has some other good pieces instead. Stay tuned to our review page for more on that soon.

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