Review Asus X201E Subnotebook

[Redaktion]

Ultranetbook? Thin like an Ultrabook, yet as affordable as a netbook - that must have been Asus' goal when developing this 11.6-inch subnotebook. Does the low price point of 350 Euro (~$470) allow Asus to pack enough performance into the 21.7 millimeter (0.85 inches) thick chassis?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-X201E-Subnotebook.87453.0.html

[AO]

A recurring issue with these notebooks is the abysmal thermal compound that is used. Often low quality stick-on compound.

There is absolutely no reason for a 1100MHz dual core processor to run over 80C at 100% load. From personal experience with a ASUS 1225B with a marginally more powerful E-450 one does not see temperatures over 70C if one applies after market compound such as MX-4 or TG-1.

[Ken]

Well, I just received my Asus X201E with Ubuntu 10.4 installed.  I paid $299 with free shipping from BHphotovideo.com.  I am a web developer and I wanted a portable device that would do well in an office and/or coffee-shop like setting, and for international travel.

After receiving it I immediately installed the Cinnamon desktop which I prefer.   I played videos without difficulty.  Playing a flash video in youtube had some FPS issues at full-screen.  I had three videos playing from VLC, a youtube video, and a variety of browser windows opened and I was at a about 90%  of my CPU threshold, and only about 1GB of my 4GB.

My personal reasons for this "Netbook" like device are 1) $299; 2) I travel internationally and although my Nexus 7 does a fine job I prefer a notebook device for fixing client problems abroad; 3) I don't play games, so no loss for me with the underwhelming GPU.

For me, editing web-development text files, running Apache sever with PHP5, a variety of browsers opened, and some music playing is all I really need to do with this. 

It performs very nicely, and I am 100% satisfied with it.  For under 3 pounds and under $300-USD not much to complain about here.  I could not justify the $1000 cost for a nicely performing i5-processor type ultrabook for the travel reasons I purchased this device.

One note bhphotovideo.com incorrectly has the memory listed at 2GB installed, mine has 4GB.

[Codiweb]

Ken, What you say about that the one you bought from bhphoto came with 4gb?  I bought Asus X201e from bhphoto yesterday and say 4gb, but in my order say 2gb? I bought thinking it was 4gb. It came with 4gb or 2gb? 

[ian]

how does x201e compare to asus 1225b, in terms of keyboard and touchpad.. comfortability" which is better? also in terms of "portability" and "elegant" both seems to be on par it's rly hard for me to decide.. so to narrow it down I prefer in terms of input comfort (keyboard/touchpad)-x201e seem to be more comfortable? CMIIW

[ian]

or better yet.... please write a review of 1215B.. there's no one do review better than you guys rock!!

PS: i couldnt find info of 1225b keyboard & trackpad size anywhere

[freechelmi]

You should definitly Tell in your review that the Ubuntu LINUX version is 60$ cheaper than teh Windows version and I think gives a lot more performance !

[sarkov]

Expandability restricted? Is there any chance to upgrade to 8gb ram? Or should I just install the 32-bit of windows 8?

[Chris3392]

I bought that one (the ubuntu version)
++ price, size, weight, 4GB Ram, 500GB disk, autonomy ~ 5 hours
== reasonably powerfull % price, low disk speed in par with price, glaring screen, good network speed but network connection gets lost sometime (could be related to ubuntu),
-- chicklet keyboard uncomfortable (compared to other laptop real keyboards). Gets warm at time > 85° eventhough room temp is 16°C (Firefox load with CPU load ~30%), worried about summer conditions. The trackpad, praised in the article, is not good: nowhere close to my old Dell's; it is too large, which is a problem when keytyping (mouse moves when the hand touches the trackpad, is a problem for Office use) or even to efficiently move the mouse from one side to the other side of the screen; also, it is a mistake NOT to separate the click area from the track pad: the mouse will move if you do not pay attention when clicking, resulting in in not clicking when you thought you would

Overall: I was on a budget, for 300€ I am happy.
Nowhere as good as my old 10years old 12" Dell except faster, Larger Ram, lighter, more battery.
Screen, touchpad, keyboard are less comfortable
In other words it's better than a 10 years old Dell except if you use it ;)

[KS]

I bought the while color (847 processor) last month while vacating in Indonesia for $300. Initially I had purchased it for using during travel only. 

I am hugely impressed by its performance. I installed windows 7 ultimate as I am very familiar with it. Before this, I had Dell N3420 (i5) and Asus 1015C (atom). This is a perfect replacement for Asus 1015c; (which I have already sold off) and now contemplating selling my Dell laptop as I don't miss much in terms of speed/performance for my daily work - net surfing, office and sometimes using pagemaker software. At office, I prefer to use this over Dell.

I have not faced any lagging with 30 chrome tabs opened up while simultaneously working on word/excel documents.

It is very lightweight so I could carry it during my travels.

I am getting a battery back up some 4 hours with my wireless mouse attached all the time. I am impressed. Also unlike the review, the battery recharge is fast, some 2 hours or so if you shut the laptop. May be Asus worked on battery issue recently.

At this price, even the laptop gets damaged  or stolen, I won't get much bothered.

It is much better than Atom based lappies in the market. The only advantage with 1015C is its long battery life (6 hours plus) and gloss 10 inch screen.

In looks too, it is very attractive and sleek.

[KS]

I bought the while color (847 processor) last month while vacating in Indonesia for $300. Initially I had purchased it for using during travel only. 

I am hugely impressed by its performance. I installed windows 7 ultimate as I am very familiar with it. Before this, I had Dell N3420 (i5) and Asus 1015C (atom). This is a perfect replacement for Asus 1015c; (which I have already sold off) and now contemplating selling my Dell laptop as I don't miss much in terms of speed/performance for my daily work - net surfing, office and sometimes using pagemaker software. At office, I prefer to use this over Dell.

I have not faced any lagging with 30 chrome tabs opened up while simultaneously working on word/excel documents.

It is very lightweight so I could carry it during my travels.

I am getting a battery back up some 4 hours with my wireless mouse attached all the time. I am impressed. Also unlike the review, the battery recharge is fast, some 2 hours or so if you shut the laptop. May be Asus worked on battery issue recently.

At this price, even the laptop gets damaged  or stolen, I won't get much bothered.

It is much better than Atom based lappies in the market. The only advantage with 1015C is its long battery life (6 hours plus) and matt finish screen.

In looks too, it is very attractive and sleek.

[andreandre]

Just a problem, the noise. I got 1 with X201E with linux and fan is almost the time on full.

[Aas]

Just a problem, the noise. I got 1 with X201E with linux and fan is almost the time on full.

I had the same problem with HP Mini 5101. The simple solution was to put thermal sensor icon to the panel and system instantly realized that there is no need to cool it that hard.
Just run xsensors and you'll see if this apply to your PC as well.

Cheers Aas.

[antmranda]

Did you know X201E (with 1007u) comes with bluetooth and Sata III (6G, confirmed on Ubuntu 13.04)?

Great laptop for 299€! With a SSD speeds away!

[Baffone]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if the RAM is effectively SOLDED on the mainboard or -like in other Asus net/ultra/note-book is simply on the other side of the mainboard, so will be possible to upgrade it... Unfortunately there are no pictures about the other side.

Hope someone here knows something about it. Thanks in advance.