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List Price: $799.99
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I've been testing the Q200E-BH13T45, which I've purchased from Best Buy during a sale, for several months now and, overall, my conclusion is that, as others noted, it's a very good product for the price without any major flaws.
Rather than getting into an overly winded review, I will try to touch upon the most important aspects of the ultrabook.
Performance
There will be arguments about this, but my personal feeling is that performance should come first as an electronic's first purpose is to make its user's life easier or, at the least, more entertaining. Frustrating and pissing the user off by being slow, freezing, and causing aggravation is sort of counterproductive to that goal.
In this regard, the Q200E comes off spectacularly well for all the most important aspects of a computer uses, although gaming is a bit weak.
It comes with an Intel Core i3, 4GB RAM (with 64-bit OS to take advantage of it), and an Intel HD 3000 video card. In the majority of cases, the Q200E runs pretty flawlessly; certainly, you're not going to encounter slow downs just navigating Windows 8 or editing office documents/spreadsheets as I'm wont to do. Videos (even 1080p ones), music, web surfing (yes, even with a dozen tabs opened) aren't problems either.
However, games is certainly the Q200E's weak point. One could have guessed that playing games like Crysis on Ultra is not going to be easy from the fact that it has an Intel HD 3000 GPU, but it's quite a bit worse than I had hoped. Still, I can't dock any points for this weakness as the Q200E is not meant to be a dedicated gaming device and turning it into such would make it lose some of the things I find attractive about it (attractive thinness, very low weight, etc).
P.S. I know some of you care about boot-up time. It personally doesn't bother me at all, but here are the stats: From complete shut down, booting up to usable Windows is roughly 10-11 seconds and it's another 10-15 seconds for all background processes to start up depending on how many you have. From sleep (i.e. closing the ultrabook's lid instead of shutting down), it is 2 seconds before the Q200E is completely active.
I see a lot of people quail about putting in an SSD in the Q200E in order to improve performance, but personally, I rather save the money and keep the 500GB space.
Touch Screen
I originally thought of putting this in the 'performance' section, but I decided to give it its own section simply because of sheer importance. A big reason why I chose to buy this ultrabook was because of the touch screen, so for others in the same position as me, it's only fair I give touch screen a section of its own.
To make it concise, the touch screen is well done.
It is responsive and using it with Windows 8 works as well as using the iPhone, Android phone, or, if you will, Windows Phone. I have to commend Microsoft (and Asus for putting in a responsive screen) as I had not expected to like using touch screen nearly as much as I did. The touch screen responsiveness and ease of usage on the Windows 8's Modern UI and the desktop mode really does a lot to add to the enjoyability of the Q200E.
And for those wondering as I did whether the touch screen works well with legacy applications/games instead of Modern UI-designed apps/games, the answer is a resounding yes. I tried games and applications designed specifically for non-touch screen Windows XP/Windows 7 and they work excellently. Basically, touch screen presses react as if you had left-click with the mouse and, if you need more precision, you can drag on the screen and it will highlight items.
Display/Battery Life
The display for the Q200E is fairly good. It is bright and, especially at 100% brightness setting, the color become more vibrant giving the screen a nice liveliness. The resolution (1366x768) might be low for some, especially when there are ultrabooks that head into the 1920x1080 'full HD' resolution, but despite it, the resolution does not distract from the quality of the display for me.
No doubt, a number of people are wondering about how well the display works in sunlight too. The truth is that, in direct sunlight, it is absolutely horrible. You can't see a damn thing, except for glare and reflections. But...this is pretty standard for most screens anyway. As for indirect sunlight, though, the screen works decently well. There is much reflections, of course, but what matters is the screen is very visible and thus usable so long as the sunlight is not directly hitting the screen.
The battery life is a bit of a downer, though. On a full charge using 'Balanced' power setting, battery life seems to be around 3-4 hours. Now, that battery life doesn't bother me too much. While the Q200E is intended to be my main computing device, I'm generally near a power socket whenever I intend to use it in excess of 1-2 hours. Otherwise, I find the 3-4 hour estimated battery life to be plentiful.
If you are the type to use your laptop/ultrabook extensively on the go, though, be forewarned of the battery limits on this device.
Hardware Design
One of the things that made me fall in love with the Q200E while browsing the mobile section at Best Buy was the low 2.9lbs weight combined with what I feel was a sleek design.
The top and touchpad/keyboard area is designed as a smooth metallic surface while the screen is, yes, glass and the bottom is the standard plastic. This is good in practical use. Generally, the metallic areas is the area you tend to touch and stare at allowing you its more high end feel.
What adds to the sleekness, a bit surprisingly, is that it was designed so that all of the ports is located at the end near the screen. This makes the ultrabook become slimmer as you move away but thicker as you move in rather than giving it an equal thinness distribution. It might sound a bit awkward and I'm guessing it might not be a popular design as I noticed most other ultrabooks seem to add an optical drive (which the Q200E lacks) plus a few more ports and even out the thinness distribution. However, to me, it feels much better to hold and adds to the sleek appearance.
Audio
This is the last thing I want to touch on, but it is important to me and I'd imagine quite a few other people too.
The Q200E places the speakers inside the casing in the area beside the touchpad and allows the sound to flow out through two openings at the bottom. Unlike smartphones, which also tend to place speakers on the back, the Q200E's speakers is located near the edge and the edge curves up a bit meaning the sound doesn't get muffled when you place it on a flat surface.
Additionally, also unlike smartphones, the sound quality is loud and of good quality. I am not familiar with Asus' 'Sonic Master' speaker brand, but according to Asus, it brings 'audiophile' quality music to their laptops. I'm not so sure of that, but yes, it sounds good through the speakers and on headphones (though be forewarned, headphones is not nearly as loud through the Q200E as when used through a desktop).
So pound for pound, it places speaker in an out of the way location for good looks, but ensure the quality remains good and well.
Overall Rating
Now lets tally up everything and give the Q200E an overall rating.
Pros:
Excellent performance
Sleek and thin hardware design
Great audio quality and speaker placement
Great display quality
Easy to use touch screen
Cons:
A bit weak with gaming
Battery life seems to top out at 3-4 hours; likely 5 hours if you turn down all settings and use it conservatively
Overall Rating: 8/10
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I bought this laptop after doing a lot of research both online and in a store. I wanted a laptop that was light, had windows 8 and a touchscreen.
Most of the computers that fit all of my needs were way out of my price range and when I saw this computer I was hesitant but decided to make the purchase.
I have not regretted it for a minute. The computer is lightweight, the screen is vibrant and very responsive the track pad is also very responsive. I Love windows 8 and the ability to totally customize the start screen. I did learn that Google Chrome does not work if you use it to pin tiles to your start screen. You need to use internet explorer. Google Chrome can be used to browse.
If you are looking for a lightweight computer that doesn't cost an arm and a leg I highly recommend this one.
Update. My affair with this computer ended sadly. It really started to slow down and the fan really got loud after about an hour of use. I ended up returning it. :(
Best Deals for ASUS Q200E 11.6" Core i3 500GB HDD Notebook
I purchased a Microsoft Surface when it was released because I thought it would finally bridge the gap between a fun tablet and a productive tablet. And while it was a very nice device, it just felt like a prettier "fun" tablet. And I was needing something small that I can do work on and with a touchscreen. I saw this ASUS Q200E and immediately sold my Surface to snatch this thing up. While I may miss my Surface, this is really what I needed.
I wanted PC that was easy to take with me and a touchscreen and this one fits the bill. I was surprised at the speed after seeing some reports of it being slow (hard drive). While the initial updates were kind of slow, I've had no problems out of this device.
It doesn't have dedicated graphics but let me tell you...I wasn't planning on loading Bioshock on this but I did install Star Trek Online and Star Wars Old Republic and BOTH ran well. No stuttering and fairly smooth. If you are a hard core gamer, you may notice frame rate issues but I was not disappointed at all and actually quite surprised.
This laptop also boots VERY fast once you are all setup. About 6 seconds from a cold boot and about 1-2 seconds from sleep. I was also very impressed with this.
The sound is very impressive on this laptop. The first time I played a game or fired up XBOX music, I was blown away. It was a nice surprise.
About the only thing I would give this low marks for is the display. Coming from the Surface, I could see a big difference. For sure, not as sharp and some colors seems washed out. But it isn't bad either. Touchscreen response is good but sometimes can over compensate. Just takes a bit to "learn" it.
I am actually a Windows 8 fan. I have it on my home PC, work PC and other non-touch laptop. I've gotten used to the new interface and organized my tiles and it is joy to use. That said, TOUCH makes it even more enjoyable. And I admire Microsoft for sticking with this as touch is the future. This being as mix of touch and mouse control makes it just a totally awesome device.
For this price, this is a MAJOR steal and I highly recommend this laptop! If you don't mind an 11.6 inch screen, you will not find a better bargain than this.
Honest reviews on ASUS Q200E 11.6" Core i3 500GB HDD Notebook
I would like to come right out and say that this is a great general usage computer. By general usage I mean that you're using it mostly for word processing, viewing videos (maybe two or three loading in different tabs), or maybe a light java scripted web based computer game (like Farmville or Poker, games on Facebook are fine for this). So now that we have our target user not an aspiring gamer or CAD user let's talk about this computer.
It comes preloaded with Windows 8 and has a bit of a learning curve attached to it. Fortunately this computer is touchscreen, which makes Windows 8 a lot easier. However, there are a few times when the curser seems to jump to a different position on the screen which only seems to happen if I've just been touching then switched to the finger mouse pad. But it's in a blimp of a second, my guess is it's simply taking a moment to figure out that you've switched control, and is calibrating the cursor to the new relative position from the change over. It's not a problem, I mention it so if you see this you don't flip out thinking "I've got spyware and someone else just moved my cursor!" Now if that happens and you're not switching between the two run your anti-virus or other protocols depending on your level of computer knowledge. One thing users should keep in mind is that Windows should be evaluated separately from the computer itself. If you don't like W8 you'd probably love this computer with W7 or Vista.
On the physical aspect I'd say this computer is perfect for students, writers, and other's who prefer to be able to take their computer on the go with them and aren't planning on making it a main movie computer. This puppy fits anywhere your tablet will for most part. It's thin and light compared to other laptops. The touchscreen makes it great for reading books on. For me as a science major I'll often read technical articles or books. Some of these are on websites or PDFs, but when your reading along and there's a diagram referenced that's a bit small compared to the font zooming in with the touch screen then zooming back out to continue reading is very nice. So you get some tablet advantages with the touchscreen, making this laptop excellent as a reading device if you have a sturdy location to set it and are planning on being there long enough to where standard boot up times aren't an annoyance. Which on that topic the computer boots up relatively fast, but nowhere near those laptops with Solid State Drives (SSD).
Again for the target audience, the hard drive is plenty at 500GB. I would like to mention however there is NOT a built in CD/DVD drive. You will need an external one. So if you want to watch movies on the go you'll need to preload them or stream them from the web (assuming you'll have WiFi). One reviewer said his came with an external drive in the box, mine did not. But that shouldn't be too big a deal as you can come across one on sale for as low as $30 and pretty standard around $50. The reason they do this is to make the laptop thinner and lighter.
That being said, the screen. The screen gives you plenty of light in my opinion, for use indoors. Outdoors it's a bit dim but still usable. Now I also put on a Zagg screen protector as I take mine with me a lot. You'd be surprised how much just little dust particulates will gently mar the screen of your laptops in general. With this one being touch screen I don't want these mars there potentially de-functing the sensors so I do recommend you buy the screen protector. Mine as stated was Zagg, specifically cut for this computer. I found it was easy to put on as long as you put on a nice even coat of the applicator solution TO THE PROTECTOR NOT THE SCREEN.
Another regard for the screen is that if you do want to watch a movie using the laptop as a source, don't despair. There's an HDMI out port on the left upper corner to plug into your HDTV. I also really like that there are two USB ports on this same side and one more on the opposite side near the headphones jack and card slot. A few USB devices come out and turn at 90degrees essentially blocking the next port, so this ensures that if you have one of those devices it doesn't block you out.
The charging cable is nice too. It doesn't have a bulky transformer like a lot of laptops, and it's got plenty of length. As far as battery life goes, it last's around 3+ hours no problem. I generally always keep mine plugged in, so what's the max and how does it vary on usage, I don't really know. I mostly am watching educational videos or typing when using mine.
As far as anything burning out, I'll have to make that an update when something finally does. I've only had this computer for about two weeks now. So far it's been good to me and I anticipate good things. I have a couple friends who were using ASUS products and their stuff has lasted for quite some time. Sadly many of them are pretty rough on their machines.
Bottom line, I like this laptop and recommend it as a general use (not for gamers/CAD users)and portability focused users. Especially good for sitting down and really focusing on e-books due to it's touch screen zooming ability (I've really enjoyed this, can you tell?)
AS AN ASIDE FROM THE COMPUTER'S REVIEW.........................
That being said I'd like to also note for those of you who seem to have a lot of hard drive failures on your laptops. Any standard spinning hard drive needs to NOT be tilted during use, it damages the drive and reduces the life of your computer. Don't just walk around leasurely while it's on. Be careful to move it within the same plane (think back to geometry). Many people seem to not realize this type of treatment is bad for their computer or they just don't care to exercise the extra caution. If your either one and say I'll just buy a new laptop after this one burns our from my tipping and bumping it around while it's on, don't blame the manufacturer. Also, you may consider buying a SSD laptop. Since there's no moving parts you can be pretty careless while it's on like with a tablet or your phone. But those SSD laptops currently have very small drives and are really expensive. But hey, if you can afford to buy a new laptop every four or five months maybe it'll be cheaper for you to go this route.
I'm not trying to be critical of anyone here, I just want to make sure due blame rests where it should and help move buyers to what products will suit them best. Everyone wins when we are educated buyers. To all out there my best regards.
By the way I also bought mine from a local retailor for less than $490 with free shipping if I purchased it off their site. But I do still love Amazon.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS Q200E 11.6" Core i3 500GB HDD Notebook
*NOTE: To my knowledge, the Q200E is a Best Buy-only product, where I got mine.*
Pros:
+ Gorgeous design--the brushed metal finish and slim form factor made this the envy of everyone who saw it.
+ Zippy. The i3 processor, while aging and a bit weedy compared to its big brothers, let everything run smooth and quickly.
+ Touch screen is fun, intuitive (once you get used it it) and functional.
+ Portable. While a bit on the heavy side, this is much easier to lug around than my 15.6" work laptop. Even the power brick is small and portable!
+ Boots up FAST and wakes from sleep INSTANTLY thanks to the instant-on feature.
Cons and nitpicks:
Windows 8. Ugh. But a necessary evil.
Mechanical HDD--while this lends to more space for less money made me feel uneasy as they are fragile, especially in notebooks. They are also slower than the (still) insanely expensive SSDs.
Screen is small, low resolution, has poor color, and feels cheap with its plastic film. (To be fair, they had to cut back somewhere, and Asus is known for low-resolution laptop screens)
Touch interface is a gimmick on Windows 8.
Touchpad mouse has odd bouts of unresponsiveness, and I wish the multi-touch gestures were customizable.
i3 processor, while adequate, did not meet my expectations.
Third-party programs lag (browsing on IE was fast and zippy, though).
Shameful battery life.
For less than $500, this little notebook packs a lot of great features and is absolutely wonderful for students or professionals on the go. It is beautifully designed with its sleek contours and lines, brushed metal finish, and dual-tone color scheme. Everyone I showed it to immediately wanted one. While a tad on the heavy side, I found it to be a joy to move around, taking computing where I needed. I was also pleasantly surprised at how zippy it was. I am a multi-tasking power-user, and I was surprised at how well this machine stood up for me. What I really loved about this machine, though, is that it boots up blazingly fast and wakes up from sleep in as much time it takes to open the lid, letting you get back to computing in an instant. If you want a decent computer that is highly portable (and great to admire), then this is it. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants good, portable computing--for the price, you definitely get your money's worth.
Unfortunately, while very cheap, I was unsatisfied and opted for a bigger and more powerful machine. First and foremost, Windows 8 is disgusting--and I'll leave it at that; this is not the machine's fault. My biggest gripes are the touchpad mouse and battery life. The touchpad mouse mimics the functions of the touch-screen, so it almost feels redundant--to a fault. The gesture-based controls are definitely catered to maneuver around Windows 8, but I feel this also takes away some of the practical functionality I am used to from older Asus laptops (mostly two-finger tap as mouse wheel-click; it is instead, simply right-click). Worst of all was that the touchpad mouse refused to recognize some of my gestures (like the two-finger tap). I found this frustrating, and it slowed down my computing experience.
What more, the battery life is rather abysmal (I suppose they had to make budget cuts somewhere to make it so cheap). This touts a 4-hour battery life, but with internet browsing over wifi, that seemed closer to 2.5 or 3 hours. I was able to get through my meetings away from the charger, but immediately had to plug it back in. This sort of kills the portability of this machine. I am surprised at this considering I can squeeze close to 6 hours of computing on my 15.6" Asus UL50VT laptop. I would have thought battery life would have gone up in the years since I got my older machine. Thankfully, the charger on this machine is very small and equally portable.
The reason why I returned mine, however, was because I wanted something more powerful. While the i3 performed admirably, it didn't win me over. I opted for a newer release from Asus that had better specs and an all-glass screen (ASUS ViVoBook S500CA-DS51T 15.6-Inch Laptop ( Black ), if you're interested). If I hadn't discovered the S500CA, I would have kept the Q200E--my only regret is that I miss the portability.
Bottom line, if you want something cheap, but good and portable, get the Q200E. Personally, I always shop and recommend Asus for notebooks.
