I have one from work and it's a really nice laptop. However, the touchpad mouse is a little too big. My palm keeps touching it and my cursor skips to different locations while I'm typing. I had to cover it with a piece of cardboard so that I could type normally. Other than that, this is a really nice laptop. Lots of horsepower and quick to boot.
Update: I was able to remove the cardboard and disable the touch pad with a double-tap on the top left corner of the touch pad. The only problem was that I had to have the drivers installed to allow me to do that. My company removed a lot of packages in their attempt to make the laptop secure. Once it was installed, I turned off the touch pad and can now use the laptop without issues.
Showing posts with label top notebooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label top notebooks. Show all posts
Monday, August 4, 2014
Friday, June 20, 2014
Asus Zenbook UX31A 13.3 Ultrabook with Intel Core i5-3317U Processor Reviews
I needed to replace my existing laptop and wanted windows 7, of which fewer and fewer are available. This ASUS laptop offers very good features at a great price, and win7. I had read a lot of reviews so I was familiar with some of the issues and I'll just comment further on them. One issue I read about was the track pad and keyboard. I was worried about this because I have an ASUS Eee PC 1000HA, it's an older netbook and the track pad is terrible. I dread using it. It's such an essential component, you wonder how they can get it wrong. Well, after using the Zenbook for about a week, the track pad and keyboard do have issues, but they are definitely usable. I have not yet explored downloading software updates, but I've read that is a possibility for improvement. I haven't noticed the problem with requiring full key travel (I think I tend to type this way anyway), but I did notice typing fast caused a change in mode on the screen, no longer inputting text. Maybe I brushed the trackpad, but it happened a couple times. The trackpad is quite large and it is easy to register an unintended control. I suspect this can be avoided over time with self-training. I know after I get a new smart phone I push all the buttons by mistake until I learn not to. I am still in the process of customizing this unit so I may have more usage notes in the future.
The first unit I was shipped came with a screen that would not display. I had also read that some people received many bad units before getting a good one. I was presented with the option to send it to ASUS for repair or return it to the retailer. The former probably would have probably led to a working unit, but I chose the latter. The second unit I received has worked fine.
Here is why it gets a 3 instead of a 5. There was no prompting or instructions on creating back-up DVDs of the OS; it freezes several times a week and cannot be restored with Ctrl-Alt-Delete so I have to do a hard shutdown and lose my work; the cursor jumps around as I type and has resulted in many lines of text being deleted or having to cut and paste my work back in order. As I do a lot of writing, this is extremely frustrating especially in word processing; on a website I can move the cursor to a non-text area to prevent the jumping from affecting my typing (like now). And the power key is the same size as and right next to the delete key.
However, if you are typing the cursor will almost always jump around the screen. I read afterward there was a patch for this and installed it, but still have the same problem. My solution as been disabling the track pad and using a wireless mouse.
There is a catch though. The keyboard might give you problems. Some of the key were intermittently unresponsive on mine. If you you take it out the US without international warranty you can fix it yourself without voiding the warranty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E-2RCp8CZ0
The camera has awesome quality as well as the built-in speakers and microphone. The mouse pad is big and has good response. Bad thing is has a lot of bloatware, but you can remove it.
The first unit I was shipped came with a screen that would not display. I had also read that some people received many bad units before getting a good one. I was presented with the option to send it to ASUS for repair or return it to the retailer. The former probably would have probably led to a working unit, but I chose the latter. The second unit I received has worked fine.
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I did a lot of research (many hours worth) and this was exactly what I wanted. Lightweight, powerful, low heat, long battery, perfect.Best Deals for Asus Zenbook UX31A 13.3 Ultrabook with Intel Core i5-3317U Processor
I did not want Windows 8 and this was a good deal for the few Windows 7 computers out there. The size and weight are very pleasing, and it came well packaged (not too much extraneous packing materials) and with a quality sleeve which was a nice surprise. If you have a lot of music, photos, or other large files, you will likely need an external hard drive and/or cloud storage as 128GB doesn't hold much, but the speed that the solid state drive and processor offer is fantastic, and the USB 3.0 ports charge my devices and transfer data incredibly fast.Here is why it gets a 3 instead of a 5. There was no prompting or instructions on creating back-up DVDs of the OS; it freezes several times a week and cannot be restored with Ctrl-Alt-Delete so I have to do a hard shutdown and lose my work; the cursor jumps around as I type and has resulted in many lines of text being deleted or having to cut and paste my work back in order. As I do a lot of writing, this is extremely frustrating especially in word processing; on a website I can move the cursor to a non-text area to prevent the jumping from affecting my typing (like now). And the power key is the same size as and right next to the delete key.
Honest reviews on Asus Zenbook UX31A 13.3 Ultrabook with Intel Core i5-3317U Processor
I wanted a thin powerful computer and that's what I got. It has a nice elegant look and the add ons from ASUS like free cloud storage is great.However, if you are typing the cursor will almost always jump around the screen. I read afterward there was a patch for this and installed it, but still have the same problem. My solution as been disabling the track pad and using a wireless mouse.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Asus Zenbook UX31A 13.3 Ultrabook with Intel Core i5-3317U Processor
This is a good machine for your moderate needs. Do not expect to run powerful software on it. It is really light, great for travel.There is a catch though. The keyboard might give you problems. Some of the key were intermittently unresponsive on mine. If you you take it out the US without international warranty you can fix it yourself without voiding the warranty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E-2RCp8CZ0
The camera has awesome quality as well as the built-in speakers and microphone. The mouse pad is big and has good response. Bad thing is has a lot of bloatware, but you can remove it.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Cheap Compaq Presario CQ62-220US Laptop PC
First of all, I'm a gamer and advanced computer tech. My main rig is composed by X4 965, 4GB, 275GTX, 2 x 26" and some TB's (WD1002FAEX FTW!).
I need a computer for my school projects and really did not want to spend all my cash for a laptop I wouldn't use at 100% (No fancy quad core, 4GB, 500GB, or fancy video cards and fingerprint readers). I was about to get the 210US but compared both VGA, CPU and RAM and its so much more worth this 220US than its little sister.
Strenghts:
-Processor has quite a punch. If your API's are double core oriented, this lap will not slow down
-Enough RAM, come on 3GB are just fine, 4GB is better and anything beyond is overrated (if you need more, then u don't need this laptop)
-Video: By this I was truly amazed. I totally discarted any gaming on the laptop. However, just out of curiosity, I tried one of my fav. games (Company of Heroes). Everything Low & 1366x768 = 50~60fps. I COULDNT Believe it! I instantly started some panzer battles and it dropped to 36~45fps. VERY VERY Playable OMG!.
-Display is BEAUTIFUL! I own a T260HD & LN42B630 and it looks really great compared to them!.
-Speed: Overall very good speed. HDD somehow drags you down but its 5400rpm afterall...
Weakness:
-Case: Even though I think it looks cool, once you get closer, it really looks very very cheap and scratches very easely
-Touchpad: Its integrated in the case and there are no boundaries (physically, but the touchpad does have limits) so if you dont constantly keep an eye where the touchpad is, you wont find it by feeling it.
-Bloatware & Bundled SW. useless.
Extra:
The mouse buttons ARE NOT HARD TO PRESS!. Ive tried the CQ60 and yes they were, but on the CQ62 they're smooth as butter!, less smooth than the DV6000 but seriously, who wants a DV6000 hehehe.
No webcam :( but I already knew that.
UPDATE (I've had it for 6++ months)
The laptop is still running strong (Hardware wise, Software wise that depends on you not on the laptop). I've came across many other laptops that are prettier (like Toshiba's) but they are much more expensive and come still with less hardware (many lack a good graphics card) than this CQ62-220US.
I'm impressed by how the price has maintained itself. Truly a great purchase!
PS. The Battery still holds very good and the charger is properly working :).
Cons:
-If I had it to do over again, I might have opted for a slightly more expensive laptop with a slightly better, discrete video card. I feel a bit duped in that regard. I should have done more research, but AMD gives the impression that the HD 4250 is a discrete video card. It isn't. It is SLIGHTLY above average INTEGRATED VIDEO. In fact, AMD's graphics processor naming conventions are completely nonsensical now. 4250 may be considerably slower than a 4200 or much faster than a 69000 or whatever. The names and numbers no longer have anything to do with anything. It is good at processing video (DVDs, AVI, MPEG, TV TUNER), but not so great at 3D graphics.
-The touchpad is a little bit of a pain. It is kind of cool looking, but as it blends in with the case it is easy to drift off of it and this gets irritating. The buttons are way too tough. I find myself awkwardly using two hands, one for the touch pad and one for the buttons.
-The shortcut buttons on left side of the keyboard are pretty pointless, and I find myself constantly hitting them on accident when I am trying to hit tab or shift which are always, and have always been on the left edge of the keyboard.
-It is a Compaq/HP. Neither of these are my favorite companies. HP has had a history of making shoddy laptops and issuing half-hearted recalls after the warranty is over. I've never been terribly impressed with their driver support either. Toshiba probably makes the best laptops, but you do pay a premium for the brand name. Unfortunately, Toshiba's current generation of similarly priced laptops are very unimpressive. I was torn between this computer and slightly cheaper Toshiba, but this one was slightly better in every way except for the manufacturer.
Overall I would say I'm pretty satisfied with this computer. It is a good deal for the price, especially if you don't plan to do much gaming on it, and you don't mind taking a little bit of a gamble on Compaq.
Fast (Dual core) 3GB memory is enough and over 300GB of hard drive space is fine for any student.
My only complaint is that the housing is cheaply made and touchpad is terribly annoying. It is endless and at times hard to press on.
I need a computer for my school projects and really did not want to spend all my cash for a laptop I wouldn't use at 100% (No fancy quad core, 4GB, 500GB, or fancy video cards and fingerprint readers). I was about to get the 210US but compared both VGA, CPU and RAM and its so much more worth this 220US than its little sister.
Strenghts:
-Processor has quite a punch. If your API's are double core oriented, this lap will not slow down
-Enough RAM, come on 3GB are just fine, 4GB is better and anything beyond is overrated (if you need more, then u don't need this laptop)
-Video: By this I was truly amazed. I totally discarted any gaming on the laptop. However, just out of curiosity, I tried one of my fav. games (Company of Heroes). Everything Low & 1366x768 = 50~60fps. I COULDNT Believe it! I instantly started some panzer battles and it dropped to 36~45fps. VERY VERY Playable OMG!.
-Display is BEAUTIFUL! I own a T260HD & LN42B630 and it looks really great compared to them!.
-Speed: Overall very good speed. HDD somehow drags you down but its 5400rpm afterall...
Weakness:
-Case: Even though I think it looks cool, once you get closer, it really looks very very cheap and scratches very easely
-Touchpad: Its integrated in the case and there are no boundaries (physically, but the touchpad does have limits) so if you dont constantly keep an eye where the touchpad is, you wont find it by feeling it.
-Bloatware & Bundled SW. useless.
Extra:
The mouse buttons ARE NOT HARD TO PRESS!. Ive tried the CQ60 and yes they were, but on the CQ62 they're smooth as butter!, less smooth than the DV6000 but seriously, who wants a DV6000 hehehe.
No webcam :( but I already knew that.
UPDATE (I've had it for 6++ months)
The laptop is still running strong (Hardware wise, Software wise that depends on you not on the laptop). I've came across many other laptops that are prettier (like Toshiba's) but they are much more expensive and come still with less hardware (many lack a good graphics card) than this CQ62-220US.
I'm impressed by how the price has maintained itself. Truly a great purchase!
PS. The Battery still holds very good and the charger is properly working :).
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I got this laptop at another retailer on sale for $400 and I'm pretty happy with it. It is certainly a good deal at $400, above that I'm not too sure. The size and weight are great as far as I'm concerned. Not so large and heavy that you feel like you're carrying a desktop around, but large enough to get some real work done. Although the hard drive could stand to be a tad faster, most other laptops at this price come with around 250 GB, so the extra space is appreciated. The processor is really pretty fast. I think this is the first laptop I have ever played with that doesn't seem to struggle with more than a few web pages open at a time. I can run media player, office, firefox, and few other things without so much as a hiccup. The sound is pretty decent. It has Altec Lansing speakers, and the sound card has some neat features like virtual surround sound. I don't know how well those work, but they are cool to play with. Video is really good on this thing. I have a TV tuner usb dongle that has been a struggle for every other computer, but this one runs and records 1080p video no problem. The LCD screen required some adjustment for me. The colors and brightness are little off, but I did meddle with the drivers a lot so that might have something to do with it. Gaming is a mixed bag. I suppose its decent for a $400 laptop, and I suppose you really shouldn't be gaming on a laptop anyway, but I can't help it. It runs some older games really well (especially counter-strike source), but it struggles a lot with newer games. I have been able to get mass effect 2 to be barely playable, though I often find myself wishing that I had an extra 3-5 fps. I don't have a desktop, so any PC gaming is done on this thing for me.Cons:
-If I had it to do over again, I might have opted for a slightly more expensive laptop with a slightly better, discrete video card. I feel a bit duped in that regard. I should have done more research, but AMD gives the impression that the HD 4250 is a discrete video card. It isn't. It is SLIGHTLY above average INTEGRATED VIDEO. In fact, AMD's graphics processor naming conventions are completely nonsensical now. 4250 may be considerably slower than a 4200 or much faster than a 69000 or whatever. The names and numbers no longer have anything to do with anything. It is good at processing video (DVDs, AVI, MPEG, TV TUNER), but not so great at 3D graphics.
-The touchpad is a little bit of a pain. It is kind of cool looking, but as it blends in with the case it is easy to drift off of it and this gets irritating. The buttons are way too tough. I find myself awkwardly using two hands, one for the touch pad and one for the buttons.
-The shortcut buttons on left side of the keyboard are pretty pointless, and I find myself constantly hitting them on accident when I am trying to hit tab or shift which are always, and have always been on the left edge of the keyboard.
-It is a Compaq/HP. Neither of these are my favorite companies. HP has had a history of making shoddy laptops and issuing half-hearted recalls after the warranty is over. I've never been terribly impressed with their driver support either. Toshiba probably makes the best laptops, but you do pay a premium for the brand name. Unfortunately, Toshiba's current generation of similarly priced laptops are very unimpressive. I was torn between this computer and slightly cheaper Toshiba, but this one was slightly better in every way except for the manufacturer.
Overall I would say I'm pretty satisfied with this computer. It is a good deal for the price, especially if you don't plan to do much gaming on it, and you don't mind taking a little bit of a gamble on Compaq.
Best Deals for Compaq Presario CQ62-220US Laptop PC
Very basic, easy to use, simple computer. Issue is that the product is defective and HP refuses to acknowledge this. Case Manager stated that the display can crack if you open the monitor from the right or left corner with a single hand. I read through the manual and did not see any instructions that states you should open with two hands to prevent the monitor from cracking. HP Case Managment was very unhelpful. I now have a useless HP laptop that is less than 60 days old. Basically a laptop paper weight. What hillarious is that HP is a multibillion dollar company that wanted to charge me more than the cost of the defective laptop to repair it. You can actually by the replacment monitor for $80 online from a third party and the company that crated the machne wants to charge you over $400 dollars. I am a 34 year old male Business Analytics Manager and have been using laptops for the past 16 years. During that time, I have had the opportunity to work with Dell's, HP's, IBM Think Pad's, Toshiba Satellite, and Sony Vios laptop. While in possession of many different brands of laptops, not once have I experienced an issue like the one I am going through now.Honest reviews on Compaq Presario CQ62-220US Laptop PC
Out of all the value oriented laptops at the 350-500 price point (got it for 349) I must say no complaints here.Fast (Dual core) 3GB memory is enough and over 300GB of hard drive space is fine for any student.
My only complaint is that the housing is cheaply made and touchpad is terribly annoying. It is endless and at times hard to press on.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Compaq Presario CQ62-220US Laptop PC
I am more than pleased with my purchase. While this is a lower end laptop it meets my needs. No problems
Monday, February 24, 2014
Review of HP Pavilion dv7t Select Edition Notebook PC - Intel Core i5-450M
This is my first HP computer. Over the years I've typically purchased from a competitor. This machine from a specification perspective seemed to offer the best balance of performance and features for the price. I've been using this for a month and a half now and have not been disappointed. Plenty of power for multi-tasking. Easy to use. The software included is useful and further rounds out a great package. It runs cool given it's size and is easy to manage. I also use this to capture some missed TV episodes hooked up to my HDTV. Great keyboard, media controls on the panel, great sound for a laptop, plenty of ports. The memory card reader makes it easy to download photos from the camera.
The team that designed this thing were on the mark that day!
The team that designed this thing were on the mark that day!
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Reviews of HP Pavilion dv7-4069wm 17.3" Laptop PC with AMD Phenom II N830
I bought the AMD to compare it to my buddies i5 processor in the same model, plus I'm more of an AMD fan anyways. It seems to hold its own on the hardware side of the field. I'm not a huge fan of the illuminated "HP" logo on the cover(it never turns off, even in power saver). The lid cannot be opened with one hand which is also slightly annoying, due to the fact that you will have to pick it up almost every time you want to open it. I like windows 7 with it, good functionality, with more options. Upgrading to 7 Ultimate was tough. Most of the drivers didn't work after I reinstalled them and caused my left speaker to stop working. I would stick with the OS that comes with it(Home Premium x64), if I did it again. Other than that, the 640GB HD is a great size and eliminates the need to use external drives for at least a while. The casing is also pretty durable. I'm deployed and I've carried it all over Afghanistan with minimal cosmetic damage. The keyboard is nice and the large size of the screen leaves more room for the "10 key". I would recommend this laptop for anyone below "serious gamer" and above "internet junkie". Great for media, work, and general use.
The screen display is great.
The keyboard is super easy to clean.
As for the sound it's not that great. What can you expect from small built in speaker boxes? But if you use some really good earbuds, head phones, OR seperate speakers, the sound gets even better!
The built in mike and web cam work good.
The processor is super fast.
Great for games, vidoes ect.
LOVE it!!!
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I was very excited to order and receive this laptop! It even came packaged very nicely when it arrived at my door via-UPS. Very easy set up and charged right away. Came with an informative booklet with instructions on how to work all the bells and whistles. Also received a free offer from EMusic to download 50 songs and 1 Audiobook. If you cancel within 14 days, you can keep the downloads free of charge. Pretty cool. The laptop itself works very smoothly and very quickly. The color is really pretty as well. It says it's 'Brushed Aluminum' but it looks slightly 'Champagne' in color. It has every feature that I've ever wanted in a laptop. It's a 640GB hard drive and I specifically got this one for college. It should hold everything and then some. It plays Blue ray movies, holds a ton of photos, plays videos, games, music, etc. The only thing I was confused about was when I checked to see the hard drive space and it only said 320GB. I contacted the seller that very same day and within 24 hrs they replied back and explained that the hard drive (for some odd reason) is split in two. Further research and digging into my computer, confirmed this. So overall very happy and satisfied with my laptop and I can't stay off now!Best Deals for HP Pavilion dv7-4069wm 17.3" Laptop PC with AMD Phenom II N830
I will never buy another HP product again. Bought it hoping to get a computer that would get me through school and now I have a 800 dollar paper weight a year and a half later. There is a malfunction in the heat sync. Hp fixed the fans but failed to replace the motherboard. No computer that has been taken care of should burn up that fast .I am very disappointed in how they have handled the issue. Was told on the phone that they had to change the design and now they have figured out the problem. No help to me it ran out of warranty 4 months ago. The shop I took mine to said this the 5th one this month with the same problem. Good luck to anyone who buys one.Honest reviews on HP Pavilion dv7-4069wm 17.3" Laptop PC with AMD Phenom II N830
I bought mine from Wal Mart a little over a year ago. Still works!The screen display is great.
The keyboard is super easy to clean.
As for the sound it's not that great. What can you expect from small built in speaker boxes? But if you use some really good earbuds, head phones, OR seperate speakers, the sound gets even better!
The built in mike and web cam work good.
The processor is super fast.
Great for games, vidoes ect.
LOVE it!!!
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP Pavilion dv7-4069wm 17.3" Laptop PC with AMD Phenom II N830
Well, first of all I was impressed when it came the very next day after I ordered it! Wow, that was fast!. Second, It came very well packed and with lots of helpful info. This laptop is huge huge huge and I LOVE IT! Omg, I really am glad that I read reviews on all different kinds and picked this one. Some people I noticed said they had a problem with the keyboard. I see what they are saying just because it is spread out more which I love! My fingers don't get in the way at all. This is really a great laptop, and I recommend it to anyone that loves facebook and games. So glad I bought this one!!
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Buy HP Compaq 8530P, CORE2 Duo T9600 Cpu, 15.4 Wsxga+ Panel, DVD+/-rw
These i7 powerhouses are a bit heavier than some cheaper models...but they are built rugged and reliable. The screen is huge and bright. I have been using one as my primary machine for over a year now (in and out of a docking station), and have yet to have any issues. Highly recommended.This laptop has met and exceeded al my expectations I have been using one everday for well over 2 years. It has NEVER had any issues
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Reviews of Series 9 15" Core i7 1.9Ghz 8GB DDR3 256GB Solid State Drive 64bit
I know is an expensive machine but:
I use it every day and carry it on my bagpack so the weight was a very important issue
It doesn't get hot even while charging and the battery last for almost 6 hours with wifi or 3g (not included) so if you are not going to use it for long you don't have to carry the charger AND even the charger isn't heavy but it does get kind of hot
must recommend this seller also!
I use it every day and carry it on my bagpack so the weight was a very important issue
It doesn't get hot even while charging and the battery last for almost 6 hours with wifi or 3g (not included) so if you are not going to use it for long you don't have to carry the charger AND even the charger isn't heavy but it does get kind of hot
must recommend this seller also!
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Best ASUS X201E-DH01 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Deals
Ratings Summary: 4-Stars for the technically capable. 1-Star for the novice.
The ASUS X201E is like, what I call, an Ultra-Chromebook. It is in the price range of a Google Chromebook notebook computer. I bought mine for $299 with free shipping. There are indeed some serious issues with the stock product that required an easy solution by a technically capable person. However, this product is a poor release with abysmal product testing with regard to WIFI connectivity. ASUS should have caught and resolved some serious software problems prior to being available for sale.
The big problem: WIFI
I struggled with WIFI on this computer with the stock Ubuntu 10.04 release. The WIFI took a long time to connect, and then it would 'hang' periodically. The remedy that worked: A stock install of Ubuntu 12.10. So, the WIFI issue has been resolved with a fresh install of the latest Ubuntu OS.
It has now been two weeks, and I still am working well with the WIFI solution that worked for me.
Performance: "Great!" (for it's intended purpose)
This computer is like a Chromebook or the class of computers formally known as a Netbook. That means you can use it to perform nicely for you for office work, web developer work, travel, communications, music, and watching videos. If you want to play any 3D FPS games, don't even go there. It is not meant for 3D FPS games or video editing. But that is not why I want a highly portable notebook computer.
My real-world (well, sort of) performance tests:
I played 4 videos simultaneously with a dozen open browser windows and tabs. I had a couple of games (Sodoku and Mahjongg) opened, and I had one browser window playing a YouTube video. I also had one Virtualbox open with windows Vista in it with a browser opened (I am a web developer so, I do need to test on IE browsers). Overall, that's way more going on than I will typically be doing at any given moment by far.
With all of that my CPUs were maxiing out at 90% of capacity, and my memory was about 2GB of the 4GB available. The computer still performed satisfactorily, and I could move about with almost no noticeable issues (the YouTube (flash) video did have a few problems competing for it's time-share slot).
In a more realistic tests of the somewhat troublesome YouTube playback in the "stress test", I closed everything except a couple of browser windows. One played a YouTube video, and it did so without flaw.
Battery Life: pretty good
I get about 4.5 hours of real world usage on the battery. Overall, that meets my requirements. My typical use without plugged in power is a meeting at a coffee shop or something for an hour. So, it the less-than stellar battery life is well within my operational needs.
When I am on a plane, I really only use my Nexus 7 tablet for reading, audio books, videos, and games. The tablet is much better for a plane than even a small computer like this, IMHO.
Ports and Connectors: Two USB 2.0 ports; One USB 3.0 (sweet!); One HDMI (full sized); One VGA; Multi-card reader; Ethernet! Combo headphone / mic
Other very good qualities:
* The case is very nice, with a textured feel that is nice
* The keyboard and track-pad work very nicely, and the large track-pad worked perfectly
*The sound system is very loud. This is far superior to many notebook computers I have owned. It is a bit wanting in the base, but there is no problem with the volume .. I think it goes to 11.
*The screen is excellent for viewing straight on, or on there lateral periphery. It gets washed out in the tilt quite a bit, but I wouldn't use it that way any way.
This Computer is Good For:
*General office work: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, browsing, etc
* Developer: web-development, edit source code, browsing, browsing in virtual box (like Vista, Win7, XP, ...)
* Server: Apache server with PHP, etc; local storage server, music server, video server, etc.
* Travel: lightweight enough at 3 pounds; power adapter is multi-voltage/freq, SD slot for camera photos, USB-3.0 for fast external storage; wifi a/b/g/n + ethernet. And with a "Chromebook" cost of under $300 not too painful if it were lost or stolen.
* Simple non-3D FPS games: Solitaire, Mahjongg, Sudoko, etc.
Simple to moderate image processing. Excellent for casual user for editing travel photos
* Nice for listening to music with the speakers. No need for an external set like many laptops
* Videos play flawlessly from the hard drive, and streaming video worked without any hiccups or problems
* Google-Earth no graphics problems the rendering of the 3D images worked well
Not Good For:
* Gaming of any type where 3D and FPS is important at all
* Video editing
* Serious/Professional Photoshop work
Ratings for the market this notebook serves (5-Star scale):
Design: 5 Stars: nice size, nice feel to cover
Portability: 4 Stars: under 3 pounds is great (2.5 would be better!)
Build quality: 5 Stars: it feels pretty solid
Keyboard & Trackpad: 4 Stars: keys feel good, trackpad works nicely. It would have been nice to have a back-lit keyboard
OS and Software: 5 Stars: I augment my Ubuntu experience with the Cinnamon desktop, but that's the beauty of Linux: "to each their own".
Overall:
FAIL: 1 Star Overall Rating for a Novice computer user because of the out of the box WIFI issue. This product meant to work out-of-the-box and it didn't. All you will do with this abysmal failure is turn people off to Ubuntu. Shame on you ASUS!
For me, and any technically capable person, it is a solid 4-Star device. But I thought since it came stock with Ubuntu, this would be the first time I wouldn't need to tweak a computer to get it working for me. This was a disappointment.
In the end, I am satisfied. Frankly, I wish it would have come installed with a minimal crippled version of Windows-8. That way, I would have simply installed Ubuntu 12.10 from the start, and I wouldn't have had any WIFI problems. However, with the savings of the "Windows Tax", I can use that money to buy my lift ticket at Mt. Bachelor today.
+ Low Cost
+ Easy Setup
+ Fast Boot
+ Lightweight
+ Ample Hard Drive
+ Decent Keyboard
The Bad:
Wonky Trackpad
Popular Streaming Services Require Workarounds
Spotty Printer Support
No Exchange Sync (At Least For My Company)
Erratic Bluetooth Performance
Poor Android 4.1 Support
Overall: While it is not perfect, the ASUS X201E-DH01 is an excellent Windows and Chromebook alternative.
Background: I was looking for something more portable than my 15.6" Windows laptop and more work oriented than my Android tablet. I've actually soured a bit on the tablet experience, and I'm trying to decide if I need or even want one. I was actually looking at the Acer C710-2055 when I stumbled across this model from ASUS. The specs are quite similar with the exception of the OS (Ubuntu Linux vs. Chrome). For the extra $20, I decided to get a machine with a full-fledged OS that works offline by design.
Setup: Unlike what some others have reported, my X201E came with Ubuntu 12.04 pre-installed. When I powered it on, there wasn't a whole lot to do. However, the initial boot does take a while. It guides you through a simple process collecting some basic information such as language, time zone, etc. It also asked me to create a user account with a password, which is easy enough. From there, I was ready to roll after a reboot. I had no problem adding my wireless network (or subsequent networks). I have connected to hidden and enterprise networks without issue. As long as you know the settings, you get in. If setup were the only consideration, I would say that this laptop is for any user level.
User Input: The keyboard of the X201E has the common "chicklet" style keyboard, and it feels good to type with. It has enough resistance so that it doesn't feel bouncy. However, it is not overly stiff either. The layout is pretty good, yet some may find the lack of dedicated page up, down, etc. buttons a disappointment. They are available through the function key, but I do find that I miss them on long web pages. The trackpad, on the other hand, has fewer positives. Actually, it is really no worse than most trackpads, and I really think these were invented to promote mouse sales. The trackpad doesn't have separate buttons, and it just doesn't feel comfortable. However, my biggest gripe (with trackpads in general) is the accidental touch during typing that sends your cursor to some distant place on the page away from where you intended to type. For serious typing sessions, I use a mouse and disable to trackpad. This does create a tradeoff for portable use. Do I fight through the wonky trackpad or take a mouse with me from conference room to conference room?
Web Browsing: Unless you are a die-hard IE fan, you have good options for browsing the web. The X201E has Firefox installed by default, but I preferred Chrome. It was easy to download and install from Google's site. With limited exceptions (that I will note in a later section), it is indistinguishable from using Chrome on a Windows machine. It is here that I access both my Gmail and Corporate email, and I also use Evernote to go paperless in meetings.
Office Software: Ubuntu comes with LibreOffice installed by default (although there are a couple of other options to try if it is missing your favorite features). Here's the bottom line, though. No matter what you choose, nothing is going to work seamlessly with docx, xlsx, pptx, etc. files. Microsoft doesn't want this to happen, and they have done a good job of keeping things this way. For my purposes, however, I generally only need to be able to view documents on the go, and any MS Office alternative does a good enough job. One last note item in this area is e-mail. There is not an Outlook equivalent in any of the other office suites, and Thunderbird is the default email client. I looked for Exchange support, and found that a Thunderbird plug-in was supposed to work with Exchange Web Services (EWS). I installed the plug-in, but I could never get it working. This may have as much to do with how my company has exchange setup, but the lack of support for corporate email is nonetheless disappointing.
Media: As I mentioned earlier, I have my entire music collection copied to my X201E. The default music player for Ubuntu is Rhythmbox, and it is sufficient for my needs. You do have to go through some extra steps to enable mp3 decoding because this requires proprietary drivers. This is a Linux philosophical issue, and true open source distributions do not enable proprietary software out of the box. This is the first feature that is likely to trip up the Linux novice. Googling reveals easy to follow steps, but the X201E just became work for the lay user. Video playback is another story. Both Netflix and Amazon Instant Video streaming are non-functioning out of the box. There are workarounds for these, but I was only able to get Amazon Instant Video working in Firefox. My Netflix has sound but no picture, and this was after a lot of work. Even with Amazon Instant Video, it doesn't look good when maximized. The streaming quality seems to be set for the "in browser" sized video. YouTube works well enough. I don't really watch stored videos, but support for this is available through clients like VLC. However, as with mp3 formats, you may need to install proprietary software in order to watch a particular format. This will definitely be the case if you connect an external DVD/Blu-Ray player. Perhaps video (streaming at least) is something better left to the likes of a Kindle Fire HD.
Bluetooth: This is not a core feature requirement for me, but I decided to test it out and report my findings. First, I tried my pairing with my HTC Rezound. Things started out rocky, and they never really got better. My first attempts at pairing were unsuccessful as neither device could see the other after making them both visible. I tried again on a subsequent session, and I was able to pair the devices. However, they didn't agree on the profiles that their pairing supported. My Rezound wanted to send phone and media audio to the X201E while the X201E wanted to send and receive files. As you might expect, ne'er the twain shall meet.
Other: So far, this might not sound like much of a differentiator from the Chromebook, but there are other uses beyond my core requirements that others a likely to find appealing. Linux has a good array of photo and video editing software that the Chrome OS just can't come close to matching. It would also be trivial to grab Eclipse and other Java development tools although I'm not sure how these would perform on the limited hardware. The point is that have a full-fledged OS gives you a lot of options. There are also a fair number of games, but that is not really my area of expertise.
Overall: This ASUS X201E is a unique device. It is one of two current laptops (the other is from Dell targeted at software developers) from major manufacturers that comes with Linux installed. Depending on your needs, this might be the perfect low cost, portable alternative to Windows that you are looking for. Potential Chromebook users should definitely give it a look.
I purchased this for my wife, who prefers the XFCE desktop. Unfortunately, the XFCE power management seems to fight with the power management in the Unity desktop. Upgrading to XFCE 4.10 (via a PPA) seems to have helped. There have been wireless problems, but upgrading to kernel 3.2.40 seems to have helped (the latter upgrade was automatic).
When power management works, the computer suspends, but doesn't hibernate. Since the computer uses Intel's Sandy Bridge chipset, suspend uses very little power. There is also remarkably little space on the drive, given it's capacity (320 G). That can be traced to an empty, extended 105 G NTFS partition. I suppose you can mount it and put stuff there (like Windows?), or you can use GParted to resize it and the other partitions, or possibly delete it and resize the other partitions. It's a strange disk arrangement.
This is not a netbook. Yes the Asus uses a wimpy Celeron, but that Celeron is more powerful than the Intel Atom CPUs that resided in netbooks. Further, this machine comes with 4 G of RAM. Perhaps the greatest speed boost comes with the CPU's support for virtualization. That means a five fold speed increase over what an Atom based CPU can do when running Virtualbox.
The other big improvement over a netbook lies in the screen. It's bigger (11.6", instead of 10.1") and sports a higher resolution 1366x768. This is a resolution found in all sorts of cheap laptops. The difference here is that such a resolution looks good at 11.6".
Battery life is something better than 4 hours. You can't swap the battery, because it's built in. The keyboard works, and has the typical, poor Asus layout. There was room for dedicated PgUp-PgDn, Home-End keys, but Asus chose to ignore this and make them all function key based. On the plus side, the touch is OK, and there in no keyboard "bounce."
What you get is a cheap machine with no "crapware," update capabilities that are second to none, and that runs quickly. That said, since it is running Linux, it will continue to run quickly.
Update 3 Apr. 2013: Issues with power management on XFCE when installed after Ubuntu's Unity interface persisted, so I installed Debian. This marked my first 64 bit install, and my first install on a UEFI machine (all the previous machines had a BIOS). I burned a Debian Wheezy netinstall disk to CD, and rebooted. Holding the ESC key when booting brings up the UEFI menu. There were two CD boot options, one that listed my drive, and the other that listed it with UEFI. You want the latter, trust me. ;)
If you want to add Skype, or any other 32 bit only software, the command given as root, "dpkg --add-architecture i386", is your friend.
What did I loose by going to Debian? The screen brightness and touchpad disable function keys. I typically set up the touchpad with Synclient, and add palm detection, so the touchpad toggle is no great loss, but the screen brightness is. The package xfce4-power-manager-plugins adds a slick widget you can add to your panel (taskbar) that lets you adjust the brightness.
What did I gain? Speed. As usual, Debian is a lighter weight distribution by default. I gained a more intelligent partitioning, with about another 100 G for data. I also gained the ability to hibernate the machine.
To sum up, I'm still scratching my head over some of Asus' choices when offering this machine. Why they included an unused, 100 G NTFS formated partition escapes me. Also, I'm not sure why they did not include hibernation support. In general, Ubuntu, even with their long term releases is buggier than Debian, but if you don't like to "play" with your machine, and you are satisfied with the Unity interface, this remains a good buy.
Update 14 April, 2013: An update to Debian Wheezy has fixed the screen brightness keys.
Update 15 May, 2013: Received a second unit to set up for another person. Part of the setup included a Debian install with most of the drive encrypted. I used an encrypted LVM (logical volume manager), and it went fairly smoothly, except when the installer announced it was erasing the drive. It was an extremely thorough erasure, as it took 18 hours. Only then did the installer proceed with partitioning the drive.
The encryption is largely transparent in operation. The only time you realize you are running an encrypted disk is when booting, or resuming from hibernation.
Update 1 July, 2013: A third unit developed wireless connection issues. These included difficulty connecting, spontaneous disconnects, and strongly fluctuating signal levels. I finally removed the back of the unit, and discovered a loose antenna wire. The plug used (I'm assuming it's an industry standard) is extremely small, and hard to line up properly, but once properly plugged in, all issues went away.
BIOS can be upgraded without needing any boot CDs or Windows installs, which is nice.
Laptop came with Ubuntu 12.10 [nothing wrong with it], but I removed it right away and put Fedora 18 on it. The only thing that doesn't work 'out of the box' is the gigabit ethernet, but the driver can be easily compiled and loaded by following these directions:
One heads up, even though the title says 'Grey Aluminum' the body is made out of plastic, but it is very sturdy, much better quality than HP Pavilions as an example.
The two cell battery can be a bit a of an issue to some, but I have gotten 2+ hours on it so far, even though I am not on battery power a lot.
The only downside I've had with it so far is that Suspend/Resume [on Fedora] is still a bit buggy, it works sometimes, but sometimes it failts to suspend... I have a hunch it may be related to the gigabit ethernet extra kernel module, but haven't fully tested yet.
Anyway... I much rather spend $325 or so on this machine than on a tablet, much more useful. There are ways to watch Netflix on Fedora [google for it], and it works OK.
Pretty happy with the purchase.
Took off one star for photoshopped product pictures posted everywhere. All product pictures are taken from a high angle that hides the thickness and makes it look slimmer than it really is. I am not complaining that it is thick but simply stating that the images are a deliberate attempt to make it look slimmer.
I am getting battery life of 3-3.5hrs at lowest brightness setting with web browsing and no flash video playback. This could be a Ubuntu issue as Ubuntu battery optimization is not as good as windows or Mac. Will have to load WinXP or Win7 to test that. However you will need a $10-15 external DVD drive to load any other OS, unless you are good in doing it off a USB drive.
Overall I am happy with what i got at the price I paid.
Update: April 14th 2013
The wireless connection was not reliable and it would just loose connection without reason. So I upgraded the OS to Ubuntu 12.10 from within 12.04. Wireless problem got fixed and battery life looks like it improved a tad to 4-4.5hrs. Also installed a power management software.
The ASUS X201E is like, what I call, an Ultra-Chromebook. It is in the price range of a Google Chromebook notebook computer. I bought mine for $299 with free shipping. There are indeed some serious issues with the stock product that required an easy solution by a technically capable person. However, this product is a poor release with abysmal product testing with regard to WIFI connectivity. ASUS should have caught and resolved some serious software problems prior to being available for sale.
The big problem: WIFI
I struggled with WIFI on this computer with the stock Ubuntu 10.04 release. The WIFI took a long time to connect, and then it would 'hang' periodically. The remedy that worked: A stock install of Ubuntu 12.10. So, the WIFI issue has been resolved with a fresh install of the latest Ubuntu OS.
It has now been two weeks, and I still am working well with the WIFI solution that worked for me.
Performance: "Great!" (for it's intended purpose)
This computer is like a Chromebook or the class of computers formally known as a Netbook. That means you can use it to perform nicely for you for office work, web developer work, travel, communications, music, and watching videos. If you want to play any 3D FPS games, don't even go there. It is not meant for 3D FPS games or video editing. But that is not why I want a highly portable notebook computer.
My real-world (well, sort of) performance tests:
I played 4 videos simultaneously with a dozen open browser windows and tabs. I had a couple of games (Sodoku and Mahjongg) opened, and I had one browser window playing a YouTube video. I also had one Virtualbox open with windows Vista in it with a browser opened (I am a web developer so, I do need to test on IE browsers). Overall, that's way more going on than I will typically be doing at any given moment by far.
With all of that my CPUs were maxiing out at 90% of capacity, and my memory was about 2GB of the 4GB available. The computer still performed satisfactorily, and I could move about with almost no noticeable issues (the YouTube (flash) video did have a few problems competing for it's time-share slot).
In a more realistic tests of the somewhat troublesome YouTube playback in the "stress test", I closed everything except a couple of browser windows. One played a YouTube video, and it did so without flaw.
Battery Life: pretty good
I get about 4.5 hours of real world usage on the battery. Overall, that meets my requirements. My typical use without plugged in power is a meeting at a coffee shop or something for an hour. So, it the less-than stellar battery life is well within my operational needs.
When I am on a plane, I really only use my Nexus 7 tablet for reading, audio books, videos, and games. The tablet is much better for a plane than even a small computer like this, IMHO.
Ports and Connectors: Two USB 2.0 ports; One USB 3.0 (sweet!); One HDMI (full sized); One VGA; Multi-card reader; Ethernet! Combo headphone / mic
Other very good qualities:
* The case is very nice, with a textured feel that is nice
* The keyboard and track-pad work very nicely, and the large track-pad worked perfectly
*The sound system is very loud. This is far superior to many notebook computers I have owned. It is a bit wanting in the base, but there is no problem with the volume .. I think it goes to 11.
*The screen is excellent for viewing straight on, or on there lateral periphery. It gets washed out in the tilt quite a bit, but I wouldn't use it that way any way.
This Computer is Good For:
*General office work: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, browsing, etc
* Developer: web-development, edit source code, browsing, browsing in virtual box (like Vista, Win7, XP, ...)
* Server: Apache server with PHP, etc; local storage server, music server, video server, etc.
* Travel: lightweight enough at 3 pounds; power adapter is multi-voltage/freq, SD slot for camera photos, USB-3.0 for fast external storage; wifi a/b/g/n + ethernet. And with a "Chromebook" cost of under $300 not too painful if it were lost or stolen.
* Simple non-3D FPS games: Solitaire, Mahjongg, Sudoko, etc.
Simple to moderate image processing. Excellent for casual user for editing travel photos
* Nice for listening to music with the speakers. No need for an external set like many laptops
* Videos play flawlessly from the hard drive, and streaming video worked without any hiccups or problems
* Google-Earth no graphics problems the rendering of the 3D images worked well
Not Good For:
* Gaming of any type where 3D and FPS is important at all
* Video editing
* Serious/Professional Photoshop work
Ratings for the market this notebook serves (5-Star scale):
Design: 5 Stars: nice size, nice feel to cover
Portability: 4 Stars: under 3 pounds is great (2.5 would be better!)
Build quality: 5 Stars: it feels pretty solid
Keyboard & Trackpad: 4 Stars: keys feel good, trackpad works nicely. It would have been nice to have a back-lit keyboard
OS and Software: 5 Stars: I augment my Ubuntu experience with the Cinnamon desktop, but that's the beauty of Linux: "to each their own".
Overall:
FAIL: 1 Star Overall Rating for a Novice computer user because of the out of the box WIFI issue. This product meant to work out-of-the-box and it didn't. All you will do with this abysmal failure is turn people off to Ubuntu. Shame on you ASUS!
For me, and any technically capable person, it is a solid 4-Star device. But I thought since it came stock with Ubuntu, this would be the first time I wouldn't need to tweak a computer to get it working for me. This was a disappointment.
In the end, I am satisfied. Frankly, I wish it would have come installed with a minimal crippled version of Windows-8. That way, I would have simply installed Ubuntu 12.10 from the start, and I wouldn't have had any WIFI problems. However, with the savings of the "Windows Tax", I can use that money to buy my lift ticket at Mt. Bachelor today.
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The Good:+ Low Cost
+ Easy Setup
+ Fast Boot
+ Lightweight
+ Ample Hard Drive
+ Decent Keyboard
The Bad:
Wonky Trackpad
Popular Streaming Services Require Workarounds
Spotty Printer Support
No Exchange Sync (At Least For My Company)
Erratic Bluetooth Performance
Poor Android 4.1 Support
Overall: While it is not perfect, the ASUS X201E-DH01 is an excellent Windows and Chromebook alternative.
Background: I was looking for something more portable than my 15.6" Windows laptop and more work oriented than my Android tablet. I've actually soured a bit on the tablet experience, and I'm trying to decide if I need or even want one. I was actually looking at the Acer C710-2055 when I stumbled across this model from ASUS. The specs are quite similar with the exception of the OS (Ubuntu Linux vs. Chrome). For the extra $20, I decided to get a machine with a full-fledged OS that works offline by design.
Setup: Unlike what some others have reported, my X201E came with Ubuntu 12.04 pre-installed. When I powered it on, there wasn't a whole lot to do. However, the initial boot does take a while. It guides you through a simple process collecting some basic information such as language, time zone, etc. It also asked me to create a user account with a password, which is easy enough. From there, I was ready to roll after a reboot. I had no problem adding my wireless network (or subsequent networks). I have connected to hidden and enterprise networks without issue. As long as you know the settings, you get in. If setup were the only consideration, I would say that this laptop is for any user level.
User Input: The keyboard of the X201E has the common "chicklet" style keyboard, and it feels good to type with. It has enough resistance so that it doesn't feel bouncy. However, it is not overly stiff either. The layout is pretty good, yet some may find the lack of dedicated page up, down, etc. buttons a disappointment. They are available through the function key, but I do find that I miss them on long web pages. The trackpad, on the other hand, has fewer positives. Actually, it is really no worse than most trackpads, and I really think these were invented to promote mouse sales. The trackpad doesn't have separate buttons, and it just doesn't feel comfortable. However, my biggest gripe (with trackpads in general) is the accidental touch during typing that sends your cursor to some distant place on the page away from where you intended to type. For serious typing sessions, I use a mouse and disable to trackpad. This does create a tradeoff for portable use. Do I fight through the wonky trackpad or take a mouse with me from conference room to conference room?
Web Browsing: Unless you are a die-hard IE fan, you have good options for browsing the web. The X201E has Firefox installed by default, but I preferred Chrome. It was easy to download and install from Google's site. With limited exceptions (that I will note in a later section), it is indistinguishable from using Chrome on a Windows machine. It is here that I access both my Gmail and Corporate email, and I also use Evernote to go paperless in meetings.
Office Software: Ubuntu comes with LibreOffice installed by default (although there are a couple of other options to try if it is missing your favorite features). Here's the bottom line, though. No matter what you choose, nothing is going to work seamlessly with docx, xlsx, pptx, etc. files. Microsoft doesn't want this to happen, and they have done a good job of keeping things this way. For my purposes, however, I generally only need to be able to view documents on the go, and any MS Office alternative does a good enough job. One last note item in this area is e-mail. There is not an Outlook equivalent in any of the other office suites, and Thunderbird is the default email client. I looked for Exchange support, and found that a Thunderbird plug-in was supposed to work with Exchange Web Services (EWS). I installed the plug-in, but I could never get it working. This may have as much to do with how my company has exchange setup, but the lack of support for corporate email is nonetheless disappointing.
Media: As I mentioned earlier, I have my entire music collection copied to my X201E. The default music player for Ubuntu is Rhythmbox, and it is sufficient for my needs. You do have to go through some extra steps to enable mp3 decoding because this requires proprietary drivers. This is a Linux philosophical issue, and true open source distributions do not enable proprietary software out of the box. This is the first feature that is likely to trip up the Linux novice. Googling reveals easy to follow steps, but the X201E just became work for the lay user. Video playback is another story. Both Netflix and Amazon Instant Video streaming are non-functioning out of the box. There are workarounds for these, but I was only able to get Amazon Instant Video working in Firefox. My Netflix has sound but no picture, and this was after a lot of work. Even with Amazon Instant Video, it doesn't look good when maximized. The streaming quality seems to be set for the "in browser" sized video. YouTube works well enough. I don't really watch stored videos, but support for this is available through clients like VLC. However, as with mp3 formats, you may need to install proprietary software in order to watch a particular format. This will definitely be the case if you connect an external DVD/Blu-Ray player. Perhaps video (streaming at least) is something better left to the likes of a Kindle Fire HD.
Bluetooth: This is not a core feature requirement for me, but I decided to test it out and report my findings. First, I tried my pairing with my HTC Rezound. Things started out rocky, and they never really got better. My first attempts at pairing were unsuccessful as neither device could see the other after making them both visible. I tried again on a subsequent session, and I was able to pair the devices. However, they didn't agree on the profiles that their pairing supported. My Rezound wanted to send phone and media audio to the X201E while the X201E wanted to send and receive files. As you might expect, ne'er the twain shall meet.
Other: So far, this might not sound like much of a differentiator from the Chromebook, but there are other uses beyond my core requirements that others a likely to find appealing. Linux has a good array of photo and video editing software that the Chrome OS just can't come close to matching. It would also be trivial to grab Eclipse and other Java development tools although I'm not sure how these would perform on the limited hardware. The point is that have a full-fledged OS gives you a lot of options. There are also a fair number of games, but that is not really my area of expertise.
Overall: This ASUS X201E is a unique device. It is one of two current laptops (the other is from Dell targeted at software developers) from major manufacturers that comes with Linux installed. Depending on your needs, this might be the perfect low cost, portable alternative to Windows that you are looking for. Potential Chromebook users should definitely give it a look.
Best Deals for ASUS X201E-DH01 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
This laptop manages to be both sleek, and offer considerable connectivity. You get one USB3 port, two USB2, one Ethernet, HDMI, VGA, and SD card slot. Then there is Bluetooth. That's pretty good for a cheap machine.I purchased this for my wife, who prefers the XFCE desktop. Unfortunately, the XFCE power management seems to fight with the power management in the Unity desktop. Upgrading to XFCE 4.10 (via a PPA) seems to have helped. There have been wireless problems, but upgrading to kernel 3.2.40 seems to have helped (the latter upgrade was automatic).
When power management works, the computer suspends, but doesn't hibernate. Since the computer uses Intel's Sandy Bridge chipset, suspend uses very little power. There is also remarkably little space on the drive, given it's capacity (320 G). That can be traced to an empty, extended 105 G NTFS partition. I suppose you can mount it and put stuff there (like Windows?), or you can use GParted to resize it and the other partitions, or possibly delete it and resize the other partitions. It's a strange disk arrangement.
This is not a netbook. Yes the Asus uses a wimpy Celeron, but that Celeron is more powerful than the Intel Atom CPUs that resided in netbooks. Further, this machine comes with 4 G of RAM. Perhaps the greatest speed boost comes with the CPU's support for virtualization. That means a five fold speed increase over what an Atom based CPU can do when running Virtualbox.
The other big improvement over a netbook lies in the screen. It's bigger (11.6", instead of 10.1") and sports a higher resolution 1366x768. This is a resolution found in all sorts of cheap laptops. The difference here is that such a resolution looks good at 11.6".
Battery life is something better than 4 hours. You can't swap the battery, because it's built in. The keyboard works, and has the typical, poor Asus layout. There was room for dedicated PgUp-PgDn, Home-End keys, but Asus chose to ignore this and make them all function key based. On the plus side, the touch is OK, and there in no keyboard "bounce."
What you get is a cheap machine with no "crapware," update capabilities that are second to none, and that runs quickly. That said, since it is running Linux, it will continue to run quickly.
Update 3 Apr. 2013: Issues with power management on XFCE when installed after Ubuntu's Unity interface persisted, so I installed Debian. This marked my first 64 bit install, and my first install on a UEFI machine (all the previous machines had a BIOS). I burned a Debian Wheezy netinstall disk to CD, and rebooted. Holding the ESC key when booting brings up the UEFI menu. There were two CD boot options, one that listed my drive, and the other that listed it with UEFI. You want the latter, trust me. ;)
If you want to add Skype, or any other 32 bit only software, the command given as root, "dpkg --add-architecture i386", is your friend.
What did I loose by going to Debian? The screen brightness and touchpad disable function keys. I typically set up the touchpad with Synclient, and add palm detection, so the touchpad toggle is no great loss, but the screen brightness is. The package xfce4-power-manager-plugins adds a slick widget you can add to your panel (taskbar) that lets you adjust the brightness.
What did I gain? Speed. As usual, Debian is a lighter weight distribution by default. I gained a more intelligent partitioning, with about another 100 G for data. I also gained the ability to hibernate the machine.
To sum up, I'm still scratching my head over some of Asus' choices when offering this machine. Why they included an unused, 100 G NTFS formated partition escapes me. Also, I'm not sure why they did not include hibernation support. In general, Ubuntu, even with their long term releases is buggier than Debian, but if you don't like to "play" with your machine, and you are satisfied with the Unity interface, this remains a good buy.
Update 14 April, 2013: An update to Debian Wheezy has fixed the screen brightness keys.
Update 15 May, 2013: Received a second unit to set up for another person. Part of the setup included a Debian install with most of the drive encrypted. I used an encrypted LVM (logical volume manager), and it went fairly smoothly, except when the installer announced it was erasing the drive. It was an extremely thorough erasure, as it took 18 hours. Only then did the installer proceed with partitioning the drive.
The encryption is largely transparent in operation. The only time you realize you are running an encrypted disk is when booting, or resuming from hibernation.
Update 1 July, 2013: A third unit developed wireless connection issues. These included difficulty connecting, spontaneous disconnects, and strongly fluctuating signal levels. I finally removed the back of the unit, and discovered a loose antenna wire. The plug used (I'm assuming it's an industry standard) is extremely small, and hard to line up properly, but once properly plugged in, all issues went away.
Honest reviews on ASUS X201E-DH01 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
This is not a laptop to do heavy lifting with, but for web surfing, a pretty close to perfect ssh terminal thin client.BIOS can be upgraded without needing any boot CDs or Windows installs, which is nice.
Laptop came with Ubuntu 12.10 [nothing wrong with it], but I removed it right away and put Fedora 18 on it. The only thing that doesn't work 'out of the box' is the gigabit ethernet, but the driver can be easily compiled and loaded by following these directions:
One heads up, even though the title says 'Grey Aluminum' the body is made out of plastic, but it is very sturdy, much better quality than HP Pavilions as an example.
The two cell battery can be a bit a of an issue to some, but I have gotten 2+ hours on it so far, even though I am not on battery power a lot.
The only downside I've had with it so far is that Suspend/Resume [on Fedora] is still a bit buggy, it works sometimes, but sometimes it failts to suspend... I have a hunch it may be related to the gigabit ethernet extra kernel module, but haven't fully tested yet.
Anyway... I much rather spend $325 or so on this machine than on a tablet, much more useful. There are ways to watch Netflix on Fedora [google for it], and it works OK.
Pretty happy with the purchase.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS X201E-DH01 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
Everything worked right out of the box. Came with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and after initial user account creation it downloaded some 350+ updates and legacy driver for the wireless card and things were much smoother. I have a Ubuntu machine running my HTPC so I am familiar with the OS. The screen is perfect for web browsing, email and word processing and presentation. Spreadsheet work can be a pain die to 11inch screen. Small package, solid feel, no flex, the hinges are sturdy and have no play. Overall real good construction. Was not expecting a stellar screen at this price but even in lowest brightness setting it is not a problem to work indoors.Took off one star for photoshopped product pictures posted everywhere. All product pictures are taken from a high angle that hides the thickness and makes it look slimmer than it really is. I am not complaining that it is thick but simply stating that the images are a deliberate attempt to make it look slimmer.
I am getting battery life of 3-3.5hrs at lowest brightness setting with web browsing and no flash video playback. This could be a Ubuntu issue as Ubuntu battery optimization is not as good as windows or Mac. Will have to load WinXP or Win7 to test that. However you will need a $10-15 external DVD drive to load any other OS, unless you are good in doing it off a USB drive.
Overall I am happy with what i got at the price I paid.
Update: April 14th 2013
The wireless connection was not reliable and it would just loose connection without reason. So I upgraded the OS to Ubuntu 12.10 from within 12.04. Wireless problem got fixed and battery life looks like it improved a tad to 4-4.5hrs. Also installed a power management software.
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