Customer Reviews

Asus VivoBook S200E-CT216H 11.6-inch LED Notebook (Intel Core i3-2365M 1.40GHz Processor,4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD, Touchscreen, HD 3000, USB 3.0, HDMI, HD Web Camera, Windows 8)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

SLEEK
=====
Intel's Ultrabook range have tended to be sleek, slim but never cheap. Asus has attempted to provide a light laptop that is both reasonably priced and nice looking. It's a commendable aim.

This Asus Asus VivoBook S200E 11.6-inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Intel Pentium Dual Core 987 1.5 GHz Processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, LAN, WLAN, Webcam, Integrated Graphics, Windows 8 64-bit) is a little thicker than I had anticipated. 22mm thick. Not that huge but not macbook air thin.

It looks nice though and feels very solid. Well built for a laptop at this price.

COMPETITION
===========
For half the price of a macbook air Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (Intel Dual Core i5 1.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 128GB Flash Memory, HD Graphics 4000, OS X Lion) this laptop must be taking some shortcuts or Apple may be overpricing their machines?

LOOK AND FEEL
=============
It has a brushed aluminium interior whilst the exterior has a dark plastic and rubber underneath. The keyboard feels top-end, as does the track-pad.

SPEC
====
Not that amazing. It has a Pentium processor so browsing and Word works really well but some of the latest apps were a little sluggish. Only a little. Having used an Air before, I would say they are broadly comparable.

TOUCHSCREEN
===========
At first a little weird. After a bit though, it was rather nice flicking through some things using your fingers: pictures, resizing stuff etc.

BATTERY
=======
I got about 4 hours of use. Not dreadful. But not superb.

CONCLUSION
==========
The Asus is small but heavy. Has some top end feel to it-but not quite. But you're not paying a top-end price.
Overall I think it's superb for the price. Looks good. Feels good and is responsive.
Value wise I can only recommend it. Would I pay double for the macbook air? No overall I think this is much better value.

Recommended.

I rate this notebook a 5 as I have no issues with it at all.
It's very easy to use, the screen is very touch responsive as are the keys.
In fact the only downside is that the lid material tends to show fingerprints.
I don't think I should subtract a point for that.

This machine IS impressive!
The size is perfect for a portable machine - big enough to work on comfortably but easy to carry. The keyboard has a good feel. The touchscreen is responsive and the resolution and general appearance is good. The "instant wake-up" feature works very well, it is fast both on the internet and with disk access and processing (the Asus was for my daughter: I use a MacBook Air with solid state disk and i5 processor and the Asus doesn't feel slow in comparison). The computer is a bit heavier than I expected but not so much so that it is a problem, rather it is reassuringly solid - a bit heavier than my Mac for example. It arrived very well packaged in an appropriately sized box. It went down very well with my teenage daughter. It is well priced.
Negative points? The screen display is perhaps not as vibrant as some non touch screens, but that isn't to say it is bad, just that there's a slightly bluish hue and it lacks that edge of brightness. I'm not sure that the battery life is very long - seems to be about 4 hours now and I'm expecting that to fall. And I'm not enamoured by Windows 8, though its a whole lot better with a touch screen than without!
I have not attempted to use demanding programmes or games so I cannot comment on how it would handle those, except to say that its performance on run-of-the-mill applications is very good.
Overall verdict? - at the price it is a bargain and I am not at all disappointed.

Good size and relatively light. Good screen, keyboard and fast enough for my needs. Power unit pleasantly light and relatively small.. Good looking. Delivery from Amazon very quick

I really like this notebook.It has a quality feel,with lots of brushed aluminium and robust fixings.This is my first windows 8 computer and it is a perfectly good Operating system,easy to come to grips with after Windows 7 and especially so with this being a touchscreen unit.I feel reluctant to swish windows about on the screen for fear of making a smudgy mess and defaulted to trackpad and mouse.Everything seems to be snappy and prompt,4gb of ram is helpful and the dual core processor seems unstressed.The good sized keyboard has pleasant well spaced keys,the screen is reflective and of very good quality although at full brightness you feel sometimes that it could do with being a bit brighter.
Battery life is certainly not 6 hours,I think 3 is more realistic,and it takes it's time to charge up.But all in all this is a very capable machine with a good spec and the bonus of touchscreen,it is �20 cheaper now then when I bought it last week so heartily recommended.

I bought this for my daughters birthday and it is brilliant.

Has that "MacBook Air" kind of feeling to it (obviously not quite a slim and light but still)
It works really well and is very fast. Battery life is good (3+ hours) and I have absolutely no complaints with it.

The touchscreen is responsive and nice to use, graphics are good, sensible number of USB ports (including USB 3)
Windows 8 takes a bit of getting used to but she has not had any problems and thinks it is brilliant.

I would happily recommend this laptop to anyone looking for a laptop to surf the web, write documents, twitter, facebook etc from.

Very responsive and quick to boot up, and also shut down after use. The 4G RAM is just what I needed after my previous netbook crashed.

I wanted a small netbook for portability and usability. I have been very happy with it to date and have grown accustomed to Windows 8.

Meh. It's ok. I wanted low cost, and performance-wise I suppose my expectations needed to be low. This is a neat little machine and has a reasonable memory and so on for it's size and value (wouldn't have paid more than the �300 I paid for it though). If I am honest I am not sure if my problem is with the fated Window's 8 or the machine itself. Not being a boffin it is hard to know. But I find it slow, there is multiple crashing and 'jumping about' of the curser, and all sorts that happens with the Windows 8 internet explorer app. I do as much as I can on the old standard Desktop - but a lot of the defaults are set to auto-open in Windows 8 apps which is irritating. Also the touch mouse pad is a bit too sensitive and over complicated. It's cool that you can scroll through your open apps using the quick side swipe, but once you have done it by mistake a few times it would be better to live without this function.
Being a tablet owner, I do enjoy the touch screen combo however - and even though I was not looking for a touchscreen laptop, I would recommend it. Unfortunately the smart keys for volume and brightness do not work on the keyboard as this was always a handy mac feature. I have read online that this malfunction is that case on all models.

My wife was looking for a small & light replacement for her 6yo Sony Vaio SZ3, and we really couldn't justify the price of a Mac Air (especially as the new models are about to be announced).
Item arrived on time, was well packaged and the best price we would find (�349). It's a lovely laptop, tiny and light but perfectly formed - highly recommended.
Windows 8 is a joy to use as well (not sure what all the complaints have been about) and the touchscreen is excellent. The only slight downside is that the updates took several hours to complete, so beware if you're on a limited bandwidth internet package.
I'm now looking for a new machine for myself, and a larger model from the same Asus family will be at the top of my list.