ASUS VivoBook X202E Pro Reviews

With its tiny chassis, touch screen, and affordable price tag, the Asus VivoBook X202E-BH91T-CB gives users a decent alternative to ultrabooks and tablets, though it can't do much beyond daily computing tasks.

The Asus VivoBook x202-DH31T is unique, in that it’s the perfect notebook for a very specific demographic: the demographic that wants a small, portable, touchscreen laptop for a relatively cheap price. The VivoBook is just $500, which makes it about half the price of an Ultrabook or a MacBook Air. Since there aren’t a ton of ultraportable options at this price point, the VivoBook does have a niche to fill. So, if you’re looking for a notebook that you can pop into your purse—and you definitely don’t want a tablet—the VivoBook might be worth a look.

The VivoBook X202E certainly isn't without shortcomings. Those who frequently task their laptops with CPU-taxing workloads like video editing and bulk crunching of high-resolution still images should look for a system with a more powerful Core i5 or i7 processor. And those who need long battery life should likewise look for something else. But for budget shoppers looking for a Windows 8 machine with a touch-input screen and ultrabook-pretender looks, this VivoBook is hard to beat, especially if you can snag it for around $500. Its keyboard is quite good for a system this small and thin, the touch screen is pleasingly responsive, and its performance is good enough for light productivity, media playback, and browsing the Web. We wish the VivoBook's screen were brighter, that its viewing angles were better, and that Asus hawked an option for some flash-cache storage. But given this system's low price, metal-heavy style, and touch screen, it's one of the best budget-priced Windows 8 laptops we've tested so far. You can find plenty of better 11.6-inch systems, but you'll have to pay hundreds more in most cases, or ditch the touch screen...or both. And the more we use Windows 8 with a touch screen, the more we don't even want to look at the Start screen without one.

I love the idea of touch-screen Windows 8 laptops dipping down close to $500. There are trade-offs to be sure, in processing power, input device quality, and battery life, and spending another $150 to $200 could make a big difference. But as far as $550 Windows 8 laptops go, the X202E is portable and useful, and worth a look for budget shoppers.

The Asus VivoBook X202E-DH31T budget ultraportable is an affordable alternative to touch ultrabooks, but takes some hits in performance and battery life.

The Asus VivBook X202E is an 11.6 inch, 3 pound notebook that sells for as little as $529. It’s not quite thin enough to be called an ultrabook — and it doesn’t have a solid state disk, which is another ultrabook requirement. But with an Intel Core i3 Ivy Bridge processor it’s a pretty zippy little notebook. It also has a built-in touchscreen display, which comes in handy when using the new touch-friendly Windows 8 user interface. The X202E also happens to be one of the cheapest touchscreen notebooks on the market.