ASUS EeeBook X205TA Pro Reviews

The Asus EeeBook X205TA would be an Editors’ Choice winner for budget Windows laptops were it not for the keyboard. We’re not sure that it’s realistic, at $199.99, to expect a notebook maker to pull off a perfectly rounded laptop, especially given the size constraints of an ultralight design like this one. But Asus comes close, and as always, we expect subsequent models to only get better.In that mode, what we’d really like to see is a 13-inch EeeBook model with similar innards to take on the HP Stream 13. A tablet-grade Atom doesn’t set our hearts aflame, but it’s good enough for note-taking, casual Web browsing, and consuming media, and a 13-inch EeeBook with a similarly workable screen would allow for a more livable keyboard and, presumably, similar thinness, given the extra chassis size to enable easier cooling. Today, though, what we have is the 11.6-incher. It solves our biggest complaint about Chromebooks (which is to say: since it runs Windows, it’s as easy to use offline as on), and while it’s a near-run race between the EeeBook X205TA and the $199 HP Stream 11, we have to give the nod to HP’s entry at the $199 price point. The screen difference is a clear tick in Asus’ column, but we carry a laptop—and specifically not a tablet—to type on and do work. And the HP model, with its better keyboard and Celeron chip, wins on that score. Still, try the EeeBook X205TA in person, if you can, if you’re in the market for an ultra-low-cost Windows laptop. Smaller hands will adjust to it more readily, and the unit makes a perfectly passable first laptop for a child or student.