Asus VivoBook S200E
Asus proves that touch and
traditional laptops can live in almost-perfect harmony, with the petite,
affordable VivoBook S200E
Price: $563
Ratings: 5/6
The
Asus’ touchscreen is highly responsive, but it’s also very dim
As it’s by far the cheapest device in this
Labs, you’d be forgiven for expecting the Asus VivoBook S200E to be a plastic KY,
cut-price frump. This little 11.6in laptop is anything but.
Pluck the Asus from its packaging, and it’s
hard not be impressed. It’s unusually dapper for a budget laptop: the dark
brushed-metal lid blends with rounded, soft-touch plastics on the underside,
and the Scrabble-tile keyboard is surrounded by a light, silvery metal finish.
Asus isn’t allowed to call it an Ultrabook – the lack of an SSD and 22mm thick
chassis fail to tick the required boxes but it would be easy to mistake it for
one.
Those looks are partnered with excellent
build quality. The 1.41kg chassis is heftier than the more refined 11.6in
models, but the sheer solidity makes for a laptop that belies its budget price
tag. Thanks to its rugged, flex-free metal body, this is a low-cost laptop that
feels set to last.
Touch perfect
For all its physical charms, it’s the
touchscreen that’s the star of the show. It soon becomes second nature to reach
out and scroll through the Windows 8 Start screen. Whether you’re at a desk, on
the sofa or in a cramped commuter train carriage, interacting with onscreen
elements with a prod, or flicking through web pages and documents with a stroke
of a finger, feels completely natural.
There’s
just enough connectivity, including one speedy USB 3 port
The panel responds to the lightest of
touches, and here the extra weight in the base proves to be an asset were it any
lighter, the Asus would tip backwards with every tap. Harder prods do still set
it rocking, but it doesn’t take long to acclimatize and adopt a more gentle
approach.
Crucially, the VivoBook S200E also has an
excellent Scrabble-tile keyboard and touchpad. The laptop’s small footprint
means the keys are smaller than we’d prefer, but Asus has done its best to keep
comfort levels high. There’s enough space between the wide, squat keys to keep
Mispresses to a minimum, and a sharp dig of feedback at the beginning of every
keystroke makes for a crisp, positive feel. Only the tiny cursor keys give any
cause for complaint.
The button less touchpad is equally
competent. All Windows 8’s edge-swipe gestures are supported, as well as the
usual two-fingered zooming, scrolling and rotating motions, and there are also
three-fingered gestures to jump back and forth through web pages, display a list
of running applications, or invoke the Show Desktop command. Helpfully, it’s
possible to disable any or all of the gestures via Asus’ Smart Gesture control
panel.
Compromises
Despite a modest specification, Windows 8
feels snappy and responsive. Our review unit came with a low-voltage Core
i3-3217U processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB mechanical HDD. Unlike the Core i5-
and Core i7-powered models here, there’s no Turbo Boost to push the Core i3 CPU
above its standard 1.8GHz clock speed, which drags performance down to a
below-average 0.48 in our Real World Benchmarks. Task the S200E with video
editing or editing high-resolution raw photographs and you’ll have to be a
little bit more patient than with other models here.
With Intel’s integrated HD Graphics 4000
combining forces with the low-end Core i3 CPU, it’s worth mentioning that
gaming performance is modest as well. If you’re looking to play the latest
titles, it will be necessary to dial back the detail settings to their absolute
minimum to make them playable.
Sound
quality is improved by Asus’ SonicMaster technology
The low-voltage processor does its best to
keep battery life competitive, but despite a high-capacity 5,136mAh battery,
stamina isn’t great. A result of 5hrs 27mins in our light-use battery test is
no match for the longest-lasting Ultrabooks. Thankfully, Asus has equipped the
VivoBook S200E with a compact, lightweight wall-wart power supply that weighs
only 141g, which isn’t too much of a chore to keep in your laptop bag.
By far the weakest element of the VivoBook
S200E is its glossy 11.6in display. The 1,366 x 768 resolution is par for the
course at this price, but brightness tops out at a dim 176cd/m2,
while contrast reaches an unimpressive 259:1. The low brightness makes it near
impossible to see onscreen elements outdoors, and the poor contrast ratio sees
it struggle to pick out shadow detail in movies or photographs.
For
$675, the S200E’s metal chassis is unusually slim and sturdy
Don’t be put off completely, however. Asus
calibrates its VivoBook screens in the factory, which helps it make the most of
its low-cost panels. Color accuracy is the best in this Labs, and while the
Asus’ TN panel struggles to deliver the most vivid hues, and lacks the punch of
IPS-equipped models, our selection of test images looked natural and lifelike.
Elsewhere, the S200E delivers everything
you’d expect from a budget laptop. There’s one USB 3 port, two USB 2 ports,
full-sized D-SUB and HDMI outputs, and an SD card reader to round things off.
Single-band 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4 are to be expected at the price, but
the presence of a slow 10/100 Ethernet socket seems a touch stingy. There’s a
1-megapixel webcam with rather scratchy image quality, and while the internal
speakers are equally rough around the edges, Asus’ SonicMaster software ekes
out just enough clarity to make music and video soundtracks listenable.
Verdict
For only $675 inc VAT, the VivoBook S200E’s
faults all but fade into insignificance: it’s a superb ultraportable for
sensible money. Thanks to its sensitive touchscreen and expertly judged
specification, Asus has delivered a laptop that really makes the most of Windows
8. Those after a more powerful, full-sized laptop might prefer its big brother,
the VivoBook S400E, but, for sheer value for money, the VivoBook S200E simply
can’t be beaten.
