11.6″ Asus X200MA-SCL0505F Touch Laptop via Amazon
ASUS X200MA-SCL0505F is a good, basic and inexpensive laptop with entry level specs such as a budget Celeron processor, average amounts of memory and hard drive. It is good for web browsing, video streaming, Word and Excel and light games but not for current games or advanced software, is adequate for school, home based work or entertainment and offers portability for use when you’re out and about. Asus X200MA is offered with the dual core Intel Celeron N2840 processor (1MB L3 cache) at 2.16 GHz – 2.58 GHz with Burst technology and no hyper threading, 4GB DDR3L SDRAM at 1333 MHz speed to multitask smoothly, 500GB SATA HDD hard drive at 5400 RPM rotating speed and English 64-bit Windows 8.1 operating system.
11.6 in HD LED-backlit touchscreen display with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution and 10-finger multi-touch support to use with Windows 8 functions and TN panel for less than perfect viewing angles of IPS panel.. Intel HD graphics (Bay Trail) will let you play older games like World of Warcraft, Sims 4 and Minecraft with no problems with shared VRAM, newer titles are not playable at all as you will be challenged by the very low frame rates. Sound quality should be OK via the Asus SonicMaster technology and 2 x 2 watt speakers and 1MP HD webcam with integrated microphone will enable proper Skype chats. Textured finish black ASUS X200MA weighs 3.02 pounds with dimensions of 11.89 x 7.87 x 1.24 inches- is very light in weight as an 11 inch laptop and slim enough. You’ll get up to 5 hour battery life from its 3-cell lithium ion battery, keyboard is not backlit and without the numeric pad because of small size and it doesn’t have an optical drive but a 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector, 802.11 bgn wireless, Bluetooth 4.0, a HDMI output and a VGA port to connect to an external monitor or a HDTV, a faster USB 3.0 port, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, Digital Media Card Reader (SD/SDHC/SDXC/MMC) and a Headphone output/Microphone input combo.
Conclusion: Asus X200MA-SCL0505F offers reliable performance, decent functionality and connectivity options for its price level. The software like Music Maker Jam and 30 day trial version of Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium are included in the package and 12 month standard parts and labor warranty. Intel Celeron N2840 CPU’s Passmark benchmark score is just over 1000 at the time of this review and is classified as a low mid-range processor and will be fine for simple daily tasks as the hard drive is also a 5400rpm one which is the norm at this level and you may swap it with a faster SSD, 4GB memory helps with efficient and smooth multitasking but being onboard RAM we don’t think it is upgradeable. 10-finger multi touch function on the display with Windows 8 seems to work well- is responsive. With its low end integrated Intel HD (Bay Trail) graphics this is obviously not a gaming laptop- is many times cheaper than a gaming laptop. You may use the built-in memory card reader if you have your stuff on memory cards (you may transfer files and photos from digital camera and tablet) and connect an external DVD drive if you need to play CDs or DVDs. It is a very low priced laptop and should do the job for basic daily tasks and it is an Asus after all- one of the top computer manufacturers in the world.
Click here for a closer look on Amazon