Well, I've had this Asus X202e netbook for about a year now. Time for an extended use report on it.
Specs on the unit are here.
Since my Eeepc901, I've liked the idea of a cheap, tiny laptop that will run most of my applications. The Eeepc901 had a keyboard that was too tiny to touch type on comfortably, and the 600 pixel tall screen was too 'short' for most web pages. It also had limited storage.
The Asus X202e is 1366 x 768, which is a 'standard' size. Though it is a Win8 machine with touch screen, I never used Win8 at all, and rarely do I use the glass faced touch screen (which is partially supported in Linux out of the box). I replaced the 500 MB 5400 RPM hard drive with a 245 GB SSD on which I installed Kubuntu 12.10 - 64 bit. The Win8 drive is sitting on a shelf.
With the SSD, it is amazing how fast this little 1.8 GHz i3 equipped netbook really is! The dual core chip (4 threads) runs VMware Player along with Windows XP without breaking a sweat. From a totally powered off state It boots to the login prompt in 10 seconds, and to a full Kubuntu desktop in just under 30 seconds. In fact, it boots substantially faster than my i7 Dell M6600, which also has an SSD. Linux power management works with no issues, including suspend to disk when the lid closes, or when it sits idle for the adjustable timeout period. It comes back up again in about 3 seconds when the lid is opened, or the power key is tapped. It will sit suspended for a couple of days.
At 2.9 lbs with an 11.6" screen and almost full size keyboard, it is the perfect 'quick and dirty' machine for a large portion of my day to day needs. I get about 6 hours out of the smallish 2 cell battery, which is enough for what I do with it.
Kubuntu runs on this machine without a hitch. Sound and wifi worked out of the box, and the ethernet port (which did not work initially) worked after about 2 updates to Kubuntu 12.10. Wifi sensitivity is better than on my 17" Dell. Screen brightness keys don't work, but that was resolved with the addition of two tiny xbacklight scripts attached to a couple of icons at the bottom of the screen. There may be a way of doing this more elegantly now, but I've just not bothered. xbacklight works.
What impresses me for a machine this cheap is the exceptional build quality. I tried a couple of Acer Ultrabooks before settling on this unit. The Acer's had no where near the quality.
All in all, this is rapidly becoming one of my favorite machines of all time. Cheap, fast, well built, and runs Linux with no issues. Anyone looking for an inexpensive second machine, or something very small yet still very capable, then this is the machine. I've looked again recently, and I've found nothing that gives the 'bang for the buck' that this little machine does.
Frank.
Forgot to mention: It comes with a 1 year drop hazard warranty as well. You drop and break it, and Asus will cover the repairs. Amazing.
Specs on the unit are here.
Since my Eeepc901, I've liked the idea of a cheap, tiny laptop that will run most of my applications. The Eeepc901 had a keyboard that was too tiny to touch type on comfortably, and the 600 pixel tall screen was too 'short' for most web pages. It also had limited storage.
The Asus X202e is 1366 x 768, which is a 'standard' size. Though it is a Win8 machine with touch screen, I never used Win8 at all, and rarely do I use the glass faced touch screen (which is partially supported in Linux out of the box). I replaced the 500 MB 5400 RPM hard drive with a 245 GB SSD on which I installed Kubuntu 12.10 - 64 bit. The Win8 drive is sitting on a shelf.
With the SSD, it is amazing how fast this little 1.8 GHz i3 equipped netbook really is! The dual core chip (4 threads) runs VMware Player along with Windows XP without breaking a sweat. From a totally powered off state It boots to the login prompt in 10 seconds, and to a full Kubuntu desktop in just under 30 seconds. In fact, it boots substantially faster than my i7 Dell M6600, which also has an SSD. Linux power management works with no issues, including suspend to disk when the lid closes, or when it sits idle for the adjustable timeout period. It comes back up again in about 3 seconds when the lid is opened, or the power key is tapped. It will sit suspended for a couple of days.
At 2.9 lbs with an 11.6" screen and almost full size keyboard, it is the perfect 'quick and dirty' machine for a large portion of my day to day needs. I get about 6 hours out of the smallish 2 cell battery, which is enough for what I do with it.
Kubuntu runs on this machine without a hitch. Sound and wifi worked out of the box, and the ethernet port (which did not work initially) worked after about 2 updates to Kubuntu 12.10. Wifi sensitivity is better than on my 17" Dell. Screen brightness keys don't work, but that was resolved with the addition of two tiny xbacklight scripts attached to a couple of icons at the bottom of the screen. There may be a way of doing this more elegantly now, but I've just not bothered. xbacklight works.
What impresses me for a machine this cheap is the exceptional build quality. I tried a couple of Acer Ultrabooks before settling on this unit. The Acer's had no where near the quality.
All in all, this is rapidly becoming one of my favorite machines of all time. Cheap, fast, well built, and runs Linux with no issues. Anyone looking for an inexpensive second machine, or something very small yet still very capable, then this is the machine. I've looked again recently, and I've found nothing that gives the 'bang for the buck' that this little machine does.
Frank.
Forgot to mention: It comes with a 1 year drop hazard warranty as well. You drop and break it, and Asus will cover the repairs. Amazing.
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