ASUS X200 Review and Owners Lounge

ASUS X200MA (N3530 model) VIVOBOOK - USER REVIEW

Pros:

powerful quad core CPU
touchscreen
bright display panel
fast and smooth operation
sleek and light
slim and ultraportable (travel friendly)
compact and very small design (12x8 inch)
1 inch thick
durable/rigid clamshell build
textured body
runs silent
runs cool
energy efficient
long battery operation
intermediate laptop capability
USB 3.0
remote laptop

Cons:

TN Display Panel
mechanical Hard Drive
4GB Ram limit
not for complex gaming (contemporary)
not for complex 2D/3D video and computer graphics design (CAD)
weak iGPU
complex gaming and video/graphics editing/designing softwares cannot run efficiently.
access to HDD slot is difficult and risky
expensive (in Canada)
lemons


***this is a newly released X200MA model in Canada so the stocks might be limited and reviews are unavailable. it has a different hardware configuration and the information around the web, including the ASUS website has not listed this unit. it uses the new N3530 Intel Quad Core processor (not Atom nor Celeron) that is built on a silvermont microarchitecture and SoC blueprint design.


I bought this laptop primarily for work, school and intermediate tasks such as web browsing, office, music/video streaming and photo editing. games and CAD use is not a priority in this laptop nor it's strongest suit. so if you are considering playing the current games on it, this is not the laptop for you. the major consideration for this laptop is due to it's compact size and weight. although I have a 14 inch laptop with a 4.8 lbs weight, the difference in size and weight is really significantly huge especially if the X200MA is only about the size of a standard bond paper with only 2.6 lbs of load. the difference between this X200MA iteration over the previous ones is that this runs on a Quad Core CPU rather than a single core Atom or Celeron. that difference means a lot in terms of multi-tasking, operating speed and fluidity. so expect this CPU to have a significant speed and processing advantage over the Celeron. it runs at 2.16 ghz stock speed and goes up to 2.58 ghz max with turbo boost capability. really fast processor and the processing difference is just slightly behind the comparable i3. or it is almost or around as good as the typical i3 in terms of cpu performance. the only difference is that the N3530 processor is just twice more energy-efficient (less wattage when operational) and much cooler during processing. I would even dare to say that the N3530 doesn't really require some cooling (fan) at all, as I've noticed that the fan rarely runs or if it does, it runs without stress nor sound. very low need for fan.

it is more than sufficient for running Microsoft Office, Excel, and other encoding programs efficiently. I find it to be fast enough for running and doing my work on with the latest Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom without stressing the CPU which is good news. multi-tasking is one of this CPU's strongest points as it is capable of running a lot of opened windows and tabs efficiently and simultaneously. I virtually ran 10 HD videos altogether without a hiccup in speed and fluidity. so this laptop is more than capable for HD movie streaming. it may not have the hyper-threading feature that the i3 have, but remember that it's a quad-core cpu with turbo boost to boot.

although the ram size of 4GB should be sufficient for general use, I feel that it limits the laptop's further potential of running even faster or loading more programs and more windows efficiently. the ram is on-board and cannot be upgraded and no further ram slots available. I would have preferred to have 6GB RAM inorder to have just enough ram buffer for emergency although I assume that they limit the ram for power efficiency purposes. besides, the ram is a DDR3L memory afterall but atleast it has as 1600mhz clocking. the ram is one bottleneck for sure but it is done in a way inorder to conserve power and prolong use by utilizing a ram that doesn't draw a lot of power.

the mechanical disk drive is another bottleneck and is one of the 3 main weak points of the laptop aside from the ram size limitation and weak iGPU. I don't know for the heck of it of why they would still put such a mechanical drive on a small laptop considering that SSDs are now cheap and affordable, not to mention that they are mute silent, don't emit heat, ultra-fast and more efficient and requires no power to run efficiently, thus making the x200MA more power efficient, cool and silent. I felt for $500 laptop Canadian price, it should came with a 256 GB SSD instead of a 500gb 5400rpm HDD. although I understand that it is a new laptop product with an outstanding new CPU with locked potential and a well-built unit that could have driven the price a $100-$200 ($300 on special) more over it's Atom and Celeron predecessors, they could have atleast made the HDD slot easily and readily accessible for upgrade rather than a difficult and risky disassembly. it doesn't make sense. the point is, the performance benefits of the SSD in terms of boot-up time, loading, data access and transfers, and performance fluidity and stability over the HDD is highly significant and the difference is just huge to simply ignore and could somehow undermine the real potential of the X200MA. if ASUS only paired it with an SSD (even a 128GB) instead of an HDD, for $500 the X200MA would have been a winner and a good deal for an ultraportable laptop. on the otherhand, that's the downside of being in Canada. I'm sure the U.S. would be getting the best deals probably selling the same X200MA unit for $300-$350, tax and shipping included. for Canadian buyers, I guess you have to wait for special deals for the X200MA for $400 ($100 off) unless you really need an ultraportable laptop as soon as possible.

the Bay-Trail M iGPU is more than sufficient for general data entry, encoding and office purposes, internet browsing and programming. it is more than enough to run photo editing softwares efficiently and at a very good pace. although it can stream movies in HD without a problem , although the iGPU is insufficient when it comes to graphic-oriented or gpu-based softwares or any softwares that would require extensive and complex graphics rendering. so CAD softwares would be a challenge for this laptop. also, don't expect to run and play games on this as it is incapable of running the current gpu-based games efficiently. although you can surely play something from angry birds, minecraft and World of Warcraft with it though or anything pre-2009 games that are not yet extensively or graphically demanding. flash games and a few fps, rts, rpg, action games, etc... can run at low and medium settings. as far as the justification for using an underpowered and less extensive/complex iGPU, the reason has more to do with power efficiency as even the basic HD4xxx iGPU series draws some significant power as evident with the necessary cooling solution of heatsinks, copper tubes and larger fan while the BTM iGPU doesn't require much of it. it is certainly a compromise and making this laptop not ideal for current gaming unless the games aren't GPU-extensive.

***However, you could remotely use the X200MA as an efficient and capable mobile laptop to play highly demanding games and use computer graphic tools around the house via streaming from a local dedicated desktop/laptop/server in your home network. STEAM for example, has a Home Game Streaming feature. the performance will depend on your internet connection speed and you source desktop/laptop/server's CPU/GPU/RAM capacity. it is by no means make the X200MA capable of high performance gaming alone although it does give that impression that it does, but in fact the source PC is the one doing most of the load and runs on behalf of the X200MA. so the X200MA doesn't really need to be doing a lot of work and can run quietly cool and efficiently at low power while appearing to pay hardcore games at max settings.



the LED backlit - TN display panel is very bright and has a very good refresh response. it has a glossy finish which would somehow help with regards to color vibrancy. I would say that the TN panel is not the ideal display type that I would have wanted and since I would have preferred a lot of vibrant and color accurate result and wider gamut from an IPS panel, that would have some significant effect on the power efficiency of the laptop. IPS panels draw more power than TN panels. so it's another compromise. on the otherhand, atleast they made the display a touchscreen, so that would take some of the sting off. the touchscreen would be a great tool especially for powerpoint presentations and other demos.

the clam shell design and form factor is a lot to be desired. having owned a previous model of clam shell design, these are rigid/sturdy and built for shock and certain level of drops. I love the blue finish design as it makes the laptop less boring than the conventional black finish. the red finish is also worth considering. the shell also has a textured design which gives it a bit more grip and less prone to smears and fingerprint smudges. the touchpad could be better if they made it a bit more rigid and less glossy.

I must say that I'm impressed with the energy efficiency, battery and cpu performance of the X200MA. the laptop can run on normal operations with WiFi enabled for 5-6 hours on batteries including HD video streaming. it can run further for a few more hours under conservative mode by disabling WiFi and decreasing the brightness level of the display and closing some of the programs that are running in the background or with certain power configurations that would conserve the battery longer. pretty impressive considering the laptop has a limited battery capacity due to size constraints, yet still able to perform at impressive clock speed.

the X200MA runs cool and quite under normal operations. one of the biggest advantage of the X200MA is that the processor and iGPU doesn't emit a lot of heat compared to other higher Intel processors. it is cool enough to rest on your lap during regular operations including streaming HD movies. the bottom never gets hot and the fan doesn't have to blow and run hard nor gets noisy. on normal operations, the fan runs very low and is inaudible as it blows out a negligible amount of very low warm air out of the laptop. at stress, the fan runs low enough that it doesn't sound audibly distracting and significantly noticeable. the funny part is that you will hear the annoying HDD noise (read/write operations) more than the cooling fan. that's how silent it is and makes you consider an SSD instead.

***CAUTION: DO NOT OVER-STRESS THE WEAK iGPU by trying to run HIGHLY GPU-DEMANDING Softwares (especially current games and computer graphics design tools). the cooling fan solution is small and is easily susceptible to wear and tear after prolong over-stress usage. once again, this is not a current-gen gaming laptop.


Conclusion and Personal Thoughts: the X200MA (N3530) certainly possesses a powerful CPU processor and I believe Intel could be on to something with their newer microarchitecture and processor implementation. the laptop can do a lot more in terms of productivity and is not hampered by a low power cpu which has been a problem and a crucial bottleneck of mostly of the older ultra-portable laptops and some of the current ones. intermediate programs can run much faster, smoother, and more efficiently and increases the multitasking capability of the system even further at the level that mainstream laptop CPUs are only capable of. it does it's intended job and purpose impressively. just be aware that this laptop is not built for modern complex gaming and complex computer graphics modeling that requires a lot of GPU processing power. it is an ultraportable laptop for students and working individuals that are looking for the most practical and affordable laptop solution that possesses the needed CPU power for increased and stable efficiency and productivity with minimal compromise on heat emission, noise and energy efficiency.

*** Lemons can be a pain regardless of any brand. the most common of problems can range from DoDs, dead/stuck pixels, battery problems, drive failures, etc... I would advice buyers to consider extending warranty coverages and give it a serious thought.

 

I have this notebook

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

how are you liking it thus far? any complaints?