With its line of EeePC machines, Asus was a major player when it came to netbooks, the special breed of very small, cheap laptops that were popular for a few years from around 2007, before being entirely killed off by the rise of tablets and cheaper, fully fledged laptops.

Asus is resurrecting the concept with its new X205 notebook, which will cost roughly £200 in the UK and €200 in the rest of Europe (which is approximately $265 or AU$280, although US and Australian launches are yet to be confirmed). Can this new Windows 8.1 machine possibly compete?

Tablet fighting

Asus has taken pains to ensure the X205 is as slim and portable aspossible. With an 11.6-inch display, 17.5mm depth and 980g weight, this computer is much chunkier than a tablet, but certainly thin enough to comfortably fit inside a rucksack or large handbag.

Where the X205 does a better job of taking on tablets, however, is its port selection. Whereas Apple’s iPad features only a charging port, and Google’s Nexus 7 is bare but for a microUSB socket, the X205 nets you a micro-HDMI port, a microSD slot and two USB 2.0 ports. That’s not as many options as you’ll find on a full-sized laptop, but at least plugging in a mouse and an external hard drive will be very little hassle.
…
Read full post here:
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/asus-eeebook-x205-preview/