Overview and specifications
Recently, Windows 8 laptops have gone back to their roots. We’ve seen a small number of them breaking away from the more expensive models, such as Ultrabooks and hybrids, offering great portability, incredible value for money and good battery life. Though manufacturers are hesitant to label them as such, they’re basically netbooks in disguise.
The latest in the line of this new niche is the Asus X102BA – an 11.1-inch laptop that is light, easy to carry and costs relatively little.
It goes against similar low-powered, bargain bucket machines out there, including the Acer Aspire V5-122P and HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11 though the Acer features a quad core A6 chip, while the TouchSmart offers just the two cores with its A4-1250 APU.
The Asus, on the other hand, has the newly introduced Jaguar-architecture Temash APU, which is also a dual-core chip, as per the TouchSmart, but it uses much less power, on paper at least. Interestingly, Acer has also just updated the Aspire with the V5-123, which also includes the same AMD A4 1200 processor found in the X102BA, with an almost like-for-like specification, including that all-important touchscreen, for exactly the same price tag.
Like the HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11, the X102BA looks to be the perfect machine for parents to buy their children that are just starting out with Windows 8, or it would also be ideal for a student that is about to go off to college and wants a no-frills laptop, which also doubles up as a tablet for entertainment use, thanks to the built-in touchscreen.
Of course, a full version of Windows 8 is found inside the Asus, but those looking for a laptop that they can work regularly on spreadsheets with, might want to spend a little extra money on something more powerful.
In both models we reviewed, performance was a little uninspiring, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Asus X102BA fares in comparison. We’re not expecting great things, but could we see a surprise showing?
Specifications
The Asus XB102BA is built to an incredibly miniscule budget, so unsurprisingly it doesn’t have any standout features, at least not those that the untrained eye would spot. The processor is pretty low on performance, with just 1GHz to play with, but the Temash APU – which unlike a regular processor, features a CPU and GPU on the same chip, making it smaller – is designed with low power consumption in mind.
At just 4W, the Temash uses approximately half the power than its A4-1250 counterpart found in the slightly older HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11. That should, in theory, give the Asus greater battery life. Making up for the lack of proper performance from the processor, Asus has been wise to give the XB102BA a little added power via 4GB of memory on-board, though you can choose to opt for just 2GB, if you really want to.
The 500GB traditional hard drive is pretty standard at this price range, so don’t be expecting a super-fast startup. The XB102BA does, however, boot up immediately, provided you use the Sleep function in Windows rather than shutting it off completely.
Considering its relatively small dimensions, the XB102BA doesn’t feel especially light, though 1.1kg on the scales says differently. At that mass, it comes in well under the Microsoft Surface Pro 2, which is around 1.5kg (with the Type Keyboard added), as well as its closest competitors – the HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11 and Acer Aspire V5-122, both of which are around the 1.4kg mark.
The XB102BA starts off relatively slim around the front, but quickly tapers off to a much chunkier thickness of around 29mm at the rear. It’s better than the HP, but not quite as thin as the Acer, and it certainly doesn’t rival the Surface Pro 2. But as far as portability is concerned, the XB102BA is about as good as you’re going to get if you need a machine on which you can get some work done.
Adding to the usability factor of this laptop is an 11.6-inch touch screen display. While the 1,366 x 768 pixel screen is good to look at, if unremarkable, with slightly limited viewing angles our only real criticism, the inclusion of a touchscreen is very welcome. It doesn’t feel like an afterthought either, and we were pleasantly impressed with its responsiveness.
To us it feels like it belongs on a laptop of a much higher caliber, probably owning to the fact that the XB102BA has an accurate 10 points of multi touch to work with. It’s certainly great to have, since the screen is quite small and navigating through touch makes for a nice change of scene, as well as quicker in confined spaces.
The three-cell battery is comparable to similar laptops, though Asus has wisely included a regular-sized charger – the kind that you’d find bundled with a smartphone. This makes it easy to carry around with you for extra charging when the battery runs dry.
Rounding things off nicely, you get decent wireless capability, including 802.11bgn WiFi, up-to-date Bluetooth, and also included is a single USB 3.0 slot, 2 x USB 2 slots, HDMI out, an SD card slot and, handily, an Ethernet connection. Unusually, the charging connector for the XB102BA lies in the middle of the others on the left-hand side. Not a deal-breaker by any means, but unexpected.
The biggest win for the XB102BA is the retail price, though it can be found for less, which makes this one of the cheapest touchscreen Windows 8 laptops on the high street. Students looking for a budget laptop for their college travels should surely take note.
Performance
3D Mark: Ice Storm: 9423, Cloud Gate: 858, Fire Strike: 170
Cinebench 11.5: CPU performance: 0.80 pts, OpenGL graphics performance 6.90 fps
Battery life (PCMark 8 Home test): three hours 14 minutes
As the above results demonstrate, the XB102BA is not a great performer. It actually fell below our expectations, considering that in real-world use it happily handled most basic tasks with ease, with only the occasional minor speed lag.
CPU performance from the 1GHz processor was better in the Cinebench tests than the HP Pavilion Touchsmart 11, though graphics performance seems to have taken a significant hit somewhere along the line, with much lower results in both Cinebench and 3D Mark. It’s possible this is down to the lower base frequency and slower memory of the newer AMD A4-1200 versus the older A4-1250.
The real boon of the newer 1200 processor over the older 1250 unit found in the Touchsmart is energy efficiency – it uses around 50 per cent less. Having said that, in the tests, though the three hours and 14 minutes we recorded is commendable, the Touchsmart managed three hours and 42 minutes, which flies in the face of logic. It obviously wasn’t what we expected, but performance still felt good (unlike the Touchsmart), and battery longevity wasn’t an issue.
One area where the XB102BA fell down a little was when we loaded some HD movies in Windows Media Player. 1080p is, naturally, out of reach for this low-performing machine, though the screen can only output 720p anyway, so this isn’t an issue. 720p movies ran reasonably smooth, though there was the occasional choppiness in places, which we didn’t see from the TouchSmart. The speakers found in the Asus were loud, but they certainly weren’t likeable. We wouldn’t be using these unless absolutely necessary.
The touchscreen might be the main attraction for many, but Asus has pitched this as a working laptop – evident due to the full version of Windows 8. It can take advantage of this thanks to an isolation-style keyboard, which feels as if it’s been designed for long bouts of typing. It’s comfortable, there’s decent travel on each key, and it definitely doesn’t feel as if quality has been compromised. The trackpad, on the other hand, isn’t quite as pleasing, mainly down to the touch commands being a little more sensitive than we would have liked, and you might find that you occasionally activate one accidentally.
Conclusion
If you’re a student on a tight budget, then the Asus XB102BA is definitely a good buy. For the money you get a laptop running a full version of Windows 8, meaning you can install almost anything you like on it, which is perfect for students, and the touchscreen makes it easier to use day-to-day. Its light weight also makes it easy to sling in a bag and take on your travels. It really is a useable alternative to a tablet machine like a Google Nexus 10 or an iPad Air.
As is the case with the TouchSmart, those planning to use it every day in a professional work scenario might want to consider something a little meatier in the processor department – something like the Microsoft Surface Pro 2 or Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro might be a better option, though you’ll need to pay a lot extra for the privilege.
We liked
Though the XB102BA looks and feels a little chunky, it’s actually one of the lightest laptops we’ve come across to date, which gives it excellent portability credentials, and its battery life is respectable enough to last you much of the day too. We also liked that the charger isn’t too big, so you can always carry battery backup with you.
The touchscreen is an excellent example of how including one doesn’t necessarily mean ramping up the price tag on a machine, and the 10-point touch capability means you can happily swipe and pinch all day long without feeling cheated.
Windows 8 might accommodate touch actions well, but not everyone gets on with it. Thankfully Asus has factored this in, and the laptop makes for easy typing no matter how many emails you need to write.
Finally, there’s the price tag with the XB102BA – it really makes for a cheap entry point into Windows 8. You’ll not find many cheaper than this, especially those with such decent all-round abilities.
We disliked
It was disappointing to see that the newer, more energy efficient processor found in the XB102BA wasn’t actually capable of turning in a performance that bettered its older AMD A4 peers. The battery life isn’t bad, by any means, but it certainly doesn’t wow us.
Processing power definitely felt better than that of the older A4 processor, but graphical performance seems to have fallen as a consequence, so do not consider this machine if you’re planning to do any kind of gaming, though you’ll be just about fine running 720p HD content.
Final verdict
At this price point, the Asus XB102BA is surprisingly good. We fully expected a similar performance to that of its closest rival, the HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11, but it betters it in almost every respect – its in-Windows performance is better, the screen is superior and it’s much lighter too.
It’s not the ideal option for business users, but for students or young kids this is almost the perfect device, thanks to its ability to function as both tablet and useable laptop when needed.
Your only dilemma now, thanks to competition from Acer, is whether you buy this or go for the almost identical offering – both in spec and price – in the form of the V5-123.
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