ASUS VivoBook X202E-DH31T 11.6" Touchscreen Notebook Intel Core i3 3217U 4GB 500 GB HDD Intel HD Graphics 4000

Pros: Was a great value, snappy with SSD

Cons: Touchscreen issues - but now it's working again.

Other Thoughts: So I'm writing a new review, bumping it up to 4 stars... a second chat with tech support and they had me do a special restart... simply shut down, unplug power, then hold the power button for 60 seconds, let go and power it up normally... now the touchscreen started working fine again...

I would give this unit 5 stars if it weren't for this issue and the hassle finding a solution. Of course if we have to reset it like this every other day, that will be annoying - but as it is now, we're very happy.

Pros: Good value, good performance

Cons: Touchscreen stopped working

Other Thoughts: I was very happy with this initially, bought it for my wife whose Acer netbook died 1month after the warranty expired.

Anyhow, the touchscreen stopped working after a few weeks - I did a bios upgrade and it started working again. Then a few weeks later it stopped working again... did a chat with support who suggested a full system restore.. I said I'd try a windows restore first... that did the trick and it was working again. Then a week later with no software/os updates installed, it stopped working again. Very frustrating... my wife still uses it she's just given up on the touchscreen... guess that's what Asus figures people will do...

Manufacturer Response:

Greetings kmshark,

Have you contacted ASUS support since you posted this review? I would highly suggest sending the laptop in so we can look at the machine. I have a direct line to one of our RMA specialists you could contact. The RMA specialist's email is cl-jolene@asus.com. Thank you, and have a great day!

Regards,

Mark
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Plenty zippy
Quiet
Touchscreen

Cons: BIG! Does not fit in standard 11.6" sleeves or cases. Width and height more like a 12.5" laptop.

Pros: Light, not tablet light but easily portable. I am an owner of an Asus 1000 HA and this thing is way thinner and somewhat lighter. It even runs much cooler and the performance is orders of magnitude better than the original netbook.

I can game on this thing. I have many games from humble bundles that I haven't played for awhile and this thing plays them well. I have popcap games that were just made for touch and this thing doesn't break a sweat. I have had to turn off hardware acceleration in each popcap game or it is a slideshow, but I think that is windows 8 and not the fault of the hardware in any way. I can play orange box games and other FPS as long as it is 1024x768 the frames stay mostly above 30 fps. Portal 2 is good, diablo 3 is a little slow but playable at 1024x768 {24-30 fps}. I haven't tried any more games but I expect it to run SWTOR and DDO. The video performance is comparable to an HD2500 though it says it has an HD4000. It only has one channel of memory and so it is bandwidth starved. Video performance is better with the most recent driver from ASUS. If you are going to play games, make sure you upgrade the driver.

Thing runs cool, even while gaming... did not expect that. The hottest it got was relatively warm while updating. I have not encoded any video or done anything too processor intensive but so far I am pleased with the heat output.

The notebook is bigger than the 11.6 dimensions as quoted which is great because 11.6 notebooks are hard to type on. This is more like a 12.1 width which is the absolute minimum for typing. I would say that the keyboard is great, almost full size. The keys are a little small but the shift keys are in the right place and good size if that is important for you. Have not had any issues yet with the touch pad. The windows 8 gestures are weird, but I understand why they do what they do. It is a little redundant having them on a touch screen notebook, but they work.

Windows 8 is different, I wouldn't say it is bad. I would actually like it once I get it figured out I think. The touch screen in responsive but good for use with such a small notebook. I had expectations when I bought this that I would not use the touchscreen much because thinking about it I felt that some type of arm fatigue or positional hindrance would make touchscreen windows computing difficult.. It is not... it is a very natural tool. I have even found myself holding the notebook at the hinge and using it with my thumbs like an ipad. The hinge does not open at a very wide angle so this use is limited, but I think that app store games may be played well this way.

Build quality is excellent just like every other ASUS device I have owned.

Cons: Screen is not the brightest and its viewing angles are limited, but it was also cheap so... YMMV.

The beveled angle of the front edge of the noebook is a little sharp, not turkey carver sharp but you could cut a clean slice of cake with it. ;) not a big thing but it does affect how comfortable it is to type on this thing.

ASUS plays the proprietary driver game with this thing. The last update for the video driver was 11/2012. There have been a few driver upgrades in the time between now and then and I know performance has increased with them so I hope that ASUS will release a new driver soon.

Other Thoughts: This is a good deal at $599.00. I got it significantly cheaper recently so I feel a little guilty at the value that I get for the price I paid. Buy it if you want an easy way to experience windows 8. I was considering a WIn 8 atom tablet but the graphics drivers for those are wonky and you would have to eventually buy a keyboard anyway to use it like a PC. This is a better performing option at a good price.

Pros: small, light

Cons: Poor quality. I had it less than 30 days and after a standard Windows Update it would not turn on after re-booting. I called ASUS Support 800 number and my call was dropped 4 times, each time after being on hold for 10+ minutes. So I contacted ASUS Support via chat. They tried troubleshooting but nothing worked. Now it's going back.

The only reason I bought it was to take on a trip and of course it died 2 days before I leave so it's turning out to a $500 total waste of time.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for sharing your review. We value all of our customers' feedback and this is no exception. I am sorry that your X202E laptop ended up not working and was defective.

If, in the future, you have any questions, concerns, or comments about an ASUS product, please let me know. My email is cl-mark@asus.com.

Best regards,

Mark
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Really wanted to love this laptop. Good cost, good idea (touch screen). Really sleek looking. Severely dissapointed.

Cons: So I bought this laptop back in November of 2012 and used it for two months with no issues. Then the multitouch function on the touchpad went out. Normally not a big deal but with Windows 8 I had gotten used to using it for things and it became annoying not to have it. Restarting the computer always made it work again, but it would go out after a few hours, days, or even weeks depending. Eventually I called ASUS and they recommended a restore to factory settings which I did. This did not resolve the issue. They had me mail it in, which I did. They replaced the touchpad, but this did not resolve the issue. They then had me uninstall and reinstall drivers. Which I did. This did not resolve the issue. They then had me mail it in again, which I did, and all they did was replace the touch pad again, which didn't work the first time and also did not work the second time - did not resolve the issue. I was recommending a replacement laptop at this point and they were refusing, which is too bad because clearly I have a lemon and/or their repair team doesn't know how to fix things. After getting the laptop back the second time it began clicking within the body to the right of the touchpad. It didn't do this before so I assume it had something to do with repairs. When I called regarding this they started me with a new repair account saying this is a separate issue and that I would need to again redo all the steps I went through before - restoring to factory settings (which is annoying because you have to redownload all aps and configure windows 8 tiles the way you want them, as well as back up data), uninstall and reinstall drivers.

I said I would not do this as the issue is connected and asked to talk to a supervisor. She listened to me but also refused to send me a replacement laptop, saying I needed to send it back again (third time in two months, for a week at a time - very annoying as I am grad student and need laptop to write papers, surf internet, etc). She said the repair team thought that a replacement was necessary I could have one otherwise they would continue to try and fix this one.

Other than the multitouch going out intermittently the laptop also would occasionally move the typing cursor randomly - not due to me hitting touchpad with the palm of my hand. It did this rarely, but enough that it was an issue.

So - technical issues - multitouch intermittently going out, cursor randomly moving, strange clicking noise from body next to touch pad.

Attempts to fix - 2 system restores, three mailing back to ASUS for repairs, and an unisntall and reinstall of drivers

What I am left with is - 40 extra bucks in box purchases for Fed Ex (they are picky about what box you ship it in), 3 weeks of going without a laptop and the consequences of that (not being able to work on papers, do email or surf the internet during that time....) and a severe distrust of ASUS as a company and a severe let down of their product and customer service.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

I am sorry that you had a bad experience with your laptop's touch pad. I can completely understand how frustrating it can be to have the laptop not work as intended. If I may, I would like to help.

Since you posted your review, have you had the chance to contact ASUS support again? If you need assistance with this case, please let me know. My email is cl-mark@asus.com.

Regards,

Mark
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Lighweight, low power cpu, hd4000 gpu, fast with ssd (Kingston ssdnow 128GB 7mm) Linux Mint is perfect (minor difficulty with controlling screen brightness). Linux Mint boots faster and runs faster than Windows 8 in every aspect.

Cons: Occasional overheating can be frightening.

Other Thoughts: Reinstalling Windows 8 was a pain as anyone who has attempted that knows. I finally obtained copies of a home and pro .iso after several days of increased stress levels. Dual booting Windows 8 and Linux Mint, but really only uing Linux with Windows there just in case.

Pros: Touch screen, although I rarely use it. Decent battery life. Small and pretty thin, not too heavy. Good for travel and basic computing. I have had no issues with this. I didnt purchase it from NewEgg, but rather Staples because of the bundle and it was on sale. I did update the BIOS and it did quiet down the fan. It does get rather warm though when running CPU intensive programs. I also unloaded the ASUS touchpad driver and installed the ELAN drivers and the touch pad works much better. I also swapped out the 500GB Hard Drive and put in a Samsung 840 Pro and it and it performs rather well. Nice small power supply that is easy to throw in the bag.

Cons: WHY WHY WHY put only one (yes only one) USB 3.0 port and two 2.0 ports!!!!!!!!!!!!????????? UGH! I don't understand this... Let's get rid of the 2.0 ports if 3.0 is available, or at least give us two 3.0 ports on the same side.
RAM is NOT expandable past 4GB. But, seriously are you really going to need more with a small notebook like this? NO.
Takes awhile to charge too, so don't expect a quick charge before throwing it in the bag.
No Bluetooth. And the wireless card could be better.
Keyboard is decent, but takes awhile getting used to. Not much key travel and tactile feedback.

Other Thoughts: Overall, pleased. Perfect for daily basic computing at home and on the go.

Pros: Excellent cost/benefit ratio. Nice looking product; light and small; resources are enough to usual work.

Cons: Display presented a problem in one week. Looks like a ghost is pressing the touchscreen in several random points all the time. Computer is useless because couldn't find a way to disable touch. Bought the computer in the US but Asus international warranty is not valid here in Brazil, they only fix products bought here, even though they sell the same model here. It's a shame, an excellent product that I can't use unless I bring it back to US to fix.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Unfortunately we don't have a service center in Brazil.

Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you. If you purchase the unit from best buy looks like they may have been able to repair your unit for you under their warranty.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Tremendous value. I have the i5 processor. Touch screen is nit laggy, nice to have the touch option.

Cons: Mouse pad too sensitive. Also, updated the bios 3 times. Very limited bios options. I can not enable hvper v on this notebook. Renders it useless for certain development tools I need to use.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Here is a link to help you enable hyper V.

Use Windows-C to open the Charms bar on the desktop and select Settings > Control Panel from the options.
Select Uninstall a Program here.
Select Turn Windows features on or off on the left sidebar and check the Hyper-V box on the Windows Features window that opens up.
A restart is required to complete the installation.