Opinion on Asus VivoBook S200

[Credo]

My daughter has been set on getting a MS Surface RT Tablet for Christmas, for general multimedia use and some homework / design work. I'm not a fan of being an early adopter, and I've gone some way to convincing her that a touchscreen Windows 8 laptop would be a better option. Looking around, the Asus VivoBook S200 keeps cropping up as a really good option, it has Win 8, good reviews, is small, light, has a good 10-point multi-touch display, and more power and storage than the Surface RT. Am I missing something here? ********************* in their sale at the moment, which is considerably cheaper than a Surface with a keyboard cover...

Opinions anyone? Thanks in advance!

[EDIT] Oops! Sorry about the Competitor mention! First time for me...

 

[deaglecat]

Looks like the sort of thing that is needed to kickstart the Windows 8 laptop market. i.e. a cheap(ish) well built laptop with a touch screen. Shame about the display (and HDD though)... I would budget £80 for a 128mb ssd and this thing should be pretty responsive.

No good for games though... except casual cos' the graphics are weak.

 

[Credo]

Well, I bought one in the end for £405.00 with an i3 processor, pretty good deal IMO. It's a nice machine to use, I've been setting it up a bit ready for Christmas so can give a few first impressions:

Build: Very nice for the price, real aluminium case and a lid that is sufficiently stiff so as not to sag when the touchscreen is used.
Screen: As it's only 11.5", the 1366 x 768 resolution looks fine. The touchscreen is reponsive and is Gorilla Glass so pretty durable.
Keyboard: Really nice, better than our Sony Vaio.
Touchpad: Big for the size of the laptop and responsive, multi-touch.

Other specs: USB 3, HDMI Out, Bluetooth 4.0, SD card Reader, Wireless N 2.4.

The fan is a little noisy as the vents run along in a line in the gap between the base and screen, but at least they don't get blocked by your legs / douvet / cushion!

It seems pretty responsive, no problems whipping through various screens, the combination of keyboard, touchpad and touchscreen seem a natural combination for Windows 8, you just use whichever is the most suitable for the task in hand. Via the MS Home User Program I've put Office 2010 Enterprise on there for virtually nothing, and it handles all those apps very briskly.

I've not seen a Surface RT, but given the specs of this little machine for the money I can't help but think we've got a more functional solution for less cash.

I'll see how things go, but an SSD may be on the cards to speed things up and improve battery life. Not essential from what I've seen, but it would be the icing on the cake for a great little Win 8 machine.