First look: Can the Asus 11.6-inch EeeBook X205 help netbooks stage a comeback?

[caption id=“attachment_250429” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  The EeeBook X205TA is Asus’s latest netbook, although Asus prefers to call these EeeBooks. The X205TA comes in four colours and is expected to be priced under Rs 20,000. It is to be officially inveiled in India on the 21st of January (All photos: Nimish Sawant)[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_250430” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  The X205TA is quite slim at just 17.5mm at the thickest sides. Seen here is the right hand side of the EeeBook, which has two USB 2.0 ports. These aren’t just the only two USB ports, but they also belong to the older 2.0 standard. It has a fanless design[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_250438” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  On the left hand edge of the EeeBook X205TA, you have a microSD card slot, a microHDMI port and an audio jack. On the top of the left hand edge is the power port[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_250432” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  Asus EeeBook X205TA comprises an 11.6-inch display. It sports the Windows 8.1 OS and houses a low power Intel Atom processor namely the quad-core Z3735 which is clocked at 1.33 GHz along with 2GB DDR3L RAM[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_250436” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  Thanks to the slim size, the storage of the X205TA is taken care of by a 32GB eMMC flash memory of which 20.8GB is available to the user. You can expand this memory using the microSD card slot and you also get 500GB of free webstorage from Asus for two years[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_250437” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  The Asus EeeBook can open at a sufficient angle. There are two metallic protrusions at the base of the top flap which can be a bit annoying as they tend to leave scratches on tables. The hinge mechanism is quite sturdy though[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_250433” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  The X205TA comes with a chiclet keyboard, which is a pleasure to type on. The trackpad occupies a large area as well, but the single button for left and right click may not be to everyone’s liking. Asus claims to have used a technology which is used for smartphone touch screens while designing the touch pad[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_250434” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  The two USB 2.0 ports can be limiting if you have a USB 3.0 drive for storage[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_250435” align=“aligncenter” width=“1280”]  The Asus EeeBook X205TA comes with an 11.6-inch display that has a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. The display looked quite sharp and although it comes with a reflective surface, the viewing angles were good[/caption]