Asus X200CA-HCL1205O: New 11.6″ Touch Laptop for Under $300

Asus X200CA-HCL1205O

The ASUS X200CA-HCL1205O 11.6-inch touch-enabled Windows 8 mini-laptop will start selling soon at Best Buy today. It will retail for only $279.99 and is one of the most affordable touch-enabled laptops on the market at the time of this writing.

The X200CA-HCL1205O isn’t a completely new laptop model. The earlier released X200CA-HCL1104G, which was one of the best sellers last Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is basically the same laptop but with a smaller 320GB hard drive, wheras the HCL1205O has a larger 500GB unit.

In other areas, both models are the same. Included are the entry-level Intel Celeron 1007U dual-core processor at 1.5GHz, decently-sized 4GB of RAM memory, and the Intel HD integrated graphics with barely any gaming potential, but enough power to manage the 1366×768 display panel and run 1080p videos withouth a glitch.

High-peformance obviously wasn’t Asus’ top priority when they put together this configuration, but rather cheap price and great portability. The laptop is cladded in matte black plastics. It weighs only three pounds, but its 1.2″ profile could have been slimmer.

Other specs include a 3-cell 33 Whrs battery (unknown battery life), 720p web camera, stereo speakers, HDMI and VGA video output ports, three USB ports, Wi-Fi, and Gigabit Ethernet LAN.

Overall, the Asus X200CA-HCL1205O provides a great feature set at the price, but those who require high computing performance on a touch-enabled ultraportable laptop should look elsewhere. For instance, the Lenovo’s Yoga 11s 59385438 delivers a much better CPU and convertibility, but at a much higher price of $800. A similar laptop worth checking out is the 250-dollar Asus X102BA-HA41002F. It has a smaller 10.1-inch display and slower AMD A4-1200 processor, but ships pre-installed with a free copy of Microsoft Office 2013. Another good alternative, but also with a smaller screen and slower CPU is the Asus T100 2-in-1 Windows laptop/tablet hybrid for about $350.

Update: A newer model is available. It’s the X200MA series with a Celeron Bay Trail processor.

Here’s an unboxing video of an Asus X200CA model:

8 thoughts on “Asus X200CA-HCL1205O: New 11.6″ Touch Laptop for Under $300”

  1. ASUS is really a great laptop. It is cheap but it has best features. You can have it for less than $300 only.

    Reply
  2. This netbook only has 10/100 ethernet, if a netbook doesn;t have gigabit ethernet it’s useless, lack of gigabit ethernet is the only reason I won’t buy it

    Reply
  3. Hi Danijel
    Thank you for the review. Was wondering how this notebook will run Minecraft, I have a son who loves to play Minecraft and was thinking of gettign him this to play it on.

    Reply
    • The Celeron 1007U CPU inside supports Minecraft, but it won’t run smoothly on high graphics detail settings. You’ll need to lower graphics details under Minecraft’s Options for a more fluid gameplay. It you don’t mind getting a bigger laptop, for the same amount of money you can get the Toshiba C55-A5302 LINK: http://bit.ly/1il7W7b with a 15.6-inch screen and a better Pentium 2020M processor which will make Minecraft run better.

      Reply
      • Hi Danijel:
        Thanks for the response, I will look at the Toshiba and most likley get that one. Thanks again you revies are abig help…

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        • It appears to be sold out, the price was really great. The next good choices at low prices are the HP 2000-2d22dx with the i3-3120M processor which is better than the Pentium for Minecraft and everyday use. It’s $330 at Best Buy http://bit.ly/1j7aJnr. Another cheap option to consider is the Asus S500CA-HPD0101N ($350) http://bit.ly/1kBIVJu which looks much better than the HP and has aluminum chassis and touch display. But, it has the Intel Pentium 2117U which is only slightly better than the Celeron in the Asus X200CA.

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