tablets are all
the rage right now. A fact
that has led some rather excitable
forecasters to proclaim that the battle has
been won for the finger-swiping brigade.
Indeed, the analyst Forrester recently
forecast that, by 2016, 375 million tablets will be sold
globally. Over 760 million are already in use.
Yet there are still some very sound reasons
to plump for a highly portable laptop, which
is why I predict that they’ll be around for the
foreseeable. For a start, a proper keyboard is
never going to go out of fashion – especially
for those who actually need to get things
done, rather than just wanting to play Fruit Ninja.
Shoulder-friendly 11in machines are divided into two
main camps: cheap, low-powered netbooks, which are
typically constructed from plastic; and swisher designer
models, known as ultrabooks, that seek to compete with
Apple’s MacBook Air and are priced to match.
This little 1.4kg model from Asus, however, elegantly
attempts to split the difference with a sturdy metal
chassis and a Scrabble-style keyboard, exuding a
classiness rarely found for this money. The VivoBook
runs Windows 8 and has another trick up its sleeve:
its 11.6in screen is touch sensitive, offering a handy
alternative to the trackpad or keyboard and proving
surprisingly practical. Unlike with some rivals, you can’t
swivel the screen to bizarre angles or remove
it entirely to act as a tablet which, frankly,
is a good thing. Think of it as a laptop with
frills, rather than a quirky hybrid.
This mid-range Asus has an Intel Core i3
processor and a conventional 500GB hard
drive, so it won’t deliver blistering gaming
performance, nor marathon battery life. Even so, it’s
more than able to handle everyday computing tasks
and will last about five hours between charges. The
screen is decent too, although it may struggle to remain
legible in really bright sunlight.
Anyone hunting for a deft device that won’t break the
bank and can do more than simply browse the web may
have found their ideal travelling companion.
vital statistics
asus vivobook
s
200
e i
3
£449
asus.com
“
The keyboard is still key”
Laptops aren’t going to go out of fashion just yet, says tech editor
Alex Pell
–
and this model from Asus is the proof
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