3GB of Asus WebStorage

3GB of Asus WebStorage

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The VivoBook S400CA-UH51 has a tapered chassis, evoking the slimness of the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch$1,129.98 at Amazon, but this is a larger, thicker system at about 0.8 by 13.5 by 9.5 inches (HWD) and weighs in at 4.4 pounds. It has to be thicker and heavier to accommodate the touch screen, so it's a fair tradeoff. Besides, the 14-inch screen has larger glass panel and therefore has to be heavier. The VivoBook isn't as thin and light compared to some other laptops and ultrabooks like the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A-R5102F%displayPrice% at %seller%, but the VivoBook makes for a very good "around the house" laptop. The system is comfortable to use on your lap, plus it is stable on most horizontal surfaces, certainly more stable than the Microsoft Surface with Windows RT$699.00 at Microsoft Store.

Asus pre-loads a few apps, including Skype, a few Xbox Live games, and a couple of Asus utilities like calculator and a conversion utility. Aside from that, the desktop mode and Windows 8 Start screen are unencumbered by bloatware. This is nice, as it keeps the clutter down. The system comes with a standard one-year warranty with 24/7 tech support. The system also comes with 3GB of Asus WebStorage online cloud storage for three years. 3GB isn't a lot, but it's certainly enough to keep a year's worth of your school documents together and backed up safe away from your laptop.

You wouldn't expect great performance in a less expensive system, but in this case you'd be wrong. The VivoBook's Core i5-3317U processor is the same one we've seen in systems costing over $1,000, so the VivoBook made a great showing at our benchmark tests. It finished the PCMark 7 test (which simulates general day-to-day work) and our Photoshop CS6 test (photo manipulation and editing) at the top of the budget class. About the only test it doesn't run away with is the battery like Dell Latitude Z Ac Adapter, Dell Latitude Z600 Ac Adapter, Dell D839N Ac Adapter, Dell Y596M Ac Adapter, Dell C931N Ac Adapter, Dell Vostro 1310 Ac Adapter, Dell Vostro 1320 Ac Adapter, Dell Vostro 1510 Ac Adapter, Dell Vostro 1520 Ac Adapter, Dell Vostro 2510 Ac Adapter, Dell N958C Ac Adapter, Dell Y022C Ac Adapter rundown test: the VivoBook just tops four hours (4:18), while other systems like the Acer Aspire S3-391-6046 almost makes it to five (4:47). Granted, the Acer Aspire S3 doesn't have a touch screen to draw power.

Compared to other laptops, the Asus VivoBook S400CA-UH51 comes in with great bang for the buck due to its high-performance processor, large amount of storage, touch screen, and above all its sub $700 price. The VivoBook far outperforms ultrabooks priced at the $899 or above. While it doesn't have the battery life (or pricing) to unseat our budget laptop Editors' Choice, the Acer Aspire V5-571-6891, the VivoBook S400CA-UH51 certainly has the chops to become our new Editors' Choice for entry-level ultrabooks with touch screen. In the ultrabook category, it's worth noting that the mainstream EC costs almost $200 more, where you would expect more battery life to be part of the equation. At the entry level, the Asus simply gives users what they need for a better Windows 8 experience, at a fair price.