Getting the boot

That said, it’s still an eminently fast, smooth and usable machine for the vast majority of day-to-day tasks and can stream 1080p video reliably. This is in no small part due to Windows 8’s major redeeming feature: it’s less taxing on the hardware. It boots up quickly too, taking less than 20 seconds from cold.

Get into swiping and it all begins to makes sense

Now a word to the wise if you are thinking about buying an S200 to run Linux. I tried it with Ubuntu 12.04 and everything worked perfectly with the exception of the touchscreen, which remained stubbornly inert.

That ULV chip only pays a small dividend when it comes to battery life. Running the aggressive PowerMark 1.2 benchmark, the lights went out at 2hrs 25mins. Looping an HD video with the screen at 75 per cent brightness got me to 4hrs 15mins. In more mixed use, I averaged around 5hrs 30mins between trips to the socket, which is acceptable in my book.

Obviously, the 1.8GHz i3 version of machine will be faster but will set you back £50 more. Frankly, either machine should satisfy. Obviously you can't separate screen and keyboard as you can with the latest, but much more expensive generation of Windows 8 transformer PCs but as a halfway house between them and a conventional laptop it will do quite nicely.

A well-made touchscreen notebook that offers and affordable way to experience Windows 8

Verdict

Even without the touchscreen, the small, solid, cheap and light Asus VivoBook S200 would make a case for itself. Yet put the strokeable screen into the equation and it comes together nicely as an attractive little package. ®

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