Asus VivoBook S200E Touch Screen Laptop: Core i3 3217U 1.8GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, 11.6" Display, Windows 8 + External DVD Drive $400 + Free Shipping (expired)

I was excited when you originally posted $299. Not so much now.

Is this a good deal?

Quote from kudosdeals : Is this a good deal?

Well it's a glorified tablet in the form of a laptop. A little bigger screen than a Nexus 10, is a touchscreen laptop, and has more storage space and processing power than anything on the tablet market. No Android or iOS though but Win8.

I'd say it's a good deal as long as you use this thing similar to a tablet.

wish all TS laptops were convertibles

Well, I was initially excited when I got the Staples email announcing this deal....an Asus core i3 touchscreen laptop for only $399....however, there are some points you may want to consider:

The screen size is 11.9 inches and the laptop weighs only 2.9 lbs so this is really great for those of you who travel often but don't want to settle for the more limited functionality of a tablet (as mentioned earlier).

Windows 8 was designed to be used primarily with touch in mind. Still there is a bit of a learning curve if you've never used Win 8 before

Details on the processor can be found here [notebookcheck.net] - but to summarize, it should perform close to a 2nd generation core i5 2467M processor. It is a dual core processor with each core clocked at 1.8 Ghz. It also has hyperthreading enabled so it can handle upto 4 threads.

The processor is a 17W ULV processor which helps prolong your battery life.

Given the more efficient usage of system resources by Windows 8, you most probably wont notice the impact of the lower 1.8 Ghz clock speeds unless you try to use this for very intensive computational work. For most common applications the specs on this guy are plenty good.

Now here's the not so obvious stuff that you have to go through the faq's on the staples site to find out:

The battery is not replaceable. So eventually when the laptop battery begins to die, you're stuck with whatever you get.

The RAM is not upgradeable so you are limited to the 4GB that comes with the system.

However, at this price point, you will be hard pressed to find a similar touch screen laptop anywhere else. If you really need a portable TS laptop, this is a good buy. However, I do anticipate more deals to come about as TS becomes more and more commonplace but it might still take ~ 4-8 months or so for a similar or better deal.

i bought this similar model from microsoftstore .com and was happy with it.
mine didn't come with external dvd, but has bluetooth, cost me $500 plus tax
but every review on this laptop is great
the HD is slow, will wait to upgrade to bigger capacity SSD this BF

Quote from carbonfiber : i bought this similar model from microsoftstore .com and was happy with it. mine didn't come with external dvd, but has bluetooth, cost me $500 plus tax but every review on this laptop is great the HD is slow, will wait to upgrade to bigger capacity SSD this BF

is the hard drive easy to get to?

Quote from nickel : is the hard drive easy to get to?

best buy this for 449... do they still have that 110% competitor match?

Quote from carbonfiber : i bought this similar model from microsoftstore .com and was happy with it. mine didn't come with external dvd, but has bluetooth, cost me $500 plus tax but every review on this laptop is great the HD is slow, will wait to upgrade to bigger capacity SSD this BF

Same thing happened to me. I purchased it from the Microsoft store last Sunday. Anyway we can get a price match? I know they have different model numbers but they're essentially the same computer. One had Bluetooth, the other doesn't but it includes and external cd drive. That's the only difference. I'm thinking of maybe threatening to return the laptop to see if they price match...

Quote from nickel : best buy this for 449... do they still have that 110% competitor match?

I believe the Best buy model has 2nd gen I3. The one listed here is 3rd gen.

Has anyone been able to easily upgrade the HHD to SSD on this laptop?

Edit: Found the answer in the reviews. Yes, easily done.

This is an extremely good price. I got one when it was $449. Even with the HD inside, the person I bought it for is extremely happy with it. I'm buying one for my mother now. She's been asking me for the same one. I'll also be returning the one I bought from MS.

I bought this for 550, and this is a great price for a great touch screen laptop.