I’ve been an exclusive Mac user since 2005. It’s a phase I guess. Most of my friends went through the whole PhilMug pilgrimage and you gotta admit that at some point till about OS X Tiger, Macintosh spelled ultimate productivity. One thing though — although I was on the “Mac and will never go back craze” at the time, I had not abandoned Windows, which was precisely why Bootcamp was a boon in OS X Leopard. The drill was the same for all my MacBooks after my circa 2005 iBook to have Windows installed on the side. And for what? The games of course. It was always about the games.
Perhaps the most affordable Windows 8 Pro-ready laptop in the market, the ASUS VivoBook will definitely sell because it makes touch affordable for everyone. In terms of specs, other than the touch screen, the budget version of the VivoBook comes with an older Celeron processor and 2GB of DDR3 RAM.
As you can see from the specs below, this computer is meant to act as your entry level laptop for Windows 8 that takes advantage of the touch screen features that Microsoft’s new OS touts. And as you may already know, Windows 8 doesn’t make sense without the touch screen.
SPECS:
Intel® ULV Celeron® 847
Chipset
Mobile Intel® HM76 Express Chipsets (i3-3217U),
Mobile Intel® HM70 Express Chipsets (Pentium 987/Celeron 847)
MemoryDDR3 1333 MHz, 2G/4G (on board)
320GB / 500GB (5400rpm)
11.6″ 16:9 HD (1366×768) LED Backlight
Integrated Intel HD Graphics PRICE: PHP 20,995
After fiddling with the demo unit at the recent Microsoft launch, I was pleased to note that the legacy Celeron processor didn’t hinder the UI response time (I wasn’t able to fiddle with the apps though). If you’re looking for Windows 8 on a budget while still being able to enjoy the new touch-enabled features, the ASUS VivoBook is something you may want to consider.
