Asus is one of the few major PC companies that still makes inexpensive laptops with 10 inch screens. Earlier this year the company released the Asus 1015E Windows 8 laptop with a 10 inch display and Intel Celeron dual-core processor. Now it looks like the company may be preparing a new model with an AMD Temash processor.

asus vivobook x102ba

Swedish site SweClockers have posted details about a new mini-laptop called the Asus VivoBook X102BA. It sports a 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, a 1 GHz AMD A4-1200 dual-core processor, and AMD RAdeon 8180 graphics.

The chip has a TDP of just 3.9 watts, which means that while this won’t be a very high performance laptop, it should get reasonably good battery life.

The notebook is said to support up to 4GB of RAM, and up to 500GB of disk space and 22Whr or 33Whr battery options will be available.

Other specs should include:

  • 2 USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 USB 3.0 port
  • HDMI
  • VGA
  • SD card reader
  • 802.11b/g/n WiFi
  • Bluetooth 4.0

Like most recent Windows 8 tablets with 10 inch or smaller screens, the Asus VivoBook X102BA is expected to ship with Microsoft Office HOme & Student 2013.

While SweClockers says the notebook will sell for about 3,299 Krona ($507 US) when it launches in September, it’ll likely be much cheaper if and when it goes on sale in the US.

The Asus 1015E with a Celeron processor sells for about $250 in the States, while a model with Ubuntu Linux instead of Windows is even cheaper, going for As little as $179.

 

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16 replies on “Asus VivoBook X102BA: 10 inch mini-laptop with AMD Temash”

  1. Looks like the user is not going to benefit a lot from the lower power consumption of this processor. Instead of a 56 Wh like the 1015E they reduced the battery capacity by a factor of two, so battery life will probably still be something like 6 or 7 hours. At best this netbook will be half an ounce lighter and a few millimeters thinner. Thank you Asus! This is definitely the netbook that I’ve been waiting for all the time.

      1. The modern Celeron is basically a lower clocked and fewer features version of the Core i-Series processors and they’ve got a few generations of versions out…

        So, depends on which version you’re comparing but the Asus 1015E uses a Sandy Bridge based Celeron 847 that is clocked at 1.1GHz.

        The quad core Temash achieves approximate parity for equivalent clock speed for the dual core Core processors. Though, Intel still has the edge on single threaded processing and better power efficiency generally also means they can achieve higher clocks.

        So, overall, they compare pretty well… AMD can have a slight edge on graphical performance though… Quad core Temash edges out a Sandy Bridge HD3000 but still falls below a Ivy Bridge HD4000 but for a low end SoC meant for low cost laptops, hybrids, and tablets that’s pretty good and better than what mobile ARM SoCs are offering.

        However, this particular Temash, A4-1200, is the lowest end dual core and is limited to 1GHz… So the Celeron 847 would have the CPU advantage, but albeit not in the multiple range but noticeable enough.

        Though, the point of this AMD SoC is that it is low powered enough to go into a Fan-less tablet and is more power efficient than the Celeron would be…

        Albeit, we’ve yet to see the new ATOM based Celerons that will use the new Silvermont architecture and the Haswell based Celerons… but only the ATOM based ones should be able to compete with AMD on low pricing…

        1. Well, well! Worse battery life, processing power on par with the Celeron 847 at best and all this at a higher price! I really wonder who’s gonna buy this thing.
          Please Asus, focus on real innovations instead of wasting your resources by flooding the market with this kind of crap!

          1. Well, like Brad said… it’ll likely be much cheaper when it comes to the states… UK has to charge VAT and other factors usually drive up the pricing in those other countries.

            It’ll likely be closer to what the Asus 1015E sells for, but may include a touch screen…

            The VivoBook is basically a cheap ultrabook series and at 10″ it’s one of the few models you can get below 11.6″ and larger that represents most laptops…

    1. I doubt the battery life will still be in the 6-7 hours range with that much of a battery capacity reduction…

      The 3.9W TDP is only for the APU SoC, but the rest of the system (Screen, WiFi, etc) will still use the same amount of power as the previous model.

      Also, the AMD APU SoC isn’t as optimized for mobile usage as ARM and Intel ATOM SoCs are… No support for mobile features like Always Connected Standby for example… So, it’s still using more power than a equivalent ARM or Intel ATOM SoC at the same TDP…

      Mind, the TDP rating is only telling us how much energy is required to cool a particular chip for its intended design purpose but doesn’t really tell us how power efficient the chip really is or not…

      Though, if the battery is compatible with the previous model then you may be able to get the higher capacity battery… it’s not unheard of for Asus to have batteries for different models that are compatible…

  2. Any higher end 10″ notebooks? Something with a Intel U or Y series chip? Intel dual band WiFi and Ethernet chips as well for better Linux support.

    1. I’m looking for some higher end 10″ notebooks as well. I’ll be installing openSUSE on it so I’d like Intel WiFi and Ethernet chips too. Intel has good Linux drivers for their network chips in addition to their graphics ones. I generally stay away from Realtek, Ralink and Broadcom chips.

      I’d like a Y-series chip, SSD (or upgradeable to one), full SD card slot, display port, at least 2 USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, dual band 2×2 antenna 802.11n WiFi (802.11ac would be nice since I have an ac router but not a big deal), high quality 10″ display (the resolution can be 1366×768), replaceable battery, thin bezels, no touch screen, 8 GB or upgradeable RAM for my VMs and a decent keyboard for the cramped space.

      1. I’d buy that! I’ll pay ultrabook prices even if it’s not thin. Ya, when I’m looking for a new Linux notebook or desktop, I try to get Intel components for the CPU/GPU, WiFi and Ethernet. Intel has been increasing their Linux resources ( https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTQzOTE ) while others have reduced it (ie. AMD).

        I haven’t found a good trackpad company though. It has always been a hit or miss thing with trackpads. Any recommendations are welcome!

  3. How’s Linux graphics support on these APUs? I’d like to know stability, power efficiency, performance and features as compared to Windows. I usually don’t hear good things when it comes to AMD and Linux.

    Also, what kind of CPU performance is expected? Better than the Celeron?

    Thanks!

    1. It seems the current Celeron model has Atheros Ethernet and Broadcom WiFi which require extra steps to get working reliably. Which is typical with these brands.

      Anyone know what NIC chips the AMD one uses? I’d rather not have to jump through hoops when installing a new distro.

    2. Linux support for the new SoC APU’s is something AMD is not pushing yet… It’s suppose to be there eventually but I wouldn’t recommend getting a system based on one right away if that’s the reason you want one…

      The upcoming Bay Trail ATOM models coming out at the end of the year may offer support first, since Intel added them to their Open Source driver support back in April…

      While AMD has been a little too murky on the details of when they’ll start providing support. The previous Hondo APU for example is still W8 only… Though, as long as the Catalyst drivers work okay, you may get it working anyway but it’ll be a gamble at this point…

  4. I think it is really cool that one has a choice between Windows 8 and Ubuntu Linux. I think the price makes even more appealling; the Asus 1015E.

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