ASUS Cloudbook E406 14" 1TB Cloud Storage Laptop

For those who are on a quest for a budget-friendly laptop, ASUS Cloudook E406 is a perfect choice. It is a stylish, lightweight device that could handle your everyday computing needs. It is a compact and handy laptop that you could take anywhere with you. On the bright side, the Cloudook E406 has enough power that can help you accomplish office tasks on the go.

As a Windows 10 laptop, the Cloudook E406 appears to be the best alternative to Chromebooks. ASUS has designed it for basic home-office users and college students, who don’t need a top-notch laptop. In addition to premium design, it boasts a long-lasting battery that runs all day long.

We reviewed this extremely light, low-end laptop for its performance. Continue to read to find the strengths and weaknesses of the Cloudook E406MA-BV211TS. But before that, let’s look into its specs.

Specs Sheet

Processor: Intel Celeron N4000 / 1.1GHz Max. Turbo Speed 2.6GHz

RAM: 4GB Storage: 64GB eMMC

Display: 14-inch HD (1366 x 768) Resolution

Graphics: Intel UHD 600 Integrated

Battery:  Up to 14 hours Weight: around 2.85 (1.3 kg)

Operating System: Windows 10 S

SKU: E406MA-BV211TS

Design

The Cloudook E406MA-BV211TS is a thing of beauty and you cannot take your eyes off from it. The beautiful Iris blue plastic lid is fascinating while the colour extends to the keyboard deck. It features a black plastic base while the screen bezels are silver. Also, there are four rubber feet underneath its base to hold the laptop off a desk.

This ASUS Cloudbook weighs around 2.85 (1.3 kg) and has a thin profile of 17.6mm. It is an ultra-portable, lightweight laptop that you can carry from home to office/ university and vice versa.

Display

The Cloudbook E406 features a 14-inch wide HD display that comes with 1366 x 768 screen resolution. It has a 76.5% screen-to-body ratio with a thin bezel of 7.8mm. That’s enough for general use and media consumptions but an FHD 1080p screen resolution would have been better.

An FHD screen means it could have a better chance against many Chromebooks. However, doing so could raise its price as well which we won’t want. The display surely isn’t a deal-breaker, but it serves the purpose well. You can live with this display on an entry-level laptop at this price.

Keyboard

ASUS Cloudbook E406 has a non-backlit, full-sized keyboard like the ones you would find in the ASUS ZenBook line. It has a decent key travel and the keys offer a comfortable feeling. However, if you are a writer or pro-typist, you might not like it more.

The touchpad is of low-quality we find it a bit frustrating to use. However, an average person would find it responsive as it reacts well to swipes and clicks. The issue is due to its touch recognition which is slightly oversensitive.

Connectivity

For a budget laptop, the Cloudbook E406 has sufficient port selection. All of its ports are on the right side including a 3.5mm audio jack, two, USB 3.0 ports and an SD card reader. In addition to these, it houses a charging port and a full-size HDMI port.

Performance

Our ASUS Cloudook E406MA-BV211TS that we tested for performance came with an Intel Celeron N4000 processor. This is a low-end processor that you would find in budget laptops and supports fan-less designs. It only has two cores and features a single computing thread per core. On the brighter side, it comes with an unusual 4 MB cache and a turbo speed of 2.6 GHz.

You would get a base clock speed of 1.1GHz with a 4GB RAM and 64GB eMMC storage. Although an HDD or SSD storage drive would have been better, eMMC storage is common in budget laptops. You could store important office files and assignment data without overloading it.

The Cloudook E406 not only stack up on paper but also performs well. This is a perfect device for word processing, browsing, and editing office files. However, it is slow to copy files and certainly not good for editing photos or videos.

Battery Life

The battery life claim for ASUS Cloudook E406 varies between 12 to 14 hours. Nevertheless, we were unable to achieve any of this number in our performance test. We extracted more than 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. Although this doesn’t match with the claim, it is still great for a budget laptop.

Verdict

In a nutshell, the Cloudook E406MA-BV211TS is an outstanding budget laptop that performs well. It is handy, has a stylish design and you can use it all day long on a single charge. ASUS has done a remarkable job in manufacturing an affordable entry-level laptop that competes with a Chromebook.