The Asus E410 has all the core things you want from a budget laptop, including a big battery life and responsive performance - but there are downsides.
Should I Buy The Asus E410?
Pros
- Excellent battery life
- Lightweight and portable
- Responsive for basic tasks
Cons
- Quirky rear design
- Dim screen
- NumberPad is annoying
Our Verdict
Price When Reviewed
- £299
The Asus E410 is a budget laptop designed for the core basics: emails, light work, streaming and productivity tasks. Coming in sub-£250, it’s in the competitive space and is a good option if you’re looking for a laptop that will get you through the day-to-day without breaking the bank.
Asus is a leading brand in the laptop space which creates a wide range of devices, from entry-level to high-end. If you’d like to know how this device performs in actual use, then keep on reading.
Design And Build
The Asus E410 is made from a plastic body which comes in three different colour options: blue, pink and white. I tested the blue variant.
The shell design of this laptop is the most bizarre thing. It’s covered with letters and symbols from the Asus logo. It’s certainly a bold choice – and personally I think it highlights the cheap price of the laptop, rather than making it stand out in a good way.
Had the odd pattern not been printed all over the rear, this would have been a good-looking laptop. The blue body has nice shine to it, which looks great paired with the blue chamfer along the edges.
The 14in, FHD LCD screen has a 78% screen-to-body ratio. Whilst it’s a good size for streaming, the screen is quite dull even when turned up to full brightness. This also means that the laptop isn’t that suitable to be used outdoors in direct sunlight, as the screen won’t be very visible for the user.
At a weight of 1.3kg, this is a lightweight and portable laptop. It’s around 18mm thick - not the slimmest I’ve seen. However, it should still fit into a backpack or satchel. It also comes with a hinge that allows the screen to fold back 180 degrees. Whilst I don’t need to fold it back all the way, it’s nice to be able to position your screen further back if you’re using the laptop whilst lying down.
Turning to the keyboard, the enter key has a bizarre yellow border – in-keeping with the overall bold design of the laptop. The keys themselves have a bit of a rough texture and are very spongey with little bounce back. Whilst this is a shame, it’s common on a budget laptop such as this. You can also have the keyboard backlit, should you wish.
However, other NumberPad's are optional screens that you can make disappear - this one is printed directly onto the mouse pad.
Personally, I’m not a fan. On occasion I found myself accidentally turning it on by pressing it when navigating the mouse pad. It’s also a bit of an eye sore. Nonetheless, it is a feature that you don’t find on most budget laptops.
The Asus E410 comes equipped with a range of ports. There are two USB-A slots (2.0 and 3.2), a USB-C slot (3.2), a DCIN slot for charging, a headphone jack, a HDMI port and a microSD card reader.
Sound quality is surprisingly good. Though max volume is limited, the sound produced is clear and punchy. As the speakers are on the bottom of the laptop, sound can be slightly muffled if it is placed on a soft surface. Nonetheless, this laptop is perfectly fine for listening to music or podcasts.
Specs And Performance
The Asus E410 I tested comes equipped with a Intel Celeron N4020 dual-core processor, paired with 4GB RAM, 64GB worth of storage and integrated Intel UHD 600 Graphics. However, you can also purchase this device with a Intel Pentium Silver N5030 processor, Intel UHD Graphics 605 and 128GB of storage.
As this is a bare bones laptop, its only really suitable for basic tasks such as web browsing, emails, watching videos and very light image editing. With so little storage on my model, there isn't much space to install software or games. It’s a good option for students at university, or anyone who mostly uses web apps.
Looking at benchmarks, you can see the laptop doesn’t perform well even compared to other budget rivals. There wasn’t even enough space to install 3DMark with all the pre-installed software on the device. However, I’ve found that day-to-day performance is fast and responsive. Whether it will stand the test of time is another story.
The battery life is one of the standout features of the Asus E410. Asus claims it can last up to 12 hours, and this was proven in both our official battery test, and through day-to-day use.
I managed a full working day – having multiple tabs open and listening to music. Having the screen brightness up to full does drain the battery much quicker, as does running lots of applications at once, such as numerous tabs and Spotify. However, if you’re just browsing the web and don’t mind having a slightly dimmer screen, you can conserve this budget buy’s battery.
The accompanying 33W AC adapter takes the cell from flat to 33% in 30 minutes, equating to around three hours for a full charge. The temperature of the laptop is only slightly warm, even after a full day’s worth of use.
Value For Money
Prices for the Asus E410 start from £249/$299. You can currently buy it from Amazon UK, Argos, and Currys in the UK. In the US you can purchase it from Amazon US and Best Buy.
Laptops at this price usually make big compromises when it comes to performance, but this device from Asus doesn’t. If you can get past the slightly odd design, it is a compelling choice.
If you’d like something a little flashier then there’s the Jumper EZbook X3 Air, which is much slimmer and has a brighter display.
As the Asus E410 is advertised primarily as a cloud device, you could also consider a Chromebook such as the Lenovo IdeaPad 3. The design is slightly more refined – though you will be trading the Windows ecosystem for Google.
You can take a look at how rivals compare in our list of the best budget laptops, and our picks of the best laptops overall.
Verdict
The Asus E410 is no doubt a competitive choice when it comes to budget laptops. The decent battery life, responsive performance and lightweight feel all tick the right boxes for a device that will get you through the basic tasks.
However, the odd rear design, numerical keypad and dim screen may be off-putting for some. If you can get over these niggles, then this is one to consider – especially if you’re a student who is in need of a laptop to take to lectures.
Specs
- Windows 10 Home
- 14in (1920 x 1080) Full HD screen
- Intel Celeron N4020 dual-core processor
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB storage
- Intel UHD Graphics 600
- Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
- Bluetooth 4.1
- 325 x 217 x 18 mm
- 1.3kg
- Built-in speakers
- 1x USB-C port
- 2x USB-A port
- 1x DC charging pin
- MicroSD card slot
- Headphone jack
- 1x HDMI port
- VGA built-in webcam with privacy shutter
- Built-in microphone with Cortana support
- Microsoft 365 included
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