The $299 ASUS EeeBook E403SA runs Windows 10, is designed to take on Chromebooks

By Harish Jonnalagadda
published

Set to retail later this year for $299, the EeeBook E403SA is designed to go head to head with similarly-priced Chromebooks.

Although targeted at the entry-level segment, the EeeBook E403SA shares design commonalities with the manufacturer's more premium offerings. When it comes to the hardware, the notebook sports a 14-inch display, an Intel Pentium processor, 2GB RAM and 32GB SSD along with a 13-hour battery life, with the specs matching those on offer with several Chromebooks. What sets the EeeBook E403SA spart is that it runs Windows 10 out of the box, allowing users access to a wider range of content.

The EeeBook E403SA will be hitting store shelves sometime in Q3 2015. With Lenovo also announcing the entry-level Ideapad 100 last week, it is clear that Windows OEMs are looking to sieze a chunk of the market share away from Chromebooks this year.

Source: Blogging Windows

Harish Jonnalagadda
Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia for Android Central, Windows Central's sister site. When not reviewing phones, he's testing PC hardware, including video cards, motherboards, gaming accessories, and keyboards.

51 Comments
  • Who would buy a Chromebook if this is available?
  • If they prefer chrome os
  • Nobody prefers chrome os. It is literally just google chrome.
  • Android fanboys probably
  • they all use windows PCs  :D
  • People who like being told they installed an app, then opening it to find a web shortcut.
  • Apps in ChromeOS are just web shortcuts and nobody bats en eye. YouTube app in Windows Phone is a web shortcut and everyone loses their minds.
  • Finally saw a Chromebook in store the other day. Worthless device. Just a portable web browser. Worthless without the internet.
  • Can use chroots to run Linux distros though. Not totally worthless if you are given one etc.
  • Most have tiny internal storage though.
  • This ^ If Chromebooks came with HDD instead of SSD they would be more popular since you could get a Chromebook with 512GB or 1TB of storage and you could easily use Crouton and Ubuntu Linux. But most Chromebooks with 32GB of storage are useless devices. Jusy my 2 cents.
  • Let me get those Llinux commands over to grandma.
  • Couldn't agree more. You can't store anything on them, and hell just for fun, I plugged in a thumbdrive with a few mp4 videos, and it couldn't play any of them!! I updated it, looked in the store for a plugin, but nope, after 2 hours, it does not play video files! How retarded is that? So it literally is just a locked down web browser....
  • Actually chrome books are really useful, especially in the cold Artic. Doesn't let even one paper slip out in the furious wind. (You know, it is a good paperweight!)
  • Since they will be able to run Android apps that are fully featured today just like Windows Universal apps, it makes sense. Only missing high end programs like AutoCAD, PhotoShop for me, which I'm pretty sure will be there in the future. PC games?, I love them, but I don't mind playing less. (Although console-like games can be more fun) :) then the 16GB of RAM Google Pixel Chromebook will make even more sense.
    No Google doesn't sleep. You need to read other tech news, not just Windows Central.
  • OK, i see what your saying, but how well will Android apps run on top of Chrome OS? - the developer tie in on chrome for ARC WELDER is buggy, and slow as $hit..........If your goal is to run Android apps on a laptop, wouldnt it just be better to run Android on the laptop?  Keep on defending it.....just like we all defend Windows Phones...........We love our Windows phones, and wonder why others dont try it......fact of the matter is, they are both destined for low market shares going into the immediate future....I guess, if all you do is web browse, sure, it has a place for those people, but for everybody else that needs actual software, laptops like these will fly with Windows 10 on it.  A tiny 8" Dell Venue 8 tablet is silky smooth with 10130 tech preview installed - I highly recommend you give it a try.
  • I'm sure Google will make it work. I'm saying that we shouldn't deny that competition will be there in a matter of a time.
    I'm just one of those guys who doesn't defend either, just being objective about it instead of subjective. In the start I was like "Why the @@@@ would I use a Chrome?", but today they are aiming higher. Although I'm keeping my hands on Windows.
  • People buy Chromebooks to avoid viruses, and instead get malware from the Chrome store.
  • I still haven't met one person who has a chromebook, and they are only being bought in the US...60-70% sales and the rest spread out around the world.
  • Actually its more like 1%. Press figures are miss leading quoting figures for the education channel.
  • I think he's saying that 70% are in the US and the other 30% are throughout the rest of the world
  • I've met two.
  • Chromebooks suck, to be honest I'd rather get an android computer than a chromebook
  • Aren't they the same thing, a laptop with Android apps?!
  • Nooo they are not the same
  • They do not have access to any Android apps.
    They just have access to the Chrome web store -- which is available to Windows users in its entirety via their web browser :)
    (Just why anyone would use Chrome these days is beyond me though. You're plugging yourself into the Google machine, whilst also getting battery life drain & v.v.poor high def video playback. A 720p video in Chrome stutters for me where it plays fluidly at 1080p in IE!)
  • no, only web apps :D
  • Yes, even an Android tablet is a million times more functional than a Chromebook. The only reason to own a Chromebook is a fundamental hatred of all things Microsoft. Stupidity. Even the Chrome store is available on Windows.
  • If it wasn't because of windows, chrome wouldn't even exist.
    I don't know the market share of OSX, but I know is way more less than Windows, so, the only reason that people knows Chrome is because of Windows.
    Google needs windows, the other way around is about to end.
  • But first, can I comment about the article to Whitespace/ad ratiio? The artciel to ad/whitespace ratio is severly unbalanced
  • Chromebooks are awful. I had to use one the other week and it was not good. Hope this does well
  • Chromebooks are *perfect* for the type of people who live in Google's ecosystem (use their services), since Google doesn't produce much thick client software, anyways, all they need is a Google's Web browser - Chrome - to get a 1st class user experience for all of those services. To be very frank, there isn't much you can do with a Windows Tablet or PC with 32GB Storage and 2GB RAM.  Anything demanding will be quite limited due to the RAM and underpowered CPUs, and the storage is a serious limitation since you have to perform too many work-arounds to not run out of storage if you're installing anything considered a serious package on those hard drives.  Office is like 3GB.  Photoshop + Lightroom is probably more than that, etc.  There is just not much you can do, unless you try to limit yourself to the Web, but Microsoft's Web Services aren't as developed as Google's (but their Desktop Software, is clearly better).
  • On the business side, Microsoft's Web services are far ahead of Google's.
  • Perfect competition to HP Stream. X205 against HP Steam 11 and X403 against Stream 13
  • Totally in love with the streams! Esp the x360 one.
  • From what I gathered on the recent the verge chrombook review video, intel pentium sounds underpowered. If the screen matches that underpowered quality, I think it could be a poor experience. Otherwise yes, I could easily be a competitor to the chromebook. But otherwise the price is almost a nobrainer to compete with chromebook.
  • Actual SSD or eMMC? If it's SSD, I'll take two please.
  • Never mind. I just checked the quoted Source for the article, and it's eMMC. Quite how that got converted to SSD on Windows Central is strange. Either way, cancel that order please.
  • I have the x205 and it's a great little machine except the keyboard which is a horrible experience. Space between keys, never again.
  • Wow
  • Chrome OS is B.S
  • Microsoft is simply butthurt with google and trying to take market away from them, this needs to happen more often because everyone wins.
  • 13 hour battery! Now, that's something
  • alternatively you can also install windows on your chromebooks (just in case you were stupid enough to buy one ) :D
  • Interesting that ASUS designs, makes, sells, and sorts supports devices built around ChromeOS while their CEO disparages Windows Phone. It can't be a market share issue as Windows Phones sales absolutely dwarf ChromeOS sales. I wonder why ASUS doesn't have a similar or worse attitude toward ChromeOS as they do Windows.
  • Windows Phone is going to have a comeback in 2016 after Android/iOS apps get working on WIndows Phone using the new compiler tools from Micrsoft. Big developers like Facebook, Snapchat, Mozilla, Yahoo, etc can bring their apps to WP without code changes, this will be huge and will change OEMs and carriers attitude towards the WP platform. The reason 500 million users use Instagram, about 300 million use Snapchat and having these users outside the WP ecosysem due to developers not interested in supporting this platform has been in my opinion the most difficult isue to deal with. I've seen thousands of WP users angry on the store because Instagram is still in Beta, or Facebook messenger doesn't allow voice calling, and a lot of similar rage comments on other popular mobile apps that are not part of the WP platform.  
  • Regardless of what device it is, this is definitely the year of windows. I'll be buying a new laptop/ desktop this year for sure.
  • Isn't that still a bit expensive to compete with Chromebooks?  I think you can get Chromebooks for about $200 at this point...
  • you can get chromebooks for under $200 at this point. but there's the streams from HP to compete with them, as this has a beefier CPU and more storage (which windows will use up anyways i guess)
  • 2gb of RAM!?I will not be suppressed if I will hear that have Intel Celeron processor
  • No matter if it has SSD or not. Just 32GB totally ruins it. How much will just windows instalation take?