ASUS Vivobook Go 12 L210 11.6′ Ultra-Thin Laptop, 2022 Version, Intel Celeron N4020, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC, Win 11 Home in S Mode with One Year of Office 365 Personal, L210MA-DS02

I’m giving this little engine that could five stars. Why? Well, it’s two hundred dollars. So i’m reviewing it as a two hundred dollar product. If i was comparing it to a macbook air m1, it would probably be three stars. If i was comparing it to a microsoft surface, three and a half. But it’s a small, budget laptop, and in that category, it’s excellent.

Quick rundown – it blows my mind how good of a job they did with this. I’ve used a lot of computers, and this one impresses me. If you’ve ever had a chromebook, or even just a cheap (or perhaps even more expensive) laptop you’ll feel the difference immediately. It has a few issues, none of which are deal breakers, but it has many, many pros. Read on.

Pros —
incredible price to performance ratio
very well built, with no cheap parts
full-size, comfortable keyboard
small and lightweight
good design (add stickers if it’s a little too plain for you)
full windows 10 license, and no hardwired bloatware
internal nvme slot and external sd card slot
i could keep going… It’s $200.

Cons —
no backlight keyboard (at least on the 11.6 model)
some irksome viewing angle problems
maddeningly little built in storage
almost too little ram
realtek wifi card (explained why in the ‘linux’ section)

i’ve divided the review into individual sections: webcam, speakers, performance, software, etc, so scroll down to the one that’s most important to you, or read the review from top to bottom. They are (in order):

introduction (above)
weight & build
keyboard and trackpad
screen
battery
performance (including gaming)
webcam
speakers & sound
software
linux
other (sd card slot, nvme slot, hdmi output, heating, cleaning)
conclusion

let me start with a few disclaimers. First, i’ve only been using it for a few weeks, which is about enough time to get a good sense of its mettle and iron out any problems it has. There’s been a few things i’ve noticed that i’ve added to this review, (see ‘performance’ and ‘screen’) and i’ll add more if more arise. No problem has been significant enough that it made me in any way wonder if it was worth. $200 is a really good price point.

The second disclaimer, is there’s a few reviewers saying either a, they got a dud, or b, it clunked out on them after two years. Duds happen, with any product, this is no exception. So if mine does decided to go on the fritz, i’ll update my review relative to the exchange process – i won’t deduct stars *just* because it gave out. Second, if you get two years of solid use out of this, it’s a good product. Just buy another one.

With that being said, let me get into the details.

Weight and build – this is one of its greatest strengths, and rivals many laptops in higher price ranges. There’s no creaks, no cheap plastic waiting to shatter, it’s not a flimsy toy. It’s a solid electronic. It feels right, in your hands, on your lap, on a desk. So many laptops try and woo you with larger screens or better specs [or, for the life of me, a lower price tag], and turn out to be cup coasters you have to plug in. Not this. It really feels like it has some life in it.

It’s not obscenely light, like a macbook air, but you can move about and use it on your lap without strain. If traveling’s your kind of thing, then the weight is sufficient. I would feel comfortable carrying it through an airport.

The screen hinge feels durable and like it won’t be breaking anytime soon, and when you set it at the position you like, it stays. The laptop isn’t super-ultra-mega thin, but it is thin, and that’s a nice bonus. You could probably fit it in an envelope, just maybe a slightly larger envelope then the one steve jobs used.

Keyboard and trackpad – the keyboard, i’m in love with. It’s full size; no cramping on tiny keys or accidentally presses. The give is decisive and gratifying, and it just feels good to use. The keyboard is actually the one (literally, the only one) thing i feel they cut a little too close to the corner on. There’s no backlight. It appears as those some of the models have a backlight, though i’m not sure, but mine doesn’t. (i got the 11.6 model). This can be a little frustrating, and i’m considering getting a book light so i can type in the dark. Again, this is a two hundred dollar laptop, so it is what it is. I’ll make due.

Another note, is they put the ‘delete’ key right next to the power key. Shucks. A few times, i’ve gone to press the delete key, and the computer goes into sleep mode. This is more of an inconvenience than anything. Just press the power button again and it will start right back up where you left off. Still, if you’re doing sensitive work, it’s something to consider, and i’m sure you’ll learn very quickly to be cautious.

Also, the ‘enter’ key is green. I thought this was strange, but i really like it. Hard to explain.

The trackpad is responsive and that click is also decisive and gratifying. I don’t have any issues accidentally pressing it while i’m typing, and it’s very good at doing what i expect it to. If i click or tap, the mouse clicks. If i click on the right, it right clicks. Scrolling is painless and intuitive and very nuanced. The numpad on the keyboard is a nice touch, though i would have traded it for a backlit keyboard.

Screen – going back to where we started, this is a two hundred dollar laptop. You’re not getting an apple retina display. It has some minor viewing angle problems you’ll have to accommodate for. If you’re looking directly at it, everything looks good – pure colors, no whitening. If you turn it horizontally or bend the screen back, there’s a noticeable change in tone. It is what it is, and it likely won’t interfere with your work. Just don’t do color grading for professional photoshoots on it.

The screen resolution is just right. The screen is small, but there’s enough room to do what you want and then some. This is one of the most significant factors in comfort. If it were cramped, it would give you a headache and strain your eyes. But they did a good job of making sure there’s some breathing room with a healthy buffer zone around whatever it is you’re focusing on. You feel like you can move and engage in multiple things.

There’s a few reviews complaining it’s not a touch screen. You can’t please everyone. It’s not something i feel is missing, especially for $200.

Battery – the battery life is on point. The time remaining windows estimates seems to vary quite a bit, but i watched two movies and used it for 4 hours, and still had 17%. It’s the kind of thing you can charge at night and it will last you the day under normal conditions. It also doesn’t have quick charge, another little cut corner, but i’m not stressing about it. Then again, i’m around a power outlet most of the time. If quick charge is an issue for you, you’re in the wrong price point.

Side note: the charging port really plugs in. You have to give it a little oomph to pull it out. Which can be a pro and a con. You definitely don’t want to trip on the cord; the whole thing will go flying off the table. But you can reposition the device without having to worry about the cord falling out.

Performance – this is actually one of its biggest strengths, and really surprised me. All the components come together to create a seamless experience. I was nervous about the odd named intel processor (n6 something something) but it turns out, it’s actually an intel celeron. And only four gigs of memory? Doesn’t seem like quite enough. But it somehow manages to muscle out the minimum, and have some left over. My guess is, this is largely due to the ssd. Just a few years ago, laptop manufacturers had two options for storage: a physical hard drive, which was expensive, bulky, and a power drain, or some sort of memory like a thumb drive. Both were slow and huge bottle necks.

Well, this thing has a solid state drive. And that makes all the difference. With a decent processor, just enough memory, and the ssd, it will breeze through any routine task you ask it to do: open microsoft word, surf the web, torrent files, play music, and it will do it all without a hitch. Performance, under reasonable conditions, should never be a problem: you’ll never feel a pause or get frustrated.

I love the original warhammer: 40k: dawn of war series. This plays it effortlessly, even with mods. Which is very welcomed. I can imagine it can also play sins of a solar empire, age of empires, among us, terraria, and maybe even minecraft, if that’s your kind of thing. Check out gog.com (great old games) and you’ll be surprised at what’s out there. If you are planning to do some light gaming, the nvme slot will really come in handy.

Important edit: after using it for some weeks, the lack of ram is starting to become an issue. Windows has done a good job managing memory, but even day-to-day tasks can overwhelm it. This expresses itself as stalled applications, dropped chrome tabs, or even system notifications that the system has run out of memory. It did reach a significant error, though – everything went black, and after a reboot, windows wanted to help set up my system (which is a big error.) luckily everything was intact, my files, settings and programs. So it’s just kind of a startling headache.

I was running a few programs, nothing too demanding. So if you’re planning on using this for anything more then spotify and chrome, be forewarned.

Webcam – the webcam is about what you would expect. It’s a hefty 0.3 megapixels, but there aren’t any dropped frames, and the color processing is alright. If you need a webcam on the fly, it’ll due. If you use a webcam for any serious purposes, i would suggest investing in a nice one, which you were probably going to do anyway. The device will be able to handle it without issue.

Of special note, is the microphone, which is actually great. Audio comes through clear and audible, distinct and focused. If you do find yourself in a situation where you have to use the onboard webcam, the video quality won’t be great, but you won’t have any problem being heard and understood.

Speakers & sound – the speakers are placed under the device, pointing directly down. You would think this would make them impossible to hear, but it projects and doesn’t distort the sound. I’ve watched a few movies, and haven’t had an issue hearing them – it gets plenty loud. I’m a bit of an audiophile, (though there are many more advance then i), and what i can say about these speakers is they’re passable. They’re not so bad that you’re getting irked with the sound quality, but they’re not so good you would enjoy beethoven’s 5th. The various aspects of sound – the bass, and whatever else the other parts are called, are balanced and clear.

If you’re using it for casual media use, the lackluster sound quality will fade into the background and you’ll be able to enjoy whatever it is you’re doing.

The headphone amplifier is decent and it appears they didn’t skimp on it. I tested it with a pair of sony mdr7506s (which are one-for-one studio monitors with a higher than average impedance.) the amplifier didn’t quit reach optimal levels, but it produced clear and pleasing sound. (and it does have a nice kick to it.) for an onboard amplifier, it’s more then adequate. If you’re a real audiophile and use an external amplifier, the primary factor to consider is if the sound it’s putting out can be boosted, and it definitely can.

Software – there’s a few pieces of bloatware you’ll want to uninstall. Mcafee, skype, myasus. (if you don’t know what bloatware is, ask the techy in your family to remove it for you.) fortunately, none of them are hard coded into the software or hardware, so uninstalling them is straight forward and simple and can be done through ‘add or remove programs.’ the laptop does come in windows s mode (which is suppose to be a simpler version of windows, but has some bothersome limitations for power users.) they made it extremely easy to convert into regular windows 10. I clicked a button once and haven’t had to worry about it since: full windows 10.

Linux – i’m not a super user when it comes to linux. I do know enough to install and use it on a day-to-day basis, and for low-performance computers like this one, linux is tantalizing. Unfortunately, the wifi card in the system [as of 11/19/21] doesn’t work with linux and there doesn’t seem to be any support on the horizon. Most people who need or prefer linux have taken to using a usb wifi antenna, an untenable inconvenience for most. Some people have been reporting switching out the nic entirely, but i don’t know enough to speak about that.

Other – what i find really helpful is the sd card slot. The 64 gigs of storage it comes with goes really quick. I like to watch, uh, documentaries in public domain (like ‘joker’ with joaquin phoenix). It’s amazingly simple to plug in an sd card (i got a 256gb one for $45), set up utorrent to load all the unfinished and finished torrents onto the card, and that solves the whole problem. Just about any sd card you buy will be fast enough to download movies and play one at the same time.

Other reviewers have pointed out it comes with a slot for an nvme ssd. If you don’t know what that is, it probably doesn’t make much of a difference. If you do, it’s a very helpful addition. Hooray.

It has tons of ports, which is great. Two usb ports, a usb-c port, the above mentioned sd card slot, an auxiliary port, and an hdmi port. I’ve used the hdmi port on a full screen tv, and it works for watching a movie. The quality of the movie file will make a difference – but the sound compression changes that are necessary with downloaded media [generally done through vlc] help a lot. It’s not blu-ray, but performance doesn’t seem to be affected by what’s happening in a scene or the amount of sound.

If you’re planning on using this for presentations, it’s exactly what you want. Plug, play ‘n forget.

During normal, unplugged, use you wouldn’t be able to tell that it’s turned on just by the heat. If you’re running a process-intensive program or have it plugged in, it does heat up, but that’s normal. You can use it on your lap without a worrying. I don’t see heating being an issue. It’s also fanless, which is a big deal if you live in a dusty environment. You won’t slowly be running it into the ground just by using it, listening to the fan whir louder and louder as it tries to compensate for all the dust.

Side note: if it overheats, it’ll just turn off. It won’t hurt it.

I like to take good care of my computers, so ease of cleaning matters to me. Being fanless, that alleviates a lot of of the issues you would come across. Still, you can’t access behind the keyboard, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. You might be able to remove each key and clean it out, which would go a long way, but i wouldn’t try it without doing some research and carefully weighing the benefits and risks.

Either way, do yourself a favor: buy a small pack of q-tips, a little bottle of house hold cleaner (pinesol works well), and lens clothes, and throw them in the bag or case you’re carrying the laptop in. Occasionally go over the keyboard with the q-tips and wipe down the exterior, and the lens cloth will come in handy a lot more then you think. I don’t know if it will necessarily add to the life of the machine, but it will feel a lot better. And it’s worth taking some pride in your devices.

Conclusion – the bottom line is, is it feels good to use. Everything from the keyboard to the performance to the build quality makes it a very enjoyable and complete experience: there’s nothing really lacking that will get in your way. It’s spectacular for day-to-day use, and it’s got a little muscle to it. For $200, you’re getting a real product, and it even has something to say to higher end laptops. If you decide to go with this, i think you’ll be very pleased.

I’ve recently taken up 3d printing and saving files to an sd card on my 8 yr old laptop with a broken screen was a pain. I like this lil laptop. It’s been pretty easy to use. I did take it back to the windows 10 because thats what i’m used to using and so much easier to use and navigate. I use this asus laptop for my 3d model searching, slicing 3d model’s in several apps, i was able to connect it to 1 of my 3d printers and successfully printed model’s, i’ve used it for my cricut machine with design space. I’ve used it to watch amazon prime, netflix, and youtube videos (i do have to connect a bluetooth speaker). I’ve done file transfers from my phone to the laptop. I would not say this is a gaming laptop, but my son did try it out for a couple of games and liked it. It does not have a touch screen, which is a disappointment. It charges fairly quickly and holds a charge for a long time. 1 issue with the built in number pad in the mouse pad, it keeps turning on and then can’t get it to turn off for a while. It’s pretty touchy. It is very lightweight and portable. Something a college student could fit into a backpack.

It’s a minimal computer as the price should state. But it’s what i needed. Small, lightweight and in great condition. I had an older model where the internet card died and it is easier to buy an updated model that try use work around.

I bought this machine because i was looking for a small, inexpensive machine with good battery life to use for writing and media consumption when travelling, without having to worry much about it being damaged, broken or stolen.

This laptop comes with a 64gb emmc disk which is small and not very fast. I bought an m.2 ssd to add to this laptop as the primary disk (i bought a western digital sn550 ssd). To add the m.2 ssd, you have to remove the ten screws at the bottom of the laptop (there are two different lengths of screw, so mark the holes with the longer screws when removing). Removing the bottom cover is a bit tricky because it is very tight – start at a corner and insert plastic credit card or similar into the gap, then pull the credit card around the seam to pop off the clips (the trick is to not push the credit card too far into the seam, or it will get caught. Insert it only a tiny bit into the seam and it will glide easily). Once you have removed the bottom cover the place to insert the ssd is labelled on the motherboard. You just push it in, then add a single screw to secure it. The screw doesn’t ship with the ssd usually, but if you need one you can buy a kit for a few dollars – search for ‘m.2 mounting screws’ and you can get a kit with screws and screwdriver in the correct size, which can also be used to remove the case screws.

Once you’ve added the ssd, it won’t appear in windows until you’ve formatted it in disk manager, which you can open by searching for ‘disk’ in start menu and hitting ‘create and format hard disk partitions’.

Once formatted, you can use it as a regular disk, but for best performance, reinstall windows on the ssd. To do that, create windows 10 installation media – search google for ‘create installation media for windows’ then follow instructions. You’ll need a usb drive that’s 8gb or bigger.

Once you’ve created installation media, install windows on ssd (hit f2 when booting laptop to get into bios to select startup disk). Drivers are available from asus site (search ‘asus l210 drivers’ then hit ‘support’). Windows will automatically find the digital license for your machine and activate.

Running on the ssd, performance for the machine is very good considering the price. Processor is fast enough to watch 4k youtube videos, should you wish to. Keyboard is fine-to-good. Touchpad is ok – good considering price. Speakers are not great, but good enough for watching youtube and as good as i would expect for this price and size. There is no backlit keyboard but that’s not something i care about. Screen is fine, good for price. Overall build quality feels very good compared to other units in this price range. Machine feels light.

Battery life is excellent – using windows 10 ‘battery saver’ mode (activate by pressing speech bubble in bottom right of task bar then hitting battery save) i routinely get 12 hours or more with normal usage and medium brightness, which is really excellent for the price in my opinion.

If you want a small, cheap machine with very good battery life and decent performance, and you are willing to add the m.2 ssd, this is a great choice.

You might think that only 4 gb for a windows 10 laptop that cant expand the ram is a bad idea… Well, i’ve found this small laptop is actually fine, even quick for internet browsing, email, word processing and watching videos. Sure, the keyboard is smaller, but even with large hands, i had no trouble typing…

Obviously, this is not a good choice for gaming or video editing work. Battery life is very good for the intended basic uses; not apple ipad good; but should give you at least 6+ hours for the basics…

It does have a micro sd slot, in addition to the 2 usb ports.

While you can’t expand the ram, you can also expand the storage with an internal nvme stick.

This is a great idea as it noticeably speeds up the computer if you make it the boot drive. I added a 500gb samsung 980 nvme stick and am very pleased with the results.

Having read about issues with the samsung magician cloning software, and difficulties in making a boot drive change work well on this laptop; let me tell you what worked well for me…

Ordered the samsung nvme stick, along with a $15 external usb enclosure for this type of chewing gum stick size drive. Downloaded the free version of easeus partition master software to clone the built in asus l210 drive. Loaded the new stick in the external drive enclosure, connected the drive with a usb cable to a usb slot on the asus, and followed the directions to clone the asus c drive. Opened the asus and inserted the samsung stick into the open nvme slot. Pressed power button holding down f2 key to get into bios.

Change the boot order to start with the nvme stick. Save and exit. Booting then detected issues with windows, so choose to download and install a new, clean copy of windows 10. ( if you do this right after you have received the asus, then you don’t have any reason to save data or settings on this windows clean install. You don’t yet have any personal data to save.) when windows is finished with the reinstall, make sure to do your windows updates.

After that is done, use disk management tool to reformat the original drive, and resize the partitions on the new nvme drive to what is available.

Now your little, inexpensive laptop is faster, with plenty of drive space. Certainly one of the better values you can get in a very portable size, great for traveling when you may not want to carry a larger, more expensive laptop. Screen quality is very good, and the asus has a full size hdmi out for easy video sharing. Definitely recommended for the price point and its intended use.

I bought t high is laptop to write letters and longer articles on. I am very pleased that it has the capacity to stream sports events. It is a great bargain for the price

If you’re working within the limitations of this platform, then there’s really nothing to complain about.

It’s an excellent throw-in-a-bag-and-go laptop. No bells and whistles (except the numpad/mousepad), excellent battery life, and a surprisingly robust plastic chassis. One charge usually gets about 10 hours of useful life, and that’s without extreme battery saving settings in use.

The num-/mouse-pad is great. The caveat to that is that it’s mostly useless unless you have an external mouse, or are only using it in spreadsheets. Having to toggle between functionality makes it mostly useless, otherwise. But (!!) it does give you a one-hand numpad, which is unheard of in other laptops this size, so that’s pretty incredible in its own right.

It should go without saying: unless you’re talking about solitaire or minesweeper, you shouldn’t be trying to game on this thing. That’s not what it’s for, that’s not what it’s good at. But for basic productivity, it’s hard to argue with this thing for usability and utility, especially at this price.

I really liked this little machine and for the price, in my opinion is a steal. It is like 20% faster than my mini pc which sports an intel celeron n3450 quad-core. Per my tests with the 64gb emmc included, even windows 10 (v2004) is snappy. I also ran linux on it with no issues, except that the wireless driver needs to be installed manually(tested on mx linux for instance). The sequential reading for the sandisk emmc is 316 mb/s and 154 mb/s writing.

Once i booted up on the windows installed, switched from windows 10 in s mode to windows 10 home for free in the microsoft app store and went ahead and activated the office 365 subscription included for free(1 year). After that, i cleaned up the disk and installed everything from scratch. The drivers can be downloaded from the official asus homepage. I had zero issues with windows 10 20h1(v2004) but when tested version 20h2 (v2009), i had issues with the wifi connection, so left 20h1.

Something interesting on this machine is that there’s an empty slot for adding our own ssd nvme m.2. I didn’t’ test it myself as i didn’t have a spare ssd, but there are a few videos where someone could put in a 1tb ssd.

The bios version included was v302, so one of the first things i did was to update to the latest version v306.

I wish it had a backlit keyboard and an ips screen. That would made it perfect for my needs. It’s also very well built to be a cheap laptop.

Overall, i would buy it again.

[update 2-3-2021]

i installed a 512gb ssd and it worked like a charm. The reading/writing speeds are around 1700/1200 mb/s respectively. I just added a screenshot.

I did a triple boot (windows 10, mx linux and chrome os) using refind and all is working fine.

Edit:

i replaced the wireless card with an intel wifi6 ax200(amazon b07sh6gv5s). This new card does not required me to install drivers at all on windows 10(although intel recommends to install the latest driver version they provide and i did that), linux (kernel 5.8) or chrome os, which it’s a plus for me. Also, tested on windows 10 20h2 and found zero issues. Really happy with it. I almost forgot to say that this ax200 card also support monitor mode.

Very convenient, light and portable with good screen quality. Durable battery life when in use but tends to drain when in shut down. I would recommend for school and probably online work as storage is small.

Me saca de muchos apuros

After many years of using actual netbooks, i was in the market for something the same shape and size after they discontinued the term. I wanted something that was somewhat future proof and wouldn’t crap out after a few windows updates like all of my previous models.

I saw a video review (it is posted on here and elsewhere) and knew this was the netbook for me. The nvme expansion slot plus the sd card reader made this thing elite compared to other models. I popped a 512gb in here and am able to install old video games, my programs, and even a virtual machine or two.

Windows 10 runs flawlessly on this. Bootup times are a breeze. Program loading times can be a bit slow compared to a much higher end model, but for something as light as this, it is incredible how responsive this little engine that can is.

As everyone will tell you, this thing does not game well. It will play games of yesteryear which is exactly what i bought it for, but of course i tested things like left4dead, tower unite, and a few others. Left4dead barely runs on here even at lowest settings. Farm together needs render quality dropped to the bare minimum. I was actually expecting it to run some ut3 engine and source engine games at minimal settings, but it failed horribly. I also noticed in the bios, there is not much wiggle room to throw more memory at the gpu and i think that is where is struggles outside of the already known single channel memory flaw. So if you are looking for the casual game of simcity 2000 or roller coast tycoon, this can handle it, just don’t expect to play anything after the 1990s.

I have not made the jump to windows 11 yet and am a little weary because of the 4gb limitation, but it is constantly reminding me to upgrade so i know that it is fully 11 ready for future proofing.

The numpad seems like a cool idea at first, but i had trouble getting the hang of it and often forget it is even there. I think this is a great feature and may serve a college student who isn’t used to traditional trackpads very well. My old self is just so used to a traditional laptop, i need to train myself to utilize it.

I love this netbook and would definitely buy another one if there is an upgraded model in the future when this one starts showing age. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants something small with decent storage and great response times.

I got this to log my collectibles and maybe make some powerpoint presentations about them. For those uses, it’s acceptable. If you’re looking for a hard working computer keep looking. Obviously it’s not a high powered gaming rig so don’t expect speed or anything, but for basic tasks like running office programs and maybe organizing files it’s sufficient, if a little slow. It’s also small, which was what i was specifically looking for without having chrome os, so it doesn’t have great visuals. But it is clear enough to work with. For what it is, it is great, i took a star off though because it doesn’t hold a charge, even when powered off. I mainly work with it plugged in and always let it get to 100% before i shut it down and unplug it. But it dies after a day or two of being shut off, which makes it forget the wi-fi and it takes a few restarts to get it fixed. I don’t use it daily so i usually leave it powered down, i just wish it would have power when i need it again. So, if you’re looking for a small portable netbook that can run microsoft office programs and do basic things, this isn’t a bad choice for the price, just be ready to work near an outlet.

Note: this review is for those thinking about run a linux distribution like ubuntu.

Ubuntu 21.10 impish indri doesnt detect the realtek wifi adapter that comes with this laptop which is an extremely common problem in the linux world (in fact, i already know because there were reviews here that said they had to rely on a usb wifi adapter). I tried using a usb ethernet adapter to connect to the internet and running [apt update/upgrade] hoping that it will install the correct drivers but no luck. However, even [lspci] doesnt event detect the wifi adapter so i just gave up. I bought a generic wifi adapter carrying the latest intel ax210 for about $40. This new model allows for wifi 6e and bluetooth 5.2 connectivity and i tested this on a windows 10 pro laptop prior to bringing it over to this linux machine so i know that the adapter i bought actually delivered these specs. So then i swapped the realtek with the new intel wifi adapter and reinstalled the same ubuntu version. I had wifi even during setup when i was booting the installer from usb. But after installation, only bluetooth was detected. The solution was to [apt update/upgrade] and restart. Then boom now i have wifi and also bluetooth 5.2 (i didnt include pics but when i ran [hciconfig -a] the version is 5.2) thanks to intel ax210. I didnt need to manually install other drivers – it just worked after a system update.

Note that you have to disable secure boot in the bios/uefi settings for the new wifi adapter hardware to be recognized by the os. This means that the secure boot status should be ‘inactive’ (or something like that). Delete those stored keys if you need to.

So far, i dont have any issues with it running ubuntu. The camera, usb ports, and m.2 ssd slots all work fine. I havent used the bluetooth 5.2 though since no need for it. Also, doing basic computer stuff like web browsing and word processing is not lightning fast but also not slow. It takes a few seconds to open firefox but watching 1080p videos is no problem. I tried running 1 lububtu virtual machine and i didnt have any problems, but it is kinda slow – though tolerable.

Lo único que no me gustó es qué el paquete de oficina estaba caducado y me decía que tenía 1 año gratis, después todo está excelente y el tamaño es muy práctico

I purchased this laptop to use as a spare machine in my consulting practice, and also for use with my ham radio hobby. When i saw the specs on this laptop, followed by the price, i couldn’t help but order one. My key requirements were size, weight, and a decent screen. This little machine fits all of those requirements in spades.

I have been more than impressed with the l210’s performance and features. While it’s definitely not a gaming machine, it’s more than adequate for anyone that needs to do web browsing, office apps, and other non cpu- or memory-intensive tasks.

I’ll start with the cons:
– 4gb ram (non-expandable/soldered in, despite asus page stating otherwise)
– 64gb ssd (easily expandable; i added a 500gb ssd for about $50)
– just adequate screen resolution (1366×768) – fine for most tasks
– non-back lit keyboard (even though the product listing says that it is backlit)
– relatively slow, but adequate intel celeron cpu
– limited usb-c support; cannot charge the laptop via usb-c and it will not support an external usb-c monitor adapter.
– weird 10-key pad on the touch pad. Enabled via a small button on the touch pad; it’s too easy to accidentally turn it on, wreaking havoc when you use the touchpad. No way to permanently disable via bios.
– no touch screen, but not surprising given the price point

all of the above were clearly spelled out in the product description, so none of them were a surprise. And several of them were definitely design decisions, in order to keep the cost down and the battery life high.

Pros:
– amazing battery life. I’ve been seeing 8-11 hours per charge in normal use
– super lightweight and small form factor; 2.3 pounds/1.05kg and very thin
– nice port options. Built-in hdmi, usb-c plus 2 ‘classic’ usb ports
– expandable hard drive via ‘m2’ ssd stick. Took me about 5 minutes and $50 to expand storage by 500gb
– very nice keyboard, rivaling much more expensive laptops
– comes with windows 10 ‘s mode’, easily upgraded to windows 10 home for no charge
– really great price. I had fully expected to have to buy an unknown branded laptop at this price point. Asus is a great brand with a history of providing good support and high-quality products.

In summary, i’m very pleased with this purchase. It fits the bill for my needs perfectly and has fantastic battery life. It weighs less than my ipad pro with folio keyboard and runs full windows 10, including all of the apps that i need it to run.

Of the cons listed above, only the 4gb ram limitation and the lack of a backlit keyboard are major annoyances. That said, this machine supplies all of the functionality that i need as a backup / travel / ham radio laptop. Since i have other machines for video editing / gaming / etc, i don’t need this machine for those tasks.

If you are looking for a nice little laptop for basic office tasks, this is a great choice!

(i forgot to mention that asus is giving me a 90-day warranty extension in exchange for writing this review.)

Assorted colors

My laptop was delivered today — 6/9/2022. Its a real gem in terms of size/weight/excellent screen/speed etc. However there was an unpleasant shock. Without giving me any choice in the matter, a screen announced that the laptop would now download windows 11, which it proceeded to do. I used my desktop to check online and undoing the window 11 back to 10 is supposed to be easy. You have 10 days to try 11 and then you supposedly can go to settings: recover: and find an entry for roll back. Settings and recovery are there but no rollback. I’ll going to try windows 11 for a few days and then try to figure out how to roll back to windows 10 if that’s what i decide. I really really really hate it when a machine dictates an upgrade from one os to another os without giving me any say in the matter.

Could not get touchscreen to work. Number pad doesn’t seem stable. Too easy to
accidentally turn on and off especially while typing.

This computer works fine, but it does not keep a charge overnight. I only use it plugged in.
I only use it for one task once a week. I did not think to return it until the time passed for returns.

This is a great computer for a hobbyist or anyone that just needs to get online, use an office suite, or watch videos. I wanted something small and light weight and asus nails it with the l210. You can’t beat the price and even with upgrades i did, it still cost less than anything with a similar feature set.
Initial setup:
i used the laptop in s mode for a week to see how workable it is. For most people, this will be the best way to run the laptop. It’s plenty fast, boots quickly and still leaves about 29 gb of storage space. Add a micro sd card and change the default storage locations in windows settings if you have a lot of music or documents, and you’re good to go.
As another commenter mentioned, i switched out of s mode and haven’t noticed any slow down yet in performance or battery life, though i’m very good about maintenance.
The screen resolution is basically 720p which i knew would be okay on the small screen, and so far it has been just fine (see cons below for more about the screen)
upgrades:
the computer does in fact have a m.2 2280 slot to which i added a transend 128gb ssd. After formatting with disk manager, the system recognized the ssd and now i have tripled the storage with faster read/write speeds. I set this as the default location to install apps and save documents.
I also replaced the wireless card with an ax200 model to be compatible with most linux distributions and am dual booting with ubuntu 20.10 (ax200 does not work with the initial 21.04 release-fyi). Ubuntu runs just fine from my experience and actually has even better battery life than windows.
Pros:
it’s surprising fast for most tasks
i like the number pad feature in the trackpad
function lock key is nice and i do use it.
M.2 slot included for adding storage
great battery life, even when not in s mode
charges pretty quickly
includes usb type c port (see cons)
cons:
screen is not ips so sometimes when viewed from certain angles, the screen washes out
the web camera is only vga resolution! I knew this going in but i would have paid $5-10 more for a better one built-in
the usb type c port can’t be used for charging or video out (from what i’ve tested), but work great for other peripheral like gigabit ethernet