Asus Eee Top ET1602 review

As the only all-in-one touch-screen PC here, Asus’s Eee Top isn’t easy to compare with most of the other systems here, but it’s still a great PC. Like the Eee Box, it has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and runs Windows XP Home edition.

Although XP lacks Vista’s graphical bells and whistles, it’s a solid, stable and well-proven operating system that’s perfectly suited to the Eee’s low-power processor. You can also boot into the lightweight ExpressGate Splashtop Linux (which is stored on the motherboard) in a few seconds to browse the internet.

At the screen’s 1,360×768 resolution, XP’s interface is a little too small to use comfortably with the touch screen, but the Eee Top also comes with a standard keyboard and mouse, so you can use it as you would any normal PC. When you want the benefit of the touch screen, simply switch to Easy Mode, which provides a set of large, cheerful-looking icons for a few popular programs. Easy mode and the touch screen make a particularly rewarding combination if you’re using the computer with kids or as a media player. The onboard Intel graphics are too slow for 3D games. The Realtek on-board audio sounds good through the integrated Denon speakers, and a built-in webcam adds to its family-friendly features.

The Eee Top doesn’t come with any kind of optical drive, so you’ll have to buy an external one if you want to play movies or install software from DVDs. However, its card slot can accept SDHC cards capable of holding up to 32GB of content, which is one way of getting applications and data on your PC. You can also access content stored elsewhere on your network over Draft-N WiFi or Gigabit Ethernet.

The Eee Top is one of the best-value touch-screen PCs available and is remarkably fun to use. It lacks an optical drive and has only a 160GB hard disk, but it’s an effective media player, home PC and interactive toy. It’s quite expensive at £430, though, and Novatech’s Ion Home PC Bundle offers more for less.