Asus ET2701INTI review

With its huge 27in touchscreen, the Asus ET2701INTI is an awe-inspiring all-in-one that looks like it means business. With a price this high we’d expect it to be able to deliver to best performance and compete with a desktop PC.

Fortunately, the spec is top-notch. Our review sample came with a 3.1GHz Intel Core i7-3770S processor and 8GB of RAM, and the ET2701INTI scored 98 overall in our multimedia benchmarks, meaning that it’s pretty much the same speed as our reference desktop computer. This makes it plenty fast enough for everyday applications, as well as more demanding programs that require multi-threading.

Games performance is also good thanks to the 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 640M GPU. It’s a mid-range chip, so it couldn’t run our Crysis 2 and Diret Showdown tests on Ultra Quality settings at 1,920×1,080, but playable frame rates are easy to achieve. We managed 47.32fps in Dirt Showdown by switching to our laptop settings, which run at High Quality settings at 1,280×720.This makes it perfectly suited to the average gamer’s needs.

We’ve got not complaint about the storage either, with a 2TB hard disk providing plenty of storage space. No matter how big your media collection or the number of games you install, filling a hard disk of this size is going to take some time.

As you can’t upgrade an all-in-one’s display, the quality of it is important. While 27in is large, the resolution of 1,920×1,080 is a little disappointing, as you can buy similarly-priced computers with a resolution of 2,560×1,440. That said, Full HD is still plenty of resolution and the same as a Blu-ray film, so we can’t complain too much.

Should you want to watch films, there’s an integrated Blu-ray drive. You won’t necessarily need external speakers, as the integrated speakers to do them justice. They’re quite loud and clear, and have a reasonable amount of bass. You can improve bass with the optional Asus subwoofer that connects to the side of the PC.

We were slightly disappointed by the screen’s image quality. Our solid colour image tests were very bright and vivid, but they lacked a bit of warmth and richness. Our high contrast images bore similar results, with colours appearing slightly washed out and faded. Contrast can be adjusted using the Asus ET2701INTI’s touch-control menu, but we couldn’t improve the screen quality to match that of the best all-in-ones.

Asus has fitted a 10-point multi-touch screen, which means it’s ideally suited to Windows 8’s new interface and apps. With Windows 8 built for touch, having a touchscreen actually makes sense and you’ll probably find the touchscreen surprisingly useful.

As all-in-one’s go, its design is very traditional. The screen can’t fold flat like its smaller cousin, the Asus ET2300IUTI, but it has an elegant stand with enough forwards and backwards tilt to help you find the most comfortable viewing angle.

It has a wide range of ports, but it’s a bit annoying that they’re concealed on the left hand side by an ugly plastic lid. We would have much preferred to have them in plain sight rather than hidden behind a cheap bit of plastic, as it detracts from its overall design.

Under the lid, you’ll find two USB3 ports, a single USB2/eSATA combo port, a three-in-one card reader, separate headphone, microphone, and 3.5mm audio line out jacks, as well as the 2.5mm subwoofer line out.

Around the back it’s a bit simpler, with two USB2 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and VGA and HDMI inputs for connecting external devices, such as a games console, and using the all-in-one as a monitor. There’s also a TV co-axial input, which you can use with the built-in TV card and ArcSoft TV software to turn the all-in-one in to a Freeview TV and PVR.

It’s still a shame that Windows Media Center doesn’t ship with Windows 8 as standard, as its excellent interface and EPG is the best we’ve seen for managing TV on a computer. If you want Media Center you’ll have to shell out £50 for the privilege.

The Asus ET2701INTI’s bundled wireless mouse and keyboard aren’t too bad. We found the mouse was a little too small to be completely comfortable, but the Chiclet-style keyboard was very responsive and gave plenty of tactile feedback.

The Asus ET2701INTI is an excellent all-in-one PC, with a very powerful processor and the ability to cope with the latest games. It’s also a great size for a desktop replacement, but the excellent Dell XPS One 27 Dell XPS One 27 is just as fast and has a higher resolution screen. It’s more expensive, but we think it’s worth the extra.