Asus Eee Slate EP121 review

The case keeps all four edges uncovered, leaving plenty of room to access the buttons on the top edges (when in landscape mode) for power, locking the rotation and bringing up the onscreen keyboard. On the left edge sit a volume rocker and mini-HDMI output, along with a card slot for SD and MMC formats, two USB 2 ports and a 3.5mm input and output audio socket. And the whole thing is built to extremely high quality, with Gorilla glass on the front and a very solid rear that feels like it will last.

If all this sounds like a glowing review, there are some issues. The first you’ll notice is the cooling fan, which whirs at full speed all the time, even on an idle desktop. The cooling vent is along the top edge, and although it never got uncomfortably hot during our testing, we’re concerned at how easy it is to partially block the airflow by flipping the case closed. The case doesn’t cover the USB ports but plastic flaps do, and we found plugging anything in required disconcerting force.

Then there’s the screen. While it’s bright, perfectly responsive and boasts excellent viewing angles, the colours are muted. We measured a good 288cd/m2 maximum brightness, but the uncalibrated Delta E of 6.3 is merely average, and it’s a bit off in its reproduction of greens and reds. Properly calibrated, it improved, but this is no professional IPS monitor.

Finally, it lasted just 3hrs 40mins in our light-use web browsing battery test, which is the trade-off for having the power to run full applications. If you’re editing video, don’t expect it to last more than one and a half hours on a single charge.

These are weak points, granted, but the Asus’ biggest problem isn’t its design: it’s Windows. In the consumer space, and as a tablet OS, Windows 7 still doesn’t cut the mustard. And, furthermore, the other question is whether graphics professionals wouldn’t be better served by pairing an Apple Macbook Pro 13 with a Wacom graphics tablet. The Eee Slate EP121 remains as desirable as Windows 7 tablets come, but ultimately it’s held back by Windows’ lacklustre touch experience.