Asus EeeTop ET2010PNT review

The rest of the specification is well rounded. There’s 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 500GB hard disk and a DVD writer alongside Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11bgn wireless. The specification is packed into an attractive chassis too. The glossy black plastic and impressive fit and finish mean it won’t look out of place in trendy living rooms.

Asus has given the new EeeTop an impressive screen too: at 20in across and with a native resolution of 1,600 x 900 it’s larger than the Dell’s panel, and proved just as accurate and responsive as the Inspiron during our touchscreen tests. We also noticed that the mottled finish across the strengthened screen wasn’t as prominent here as it is on rival touch machines.

It’s just a shame Asus hasn’t furnished its system with much software. A discreet dock at the top of the screen gives way to basic note-taking software and other applications already included with Windows 7, but there’s little to compare to Dell’s impressive radial interface. The Intel Atom processor doesn’t help either; applications took an age to load, and with more than one open we found the OS became sluggish.

The picture itself also isn’t without issues. While detail is sharp enough and backlight bleed is avoided, the panel isn’t bright enough. As a result, accurate colours still end up looking dull and lifeless. The screen is glossy, too, which proved irritating during darker scenes in our test clips and 3D benchmarks.

Finally, the speakers do little to endear themselves to media fans. There’s little bass, treble is merely average, and they’re not loud at all. At top volume we struggled to hear quiet moments of dialogue from a couple of feet away.
The final nail in the EeeTop’s coffin is its price. At £518 exc VAT it’s £51 more expensive than the more conventional Dell, but offers few benefits aside from Nvidia Ion’s marginally improved graphical performance. The Inspiron, with its brighter screen and stronger specification, is still a better bet if you’re searching for a budget touchscreen PC.