Asus Eee Top ET2203T review

Sasha Muller October 7, 2009

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If technology kept pace with the future depicted by Hollywood’s screenwriters, we’d have long ago wielded the power to control a PC with the flick of the wrist and a flourish of a hand. But, with the arrival of Windows 7, touch control is finally beginning to come of age. The latest all-in-one to hit the Labs – the Asus ET2203T – takes a step towards the future thanks to Microsoft’s latest OS, and aims to blend high-definition entertainment with touch-friendly ease of use.

If your only experience of the Asus Eee Top range is the budget-priced, Atom-powered ET1602, then the first sight of the ET2203T is likely to surprise. The glare of the ET1602’s glossy white case is supplanted by an altogether more demure look: glossy black surrounds the screen and this is complemented by an understated silver trim. If you’re envisaging giving the Asus pride of place in your home, this is one machine that could be easily mistaken for a compact, stylish TV.

The real attraction, however, is the 21.6in touchscreen. Where most of the excitement about Windows 7 stems from its multi-touch support, Asus keeps cost down by opting for a single-touch display. Even before you lay a single finger upon it, however, it grabs the attention. The Full HD panel is bright and contrast is rather good – especially for a touchscreen.

The only serious issue is that the glossy panel and, we presume, the touchscreen layer itself, causes an almighty amount of glare. It’s something that is no doubt compounded by the strip lights in the PC Pro labs, but we spent as much time admiring our own faces as we did the high-definition splendour of Wall-E on Blu-ray.

Get to grips with the ET2203T, though, and it’s enough to win over the most PC-phobic of users. Where Windows Vista’s touch embellishments often left you switching back to the keyboard and mouse, Windows 7 makes it possible to do far more. The Asus’ panel might only be single-touch capable, but browsing the web with it is easy. Windows 7’s on-screen keyboard makes light work of text entry and short emails, and navigating the OS is impressively rapid and responsive.

It’s not that Asus has crammed ridiculously overpowered components into the ET2203T, either. The Core 2 Duo T6500 is nowhere near high-end, but it and the ATI Radeon HD 4570 graphics keep Windows 7 feeling exceptionally light on its feet. Our benchmarks don’t run quite as quickly as they do under Windows Vista but an overall score of 1.03 is still good.

With Asus upgrading final review models to the slightly faster T6600 processor, it won’t be until you move into the realm of seriously heavy multi-tasking or video encoding that you’ll begin to wish for anything faster, and, frankly, that’s not what the ET2203T is designed for.

Stick to the ET2203T’s strengths, though – music, movies, TV, internet and even a bit of gaming for good measure – and it’s in its element. The ATI Radeon HD 4570 graphics chipset doesn’t have enough poke to manage Crysis at Full HD, and at a lower 1,280 x 1,024 and medium settings, a result of 15fps still isn’t quite playable – you’ll need to lower a few effects. It’s not just there for gaming purposes, however; it also steps in to relieve the processor when it comes to Blu-ray decoding duties.

Take your eye off the astoundingly glossy screen and the ET2203T has a few other tricks up its sleeve. Wireless networking stretches to 802.11n speeds, USB ports are plentiful, with two at the side and another four around the back, and there’s a 3-in-1 card reader too. You even get an HDMI input at the rear so you can take advantage of the Asus’ display with an external source such as a games console.

With the likes of HP and Medion readying multi-touch capable All-in-one PCs for the launch of Windows 7, Asus’s single-touch ET2203T might sound a little behind the times. Look at the price, though, and all is forgiven. Blu-ray, a 21.6in Full HD touchscreen and gaming-capable graphics are an alluring combination, and when you factor in the ET2203T’s subtle, stylish charm, the asking price of just £703 begins to sound rather reasonable.