Touch happiness review - ASUS EeePC T91

    Perhaps you are tired of hamsters and parrots and decided to start houses of the real Transfomer. Not cheap Chinese plastic, but a genuine Taiwanese technological miracle. With the new ASUS Eee PC T91, you can even shame the evil Megatron: he is ashamed to spin and fold as deftly as the T91 can. Our laptop is not familiar with the word "No" - for you it will work in any position. In addition, the T91 screen responds to user touch, and try to touch Megatron! )



    Today, on my desk, I’m not afraid of the word, I found a unique exhibit - the ASUS EeePC T91 netbook with a touch-screen swivel. Traffic

    © Boomburum, 2009, specifically for Trend Club & Habrahabr.ru

    NetbookASUS EeePCT91 - one of the first on the market netbooks equipped with a touch screen. Yes, even in the first model of the netbook, craftsmen managed to insert third-party touch screens, but in this case we are talking about a serial device.
    This time the heart of the netbook was the Intel Atom Z520 processor (made using 45-nanometer technology, clocked at 1.33 GHz and 512KB L2 cache) on the Intel SCH US15W chipset , which in conjunction consume a minimum of energy (total of about 4 watts versus 9 watts at the Intel Atom 270 chipset the Intel 945GSE ). Having a very low heat dissipation, this solution allowed, according to the designers, to do without active cooling.



    Among other things, the chipsetIntel SCH US15W instead of the north and south bridge has only one chip, which allowed to get an additional gain in the size of the motherboard, and therefore in the final size of the device. The developers decided to achieve complete silence of the baby using a 16GB solid state drive. But this is not all the disk space available to the user - another 16GB is available in DiskExpander (in fact, this is the second card reader) and 20GB on the EeeStorage. In total, it turns out no less, as much as 52 hectares.

    The Intel GMA 500 with 8MB of memory is used as a video card in the new product :) To complete the topic about megabytes, I’ll say that we have as many as 1024MB of RAM DDR2 memory.



    The laptop comes preloaded with Microsoft Windows XP Home, non-standard wallpapers of which can be observed on the screen with a diagonal of 8.9 ”and LED-backlight. With the network, everything is as usual - Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi 802.11b / g / n.

    Equipment


    In a small box, in addition to the ASUS EeePC T91 netbook , there are:

     - AC adapter and network cable;
     - User's manual;
     - Case;
     - Disks with software.

    This time the cover is different from those in other trim levels - instead of a zipper, it opens by folding the upper part, like an envelope. There are small leather inserts with the company logo.
    I always read the user manuals, but a lot of useful information is, as it turned out, on the device itself.

    The AC adapter is no different - the usual dimensions and a bright blue LED.

    Appearance


    The netbook has dimensions (in mm) of 225x164x25.2 ~ 28.4, weight with a battery of 960 grams and will be available in two color options - black and white. Both options are made in glossy plastic, which is quite easily soiled. Like all the latest innovations, the case surface is made using ASUS Infusion technology , which gives the case some resistance to inevitable scratches and abrasions. Let me add this: this netbook is smaller than the first “hedgehog 701” in size and weight, but surpasses it in screen size and in almost all other parameters. The T91 can easily be lost on a bookshelf.
    The designer who designed the case decided it in a minimalist way, without departing from geometric primitives. The case of the netbook is rectangular, with clear edges.



    On the lid is the inscription Eee(who does not remember or does not know, this is Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play ), below which is a metal insert with fine grinding; it contains the name of the model and two indicators.



    A metal mechanism is attached to this design, which is responsible for turning the screen around its axis and for tilting it in all directions. The screen does not lean back more than 180 degrees; thus, having two degrees of freedom, the screen can be positioned almost arbitrarily.



    This can be useful for students and schoolchildren - turned it 180 degrees or even put the keyboard under the screen, hid the desks on a shelf and roll it up slowly, roll it up. Fans of reading will also like this design feature - wrapped the cover of the book and you're done.



    On the reverse side, in addition to 4 rubber legs, unusually few. From the available one - a pair of ventilation “gills”, a couple of stickers and a system compartment cover with two screws.



    I didn’t take it off, but I suspect that a memory bar is hiding there. Thus, the battery is non-removable, which is not very good. On the other hand, there is nothing distracting on the belly.

    Minimalism reigns on the back of the netbook - there is nothing besides a VGA port and an anti-theft lock.



    On the left side are the power connector, USB port (2.0) and the so-called Disk Expander (for MMC / SD / SDHC cards). Another card reader is located on the front of the device.



    On the right side of the netbook is the RJ-45 network connector, another 1 USB port, two jacks for connecting headphones and a microphone.



    On the corner is a small metal cap - nothing more than a stylus.



    He pulls out and moves apart; it is quite convenient to use because of its size and rough coating. 



    Screen
    I think now we can talk about the "monitor" part. Despite the fact that the screen diagonal is only 8.9 ”, it has the same resolution as its“ older ”10.1” brothers - 1024x600 (WSVGA). In the presence of LED-backlight, thanks to which the eyes from the image do not get tired. Nevertheless, the image is not always “on top” - in bright sunshine it is comfortable to use the device only in the shade (at least your own). The screen is glossy - in dark paintings your reflection will be clearly visible. And due to the fact that it is sensory, an unpleasant appearance of artifacts such as fingerprints is added to the reflections. Yes, there is a stylus in the kit ... but the temptation to move around on digital interfaces with ordinary fingers is so great! In addition, the interface is more than adapted for this.
      
    Above the screen is a 0.3-megapixel camera, which produces a pretty good image for its class. On the other hand, for Skype often more is not necessary.

    Under the screen are two buttons; one (made in the form of a return slider) - turns on the laptop, the second - with normal pressing, switches the various interfaces of the device, and while holding it rotates the image in increments of 90 degrees.



    On the right side there are four indicator points. By the way, thanks to such an opportunity to “spin”, the device can find a lot of applications - a regular netbook, a “PDA” for reading, a photo frame and, possibly, something else. Super.

    image

    As for the sensory properties - this, of course, is not a Wacom tablet, so there are no hundreds of levels of sensitivity to tapping and tilting here. I will say more - there is not even a multitouch. But this is the first touch screen among netbooks, which can be found many uses!
    He is very sensitive - it can upset that he will have to write all the time practically on weight, which is somewhat inconvenient. Otherwise, under the point of contact of the hand and the screen there will be unscheduled scribbles.

    Keyboard
    The keyboard is quite compact, but a full-fledged layout without a digital part barely fit on a small case. The buttons are smaller than usual, which is why you will not accelerate much when printing. Also, owners of thumbs may experience some discomfort when printing. Another thing I didn’t like was the right Shift that left to the right, a small “slash” over Enter, the lack of separation of the F1-F12 group of buttons — we all used to navigate the keyboard in the dark by the “gap” between them. Even on the test sample there was no Cyrillic layout, but this will be fixed with the advent of the Russian market.



    Despite all of the above “shortcomings”, the keyboard is not much different from other netbook keyboards - you can type, even if it takes a little time to get used to it. A little further I will talk about alternative input methods.

    Touchpad
    Well, yes, and what a netbook without a touchpad! Regarding this model - there is a touch panel of sufficient size, with rounded corners, not depressed - there will not be as much dust in the corners as it could be. The right and left buttons are made with one continuous key.



    Using such a touchpad is very convenient, but almost all the time I used only the screen, turning the keyboard under it.

    Inclusion and work


    The laptop turns on by tilting the button on the left side of the case under the screen - immediately after that the blue power indicator lights up. To say that the device works very quietly is to diminish its merits. The netbook is completely silent! This is achieved due to the fact that there are no coolers inside (the new Intel Atom Z 520 heats up very slightly), and instead of a regular hard drive, an SSD drive is used. Thanks to the use of the latter, one can minimally worry about data safety, because breaking a USB flash drive is much more difficult than the fragile mechanics of a regular hard drive. And yet, I urge you to treat any technique with care and care.
    The loading of the operating system proceeds quite fast, which can be seen in the video in this article. Or, if you're interested, it is about 40 seconds from the moment you click the button. For a while, a plentiful number of programs are registered that are set to autorun; as a rule, many of them are not needed, therefore, if desired, the download time can be optimized quite well by conjuring in the registry editor and services.
    The device does not heat up at all on either side, which is also nice.

    Initially, some functional elements of the operating system have a size slightly larger than the standard one - the same minimize and close buttons, headers; This is done for the convenience of using a laptop with your fingers. 

    You can type text on the keyboard, but what if you want to remove it, leaving only a screen in front of your eyes? Hah ... PDA users already know what to do! There are several text input modes to choose from:
     - Recognition of entered doodles . Those. you draw with a stylus or a finger a certain abstract shape and a smart machine immediately offers several options that are most similar to a worm. You can choose the language among the characters of which recognition will occur. A choice of 15 languages, including Russian. In addition, you can adjust the speed of input and character recognition, the thickness of the drawn lines.
      -  Handwriting. Very interesting way, but the slowest. You draw each character separately and it is inserted the way you painted it. Thanks to this method, it becomes possible to enter absolutely any characters, a wide variety of characters and drawings. For writing electronic lectures on technical sciences - that's it!
     - On - screen keyboard . A familiar thing, implemented beautifully and conveniently. Imagine: a resizable regular keyboard, only on the screen - something like Optimus. I chose Russian and enter the Cyrillic alphabet. I wanted something else - changed and ready. With some dexterity, this method allows you to quickly print, however, the lack of tactile feedback does not make typing an easy task.





    Thus, you can enter information inside the T91 in four different ways, which are suitable in almost any field of activity!

    In normal operation, the lithium-polymer battery allows you to stretch the pleasure for about 5 hours - this result is achieved in power saving mode, with the communication modules turned off and 40% of the screen backlight.

    Software


    After starting the system, a small tongue is visible at the very top - if you click on it with a stylus or any limb, a full pop-up Eee Docking Touch panel will appear on the top .
    All programs in it are divided into categories; I’ll only talk about the most interesting ones (if you're interested, you can search the rest in Google, the keywords are Eee @ Vibe, Eee Sharing, Eee Storage, Eee Xperience, SRS, Live Update, Super Hybrid Engine).

    Memos
    Sticky leaves - without them, like without a touchpad, you can’t. The shell, on the left side of which there are functional elements - a button for creating a new sheet, the choice of line thickness, eraser, ink color.



    Further down the center, in fact, is the sheet itself - you can write on it with your finger or stylus, while the sheet can be expanded to full screen.



    On the right side there is another functional panel, on which there are 3 buttons. The first (Post to my desktop) sends a leaf to the desktop; the second (Send to my friends) allows you to share doodles with friends through the mail program; and the third button, the last one, beautifully removes the leaf.



    At the very bottom, a whole panel is reserved for the sheets - you can always see what has already been created, you can always switch.
    After closing this application, “notes sent to the desktop” that can be made on top of all windows are visible on the desktop. They can also be moved, hidden or deleted.

    Calculator
    Initially, it’s just a calculator with large buttons, on the right side of which there is a place for recording (the same notes, only without sending to the desktop). There are two tools to choose from - a pen and an eraser. A new note is created by "turning over" around the corner - nice, but without feedback, of course, not that.



    If desired, the calculator can take an engineering form.



    Notepad The
    tool that I liked the most and which I would use more often than others all combined. Yes, notepad!



    When launching a notepad, the shell offers to enter the name of a new document (for example, via the on-screen keyboard) and select the type of document - an arbitrary sheet, where you can write and draw in any order; or a sheet with "lines" where the text will be entered exactly as we are used to. I almost always chose the latter.



    There are a few more items to choose from than in Memos. More precisely - ink, eraser, ink color, input method, tool for moving and selecting text.



    On top is a panel optimized for finger touch - create a document, open, save, cancel, send, etc.



    You can use any of the input methods described above.

    FotoFun is
    also a very interesting tool. This module allows you to interactively watch photos - just flipping them one by one, making a slide show including; or make a digital photo album.



    You simply indicate the folder where your photos are located - after a while their smaller copies appear on the desktop, scattered in a different order.

    They can be moved, twisted, watched. A photo album is created by pressing the appropriate button - first you need to select a cover, then enter a description of the album; next - select the photo "before the kat" and only then do the filling of digital pages. 



    You can choose the number of photos on a page, make captions to them, drag frames from the “bottom” onto the pages from the bottom, swap, rotate, change the brightness ... in my opinion, entertainment a couple of times, but how spectacular!



    IE Toolbar
    In fact, this is a small add-on for Internet Explorer, which allows you to control it with your fingers. In addition, a scroll bar appears to select the scale; and you can simply navigate the page simply with gestures.

    The next interesting innovation was the so-called TouchGate. The so-called interface, which can be switched between modes by pressing a button under the monitor screen.



    There are three interfaces to choose from - the Windows desktop, the widget page, and the TouchSuite page .
    If with a regular desktop we have already worked enough, then the other two modes are something new.
    On the widgets page, you can display any information - weather, exchange rates, quotes, calendar, time, etc. - I honestly admit, I am not a fan of all these ruffles, but everything was done surprisingly carefully, functionally and beautifully.
    On the TouchSuite page(I remind you that you can switch between modes not only with the button, but also with gestures on the screen “left / right”) are the same programs that are offered in Eee Docking Touch. This is done, apparently, for those who are tired of the standard desktop. Beautiful icons that can be rotated clockwise or counterclockwise.



    You can remove or add something from the elements. Under the "semicircle" is a slider that can switch this page to another, where other, unused icons will be presented; with the ability to drag them up.
    On the same interface, you can make some settings - solve the problem with the current date and time;



    find out the battery charge (as well as select the performance mode from the newfangled ASUS Super Hybrid Engine), adjust the volume; Connect wirelessly and even sort out mail.



    Among other things, you can perform an unscheduled screen calibration.



    There is also a pre-installed 60-day trial of the office and Norton 2009.

    BUT THIS IS NOT ALL! Make an order right now ...)
    As a gift for a netbook, you get a free shell for the operating system, made specifically for children.
    No kidding - it is. First, you can configure “parental control” - set a password so that you can only exit it from the child mode. This shell is called MagicDesktop ; it is designed for children from 2 to 10 years old and it is logical to assume that in it the child will not be able to do something terrible with the system.
    In fact, it’s just a desktop with a colorful cartoon picture, on which all kinds of “children's labels” are rendered. On a choice - with a dozen different applications that you can captivate a child ... and what a sin to hide - I got carried away.



    There are just games, there are applications that can work, for example, with a webcam. A few words.



    Detective Bob A
    game that contains several levels, on each of which with a finger or a stylus you need to find differences in two pictures. Suitable for older



    children EasyBits FunCam
    In fact, this is a normal program for working with a camera in which there is something childish, while all unnecessary is removed (compare with the ASUS LifeFrame shell ). Oh, there would be some other interactive game!

    Easypaint
    Graphics editor. Not Photoshop, of course, but no longer a piece of paper. There is a tool brush, fill, text. You can choose any color and gloss over all available space; thank god, virtually. After the action, the masterpiece itself can be saved.



    EasyLearning
    A program that, judging by the name, should be easy to teach. This “something” is the simplest arithmetic operations, but no one will teach them only. Immediately sent to the "open swimming" - set an example, and you need to decide. On the other hand, it can be much more interesting for a child than writing examples for children on paper.



    This, of course, is far from all, but we are talking about a netbook, not about childish pranks. Perhaps I agree that such a device will cause serious interest in children, starting from a very young age ... but I would not dare to give it to my son from the very start. Firstly, the toy is still a little expensive in order to, for example, inadvertently squeeze the screen or fill the keyboard with saliva. Secondly, I want to “pull” the child away from this sinister blue screen, because of which interest in many more important things so quickly disappears. But, I must admit, ASUS's concern pleasantly surprised me.

    Performance


    You could already evaluate the operating system boot time - I think this is a very good indicator. But for the sake of completeness, I’ll give a few “parrots” from synthetic tests and compare them with some other EeePC models.

    So, the number of Pi to the millionth mark in the wonderful SuperPi 1.5 program is counted in 107.609 seconds, i.e. a little faster than two minutes.



    For comparison, the ASUS EeePC 1005 with the Intel Atom 280 processor (1.66 GHz) does the same in 89.594 seconds, and the ASUS Ares game station with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 processor in 17 seconds :-) CPU

    Test FreeBenchmark 2.2after math tests gave a time of 85.24 seconds. In this test, shorter time is also better and the ASUS EeePC 1005 managed in 71.31 seconds. ASUS Ares - in 25 seconds.



    I understand that comparing a gaming station and a netbook is stupid, but it’s like that to see the scale of the disaster. In other words, the performance of the ASUS EeePC T91 netbook is at a good level, but the more powerful Intel Atom 280 processor knows its job a little better.

    Interesting information for the reader may be the speed characteristics of a solid-state (SSD) disk installed in the system. Measurements were taken in the wonderful program HDTune 3.50 .

    Here is a graph of the linear read speed - that a solid-state drive can be determined only by looking at it. The maximum speed is (Mb / s) 61.8, the average is 54.3 and the minimum is 43.8. Yes, for some it might not be enough, but I must admit that not every hard drive built into netbooks has such a speed. Immediately, the speed is constant, and the work is silent.



    Well, the random access time will be less here than on magnetic counterparts. 



    To summarize the above, the netbook's performance will definitely be enough for classes such as chatting on ICQ while listening to music, surfing the Internet and writing text in the trial word. But here is something to play or watch a wide film in quality - this is unlikely.

    Video review




    Control weighing


    Pros

     - Stylus and case included (I want, of course, also in-ear headphones);
     - Small size and weight of the device;
     - Touch rotating screen;
     - Good working time (about 5 hours);
     - Absolutely silent work;
     - A wide selection of software included.
    A separate plus for the next step "ahead of the rest."

    Cons

     - Marked completely glossy body and screen;
     - A small amount of hard drive;
     - The size of the buttons is less than usual;
     - Two USB ports may be few;
     - Built-in battery.

    conclusions


    Approaching the finish line, I want to say that ASUS once again pleasantly surprised and if this does not result in another hit in the top ten, then one thing is for sure - the first pancake was clearly not lumpy.



    The device will be on sale in mid / late August - for the upcoming school year, this will be an extremely successful purchase. If for the full writing of electronic lectures it will take time to get used to, then for an advanced cheat sheet the device will work from the beginning. Active use is facilitated by an SSD-drive (the volume of which is enough for a couple of semesters for sure), fairly good working time and communication capabilities (for the ideal, the WiMAX module is not enough).
    The only way to hide numerous prints from surprised looks is to not get the device out of the case.

    PS If the pictures will not load - try F5.
    PPS Issued 2 hours - do not hesitate to put pluses ...)))

    Good luck!

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