Touch perfection
A really good tablet netbook, in a nutshell. This is not only a netbook with a touch screen, but also a device with which you can access the functions of a real tablet, turning into which happens with the help of a rotary screen. In principle, this also plays a role in the compactness of the device when traveling, since the space it takes up in tablet mode is much less than with just an open top cover. Compared to model Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3T, which disappointed us in the tests, our today's candidate has every chance to break into the leaders in the tablet netbook race, both in terms of ergonomics and due to its appearance, beautiful glossy body. Many may say that gloss very often provides a lot of trouble, to which one can optimistically answer: "Beauty requires sacrifice." Let's go now directly to the review Asus Eee PC T101MT.
Full specifications of the Asus Eee PC T101MT presented in the review(other possible variants of the system will be indicated in brackets):
Pre-installed operating system: Windows 7 Starter (Windows 7 Home Basic or Windows 7 Home Premium)
Screen diagonal:10.1 "LED Backlight / Resistive Multi-Touch Panel (1024x600);
CPU: Intel Atom N450 (1.66GHz);
RAM:1GB DDR2 (for Windows 7 Home Premium: 2GB DDR2) / max 2GB;
Wireless data transmission modules:WiFi 802.11b / g / n @ 2.4GHz (Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR);
Data storage:Hybrid Storage - 160GB HDD + 500GB ASUS WebStorage for Windows 7 Starter (320GB HDD + 500GB ASUS WebStorage for Windows 7 Home Premium), data storage on ASUS WebStorage is automatically available for one year, renewals are made on the webstorage website;
Webcam:0.3 Megapixels;
Audio capabilities: Hi-Definition Audio CODEC / Stereo Speakers / Built-in Microphone;
Available I / O connectors:connector for external monitor VGA port D-sub 15-pin / three USB 2.0 ports / LAN port RJ-45 / two audio jacks for headphones and a microphone;
Card reader:MMC / SD support for SDHC up to 32GB SDXC, in High Speed (HS) and Default Speed (DS) modes with a maximum capacity of up to 2TB;
Battery autonomy: 6.5 hours, energy consumption at 35W / h, Slim size and Eco standard Li-polymer battery;
Inner dimensions: 264mm x 181mm x 31mm;
Weight: 1.3kg
Color scheme:black.
Appearance and style
Unfortunately, the design T101MT completely repeats last year, used in the smaller brother T101MT received by us, has a black glossy surface, for the buyer, the white version is also available, which has a stunning look, many will want to choose the white version. The build quality is at a very good level, if you take for example the vast majority of netbooks on the market, the plastic used in T101MT high-quality, everything is fitted as tightly as possible, and when holding in hands there are no squeaks and wobbling. Fortunately, the convertible hinge is not too wobbly either, it can be used safely, and the transformation into a tablet version is not difficult. The diagonal size is chosen wisely, 10.2 inches for T101MT enough, considering its 31mm thickness and 1.3kg weight. And of course other analogues from competitors. After working on correcting their mistakes present in T101MT already has three USB port (place two at the previous one), Ethernet enter exit VGA, microphone in and headphone jack, slot for SD cards. For such a small netbook, it seems to us that the set of ports is quite acceptable, there is everything you need in the right amount. All ports are located in the most convenient position when connecting devices to USB, they do not interfere with each other, the designers of the company have worked just wonderful distances between the sockets. Keyboard and touchpad Asus T91, in order to touch or accidentally hit an adjacent key, you will have to try. Key Fn placed in two places on the keyboard, it is very convenient, since everyone can use it at their discretion. On the left side, it is located after the key Shift, very wonderful, apparently many manufacturers have already decided to do this, in this version it seems to be in its place. Thus, we have 83 working keys, the same number in most netbooks. Consider the proposed touchpad, on the general surface it stands out for its individuality, if everything around is glossy, then the touchpad has just a smooth surface. Dimensions of the touchpad T101MT large enough, comfortable use, finger sliding is at a good level, multitouch support is implemented, which, in turn, is implemented very efficiently, responds perfectly when using two fingers. The bar buttons are implemented in one elongated silver button, which we have often come across not only in netbooks, but also in larger laptops. Nevertheless, the stroke of the button is not satisfactory, and after the test we were satisfied. Screen and experience It's hard to decide what's bad, touchscreen T101MT or terrible software choices from Asus, which disappoint a little, I would like to see more good implementation of multitouch capabilities. Despite this, it was nice to see Asus which uses a matte display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 dots and a 10.1-inch display, rather than a glossy one, such as IdeaPad S10-3T - the quality of which did not meet our expectations. They want to leave the best viewing angles of the screen, already with a rather small vertical deviation, clarity and brightness are lost, the image becomes blurry, lying on the couch, at a certain position of the netbook, you will have to look closely, and in the worst cases, change the pose to view the content of interest. For comparison, we would also like to see a matrix in such a tablet netbook IPS how in T101MT would be simply invaluable and of high quality in this regard. As for a resistive panel, the touchscreen is actually quite responsive, although not surprisingly it requires precise, sensitive pressure to make a selection. But since we are so used to using capacitive screens, then it is advisable to use a stylus, which by the way comes in the kit, without it, maneuvers in the menu will be a little difficult, although after a little getting used to using fingers becomes not so problematic, and if the netbook is in in the hands of the charming half of humanity, you can control with the help of nails. Multi-touch gestures do not always work as fast as we would like, and even when scrolling, there is a slight slowdown in scrolling, we found that if the movements are done in a certain rhythm, there is practically no slowdown. The included stylus Asus Eee PC T101MT located on the right side of the screen, it is easily removed, while it sits firmly in its socket, over time it should become your faithful friend. And aso the main problem in use, we decided to write off the bad optimization of the software from the proposed software products from the manufacturer Asus, there is a feeling that everything was done with a bang, but the software remained raw. You can really do the optimization of the multi-touch finger control using the program PenWrite, but at the same time we did not notice much difference in control when using the utility. Here you can ask the question: "Why such a multitouch implementation?" And the fact is that part of the problem of using multitouch lies in the operating system itself, and if you have Windows 7 Starter, this aggravates the use of multitouch capabilities, since it does not fully support it, but at the same time you save a small amount of money. Same, T101MT handwriting recognition and on-screen keyboard are not supported either. This is where the software comes to the rescue from Asus... The company, worrying about its customers, that is, us, offers in its software, including an on-screen keyboard SoftStylus, but you will have to manually output it any time you want to use text input (for example, in the address bar), and also recognize handwriting input, although with this program this is a little sluggish. We write the results in fact, we spent most of our time with netbooks in clamshell mode. The keys on the virtual keyboard can be enlarged to suit you. Asus has one more utility for working with a multitouch interface, TouchGatelike the previous utility, it adapts the user experience when using the screen. Quite interesting features that smooth out the use of Windows 7 Starter. We can safely conclude that using Windows 7 Starter, for this kind of device, is a disgusting option. You, however, can freely update it yourself to the version Windows 7 Home Premium (update from Windows 7 Starter up to version Windows 7 Home Previum is worth $49). Of course, in this situation it will be better, but the resistive touch screen will still remain as obedient as possible, and will make life easier only with the pen. When we surfed the Internet in tablet mode, we preferred to type Url-addresses using the stylus on the virtual keyboard, and scrolling the page with two fingers, it worked well, you start getting used to such an unusual surfing. We used the touchscreen when we wanted to write quickly, albeit not very fast, but nevertheless, our handwriting was accurately converted to text in Microsoft Word. T101MT does not have an accelerometer, so you have to rotate the screen while holding down the button on the bottom panel, by the way, this is really all right, if only there was no need to wait about five seconds when changing the position of the picture. But is it a lot of seconds, not at all, how often do you turn the screen over? I think this does not happen very often, as it does for me. Performance and battery life At least in this respect, we have better news than any other implementation when it comes to handling typical netbook tasks. On board the T91 Asus Eee PC T101MT has a 4-cell battery, its runtime was 4 hours and 13 minutes when watching a video with the brightness set to 65 percent. This is actually not too bad for netbooks with Slim battery, when used in office mode, we got an autonomy indicator of about 6 hours. The battery is removed in an interesting way from the bottom of the netbook. As has already happened in the company Asus, at the start of the system, you can use, instead of Windows, a free graphical shell ExpressGatewhich saves you time. Summary and conclusions What can you say? The cost of the netbook is very good, for such money it is difficult to find such features on the market. Eee PC T101MT will be very convenient on trips, and the ability to control using multitouch will not leave anyone indifferent. The buyer can be recommended to take this netbook with a preinstalled operating system Windows 7 Home Premium, the cost does not increase much. Otherwise, it is advisable to update the operating system. Competitor to our netbook, Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3T, although it has a capacitive screen, we did not like its performance and viewing angles, the sensations from it remained rather unpleasant. And let's hope to get an even more productive model of this type from Asus. Pros: + Tablet form factor; + Convenient keyboard; + Good battery life; + Reliable construction. Minuses: - Resistive touch screen; - Functionality of touch applications from Asus.
