Review of Asus Eee PC T91
We have a bunch of netbooks here at TechReviews.TV now and lets start with a quick review of one of the more anticipated netbooks. It is the Asus eee PC T91 which best can be described as a tablet netbook.
The Eee PC T91 features a 8.9″ screen which makes it small and handy on the one side but you get the crippled small keyboard. The keyboard is rather nice after a while you get used to the size and then the tactile feel of the keyboard is a pleasant experience. As far as specifications goes this is one of the more light weight speced netbooks with a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU, 1GB of RAM, Intel GMA500 graphics and a 16GB SSD hard drive. If you are used to other netbooks then the difference is noticeable. So you need to ask yourself what you are going todo with the computer if these specifications will be enough for you. The five hour battery performance isn’t exactly class leading and in real life be prepared to expect 3-4 hours in more normal use.
One thing that stands out is the screen, which as first hinted swivels and makes this a tablet netbook the other thing is that it’s LED backlit. The screen produces really well saturated colors and it’s a joy to have this bright colorful screen to work with. The screen is a glossy screen with all the pros and cons of that so again, take this into consideration.
The tablet functions works really well and is responsive and accurate to use. When used in tablet mode it features several new widgets that can be handy, or not. I would say that the biggest drawback here is that Windows XP isn’t a great operating system to be used for a Tablet PC so even with the layer Asus puts on top it’s not a hassle free experience.
Conclusion:
The Asus EEE PC T91 is somewhat hard to judge, on the one hand is an innovative tablet netbook with a great screen. On the other hand it is rather limited in performance by it’s low grade components and Windows XPs performance as a tablet OS. So I guess you really need to be the judge here and see how much you value the tablet function. If you think it’s a cool feature and don’t plan to use it I would suggest looking at something with a little more performance.
This is a big disappointment in many ways but I just can’t regret my choice completely. Windows XP as a tablet platform sucks big time and I which they would have waited and released T91 with Windows 7 instead. So I feel like I have a very crippled computer for a few weeks until 7 gets out.
So to the good news, this computer is a beauty to have on your table and the screen is really bright and looks glorious. For me the performance is good enough but it’s not _fast_ so be aware of that before you buy it.
Bottom line: tough one, I like the hardware and would give it a 4+ but if you are going to use the tablet function a lot windows xp isn’t going cut it so perhaps you better hold off until windows 7 comes out.