ASUS Eee Top ET1602 15.6-inch Touchscreen All-In-One Nettop PC

Jul 1 2009 - The ASUS Eee Top ET1602 is a very low cost all-in-one that is based upon the successful low cost netbook platform from Intel. This means that it has very limited performance in terms of applications, but at $500 it is a good entry or low cost secondary PC for net access and basic productivity. The touchscreen is a nice fature but it would have been better to have a larger overall screen and the lack of a built-in DVD drive limits its multimedia use without purchasing an external drive. For just a little more, users can get a more feature rich nettop based all-in-one.

Jul 1 2009 - Those wanting a full performance all-in-one desktop system should avoid looking at the ASUS Eee Top ET1602. This is a system based around the nettop platform that uses the limited performance Intel Atom N270 processor with the hardware limitations set by Microsoft for the Windows XP licensing. This means it only has a single gigabyte of memory and 160GB of hard drive space. This makes it suitable for basic web browsing and productivity software, but don't expect heavy multimedia, graphics intensive or even multitasking on this platform.

What the Eee Top ET1602 does offer is a very compact all-in-one desktop system that feels much more like an oversized laptop computer. The 15.6-inch display with the netbook internals allow for such a small size, but it also limits the overall potential for the platform. The touchscreen aspect is nice for simple navigation work but without multi-touch it isn't as useful as it could be. Many other companies are offering similarly priced nettop based systems that have larger screens and touchscreens.

One benefit of the Eee Top ET1602 is the Easy Mode interface overlay for Windows XP. This makes it very easy for those not familiar with computers to quickly pick up and use the system. The downside is that it does tend to slow down the system compared to the standard Windows XP interface.

The biggest problem with the Eee Top ET1602 is the lack of a DVD drive. This has the effect of making it so the system cannot be used for CD or DVD playback as well as making it more difficult to install retail software packages. It is possible to add an external unit, but this raises the cost of the platform from its $500 price tag and uses up one of a limited number of USB ports. They really should have not skipped this.