iPad Competitor - Review of ASUS Eee PC T91MT

[kennierose]

A couple notes for anyone who actually purchased this netbook. Today, I had to replace the battery. It was a huge pain. I was planning on posting a how-to video, but I'm not sure if I want to embarrass myself. 

[3y3candi]

Screw Apple and their over rated stuff.

[kennierose]

I have respect for dogs of all colors.

[Corerrai]

D:! you're a dog racist!

[brberis]

I think iPad is the Pad today. Now the problem is the crappy Windows OS.

[Luismovie]

Chi lo vuole sta su ebay, il numero oggetto è 310217129431

[NamelessHighway]

Ok great, yer i use Macs usually however there are just some things i need to do for school which i need a Windows for, and this looked ideal.

Thanks heaps. Ciao.

[kennierose]

namelesshighway - It's pretty fantabulous. In my opinion, better technology exists at this point; I've had the chance to play around with the iPad, and my opinion is that it is amazingly better than my T91MT. However, if you absolutely must own a Windows device, this is still probably the best one on the market.

[NamelessHighway]

Hey man,

if i wanted to put a program such as cu-base or a music recording program on this computer, how would it cope?

[kennierose]

@NamelessHighway - I have no idea. If the program requires some computing power, I'd be highly skeptical - Windows 7 is a clumsy operating system for such a low-end device. On the other hand, I've done a number of things over the last few months to speed things up.

To put this another way - could you run this program on a standard netbook? If so, the T91MT would probably work just fine. If not, you should look for another computer.

[NamelessHighway]

@kennierose Ok then, cool.

So generally would you say that it is good value for money? Because it look great.

[kennierose]

Superbly -

You must certain can use your fingers! Of course, this baby is not fast like an iPhone or iPad, so the cool multitouch stuff only has limited value; nevertheless, I still find it useful to use pinching motions to enlarge / reduce the size of my window.

[alai132]

This baby is much faster than ipad, but this eee pc is using windows 7 and typical pc applications. When you try to run something similar to microsoft word, eclipse or vmware on your preferred ipad you will see how slow would be arm based computers (nokia n900, iphone, ipad). This baby is amazing and don't understand why people would like to buy apple's crap.

[SuperblySugar]

Hey can you use your fingers (on the touchscreen).

[kennierose]

@SuperblySugar - Just an update on the multitouch features. Now that I've disabled a large number of Windows 7's memory-clogging features, the system actually runs fast. I'm at the point where pinching and panning are speedy enough to be useful. Of course, this is no iPad - due to the resistive touchscreen, the multitouch gestures sometimes don't work. But they mostly get the job done.

[Rufflekz]

How's the battery life??

... so important, yet so overlooked by everyone...

[kennierose]

That's almost the best part. At least 5 hours on one charge.

[Rufflekz]

@kennierose That's not bad. But if you compare it to other asus netbooks with 6 cell batteries. They go up to 9 hours. I think I'm going to go for the Hp Touchsmart tm2, which works up to 8 hours on one charge.

[SuperblySugar]

@Rufflekz 6 hours I think!

[kennierose]

Hello, tc4101 and psion0027! Glad you enjoyed the video.

Psion - I'm not sure what you mean by an "optical" drive - like most netbooks, it doesn't have a CD/DVD player. However, it does have a slot for MMC/SD/SDHD cards.

tc4101 - You can turn off the multitouch gestures.

If I were you guys, though, I'd probably be thinking seriously about getting an iPad instead. Unless you need a fully functional computer, I think that's the better choice (mainly because of its speed).

[mrschaa29]

@kennierose Maybe you should do some research on the iPad. It is a joke, it doesn't support flash (8 out of 10 most visited websites in the world have flash on the homepage). Steve Jobs needs to rethink launching this pile of junk. When something is designed for web browsing it would nice if it could browse the web.

[psion0027]

does or does it not have an optical drive??!?!?!

[tc4101]

also is there a way to disable the multitouch?

[tc4101]

hey great video, i am a student at uni, and all our lecturers use powerpoint files for theire lectures

. how does this tablet work on annotating powerpoint files?

thanks

[arni0202]

@tc4101 just my input... you can export PPT into PDF format... it's better for viewing and adding annotation on the presentation. Cheers.

[tc4101]

arni202, so after u export the ppt to pdf how do you annotate the PDF?

[yoshinosakura]

does the screen get scratched easily?

do u need screen protector?

[Aliyns]

Thanks for this, and thanks for confirming the palm rejection is crap. That seals the deal for me, I'm going for the T91 non MT. Only reason I was thinking the MT was for the palm rejection.

[zeppelin7171]

thanks for taking the time to post this review... very helpful. I'm considering this primarily for keeping documents organized / off my desk and taking notes during meetings. A read/write kindle really. Still not convinced it'll work for me.

[celletronics]

For any of you considering the tx2 just beware that they run very hot and noisey due to the amd processor. tx1000 was first in the series and had one of those and it also died just like every other!!!

[hugz2def]

just so you know the chipset in the tx2 and the tx1000 is totally different. And the problem originated in the motherboard in the tx1000

the tx1000 used a chipset with nvidia graphics while the tx2500z and then on used the amd puma platform, which is totally differentt cpu/motherboard/integrated video platform

[kennierose]

Just a follow up - especially about the palm rejection feature. Basically, it sucks. However, I've found that because the screen is so small, I can easily write on it either by resting my hand on the side or on a book. I've actually found it relatively easy to take notes with. The biggest problem is just that it's slow; it could have used, perhaps, a little bit more powerful processor (but what do you expect for $600?)

[TheWhiteHat]

Thanks for his review! Fellow grad student now pretty well set on the T91MT. Also-- re: journal pdfs, I've had very good luck using FoxIt reader in conjunction with Zotero as an organizer. Perhaps something worth looking into if you're still searching for a decent pdf reader.

[Luxurin]

The T91MT is resistive 2 touch points. Yes it is responsive for clicks, but for gestures not so good. You have to press hard to keep in contact. If you are serious about doing productive work I would recommend getting something else. Writing has endless problems without the active digitizer (writing with your palm, sudden pause and distorted hand writing).

[Luxurin]

The T91MT is nice as a portable toy but I would recommend the HP Tx2 1370us for doing anything productive. 4x the power, bigger capacitive screen, bigger drive, dvd drive and most impotantly active digitiYou'll lose the portability of T91MT, but its a good trade off if you are serious about doing work on it. Last thing you want is something that runs so slow/awkward that makes you less productive.zer. All for around $300 more.

[sharker2003]

Luxurin thanks for the comment, I'm wrestling now with going for the TX2Z with the holiday discount at HP or the T91MT, I think I'm going with the HP. Also nice review for the poster of this video, that was very helpful as I'm a student who is most interested in the annotation capabilities.

In the video you mentioned you hadn't found an annotator you liked. Have you tried Bluebeam revu 7? I've heard good things but haven't tried...I'm curious how it stacks up against OneNote.

[kennierose]

prusajr - The display only detects two points, but you'll find that necessary for most gestures. On the other hand, because the computer is rather slow, doing simple things (like zooming into pdf files) can be kind of a pain. The screen is resistive, but I guess it's what you call "soft touch"; you don't need to use your nails. It's pretty responsive.

[prusajr]

Thanks, I need more touches :-/ I'm lookig for alternative for Jazzmutant Lemur device :-) I've foudn two HP TOuchSmart TX2 or Stantum Slate pc prototype :-)

[Luxurin]

@prusajr

[Luxurin]

Just a little warning not all tx2 has 4 touch points. HP like to make lots of different sub models of the same line. The TX2 1370us only has 2 touch points.

[prusajr]

Hi, how many touches at once can the display detect? Duotouch or true multitouch? Is it resistive or capacitative type? If resistive, is it soft touch (you dont have to use the nail to do touch)?

Thanks and check out my videos :-)