Asus Eee Top ET2010AGT review

It's easy to criticise the standard all-in-one PC design because you can't easily upgrade it or replace any components which might break. Even though that places this machine in the same category as laptop PCs and desktop devices such as the Apple iMac, the ET2010AGT is not as convenient as the former or as good as the latter.

You can't carry it easily, and it's unlikely to have the same longevity of a modern OS X machine.

So it's awkward. The addition of a touchscreen, sadly, seems like little more than a transparent gimmick, since poking around at a vertical computer monitor just isn't comfortable in standard use. For the occasional prod in a standing environment like a kitchen? Fine. We can see it working. For your desk? You'll use the mouse every time.

There's a pretty major problem, too, or at least there was with our review model: you can do what you want with the touchscreen, as long as you don't want to touch the top centimeter of real estate. It doesn't work.

Touches to that area don't register correctly, possibly due to the way the sensors are positioned within the case. This is is particularly frustrating because Asus chose exactly that area to host its drop-down quick launch menu and, more importantly, that's the zone that covers the top of a maximised window. Want to close or minimise something with your finger? Tough.

The processor and chipset are just strong enough that using the ET2010AGT isn't a sluggish or sketchy experience, but there's not a lot of wiggle room. Expect to run older games such as Team Fortress 2 at medium settings without too much trouble; a netbook this ain't.

The construction of the ET2010AGT isn't quite as sturdy as its decent processing power.

The tinny speakers are really quite awful, the 1600 x 900 screen pretty low res and prone to fingerprint smears, and the included keyboard and mouse combo – small and cheap, to be frank – is just about adequate. We were impressed that the narrow keyboard fits easily into the gap at the bottom of the unit, if that counts for anything.