14 DAY TRIAL // The ASUS EP121 is the first slate that Microsoft opted to highlight just ahead of the start of the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas which CEO Steve Ballmer is scheduled to keynote later today.
The Redmond company’s Ben Rudolph used this Tablet PC from ASUS for a full couple of weeks, posting a review and a collection of images, some of which I also included at the bottom of this article.
The conclusion of ASUS EP121’s review is simple, the device is no mere slate, but a fully-fledged PC. According to Rudolph, it features a Core i5 CPU, 4 GB of RAM, Intel HD graphics and a 64GB SSD.
With hardware clearly qualifying it for the PC category, ASUS EP121 features Windows 7 and delivers the performance that users would expect from a Windows computer.
Rudolph notes that the device performed beautifully, whether it came down to everyday tasks involving the Office productivity suite, or media consumption scenarios that relied on the Intel HD graphics.
Windows 7 on the ASUS EP121 will start-up in 19 seconds from cold boot to desktop, and will shut down in just 17 seconds. However, Windows 7 will enter Sleep mode in no more and 1 second, and will take just as long to wake up, which is great news.
“Battery life wasn’t breakthrough like on ASUS’ UL line, which packs more than 12 hours of juice, but it was average for an ultraportable of this thinness.
“I got about 3.5 hours of work and video watching time out of mine, which while not as exceptional as some laptops, would be more than enough to get through an afternoon meeting or stay up and running on a flight from Seattle to San Francisco,” he explained.
Weighing just 2.5 lbs. the EP121 is approximately 2/3 of an inch thick, but still sports a variety of goodies, including two USB ports, one mini-HDMI and an SD card reader as well as a built in camera.
The device’s 12.1” 1366 x 768 HD display made from capacitive Corning Gorilla Glass offers 175 degrees of viewability and works great with two natural user interface (NUI) input models multi-touch and pen.
At the same time, the EP121 still allows for older input models either via the on-screen keyboard or through the real-world Bluetooth keyboard that comes with the package.
“As you’d expect with Windows 7, touch was outstanding. Scrolling, pinching and rotating were smooth and fast, the glass was responsive even to light touch, and Windows 7’s built-in gestures are very natural to use on this form factor.
“I especially liked using PowerPoint on the EP121; it was really easy – and kind of fun – to flick from slide to slide in presentation mode,” Rudolph added.
