Asus can largely be credited for making the netbook so incredibly popular in the first place. Even if you think that netbooks are already obsolete, there is still something to be said about producing an inexpensive computer that can easily handle most of our online tasks, whether it be web surfing, video watching, or word processing. It is with that in mind that we turn our attention to the Asus Eee Top ET1602 1B.
This is almost the natural progression for the Eee family, going beyond the netbook form factor to offer an inexpensive all-in-one desktop solution. If you take the idea behind the Apple iMac, chop down the price a few notches, and bring it to the Windows PC market, you’ve essentially got the Asus Eee Top.
Features and Specifications
Just as with the Eee PC line of netbooks (and the somewhat intermediary Eee Box product), the Eee Top was never meant to be your main computer. Instead, it’s meant to be a secondary or complementary unit that can function as a lifestyle PC. Assuming you keep it safe, it’d be a great addition to the bedroom, kitchen, or children’s room. Not surprisingly, the specs on the Eee Top mirror those of the Eee PC. Yup, it’s got Atom.
Among the features and specs are the following:
- 15.6-Inch Touchscreen LCD with 16:9 Aspect Ratio
- Genuine Windows XP Home
- Intel Atom N270 CPU + 945 GSE Chipset
- 1GB DDR II RAM
- 160GB SATA II 5400rpm Hard Drive
- 1.3 Megapixel Webcam
- Array Mic
- 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
- 4W HiFi Speaker x 2 + SRS Premium Sound System
- 5.1 Audio Support, Gigabit LAN, 6 USB 2.0 Ports, Multi-Card Reader
Following in the footsteps of certain multimedia laptops and LCD monitors, the Asus Eee Top also features a 16:9 aspect display, maxing out at a resolution of 1366 x 768. That’s better than most netbooks, but at 15.6-inches, you’d expect this display to offer a better resolution than that. Then again, this is Atom-powered.
What’s in the Box?
The point of the Asus Eee Top, just like the iMac for the Apple crowd, is that you are provided with a truly complete all-in-one computer right out of the box. In this way, you don’t need to head out and buy any additional accessories or cables to get started. You can certainly upgrade the components, should you so choose, but this is not required.
Opening the carefully packed box, you discover the Eee Top itself (available in black or white), the power supply, quick start guide, user manual, wired optical wheel mouse, and wired keyboard. Both the keyboard and mouse use a standard USB connection. For a more seamless approach, I’d recommend getting a wireless desktop to accompany your Eee Top.
Even though this is technically supposed to be a desktop computer, you can really see the Eee PC influence in the product, particularly with the keyboard. It’s a little bit bigger, but you get the same chicklet keyboard as the one implemented in the Eee PC 1000HE. This makes for a very comfortable and slick appearance. Just like the keyboard that comes standard with the iMac though, the keyboard that accompanies the Eee Top out of the box lacks a standalone numeric keypad. Too bad.