AsusTek Computer Inc. upended the laptop market when it brought out the tiny, cheap Eee PC a year and a half ago. As a follow-up, the plucky Taiwanese company is trying something harder: conquering the kitchen.
What Asus calls the “Eee Top” could be a welcome item for those who spend a lot of time in the kitchen and can stomach paying $600 for a secondary computer.
Now, Asus doesn’t call the Top a “kitchen computer,” but that’s the most obvious application for this type of device. It could also fit nicely in other places around the home where there’s no space for a keyboard and mouse, like a workshop.
The Top looks like a 16-inch LCD monitor — the computer part is built into the back of it. It comes with a keyboard and a mouse, but the screen is touch-sensitive and works well enough that I never had to use the mouse and broke out the keyboard only a few times. The rest of the time, I poked out the letters on an on-screen keyboard, which proved sufficient for typing short Web addresses and search terms. The Top runs Windows XP and the Opera Web browser.
The Top’s software has a couple of touch-friendly features to it, including an application menu with large buttons that replaces the standard Windows Start menu.
By making the touch interface usable (if not stellar), I feel Asus cleared the biggest hurdle for a device like this. Not only does the interface give a feeling of immediacy — touch something and it happens — it also makes it much easier to fit into the home.
The Top’s greatest failing is that it’s bad at video. It lacks a DVD drive. Flash video from YouTube appears jerky.
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