ASUS Eee PC T101MT-EU17-BK 10.1-Inch Convertible Tablet Netbook (Black) - Official New Excellent Gadgets, Tools & Accesories

By 

J. Manarang “jaymarktech*com” (S.F., CA) –

  

July 13, 2010 – I uploaded multiple videos showing my hands-on review and tutorials on this netvertible.So far, I’ve done 4 videos: first impressions, OS and RAM upgrade tutorial, Inking & Touchscreen hands-on, and a video showing Plants VS Zombies played on the Touchscreen. Some elements I may not have stated in this review may be shown in the videos. You can find them by searching “t101mt” at mycoretechs*com. Change the * to a .

First Impressions
I am very impressed with this tablet netbook. Right out of the box, my first impressions of its chassis is that it is very sexy. Let me elaborate on that. The casing material is made out of an anti-fingerprint matte material. This includes the palm rest and the keyboard. The screen bezel is still made out of the same glossy material as the previous ASUS netbooks. I like the brushed white strip design on the back of the screen- it certainly adds to the design.

Upgraded
As with many users here, I agree that to enjoy this netbook, as well as to unlock its full potential, one must do a couple of upgrades. I added a Corsair Memory VS1GSDS800D2 1 GB PC2-6400 800Mhz 200-pin DDR2 Laptop Memory Kit. The RAM upgrade really helps with the system’s responsiveness (including inking) and multitasking capability. Besides the RAM, I also installed a copy of Windows 7 ultimate. Home Premium and up will unlock the multi-touch capabilities of the touchscreen. As you read this, treat each and every one of my findings as based on this upgraded version.

I’d like to add this to those who are interested in hard drive upgrades. I will make a video of this next month, but for now, here’s what I know based tinkering. The hard drive bay is right under the keyboard. The keyboard is removed by inserting a small pin or precision screwdriver into 4 mini holes and lifting the keyboard unit up. There is a small sticker that says it will void warranty if removed. After removing a number of screws, the hard drive is exposed. I will be adding an SSD (or maybe an SSD hybrid) next month and will update you on this. Besides the limitation of the Atom CPU, the stock hard drive is what really provides the slightly slow program loads.

Keyboard
The keys are tremendously pleasant to type on. ASUS used the same keyboard type as the Eee PC 1201N- island chiclet keys. If you are used to keyboards without any space in between, it will take a few hours to get used to this, but as any of my friends who tried it, you will eventually come to like its spacing, as it prevents typo on this limited space. What I personally like is that this time around, ASUS placed a second Function key (one next to the left CTRL key and another under the Enter key on the far right). This allows users to use one hand to set the volume level, as well as reach other keyboard functions that are placed on the right side of the keyboard. Note: I just wanted to throw this out there- out of many netbooks I’ve used, I still believe the very best, in terms of ergonomics and feel, is the HP Mini 311′s.

Touchscreen
The special attraction that makes this netbook unique is its touchscreen feature. The resistive touchscreen has two touch points which gives users the best of both resistive and capacitve worlds. Let me explain this, resistive screen allows users to use a stylus pen or any sharp-pointed object (like a fingernail’s tip) to write on and control the smallest details on the screen. So you can literally draw and write, with the system being able to detect your strokes.

Although, this does not compare against a capacitive screen’s WACOM digitizer pen, which as the name suggests, uses digital inputting and will not only read each stroke but also the users’ pen pressure. But the advantage of resistive over capacitive is that, capacitive requires a special stylus or a digitizer pen to be able to do any inking. iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch all uses capacitive screens. If you have one of these devices, you will notice that it requires your finger to control the screen and will not read any stylus or fingernail strokes.

Now, with the T101MT netbook, the two touch points allow users to switch from Pen mode to Finger mode. Think of the Finger mode as imitating a capacitive screen. It uses two touch points (where Penmode uses one) and allows users to do what capacitive screens can do: multi-touch, pinching, expanding, two finger scroll.

Screen Quality
Some reviewers are claiming that this has a grainy look. I would like to add that although it does have this look (which all touchscreens have), it is quite unnoticeable unless you really put your face on the screen. I’d hate to keep bringing the Apple devices up, but to compare the graininess, the T101MT looks way less grainy than the iTouches.

Another quality I like is that this netvertible has a matte screen. It will still attract…

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By 

M. Nateras (Houston TX) –

  

Hello all. I want to confirm what others have been saying about the T101MT.
I will describe the computer by listing its features, and try to be thorough to help u guys out.

Casing.
the laptop is very solid and lighweight. screen and keyboard does not feel “flimsy and cheap” as other netbooks i’ve come accross at stores. namely the Acer netbook models. Cooling fan is very quiet; the hard disk little clicking noises are actually a louder than the fan itself.

Touchscreen.
Its a very useful feature. Being able to navigate through windows with your index finger is very liberating. takes some practice to get accurate with index finger, but overall fun.

Multitouch.
I didnt expect T101 to compare to ipad, but in my opinion, the computer is still “high tech” enough to impress people, if thats what youre aiming for.

Keyboard.
comfortable, solid, key size and spacing comparable to that of a full size laptop. right shift button was shrunk to half size to make room for up arrow and Fn key

Pen
The writing experience is the only weak point of the T101MT. i own a toshiba M400 laptop (more than 2x price of T101MT) so I am comparing it to a high end tablet. T101MT’s responsiveness is bad (no exaggeration). E.g. writing at
normal speeds and normal text size, the computer will not recognize some of your characters. It is especially difficult to write the letter “O”. Hand gets a little tired after writing with pen for few minutes. To my dismay, Windows 7 does not come with Windows Journal program installed. I do not recommend T101MT if you want to take lots of notes with it in meetings or in school.

Screen.
the T101MT is big enough to work MS office programs, watch youtube videos, and read long texts comfortably without squinting.

Video card.
I do not plan to install any high end graphics games, but as others have mentioned, you cannot expect to play high end graphics games on T101MT. I have one comment: under display properties, resolution is 1024×600 and 800×600 only. Other than that, no complaints

Performance
With windows 7 starter (and 1gig ram), computer is sluggish. E.g. after removing all original junkware, and running no programs, right clicking on an file to display its properties will still take about .5-1.0 second, a good sign that youre running with very little available RAM.

RAM
When i looked under properties, I noticed that windows 7 alone took up about 65% of the RAM space. 10% was taken by other internal processes. Windows 7 starter only recognizes up to 2GB ram max. Also, the T101MT is very picky about which ram it will recognize.
I tried the following:
- PNY DDR2 5300 1GB: not recognized, blank screen when turned on (many card reseatings, and bios updates did not solve the issue)
– Kingston DDR2 5300 2GB: not recognized, blank screen when turned on.
– Kingston DDR2 5300 1GB: RECOGNIZED!!!

On the plus side, after installing the only RAM stick that was recognized, most of the slugishness issues went away!

Conclusion: This netbook will give you good performance for your money. If you’re only going to use it for navigating internet, typing in word and checking email, the T101MT is ideal. For the experienced pc users: If you are expecting to run 2 to 4 programs at a time regularly, get the RAM upgrade. That way you will get the computer to wait for your command, and not you wait on the computer when giving commands.

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Others give it low ratings because it does not come out of the box with everything they want, but to me this is not important. Who cares whether you need to spend some extra money getting the unit up to spec versus paying more initially for the same specs. I think it is better to give a cheaper option and then give customers the option of whether they want to upgrade or not. In terms of the upgrades, I’ve put on Windows 7 Home Premium (I liked how the computer comes with Windows 7 Starter as I already had a Home Premium licence, so getting it without Home Premium meant I didn’t have to pay as much), and a Corsair Nova 64GB SSD drive (although the computer did not seem too bad without the standard hard drive – the SSD drive is certainly faster, lighter, consumes less battery, produces less heat, and is more robust). I have also ordered a 1GB memory module as it looks like you need this (and not a 2GB module) to upgrade the ram to 2GB.

With these upgrades, the tablet is everything I’ve been looking for. Build quality is fantastic (although heavier than I was expecting, but the SSD does lighten it), looks very sleek, keyboard is very good. You can run the Asus Super Hybrid Engine to overclock the processor to 1.83GHz. Everything is very snappy.

But what I most love is the pen for the touchscreen that has its own holder in the case. I find the accuracy of the resistive screen to be quite good using a finger, and only the slightest touch is needed to detect a click. However, with the pen, accuracy is fantastic, and I find I can skip through menus and dialogs even faster than I can on my desktop using a normal mouse!

Most importantly, the limitations with how the computer comes are not things you have to live with, but can be eliminated just by upgrading. Also be aware that the US version do not come with bluetooth (but again, there is a connector so it could be added later if you want to) and you need to void the warranty to install the SSD drive and it is a difficult job – you might want to take it to a professional. However, once upgraded, I think this computer is by far the best tablet available in the price range (or really any tablet for this size).

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