Asus EEE PC T101MT final release – video review

As you might know, i had the 10 inch Asus T101MT on my desk a couple of weeks ago. At the moment, that was a pre-release version and it had a couple of bugs. John at alltouchtablet.com noticed them in his review at the time.

Asus were nice enough to send us the final release version of their EEE PC T101MT so I gave it a spin in the last days and found it to be quite a lot better actually. The screen is great and overall performance is not as bad as on that early version. Still, the device is sluggish, mainly because of the tons of applications needed to run the touch-interface properly.

For more details, please check out the quick-video review i shot earlier today. This is my first review, so easy with the rotten tomatoes please :P

Also, here’s a a quick summary:

  • 0:00 – 1.30 – short introduction and presentation of the Asus T101MT
  • 1.30 – 2:20 – couple of words about the two available modes for the screen: Finger and Pen
  • 2:20 – 4:05 – taking notes and hand writing recognition
  • 4:10 – 05:40 – Asus Touch interface and Portrait/Landscape modes
  • 05:45 – 09:45 – WebBrowsing  (Important: The video on Youtube on this clip was a stop-motion clip and i didn’t realize that at the moment. Please check the second movie below for more examples of videos from Youtube.  )
  • 09:45 – 11:20 – a couple of words on performance and some conclusions

Also, my full review of the Asus EEE PC T101MT is right here. And like i said, this is the final version of this tablet-netbook, similar to the ones that will be available in stores in a couple of weeks (or months?)

Update: Here’s another video with youtube/movie playing performances (first 7 minutes) and a couple of examples on how gestures actually work (the last 3 minutes). You can find it below.

Of course, feedback is greatly appreciated. And if you guys need more details on some parts, please comment and I’ll be glad to help.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: , ,

Last updated: January 7, 2011 | Published: March 13th, 2010 | See the comments or add yours!

Author: Mike - wrote 636 posts - see all posts by

Andrei Girbea, aka "Mike", is the Owner and Editor in Chief at netbooklive.com . He's been dealing with gadgets and writing about them for years and now focuses more on portable computers, like netbooks, mini laptops and touchscreen tablets. You can follow him on Twitter.

Similar articles you might be interested in:
Asus Eee PC 1215B gets video review Asus Eee PC 1215B gets video review
Asus EEE PC T101MT now shipping, with an excellent price Asus EEE PC T101MT now shipping, with an excellent price
More details on Asus’s Eee PC T101MT tablet netbook More details on Asus’s Eee PC T101MT tablet netbook
Asus T101MT review – good idea, but still in its early days Asus T101MT review – good idea, but still in its early days
Enjoyed this post?

Then please help us out by subscribing to our RSS or Newsletter, Follow us on Twitter or at least like us on Facebook. This would be much appreciated and would helps us continue our work and help you guys and in the end.

  • Subscribe to RSS
  • Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • feedburner""
  • Enrico
  • Mike

    Hmm, so it’s actually cheaper than I expected in Europe. Will probably come to around $550 in the US.

    In fact, it has the same price as the most powerful T19MT. That’s odd… I’m still waiting for some official price info from Asus.

  • Enrico

    That is odd indeed!
    The T91MT has almost the same price for the black version but it’s ~50 EUR (~70USD) cheaper when you choose the white version.
    So I really guess that it will be around $500 for the white version and $550 for the black one in the US!

  • Sav

    I think there’s a hardware difference between the white one and the black one, something small and specific that differentiates the price.

  • Sav

    What is driving me crazy is waiting for it to arrive in the U.S. Any ideas on how long it might take, considering it’s already shipping out in Europe?

  • LuluManager

    TM91T most powerfull than the tM101T?
    You remember that the T91 uses the mega slugghish Z520????

    I think that you forgot one thing here, this is a netbook, it uses the regular N450 processor, what did you expect?

  • Mike

    I wasn’t expecting much. I was just pointing out a clear fact: this computer is kind of sluggish.

  • Jay

    Mike this looks to cover most of my interests for my next purchase but something you haven’t covered in this video review is a demonstration of gesture scrolling?

    Web browsing in portrait mode for instance looked quite nice except that you were grabbing the scroll bars at the side to scroll? Is there either a kinetic scroll solution or at least Asus’s two finger touch to scroll solution that they employ on the netbook touchpads?

  • Markus

    Great review!

    I second the request from Jay: Please show how two-finger scrolling works.

  • Mike

    Jay and Markus, like i said in the review, it takes time to get familiar with the gestures. I for one don’t use them at all that’s why it was hard for me to exemplify them in the video. But you get FW, Back, reload, zoom in-out, copy/paste, etc.

    You should also get scrolling but, i for one couldn’t make it work. On the first version you just had to click the screen and move you finger upwards or downwards. It doesn’t work like that anymore (although it should), instead it selects the text. But there is an application that lets you set and edit gestures, called Pen and Touch. So i guess this is just a mater of properly setting this app.

    Update: I manged to make scrolling work, but it’s not that great. You just have to press the screen and move the finger very very fast. But once again, this should be improved with a couple of settings tweaks.

    I’ll try to shoot another video later today. I might not be able too though, the guy from Asus just called an hour ago and said he’ll come by to get the device this afternoon. :(

  • Jay

    Thanks for the confirmation Mike, it would be fantastic to see a video of the gesture scrolling, as I can see that being a real deciding factor here.

  • Pingback: Asus EEE PC T101MT second review: things are getting better

  • http://www.netbooklive.com Mike

    Guys, ive added another clip, with Youtube/video and gestures.

  • Sav

    The thing about these speed issues is that 2GB RAM is substandard; I’m sure that it would run fine, play internet videos perfectly if one were to upgrade to 4GB. On top of that, Windows 7 is a fat and annoying OS. It uses up a lot of space (I think ~16GB) and isn’t excruciatingly user-friendly. Yes, geeky as it sounds, I would install Ubuntu Netbook Remix (a 4GB file) and tack on the T91MT package to make it all work easier and faster. The more efficient the whole thing is, the better a battery life you can suck out, too.

  • Enrico

    @Sav: Flash video depends on processor speed and/or hardware decoding, not RAM. I wonder if Adobe is going to support GMA 3150 in one of the next betas of Flash 10.1. Until then you either have to crack it open and install a Broadcom HD accelerator or suck it up :)
    I also wonder if the multitouch panel is actually supported on Linux (either from the kernel >= 2.6.30 or with external drivers – take a look at the supported ones: http://www.lii-enac.fr/en/projects/shareit/multitouch-devices.html )
    @Mike: any chance you can open the device and post some specs of the internal components? :)

  • http://www.netbooklive.com Mike

    Enrico is right, those 2 GB of RAM are enough, the bottleneck is the CPU in this config. Also, I don’t think GMA 3150 will ever offer Flash hardware acceleration, as it has “no H.264 hardware decoding capabilities (from here: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/quick-reference-guide-to-intel-integrated-graphics/ )”, unlike the GMA 500 which has those on the chip. But maybe the guys from Adobe will find another solution for this, who knows

    As for the other question, there’s no way i could do that, i’m not allowed to to open the casing :( I don’t even have it anymore actually, the guy from Asus just took it this morning.

    I too am curios to see this device with Linux on it. However this surpasses my knowledge as i know almost nothing on Linux and i can’t really help here.

  • Sav

    Aarrrg, that kinda sucks. As far as multitouch goes, as I said there is a package for the T91MT here: https://launchpad.net/~speijnik/+archive/asus-t91mt-unr

    I would assume that it supports multitouch and the T101MT, but that may be a stretch. Before I found this package I saw a lot of discussion over tweaking UNR to work perfectly with the T91MT, many having mixed success.

    This is a few years old, but it’s a good, informative list of why Linux is so lovable: http://cityblogger.com/archives/2007/01/24/101-reasons-why-linux-is-better-than-windows

  • http://Null.com K

    i would like to ask if the T91MT better than T101MT

    the T101MT hard drive is HHD

    but T91MT is SSD hard drive

    i don’t know about the processor

  • http://www.netbooklive.com Mike

    K. I’m going to write a post on this subject tomorrow or on Sunday. Stay tuned for it.

  • Andy

    Mike,

    Good review…

    I’m looking at this mainly for note taking in meetings, and Skype when traveling. Have you used it with Microsoft Onenote or Skype?

    Andy

  • http://www.netbooklive.com Mike

    Works OK for Skype, there’s no problem with it. Mic and camera are decent at least. Didn’t try Onenote though.

  • Hannah

    i wanted to get one of these for school for taking notes and that sort of things. do you think that this could do the job? do you have any other suggestions?

  • http://www.netbooklive.com Mike

    Yea, it would definitely work for that.

  • Rauli

    I ordered this yesterday (I live in Finland). I had already an order for the t91mt going, but then I found out this came out and cancelled. The prices were 399 € for t91mt and 475 € for t101mt.

    I did the math, and found out that if(when) I upgraded the t91mt with 2gb of ram (+40€) and bought 16gb SDHC card (+40€) for added space (as t91mt only has 32gigs ssd with abt half free), it would end up about the same price as the t101mt, that already has:
    - 2 gigs ram
    - enough space on hd: 320gb
    - faster processor (1.66 against 1.33)
    - it also has windows 7 home premium (so it has multitouch and I can maybe uninstall some of those asus bloatwares to get better performance)
    - replaceable battery vs the fixed one on the t91mt, and also reportedly longer battery life.
    - 3 usb vs 2 on the t91mt

    the bad sides about the t101mt according to specs:
    - gm3150 doesnt offer hardware video-acceleration, while g500 on the t91mt does, so youtube / flash suffers a bit. even so, I was not planning on watching hd-material from a 9 inch screen anyway.
    - its heavier (1.3kg against abt 900g for the t91mt). This is one of the biggest issues for me as I plan to use it for ebook reading. Lets see.
    - its bigger, but well, of course it is, as it has bigger screen, but anyway. Thicker also.

    All in all, the t101mt seems more like a computer, where the t91mt seems more like a gadget (more “iPadish” maybe? ;) ). I would have gone for t91mt because of the size/weight, if t1091mt had been 50+ euros more expensive than it was. Now, given that they have similar prices after the almost necessary upgrades to t91mt, I went for the bigger one as it has more going for it.

    I do hope the kids wont break it immediatedly! :)

  • Tommy

    Does Photoshop CS4 work?? it might enounter some sluggish on “heavy work” but im only using “light edit” on photoshop and I mean Raw to Jpeg.

    please try that out (or try at least Cs3 if you have it) please :D ,

    from: Tommy Danielsson

  • http://www.netbooklive.com Mike

    Tommy, if you’re only using light editing, why the need for photoshop? especially cs4? I haven’t tried it out but i can say it will probably work, but will definitely take a lot to load and to perform various tasks.

  • http://thepete.com thepete

    Great reviews, thanks!

    I’m so torn between the 91 and the 101. I like the size, the ability to watch higher quality videos, and the keyboard (not a fan of chicklets) on the 91, but it’s non-removable battery and instant need of upgrade bugs me as does the fact that it’s an earlier model.

    I like that the 101 has a bigger screen, palm recognition and a removable (and replaceable) battery, but it’s bigger size and inability to run higher quality video are concerns.

    I guess in the end the main worry is that I’ll run out of juice while out and about–so maybe the video quality limitations and chicklet keyboard are worth the sacrifice? (I’m a fiction writer/blogger and do a bit of audio and video podcasting/editing where it would be nice to cut audio and/or video on this thing but not required.) I guess I’ll never find exactly what I want…

  • howee

    Great Review
    Can you actually draw using the stylus with the device? How well does the plam rejection work?
    Thanks in advance.

  • YUP5588

    I don’t care much about YouTube or Flash video, what about 720p mkv files?

    I’m torn between this and the Acer 1825ptz; the Acer is bigger and meaner (hardware wise) but if the Asus T101MT can handle 720p mkv files off a local drive then I’m sold.

  • http://www.netbooklive.com admin

    It might play some 720ps based on bitrate and the software you’re using. there’s a software pack that costs around 20 bucks known to enhance HD performance on ATOM platforms, i haven’t tested it though, but others did and seemed to get decent performance with it. Now, when i tested this Asus, i could hardly play self-stored 720p decently. So my money would be on the 1825pt (I own one and am very satisfied with it).

  • yotha

    I’m looking for new laptop this one of choice

  • alan

    Great review thanks but left me wondering if I’ve done the right thing in ordering one,however having done so, it has the 2Gb memory, on the http://www.simplyasus.com web site they are selling an upgrade to 4Gb, if you order when purchasing the 101 from them but I have been told that the 101 cannot accept 4Gb, can you advise if it is possible and would there be a noticeable difference

  • http://www.netbooklive.com Mike

    You can’t get 4 GB inside that one. The platform only supports up to 2 GB so there’s no way you can have more

  • Carl

    With Windows 7 Home premium you can scroll using 2 fingers (While in finger mode, of course).

    As for viewing in 720p, that is unrealistic for this unit. This is not a high end computer with a 2.5 GHz processor. If you need to play high definition web clips with 720 or better, this will not be a good fit. My Acer Aspire 5500 with a 2.9 Ghz won’t do it, so it’s a sure bet that this one won’t either. After all, the unit only costs $550 after upgrades. You get what you pay for. A bit more in this case, in my opinion, but you still won’t get the performance of a $1000 notebook.

    This is a good machine for students and casual users. It is not good for those with high performance computer needs.