Customer Reviews

ASUS Eee PC T91MT-PU17-WT Tablet White Netbook - 5 Hour Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Since I've started using Ipod Touch generation 1 a couple of years back, I decided the future is all about touch screen and I told myself I would only buy mobile devices that would have access to touch screen. So I was looking forward to this netbook, as it was exactly what I've been hoping for in terms of concept and design.

Initially I was disappointed with the touch features due to lack of response, but after over a week I've started to like it. Don't get me wrong, the T91MT uses a resistive screen so it is never as responsive as the IPhone Capacitive screen but once you get used to the amount of pressure you need to apply, the T91MT response pretty well to touch commands. The main culprit of lag and unresponsiveness is the low powered CPU. I've notice while it is tablet mode, the processing power is restricted to only 800mhz. You will only get the full performance of 1.33ghz in netbook mode, this may be purposely implied to lower the system temperature in tablet. The difference in performance is very noticeable while watching online videos.

Multitouch zooming is not highly inaccurate, instead of making small smooth changes; it makes leaps that zoom from 100% to 125% or 100% to 75%, depending on the program. Some program has smooth animation between zoom to give the illusion that the zoom is more fluid. The biggest problem here is still processing power. If you are running zoom while low in processing resources you will likely to make inaccurate zoom, going over the desired zoom level due to lag.

There is a official demo video floating around on YouTube of the T91MT, this is the same video that is installed onto the netbook that shows every time you startup. It can be misleading; the video shows a different version of Touch gate that has a different background graphics. They have show very smooth animation in their software, it is unlikely the real thing will perform this well, due to once again, lack of processing power. The real thing is much choppier.

However on the positive side, the design of the netbook itself is solid and reasonably attractive, one of the big selling factor of this notebook is the small form factor and the tablet option. The netbook is very portable, I find myself getting it out during long queues like I would usually do with my Iphone. It can operate in tablet mode without going back to the keyboard, thanks to the virtual keyboard in windows 7.

The battery life is reasonable to good; it runs down quicker in full performance setting, around 3hrs, which is what I usually have it in due to the lack of processing power. I installed the extra 2GB ram memory right away; it didn't make much of a difference in terms of system performance. In addition, a lot of online videos are unwatchable or choppy. Youtube content cannot be played in HQ and depending on the video some will be choppy even in LQ mode while in tablet mode. Youtube is much more playable in netbook mode. Hulu has the same problems, more severe than Youtube since a alot of their video is in a higher quality format, Hulu is barely playable in netbook mode. Watching video's from hard drive is a different story, they play rather well, they don't suffer like those online videos.

I will also mention Asus's in-house software. The Touch Gate and Eee docking software are rather poor. In the touch gate, the online radio has a trial period and a link to Internet explorer was very unnecessary. Touchgate was designed for the XP to give them some touch screen functionality on that platform which was lacking in touch functions, but in windows 7 they are rather redundant since windows 7 was designed for touch screen. On top of this, the program itself is laggy.

Another problem I ran into is the palm rejection. The palm rejection software "Intelliwriting". It only works with sticky notes and windows journal. But this is not its only problem, this software is inaccurate, causing you to draw with your palm. It also distorts your text, making productive work very frustrating. I've turn this feature off and train myself to write without pressing my palm on the screen by using landscape mode making use of the side of the screen as a form of physical palm rejection. Updated - After a couple of weeks testing the T91MT, I can tell you that palm rejection is a lost cause. It is very difficult to write for longer than a few words on this net book, the palm rejection software distorts so badly that it is not worth turning on. A active digitalizer would've made a world of difference. Writing is only useful for making a couple of annotations.

The netbook has 2 USB ports and 2 SD/SDHC slots if you have the money, you can purchase 2 SDHC cards to increase the disk space by 64gb(2x32gb). This is kind of expensive, but does give you the option to expand without compromising portability.

The netbook is functional for reading PDF's and Amazon's Kindle. It is easier to read Amazon kindle, as that is less processing intensive. PDF magazine with lots of graphics can load slowly between pages and zooming can cause lag if you use the tablet mode, due to the reduced clock speed. I've learnt to use the pdf software's internal function to change screen orientation rather than using the netbook's function, that way you will scroll your books from the side like they are naturally. Another interesting fact is the notebook fits very well on the standard book holder at your local gym, so you've the option of working out while reading your pdf books or watching a movie on your netbook.

I've installed Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS4, ArtRage and Corel Painter 11. Photoshop works surprisingly well despise the low processing powers. Applying filters only took a few seconds. Photoshop demanded much less power than I had imagined it would.

There was initially a problem with the drawing tools on all these programs, they would not perform short strokes and sometimes would not draw at all. After some tweaking with settings, I worked out that this problem was caused by touch gestures sending both commands for drawing and moving the canvas at the same time, which confused the software. To fix this, I disabled "Single Finger Panning" under "Pen and Touch" control panel, this solve much of the drawing problems.

In conclusion, this device is not bad but could've been much better with more power. The touch screen function gets more responsive as you get used to it. The portable format lets the user to work anywhere. It works very well as a portable tablet. However the palm rejection is a lost cause, realistically you cannot do any kind of productive handwriting on this netbook, this netbook desperately needed a active digitalizer. The other main let down of this netbook is the processing power. The overall lag caused by this is discomforting, if Asus had put in a high powered cpu and gfx, this would be a award winning product. Note that your processing power will be lowered in tablet mode(800mhz), you can however work around this by putting your netbook to sleep during netbook/laptop mode then change to tablet mode while it is powered off. Once you repower on you will keep the same clock speed as the laptop mode(1333mhz), but this may cause heating problems.

I was initially very angry with this netbook, as Asus make a deceiving marketing video giving false expectation of the netbook, but as time went on this netbook grew on me. It makes a nice toy for reading and watching movies on the move, it is a cross between a iphone and a netbook, but it is not much of a productive tool in it's current form.

The ASUS T91MT is my second try in the netbook market. A conventional Dell netbook proved pretty useless to me and ended up as my nephews' Nickelodeon/PBSKids machine. This one caught my eye, though, because I've very much enjoyed my larger HP TX2500 series tablet. Did the tablet option justify the price premium? To me it has.

The build quality feels surprisingly solid; the rotating hinge mechanism clicks reassuringly into place. The decision to include a permanent battery concerned me, but the choice allowed ASUS to distribute the weight around the chassis, making it more comfortable to hold in tablet form. As with any 8.9" netbook, the keyboard is a challenge to use, but that's where the tablet really comes in handy. Win 7's onscreen keyboard works just as well for me as any netbook keyboard.

I've had the machine for a week and am very pleased with the form factor so far. Windows 7 provides very nice touch features, making Asus' own TouchGate overlay completely unnecessary. With a little tweaking (taskbar on the right, full-screen browsing, etc.), the small screen does what I need. Outlook is a little cramped, but browsing in tablet form is truly a joy.

The screen has a soft matte surface with minimal reflection issues even on low-power settings. Sensitivity is excellent and I am able to consistently hit my mark even with my grown man fingers. I have not had a chance to use OneNote on this machine in a real life setting, so I can't say how well it works for inking notes in a meeting or class. Just playing around, I know the digitizer on the HP tablet seems to make inking a smoother process. There is a setting to allow for palm rejection when using the pen, which will be very nice.

The choice to go with the Atom Z processor caused me some hesitation. However, having used an N-series processor before, I don't think the slight reduction in processing power will impact many users. It's a netbook and users need to approach this or any other with reasonable expectations. Moreover, in order to maximize battery life, users will generally allow a netbook to operate at a reduced capacity most of the time. There are moments when this one hesitates in opening programs, and there are some programs it seems incapable of handling (Win 7's novel surface applications, for example), it can run a graphics heavy PPT with ease.

Also, Amazon has just released the first iteration of its Kindle for PC software. While it needs some improvements (full screen and easy rotation, maybe the ability to annotate), I've been able to read very comfortably whether at a coffee house or in bed. At the lowest power setting, the screen causes no discomfort for long sessions. Really, that's been the best surprise of the week with this machine.

The bottom line for me is that the tablet option makes the price premium worthwhile for me. I've been able to leave the heavier notebook at home and leave the house for hours without even bringing a power cable. I expect this to be my new travel companion for many trips, too, if I don't expect to have to do a lot of writing on the road. All in all, very pleased with the purchase so far.

The only other machine I was considering as an alternative is Archos forthcoming 9" tablet. It will be smaller and lighter, but with a conventional hard drive and Win 7 Starter Edition. Of course, that requires a leap of faith that (a) you'll really be happy without a physical keyboard and (b) that Archos will make good design and software decisions. But, since the Asus has the field to itself for now, that was a non-issue.

I've been trying for a long time to find a tablet form factor that works for me. This one works.

I'm interested primarily in surfing the web and reading PDFs when on the couch or in bed. I had tried a used NEC LitePad -- a great device but older and just too underpowered; and a Dell XT -- too heavy and too short on battery life; and the Viliv X70, which is near perfect but doesn't provide enough storage (16gb ssd) in its $599 version and has a 7" screen at 1.75 lbs as opposed to the t91mt's 9" screen at 2 lbs. What I've been looking for is the following:

1. Something light enough to hold in one hand lying in bed (2 lbs and under), a form factor in between an iphone and a regular tablet
2. Something powerful enough to run Microsoft Word and Adobe Professional (so that I can easily read and annotate PDFs); and decent enough power that I'm not frustrated in general -- good enough online video playback.
3. The ability to touch using my fingers (I have no interest in inking with a stylus) -- with something approaching the feel of an iphone: light touch, the ability to scroll down using the thumb directly on the page, etc.; multitouch with windows 7 a bonus.

The t91mt does all of these things quite well. I was a little worried when I first started using it and installing software: I had Dropbox (I use this for online file backup/sync with other computers) running in the background and during its first sync of a large number of files it uses a lot of CPU. Adobe Professional and Word took a long time to install. So during all this the t91mt was sluggish, and surfing the web was frustrating. Also, the Asus calibration tool isn't very good -- so I wasn't getting the accuracy I liked with touching.

But now that I'm done with all the intense multi-tasking, the tablet runs very well -- very responsive. And after running the Windows 7 calibration the touching is very accurate.

Because it's less resource-intensive, I have a better experience surfing with Google Chrome than with Firefox (not to mention IE); Youtube does well embedded and fullscreen; Hulu not so well -- you're ok if you don't go full screen. For a more iphone like browsing experience, Firefox with the grab-and-drag addon is really nice; it's just that video performance seems to suffer with this browser. I wouldn't steer you to this device if you have a) intensive online video needs (I'm not sure about downloaded videos -- haven't tested) or b) a desire to take notes with a stylus (unless you can get used to keeping your palm off the screen when inking -- stylus input is blocked when skin touches). And keep in mind that this is not a true capacitive screen and it's only a two-point multi-touch; on the iphone-feel scale some applications do better than others as far as scrolling/dragging, but in general I think the pinching is pretty clumsy (it's hard to control how far you're zooming in and out).

Another note -- I'll be upgrading the RAM -- as it is, 750mb of the 1gig are used on bootup; this doesn't seem to affect performance when you're doing one thing at a time, but I'd like to see how it does with 2 gigs.

In general I'm very pleased, and I think I'll keep this rather than the Viliv x70, which is an excellent machine and hard to part with: I'd say the x70's screen is slightly less responsive (but still very responsive) yet slightly more accurate; with XP, the Viliv is a little faster in general and has a feature which allows it to boot and recover from standby much more quickly. For Video, the viliv is much better -- you don't get any dropped frames even with Hulu full screen. The devices feel very similar in weight, and both are comfortable for me. The extra screen space with the t91mt and the keyboard are decisive factors, not to mention Win 7 (which is very pretty and pretty quick). (The add-on UI's for asus and the viliv are equally useless -- I disable them).

For a more thorough review (by someone else), see: [...]

I have owned an Asus UMPC and HP tx2500 tablet PC before. UMPC has no keyboard and tx2500 was too heavy and got hot easily. Based on my experience with these low cost tablet PC's, I would only use the touch screen feature to launch a program or change menus of a GPS program instead of taking hand writing notes. I have received my T91MT for a week and it works just as I expected.

1. A better PDA - I use the T91MT primarily for checking email, Internet surfing, keeping contact phone book, and reading pdf files. With built-in keyboad, it works productively like a regular PC.

2. Fast wake up and long battery life - I only close down the LCD screen when I've done the computing. And the T91MT enters sleep mode by itself. It'll take only 4 seconds to wake up and ready to use. The battery will last several days this way.

3. No fan noise and feel only lukewarm on the bottom.

4. I bought a Bluetooth GPS receiver and installed a GPS software. Now I have hand held GPS when I need directions.

5. Now I carry it with it everywhere since it's only 2 lb.

I have worked with computers for over 20 years and never seen one work as advertised, so I decided to write up a review. I was skeptical when I saw the write-ups and reviews on the T91MT on the web, wondering how this device offered so much for this little cost. Having been an ardent tablet PC user for business and personal use (Art with ArtRage) I consider myself an advanced user. I own 3 tablets from different vendors (Lenovo, Panasonic and HP) and have experienced all types of torments and limitations.
The T91MT setup beautifully and works flawlessly as advertised. The multitouch is responsive and pressure sensitivity good (once calibrated!). There is very little bloat ware out of the box (Office Home and Student 60-day trial, some ASUS games and kids stuff) and the use of space is well thought out. The keys are good for the form function and the overall design is solid and well thought out. My only upgrade recommendations are to go with 2GB ram and get the largest SD/MMC card you can.
I installed the Office 2010 Beta on the unit and Art Rage and so far have been impressed with the performance and battery life! 4/12 hours! I am now a convert and will be using the unit on an upcoming international visit. I will be testing the ASUS Online storage for docs and pictures.
For once I can say... A vendor promised and delivered!

The t91mt was purchased to serve as a portable computer/note taking tool. I much prefer to use a truly open source (OS) operating system, not Android. While everything worked in Linux land there was one piece of hardware that just failed, it was the touchscreen. Like most things in OS world it wasn't long before it was working. So now I have a machine I can use for running Python, Haskell, Maxima code on aswell as typing stuff in TeX, that also allows me to take hand notes. It's great. Don't expect it to be a powerhouse, it obviously isn't, but for my needs image processing, computer programming, surfing the web, taking hand notes, it's great

I purchased this to take hand written notes in meetings; however, the inking feature is terrible. It often fails to capture letters at all and more often then not they come out poorly formed even with the feature that supposedly ignores palm pressure turned on, and this feature only works in a couple apps.

If you want it just for the novelty of being able to write on the screen then it is fine, but I would not want anyone else to be mislead by there marketing video. It is not a useful tool, just an expensive toy.

Straight out of the box, the build quality is extremely solid and well built. The hinge is sturdy enough to (against ASUS recommendations) lift the whole netbook and support itself. You can poke and press at any part of the whole thing and nothing flexes or bends. The added bonus of the touch screen means that the screen itself is more rigid and also solidly built.

About everything in the T91MT is solid state. The 32gig (30 says the system) about 12-13 is already taken up when you get it. Mind you, you can save over 1g of this by removing the 60 day office trial and replacing it with open office. The "disk expander" slot is open for a SDHC card too so you can quickly expand the space with a flash RAM card. Then an extra SD reader on the front so conceivably, you could have two 8,16, or 32gig SD's in it at once.

The RAM is easily expandable from the stock single 1G stick, though I would recommend looking to see what work.

Even with the starting 1gig of RAM, Windows 7 runs excellently. Fully optimized for battery, you can actually BEAT the factory estimate on battery to where I've gotten up to 6 hours of use. Mind you this is a dim monitor and fairly light usage. But the Windows 7 advantage is that very often the resource usage is nearly zero when things are inactive. The result is better life overall.

The touch screen takes quite a lot of calibration, particularly on mine the upper left corner is fairly off.. Where it's not necessarily super accurate with a bit of calibration, it can be rather accurate for finger-touching. And then with a lot of good calibration you can get it to be rather good. The multitouch is limited to two points, but it does work well for zooming, right clicking with the one finger on and tapping it with the other.

The writing recognition, when you first get it, is horrid. BUT that's because you have to gradually "teach" the computer your writing style. You can do this by either just using it regulalry or by using the windows 7 writing recognition tools. After a bit of use, the writing recognition learns better what you're going for and the guessing gets more accurate.

I'm overall satisfied with it. I originally had a ASUS 701, so I'm more than aware of the capabilities of a netbook. And even though the 701 is practically built like a tank and has the scars to prove it, the T91MT is also very well built and light weight to boot. Despite this model being fanless, the base doesn't get too very hot even on the higher settings. The fact there are no fans, moving parts, etc. means there's a lot less to go wrong and should last a long time.

As a preface to this review: I've owned the computer for about 2 months. I use it everyday for college (notes in particular), work, and just for play.

I personally LOVE this computer. I have always wanted a tablet, and am very satisfied in my Asus selection. I do think though, it isn't for everyone out there. And though this review lists a bunch of inconvenient-sounding aspects, I really do love it. I just think it would be useful to know all these things to know if it is a match for review readers/potential buyers.

It's very portable, with long battery life (5 hours in constant use, I've found) as promised.

Since it is a 9 inch screen, though, the keyboard doesn't have a lot of space and is very, very tiny. I, personally, am not bothered because the laptop before it was 10 inch and before that 11 inch. In addition, since the keys are close together using "Home Keys" typing with not-tiny hands would be difficult, I imagine. However, if you are truly a fan of the tablet/touch-screen ways like I am, you'll find yourself using the screen to "type" a lot--unless you are writing pages and pages in one sitting (like an essay/paper).

When I first saw another, similar-sized model in person, I was uncomfortable with the thought of everyday internet/word processing use with a screen so small. If you think about it, when using certain internet browsers, for example, the space for actual browsing might be squished between the bottom task-bar and the top window bar (minimize button, address area, favorites area). I didn't think it would lend to easy browsing. This computer does have a "Full Screen" option where it hides all these bars to use the full screen space for your browsing enjoyment. Also, using a minimalistic browser like Google Chrome has done wonders.

I really enjoy the fun and easy programs like the photo-booth, note-taker, desktop sticky-notes, etc.

I was wary of Windows 7 at first (before buying this product), because I hadn't ever moved beyond XP in my previous laptops. But I think its wonderful and I'm glad I was "coersed" into using it by wanting the laptop itself badly enough.

The laptop can be really slow right after start-up (from being off, start-up from standby seems fine).

Definitely the best computer I've owned (BY FAR). And matched to the right type of user, it will be the best for other people too.

Excellent 2nd entry in the touch enabled Netbook market - both from Asus. This one is quite, easy to use, and has a great battery life. There are some issues with the touch screen calibration that should be worked about with a software upgrade. Also, the drivers for the Intel GMA 500 video processor are seriously lacking - nothing Asus can do about that. We just have to wait for Intel to provide 3D Acceleration support - the hardware can do it.

In short, if you are looking for an extremely light, fast Netbook with a long battery life that is multi-touch enabled, this is your only option for now. That being said, Asus has a great product here that only needs a little tweaking to be a major force in the market.