Asus' Eee range of computers comes in three different forms: the Eee PC (netbooks), the Eee Box and this Eee Top that we're looking at today.

It's designed to be a secondary computer that's semi-mobile (you might move it from one room of your house to another), and includes the same relatively simple components as the products in the Eee range, like the Intel Atom processor.  Its main asset is the inclusion of a 15.6'' HD Ready screen (1366 x 768 pixels).

Battery Life & Portability

The quality of the components here is a long way behind those on the Apple iMac, but that's understandable when you're paying half as much as money.  The bezel is a successful mixture of white and transparent plastic.  The metal stand allows you to tilt the computer back, and extendbs to form a handle, which is useful for moving the Eee Top around.  We suggest you don't tip the screen too far back as the viewing angles on TN screens are very narrow: the further back you go, the more the image appears to dip to black.

We should also point out that the Eee Top doesn't include a DVD player.  If you absolutely need one, then you'll need to go for an external model. 

Typical webcam shot

A keyboard and mouse should be supplied with this computer, but we only found the latter in the box.  The mouse has the same look as the rest of the computer and is reasonable for occasional use.

The webcam is responsive, but lacks detail.  Fortunately, the red tinge that usually afflicts the cameras on Asus' netbooks, meaning the resulting video is much more neutral.  Sound recorded on the built-in mic sounds a little muffled.

Silence is the order of the day, and you can hardly hear it at all, even when the Eee Top is working on the most demanding tasks.  It's excellent.

The following inputs and outputs are available: six USB ports, an RJ45 socket and three mini-jacks.  The selection is fairly basic, and we would have liked to have seen a video output to connect a second screen or even other ports like FireWire or e-SATA, or an Express Card slot.

RJ45, 4 USB, 3 mini-jacks	4 buttons on the front
Webcam	Memory card reader

Processor Power

The test results that this computer obtained are almost identical to those achieved by the 1000HE netbook.  Or, to put it another way: compared to an iMac or any other computer based around Intel Core 2 Duo components, they're three to six times slower, depending on the task in hand.

You can complete any computing tasks, of course, but you'll just need a lot more patience.  You should stick to office use, surfing the web or watching video--as long as it's not very heavily-encoded HD content.  Blu-ray content won't work on this sort of computer because there just isn't enough processor power.

The power consumption varies between 30 and 35 W, depending on what you use it for.

Gaming

Trying to play recent games--even those that don't require a lot of 3D power--we had trouble at 1024 x 600 pixels.  Add 70% more pixels by moving to 1366 x 768, and you'll find the graphics chipset struggling in a lot of games.  To prove how hard it is to get even a simple game to run, we tried World of Warcraft.  And, surprise surprise, all of the detail is set to minimum but the game manages its native resolution.  It's ugly, but useable.

Audio Quality

With an ageing Realtek HD audio chip inside, we weren't really expecting wonderful sound.  The mediocre built-in speakers confirmed our worst expectations.  Although they'll make do if you don't have another option, we strongly recommend some external speakers.  A rather lightweight selection of interfaces is on offer, with just a line out/headphone jack and a line in.  At least the sound from both is clear, which improves matters.

Touchsceen

The key to this computer is in its touchscreen interface.  Without this element, it would serve almost no purpose, but, by including this interface, Asus thinks it is opening the door to every member of the family from the youngest children right up to the grand-parents.

To make the most of the touchscreen, Asus has provided a software platform, called Easy mode, where different tasks are clearly identified by large icons.  Is it useful or just a gadget?  For the time being, we're inclined to opt for the latter, because of the current lack of applications that make use of the touchscreen.  However, that could well change soon when Windows 7 arrives.