ASUS Eee Keyboard PC Review

ASUS Eee Keyboard PC

The Eee Keyboard PC is a product conceived before the technology was really ready to support it. While a valiant effort has been made, it's also another example that you can't easily shoehorn a full Windows OS' into a bespoke product, unlike a simpler mobile OS.

Honestly, we're surprised Asus kept funding the project and didn't cut their losses a year ago - can it really sell enough to warrant the development time? I suppose even if sales don't make up for it, at least on the plus side there has been an essential learning curve within Asus. The comments in our interview about the possibly of future tablet-only style products that link up to a TV are far more versatile, and an easier concept to sell; Asus needs to think less PC and more along the lines of a remote control that sings.

That's if Asus can get past trying to shoehorn every feature under the sun into a device that just doesn't need it. Stop trying to make the jack of all trades and be a master of one - the Eee Keyboard is a perfect example of this, and while Asus claims it realised this it didn't quite go far enough.


Our criticisms aside though, the shortcomings aren't necessarily Asus' fault though. It's a product that boils down to a netbook shoehorned into a beautiful keyboard, and it's that tradeoff between size and power and computational need that Intel's Atom has never really caught up with.

As much as the extra Broadcom Crystal HD chipset tries to help, it isn't designed for every situation.

With a smartphone style touch-screen and customised UI thrown in on top of Windows XP, it's trying something the OS wasn't necessarily designed to do and honestly for simple use it has actually come together surprisingly well. It's by no means perfect, but it's at least functional. We're torn between the fact we really like it what it has stuck its neck out to try, but unfortunately with the wealth of alternative and cheaper media players or home theatre products out there, still wouldn't use it.

• Performance
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• -
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• -
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• 5/10

• Features
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• -
• -
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• 7/10

• Overall
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• -
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• 6/10

Score Guide