Asus Eee PC T91 netbook - software review

Following on from our exclusive review of the UK’s first production-spec Asus Eee PC T91, the Taiwanese company has finally decided what touch software to bundle with it, and dropped by our offices late last week to hand over another sample. As with the netbook itself, first impressions are good.

The Eee Docking Touch software makes itself known by a drop-down menu bar at the top of the display, which is split into five sections: Fun Touch, Eee @ Vibe, Eee Sharing, Eee Xperience and Eee Tools.

Fun Touch is basically the main menu, and is broken up into sections. It also includes useful stuff we wouldn’t particularly stick in the ‘fun’ category – such as a notepad or calculator. 

You’ll also find a photo viewing application, memos that can be easily transferred to the desktop, an internet ratio, widgets and an application called Magic Desktop – which basically offers a more child-friendly user environment.

Eee @ Vibe offers the latest downloads for your T91, while Eee Sharing offers data synchronisation and enables access to the 10GB of online storage provided with the machine. Eee Experience lets you configure sound settings.

While all this works well enough, it would make more sense if the applications were spread more evenly across the main dock – as all but Fun Touch and possibly Eee Sharing could realistically fall into the tools section anyway.

A button on the side of the screen makes it easy to switch between landscape and portrait modes, although frustratingly some of the Asus software only works in the former. This button also launches a full page menu that offers large icons for all of the Fun Touch applications.

The touch software also brings with it larger than average icon bars, making it a lot easier to navigate Windows with a finger, and it’s genuinely a pleasant and user-friendly way to use a netbook.

That said, the touchscreen panel isn’t quite as responsive as some we’ve seen – it’s fine for navigating the OS, but when it comes to making notes a little more responsiveness would be appreciated. The fact it responds to finger touches – in addition to the stylus – also means you won’t be able to rest your hand on the display as you write.

Overall though, we’re impressed by how easy to use the Eee PC T91 is, making it a great device for both adults and the education market alike. For our full review of the Eee PC T91, click here.