Asus' 20in touchscreen PC may pack a cheap-and-cheerful Intel Atom processor, but it certainly doesn't look like the usual Eee PC. Its glossy black exterior is surrounded by a border of stylish chrome, and the unit sits on a curved, clear stand.
The display's resistive touchscreen layer means there's a slightly mottled effect on the panel, but it's nowhere near as bad as the Shuttle's disappointing display.
And while we could detect the screen's layers, which resulted in a slightly spongy look, we found it responsive and precise in use.
Quality is good elsewhere too, with decent colour reproduction and sharp detail. The native resolution of 1600 x 900 offers a reasonable amount of desktop space. As with the competing MSI Wind Top, multitouch is supported.
The Asus has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330, compared to the T6600 processor in the MSI - but in both systems you also get Nvidia Ion graphics.
This extra power meant the Eee Top was able to handle our HD test files without any hiccups. We found the 3W stereo speakers good, too, offering loud, surprisingly full sound that was streets ahead of the MSI's audio.
However, the Atom processor struggled in our benchmarks. As expected, it scored 0.39, a result that means more demanding processor-intensive tasks such as HD video editing will be beyond it.
There's also no sign of a decent touch software bundle. The only nod to touchscreen support, aside from Windows 7, is the Eee Bar.
This drops down from the top of the screen to reveal links to often-used applications such as Skype, Internet Explorer and Windows Live Messenger - and proprietary webcam, PC management and note-taking software.
It may not have the huge screen or numerous features of expensive machines, but the Eee is still good value. It has a decent screen and the inclusion of the Nvidia Ion chipset means it performs well as a compact media PC; just note the lack of raw power.
