Since Windows 8 was launched last year, we’ve seen a number of innovative products that take advantage of the new touch-friendly OS. One such device is the ASUS Taichi 21, which features a pair of Full HD IPS displays mounted back-to-back. The external display is protected by Gorilla Glass, being a multi-touch display with pen support. The primary display, on the other hand, isn’t a touchscreen, but sports a matte panel instead. The two screens enable multiple usage scenarios. With the lid down, the Taichi becomes a tablet.
Unfortunately though, like all convertibles in tablet form, it is a little too heavy to be used lengthily without additional support, despite weighing just 1.25kg. In notebook mode, there’s a Screen Switch on the Taichi’s keyboard that lets you choose how the secondary panel works, either mirroring what’s already on the primary display or as an extension of the primary display. At the same time, multi-touch on the secondary display remains usable. Another issue with its extra display is that it also drains power.
The Taichi already has a short 178-minute battery life when we put it through Powermark; with the second screen on, battery life drops to 151 minutes. This device is definitely one that catches attention as its interior features quite a fair bit of aluminum, also making it sturdy. We liked the keyboard on the Taichi; though the Chiclet-style keys are shallow, the keyboard was comfortable to type on. The glass trackpad was decent too, but could be a little more sensitive to the touch. ASUS was able to squeeze in both mini-VGA and mini-HDMI ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and an audio combo port.
There’s also a volume control rocker switch, primarily for use when in tablet mode. Components-wise, the Taichi has a combination of an Intel Core i7 processor, 256GB SSD, and 4GB of RAM. Running the Taichi through the PCMark 7 benchmark produced a score of 4967 PCMarks. The 3DMark 11 benchmark produced a score of 1155 3DMarks. Both benchmark results were pretty much in line with other Ultrabooks with similar hardware specifications. The Intel HD 4000 graphics is capable of casual gaming, word processing, web browsing, and a bit of image and video editing.
If anything, ASUS’ biggest hurdle with the Taichi is its PhP 85,995 price tag, which makes it rather expensive for an Ultrabook, despite the feature set and additional display.
SPECIFICATIONS
CHIPSET............................ Intel QS77 Express
GRAPHICS ...............................Intel HD Graphics 4000 OPERATING SYSTEM .......................... Windows 8 CONNECTIVITY....................Wi-Fi a/b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0, 2x USB 3.0, micro-HDMI, mini-VGA, Audio jack combo, Screen switch, Volume rocker
DIMENSIONS .......................WEIgHT 339.2 x 228 x 17.4mm / 1.25kg
WEBSITE ............................ ph.asus.com
AT A GLANCE
PROCESSOR.................. Intel Core i7-3517U (1.9GHz)
DISPLAY .....................2x 11.0” Full HD IPS (1920 x 1080) MEMORY ................... 4GB DDR3
STORAGE .......................256GB SSD
PRICE ................................PhP 85,995
No comments:
Post a Comment