The mobile OS revolution has had an interesting side-effect, it has influenced a number of manufacturers of Windows-based tablets. The Asus Eee Slate is one such device that seems to have been influenced positively by the company’s foray into Android devices. While the device is more than powerful enough to handle almost any application, some design choices prevent it from being a truly desirable solution. (
Skip to the last page of the article for a video overview of the Eee Slate)
Design
The designers of the Eee Slate seem to have been very cognizant of the sleek-looking mobile OS powered devices on the market. Asus itself has a number of Android powered tablets. The Eee Slate does its best to mimic those devices. Its front is clean, with only a slight bezel; 1 inch at its widest. The bezel is black, again, like most consumer tablets. The screen is coated in glass and has a high-quality feel to it.
The corners of the Eee are bound in metal to prevent scratches. The back is plastic and has visible vents for the device's fans. The white-plastic backing isn’t at the same quality level as the rest of the tablet. There is a small hiding spot for the Eee Slate’s stylus on the back. One note, if the stylus is in use, the spring loaded slot actually moves around making it sound like there is a loose part in the device. When we first heard this noise, we thought something inside had broken.
With a native screen resolution is 1280x800 pixels, the 12.1 inch LED screen on the Eee slate has a true widescreen feel. Nowhere is this more evident when the device is placed into portrait orientation, where windows and applications tend to fit awkwardly. However, the landscape mode is very well done and the orientation can be locked with a hardware button. As such, streaming video on the Eee Slate's LED is a great experience.
