Asus Eee Slate EP121 review

Asus also supplies a stylus (which it would prefer we called a Digitiser pen) for natural text input. Obviously this is slower than using a keyboard, but the character recognition was very accurate. When you aren’t using it, a slot in the back of the unit holds the stylus to stop it getting misplaced. There are two USB ports if you prefer to use a keyboard and mouse, as the leather slip case doubles as a desk stand.

Although the performance increase is fantastic, there are negative side effects from using a Core i5 processor instead of an Atom or Fusion chip. We weren’t expecting amazing battery life, but a pitiful three hours away from the mains is very disappointing. Thankfully the power adaptor is very compact and includes a USB port for charging your other mobile devices, but it’s still annoying to have to take it with you everywhere for when the Slate inevitably runs out of power. The processor also creates a lot of heat; to keep the system cool, the fan has to spin constantly and is very noticeable. The fan noise would be easier to bear if it ever spun down, but it always ran at full speed regardless of our choice of power setting.

The other major downside to the Eee Slate is its price. With high performance hardware and a 64GB SSD it was never going to be cheap, but we were still astounded when Asus announced it would cost almost £1,000; this is easily twice as much as almost every other tablet currently available. Even knowing this it was still difficult not to like the Slate, as it has a great design and a very responsive touchscreen. It might be the best Windows-based tablet we’ve ever used, but the fan noise and below average battery life stop it from being truly great. If it cost half as much it would definitely get a recommendation, but at this price an ultra-portable laptop would be a much more sensible choice.