Asus ET2701INTI review

With its huge 27in touchscreen, the Asus ET2701INTI is an awe-inspiring all-in-one that looks like it means business. With a price this high we’d expect it to be able to deliver to best performance and compete with a desktop PC.

Fortunately, the spec is top-notch. Our review sample came with a 3.1GHz Intel Core i7-3770S processor and 8GB of RAM, and the ET2701INTI scored 98 overall in our multimedia benchmarks, meaning that it’s pretty much the same speed as our reference desktop computer. This makes it plenty fast enough for everyday applications, as well as more demanding programs that require multi-threading.

Games performance is also good thanks to the 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 640M GPU. It’s a mid-range chip, so it couldn’t run our Crysis 2 and Diret Showdown tests on Ultra Quality settings at 1,920×1,080, but playable frame rates are easy to achieve. We managed 47.32fps in Dirt Showdown by switching to our laptop settings, which run at High Quality settings at 1,280×720.This makes it perfectly suited to the average gamer’s needs.

We’ve got not complaint about the storage either, with a 2TB hard disk providing plenty of storage space. No matter how big your media collection or the number of games you install, filling a hard disk of this size is going to take some time.

As you can’t upgrade an all-in-one’s display, the quality of it is important. While 27in is large, the resolution of 1,920×1,080 is a little disappointing, as you can buy similarly-priced computers with a resolution of 2,560×1,440. That said, Full HD is still plenty of resolution and the same as a Blu-ray film, so we can’t complain too much.

Should you want to watch films, there’s an integrated Blu-ray drive. You won’t necessarily need external speakers, as the integrated speakers to do them justice. They’re quite loud and clear, and have a reasonable amount of bass. You can improve bass with the optional Asus subwoofer that connects to the side of the PC.

We were slightly disappointed by the screen’s image quality. Our solid colour image tests were very bright and vivid, but they lacked a bit of warmth and richness. Our high contrast images bore similar results, with colours appearing slightly washed out and faded. Contrast can be adjusted using the Asus ET2701INTI’s touch-control menu, but we couldn’t improve the screen quality to match that of the best all-in-ones.

Asus has fitted a 10-point multi-touch screen, which means it’s ideally suited to Windows 8’s new interface and apps. With Windows 8 built for touch, having a touchscreen actually makes sense and you’ll probably find the touchscreen surprisingly useful.

As all-in-one’s go, its design is very traditional. The screen can’t fold flat like its smaller cousin, the Asus ET2300IUTI, but it has an elegant stand with enough forwards and backwards tilt to help you find the most comfortable viewing angle.