That was fun! In fact, the most fun I’ve had with an unboxing for a long time. Notebooksbilliger.de (a German PC retailer) sent over the ASUS Taichi 21 for testing and the unboxing was a real pleasure. Nice packaging aside, it’s the screens, yes screens, on the ASUS Taichi that are the headliner and because of the slightly lighter build compared to the bigger Ultrabook convertibles it feels like it’s closer to the sweet-spot for Ultrabook convertibles. There are a few issues to think about though.
The ASUS Taichi here is running on a Core i5 with 128GB of SSD. There’s no digitizer pen included but the digitiser display is present according to Windows. I have no idea why ASUS would have effectively disabled such an important feature by not including the pen. I can’t find the stylus available anywhere yet but it really looks like the same pen as on the HTC Flyer apart from the tip. The HTC Flyer Stylus costs around $40-$50 so expect the same for the ASUS Stylus.
Take a look at the video and let me know what you think. I’ve put some food for thought below.
Food for thought: There’s only a 35Wh battery inside this. I can tell you immediately you won’t get more than 3.5hrs of working life out of the ASUS Taichi 21.
Internal screen is not touch-capable but isn’t glossy. Keyboard was accurate in a short test.
Confirmed in the last 24hrs:
Windows reports Pen support so the digitizer hardware must be built-in but there’s no pen included. Strange choice by ASUS.
Feel free to put your questions below. I’ll have some first impressions up at the weekend.
Unless you can go under 1kg with these devices, I think you are really going overboard with weight on the “Tablet” side.
After all, its a Notebook-first device. I wish unless manufacturers can get Convertibles REALLY light and thin(Think Aspire S7 + LaVie Z, or in maximum 15mm/1kg), they are better off sacrificing bit of that to get better battery and lower prices.
I bought the i5 version in Australia and it was also missing a stylus. ASUS confirmed the digitizer tech is inbuilt into the display and you just have to purchase one. In Australia, you should be able to purchase the stylus for $33+$22 shipping from an ASUS service centre. Fortunately I’m getting mine for free since their website said it came with an “included stylus” at the time or purchase.
Supposedly any stylus using 4th generation Ntrig technology should work, but I have yet to hear of anyone trying a non standard one. The Sony Vaio Duo 11 stylus looks pretty similar, and is N-trig, so may work.
I agree it was a terrible decision to not ship with one.