The company who invented and marketed the first netbook is hoping lightning strikes twice with their new line of slate PCs. Asus revealing their new Eee Pad EP121 and Eee Pad 101TC slate devices both featuring Windows.

The EP121 is as 12.1″ unit with a CULV Core 2 Duo, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. The battery is reported to run 10 hours. The EP101TC is a 10″ unit that uses Windows Embedded Compact 7 as an OS and NVIDIA Tegra. No word on the Android slates we know Asus has in their boxes somewhere.

I find that running a full Windows 7 on a slate a bit perplexing. To me, people wanting to buy slates are looking for a different experience than using a netbook or a full-fledged PC. Giving a desktop OS different clothes is still just a PC and I think consumers may have a tough time buying into that.

Engadget got some hands-on time with these products and found them to be pretty buggy and unpolished, but of course these are early functional models, so expect the spit and polish you’d expect from Asus by time of release.


“An NVIDIA Tegra-powered EP101TC was powering on, but its Windows Embedded Compact 7-based interface was still noticeably buggy, and the touchscreen quite unresponsive. The UI certainly looked attractive enough, and our swipe motions across the capacitive touchscreen were handled admirably, but ASUS definitely has a ways to go in terms of functionality. “

Computex 2010: Asus Announces 10 and 12 Inch Slate PCs - Mobile 2
Asus Eee Pad EP121 announced today at Computex 2010.