Asus ET2410-06

The Asus ET2410-06 ($899.99 list at Best Buy) could've been a contender. It has a fast Core i3 dual-core processor, a responsive touch screen, wireless keyboard and mouse, and future proofed ports, like HDMI and USB 3.0. However its bouncy screen and lack of Wi-Fi are both considered necessities in a touchscreen all-in-one PC. This system is one of the few that are not recommended.

Design and Features
The ET2410-06 is quite attractive, and shows that Asus has come a long way since its Eee Top PCs, like the Asus Eee Top 1602 ($599 list, 3.5 stars). The Eee Top line was one of the first inexpensive systems to challenge the Apple iMac's dominance of the all-in-one PC market, but its design is clunky compared with today's all-in-one PCs.

The ET2410-06 follows the current conventional design for all-in-ones: a stand with a single pivot for tilting the screen, recessed two-finger touchscreen with IR-sensing technology, and a side-mounted tray-loading DVD drive. There are some drawbacks to using this design on a touch-screen PC, however?the screen bounces. If you tap the screen quickly, as if you were dismissing a dialog box, the screen continues to shake for a few more seconds. This shows that the ET2410-06' screen itself is poorly damped, since the screen of other competitors give a little when touched but quickly stop moving shortly after you finish touching the screen. Other touch-screen systems like the HP TouchSmart 610-1150y ($1,199.99 list, 4.5 stars), Toshiba DX735-D3201 ($899.99 list, 3.5 stars), and Dell Inspiron One 2305 (IO2305-4400ELS) ($799.99 list, 3 stars) do not exhibit extra screen bouncing during normal operation.

The ET2410-06 is well equipped. It has two USB 3.0 ports and a combo eSATA/USB 2.0 port on the left side, three more USB 2.0 ports in back, HDMI-in, HDMI-out, and VGA-in. HDMI-in and VGA-in are important, since they can be used to stretch the usable life of the monitor by using the system's display when the internal components become obsolete. You can also hook up devices like a DVR or Apple TV via the HDMI-in port as well. The system has a wireless keyboard and mouse, which are almost a must have on all-in-one systems, and the keyboard easily slots below the screen for storage.

But there's huge feature missing that's a deal-breaker?Wi-Fi. The ET2410-06 has none, so you're limited to wired Ethernet networking only. This omission is inexcusable on a system that's meant to be placed anywhere in your house or office, possibly, away from the cable modem or router. Why have a wireless keyboard and mouse, then have to connect an ugly wire to the back so you can surf the Internet? It's counter intuitive. The majority of households aren't wired with networking cables: some laptops and most mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets use Wi-Fi exclusively. Sure, you could add W-Fi via a USB adapter, but its clunky looking, adds unneeded complexity, and should not be an extra expense for a $900 system. Lack of Wi-Fi is a fatal flaw for anything but a bare bones entry-level tower desktop, since all of the ET2410-06's competitors from HP, Dell, Toshiba, and other PC manufacturers include Wi-Fi as standard equipment.

The system comes with a 1TB hard drive and a DVD burner, though a Blu-ray drive would be nicer to show off the 23-inch 1,920-by-1,080 resolution (1080p HD) screen. The system is free of bloatware, thanks to the inclusion of Best Buy's PC app. The Best Buy app is an online store for buying and downloading programs, that way you can pick and choose the programs you want instead of having them forced on you. The system comes with the usual Microsoft Office 2010 Starter, plus Microsoft's Touch Pack for Windows 7 and Trend Micro Titanium Anti-Virus (60-day trial). Asus has very little in the way of pre-loaded touch apps, so you'll have to find your own reasons to use the (wobbly) touch screen.

Performance
The disappointment doesn't extend to the ET2410-06's performance, however. Its Intel Core i3-2120 processor and 4GB of memory helped the system return good scores on multimedia and day-to-day productivity tests. The ET2410-06 finished encoding a video in Handbrake in 1 minute 38 seconds, and ran through Photoshop CS5 in 3:37. Both are very good for an all-in-one PC: the ET2410-06 was faster than the Toshiba DX735-D3201 (1:52 Handbrake, 4:05 CS5) and Dell Inspiron One 2305 (IO2305-4400ELS) (1:47 Handbrake; 3:54 CS5).

It also turned in a decent score on the PCMark7 (2,614 points), which measures the system's day-to-day performance. The Toshiba DX735-D3201 yielded faster results (2,690), while the Dell 2305 (2,331) was slower. Needless to say, none of the systems will be very good at high-end 3D gaming, since all use low powered integrated graphics?none of which could run 3DMark 11.

It's hard to compare the Asus ET2410-06 to the competition on anything but price, since the other systems don't have the ET2410-06's fatal weakness (lack of Wi-Fi). The current touchscreen all-in-one Editors' Choice, the HP TouchSmart 610-1150y ($1,199.99 list, 4.5 stars) is one of the best touchscreen all-in-ones available, with the most intelligent ergonomics and a fast quad-core PC, it has all the bells and whistles that justify the higher price tag. Even the lower-priced systems, like the Toshiba DX735-D3201 and Dell Inspiron One 2305, are more stable than the ET2410-06during touch operations, and though the ET2410-06 is a decent performer on our benchmark tests, the Dell 2305 and Toshiba DX735-D3201 are close, and simply have necessary features, like more memory and Wi-Fi. It's hard to recommend the Asus ET2410-06 to anyone except those who absolutely know they have easy access to wired Ethernet.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Asus ET2410-06 with several other desktops side by side.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/19R9wQh2sII/0,2817,2395911,00.asp

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