Asus Eee pad runs Windows 7
By Jenny • Jun 1st, 2010 • Category: Industry News, Mobile Computer News
- Photo: Asus
Computex is finally under way and Asus finally dropped the drapes and revealed its highly anticipated tablet computer, the Asus Eee Pad. As excited as we were, the bummer is Windows 7 powers it.
Specs
Intel CULV Core 2 Duo processor does all the heavy lifting on both the 10-inch EP101TC and the 12-inch EP121 iPad competitors, with the aforementioned Windows 7 being the core operating system. And the seemingly de facto – and very encouraging – 10 hour battery life makes an appearance here, too.
Why the Windows 7 hate?
It’s not that we dislike Windows 7, it’s that we dislike that manufacturers shoe-horn it into tablets. Windows 7, quite frankly, was built as a mouse-and-keyboard desktop operating system and not as a touchscreen-based tablet computing operating system. And yes, we know that touchscreen coding is present in the core build of Windows 7 but still, there is no way a ‘multi-tasking’ operating system works better than a dedicated one.
- Photo: Microsoft
Have we not been down this road before? Perhaps more tellingly, has nobody learnt from Apple’s success of separating Mac OS X and iPhone OS? Apple could easily have adapted its core operating system to work on its iPad in lieu of iPhone OS, but one built specifically with touch screen computing in mind works better. You would think other tablet computer manufacturers would learn from this.
Redemption?
In fairness, there is a lot to like about the Asus Eee pad. The large display is gorgeous, which makes for great viewing (but also makes the device potentially cumbersome). Another thing the Asus tablet has going for it is its maker’s pedigree, being made by a company that all but created the netbook, meaning scope for innovation certainly exists within Asus’ walls.
We suspect this first generation Asus tablet computer will struggle to catch up with the Apple tablet, but ensuing models could see the Asus Eee pad come into its stride – and hopefully ditch Windows 7, too.
Tags for this article: windows 7, tablet pc, asus eee
I don’t know about Win 7 on a “pad” but I like it on my Eee Netbook, much better than the Win XP it came with. And today is June 1st and it’s still (RC) working the same.