Hands-On with the Eee PC T91’s Touch Interface

During CES, ASUS introduced its first touchscreen enabled Eee PCs and we got a good look at the hardware on the T91 and T101. However, the Windows XP touch user interface left something to be desired, and now, six months later, ASUS is fulfilling that desire in ways we really couldn’t have imagined.

On display at ASUS’ booth at Computex were a number of 8.9-inch Eee PC T91s (no sign of the 10-inch T101, but our U.S. ASUS representative confirmed that it is planned to hit the U.S. market). The touch interface (which doesn’t have a firm name, though TouchGate seems to appear in a few places) is launched by simply pressing a button on the bezel just below the screen. You can also launch it from the Eee Dock on top of the Windows XP desktop.

The interface launches with a series of three panels, similar to Apple’s Cover flow. Lightly swiping a finger across the screen will flick the panes. The main menu pane brings up a number of touch friendly applications on a swivel pane, including a memo pad and photo viewer. You can also select Internet Explorer which ASUS added a layer of touch functionality over. In IE you can select a large on screen keyboard to input your address or tap on another icon to zoom in.

Another pane brings up a Widget Mode that is built upon Yahoo’s widget platform. You can easily select and drag the widgets around the screen with a finger.

Really you have to see it to beleive it so hit the jump and hit the play button and watch the very impressive touch interface in action.