News: Asus unveil world’s first touch-screen netbook

Asus has unveiled the world’s first touch-screen netbook, the Eee PC T91MT.

The new Eee PC is being promoted by Asus as “the slimmest and lightest tablet netbook with a multi-touch screen.”

The T91MT supports Windows 7 multi-touch gestures, and is just 1-inch thick and weighing a mere 0.96kg. Designed to be held in one hand, it allows users to perform tasks with just their fingers, and supports handwriting input via the integrated stylus.

It also sports a shockproof 32GB Solid State Drive (SSD) that comes with an additional 500GB of online Asus WebStorage.

The multi-touch swivel screen makes it great for general use, but also the perfect tool for business professionals and sales people. In slate form, it can be used as an e-reader and interaction tool. The screen can be angled up for presentations, and the unit incorporates a VGA port for connection to external monitors. In netbook mode, it is perfect for taking notes, sending and receiving email.

Its touch-screen allows virtually any task to be performed with a tap, drag, pinch or flick. Photos can be zoomed in on, rotated and repositioned with the greatest of ease. Games can be controlled in a much more interactive way and pages of documents can be flicked with fingers, just as they would with a real book.

The TouchSuite app allows users to perform a myriad of tasks with their fingertips, including editing photos with FotoFun, taking notes with NotePad and scribbling handwritten reminders with Memos.

Equipped with a 256-level pressure sensor, the Eee PC T91MT’s crisp and responsive 8.9-inch multi-touch screen reproduces handwriting beautifully and accurately, regardless of whether a finger or the bundled ergonomically-designed stylus is used.

The Eee PC T91MT retails for $1299.