ASUS Taichi 21-DH51 11.6-Inch Convertible Touch Ultrabook

UPDATED ON 6/9/2013

This is a quick update of how things have evolved with the Taichi and I guess a final feeling after five months of use.

-So far I haven't had any technical issues, the laptop is holding up very well. I even dropped it on its side once and it dented the housing but the screens didn't break and all works fine. Lucky break I think, this is not a laptop you should be dropping for sure!

-I'm still getting 3 to 4 hours of battery life, so I haven't seen any degradation, which is great because I'm plugged in must of the time and I was afraid of battery degradation and no way to replace it. It's only five months though, we'll have to see.

-I haven't seen many software upgrades from Asus, so what was buggy is still buggy. Like the palm rejection when using the pen, that's still there, I thought I had fixed it but nah, let's not kid ourselves, I have even stopped using my pen as much because it's just not as great of a experience as I'm used to. With that said, it's good to have the pen for signing things and what not, but I wouldn't recommend it for prolonged note taking.

-My gripes with the Asus management software kind of went away, no more brightness issues, etc.

All my other comments remain. I still love this laptop and don't think, even to this day, that there's anything better on the market for my needs. I hope they make a new version and keep improving on this design over the years, I would certainly love to buy a new one in another couple of years with longer battery life, better digitizer and a bigger SSD.

Written in January 2013

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I ordered my Taichi just two days ago from us.ncix and they supposedly only had one in stock which I luckily got overnighted to me. They were top notch with service and went the extra mile for me by shipping the item right away and even making a special trip to UPS to make sure I got it the next day as the pick up for that day had already been done.

Now onto the Taichi.

Pros

-It's a great laptop all around, as long as you can live with some cons.

-The keyboard is outstanding. I type a lot, all day long really, and the keyboard couldn't be better. And this coming from a Thinkpad owner of 10 years.

-The touchpad is flawless, it works like a charm. I've never used a touchpad this good. I think it's pretty on par with mac touchpads, both on desktop and modern areas of Windows 8.

-The build quality seems top notch and it's a gorgeous piece of hardware. Sure, you have to handle it with care because of the screen on the lid but overall it's a great build.

-The 1080p Screens are top notch, the viewing angles are great, the colors look great, the text is sharp, a lot to like there.

-UPDATED: The size is good for a laptop. Enough space for a great keyboard. I got good vision, but the screen on desktop is very useable at 1080p resolution. I don't have to zoom or anything, that said, I am young and have great vision. My IE browser seems to be auto zoomed in to 125% and thus I didn't have any issues reading web pages, however, after installing chrome I see that at 100% zoom you really can't browse the net, it's too small. The 125% zoom works well though, and everything in the desktop looks good.

-The lid collects finger prints but you can't really see them from a far, so that's great because I was concerned about the laptop looking bad all the time due to finger prints.

-It has a tablet on the lid! Sure, this is not your light and small ipad, but it works well, the colors are great and I do plan to replace my tablet and laptop with this one device.

-Backlit keyboard. This is a huge pro for me and one of my requirements.

-Comes with a good quality laptop sleeve, VGA and Ethernet adapter. That's $100 in accessories right there.

-Comes with a one year accidental projection damage warranty, that's another added value/bonus there.

Cons

-UPDATED: Battery life. After some use, I seem to get from 3 to 4 hours of battery life while working full steam, typing, listening to music on headphones, backlit keyboard on, wifi and Bluetooth on and screen in medium brightness or so. If I dial things back a bit I can get past four hours just a bit, but I'm not sure how they got their five hour estimate though. For me this is fine as I'm plugged in most of the time and I may buy an external battery for long trips or meetings. Using it on and off as a tablet (and putting it to sleep when not in use with 2 second smart resume) I can get through most of the day.

-UPDATED: I had some big issues with the digitizer pen at first, but I recalibrated the pen and touch input under windows settings and ever since it's working great (as intended). I no longer have lag when writing and the palm rejection is much better than before, although not quite all the way there in my opinion. Is it as good as Wacom? No, at least not in my opinion, but it does the job. One thing I'm not happy about is that it has no eraser head and the eraser button doesn't work on Microsoft's metro pdf app, there's no way to erase in this app with the pen, I can erease just fine with my Wacom pen on my thinkpad on that app. That said, the eraser button works fine on pdf annotator and onenote.

-UPDATED: The Asus "management" software is a bit buggy, it seems to be fighting with Windows for authority. The main issue I see is with brightness, sometimes you set it to something and then it comes back to something else, this is due to power profiles not acting correctly I think. Also, auto brightness never ever gives you the top brightness even if you choose to get full brightness. The only way I got full brightness was by disabling auto brightness and then the brightness still changed some times on its own, mainly on tablet mode. Maybe there are two light sensors and the tablet one can't be disabled? Don't know. The screen switcher was a bit off at first but after some updates it seems to be doing fine.

-UPDATED: The brightness is said to be a bit low, and it is mainly if you leave the auto brightness on, however, I find it adequate on both tablet and laptop mode, even on bright sunlight it seems adequate in my opinion.

-The size for a tablet is a bit big, but if you want mainly a laptop and second a tablet then this is the best option in my opinion. I was expecting it to be lighter for some reason, as I have a HP TouchPad with a cover on and that package seems like two pounds to me, so you would think another .75 pounds wouldn't be so much, but it feels a bit heavy, that said I can live with it.

-I had read on some tech sites that using a tablet with 16:9 aspect ration on portrait was a bit ridiculous, and you know what, it kind of feels weird. I guess it's something to get used to, but don't expect it to feel natural right off the bat.

Subjective Items

-UPDATED: No touch screen in laptop mode. To me this is a pro as the laptop screen doesn't have finger prints and it's matt which I love, I don't think I could stand a glossy screen for work all day. Also, the touchpad works so great that you may not miss touch so much in laptop mode. I can easily pinch to zoom, scroll, pull up charms, etc., all from the touchpad. You will want to touch the screen sometimes, specially after spending some time using the touch screen on the lid, but I'm happy with the way it is, another touch screen would've added more weight and a glossy screen in the front and that would've been a big issue for me.

-The audio is a bit low for my taste. I had read that the audio was pretty loud, but I wouldn't consider it loud, I would consider it adequate but that's about it. I was expecting a bit more bang. That said, I listen to a lot of loud music and may be a bit deft already, so your mileage may vary.

-This vs the surface pro? I went with this one because for just another $150 (vs surface with cover), I get a backlit keyboard, two screens and an adjustable screen that I can easily use in my lap, bed, couch, anywhere at the craziest angles, which I tend to do. The surface wouldn't work for me in the same way and I would've had to adjust. That said, I wanted mainly a great laptop with a nice enough tablet. I think the surface pro is a good tablet (not great due to low battery life too)and an OK laptop.

-UPDATED: The keyboard lacks media buttons for pause/play/next track, etc. Those are useful while playing music. It also lacks the new windows keys that come with some keyboards for charms, search, etc. That said, it's a small keyboard and they couldn't have put everything in there. The other thing is that the function keys, F1 to F12, are primary vs the other items like brightness and volume. I prefer it the other way, but again this is subjective. I did fine a tool called KeyTweak which allows you to remap your keyboard keys however you want, and I have changed F10 through F12 for media buttons, so that problem is solved!

**Lastly, this is a warning. The 128gb version, which is the one I have, only comes with 63gb of available space out of the box. This is crazy! I was expecting more like 90gb after windows, etc., but Asus has a 20gb recovery partition and a 4gb OEM partition in there, so that's pretty substantial and I plan to kill at least the recovery partition and get my space back**

So the final verdict.

I love it so far. Sure it has some drawbacks, but there's no perfect hybrid out there right now. I was planning to wait for second generation models but come on, life's too short to be waiting and waiting, I've been waiting long enough and this is 90% what I wanted so I'll take it and enjoy it. The battery life is the biggest limitation/con in my opinion, but I plan to buy an external battery of some sort to have around for emergencies or long meetings/seminars.

To me this laptop is just AWESOME and I wouldn't buy anything else on the market over this for my own needs.

I would like to say that there are some misconseptions about this laptop and some very skewed reviews that I have read.

Here is my take on the laptop.

First, I have had the previous laptops before this and they pale in comparison to the Taichi.

The Samsung ATIV PC Pro 700t. (Horrible keyboard)

The Samsung Series 9 late 2012 edition. (second favorite ultrabook)

Lenovo Twist, Lenovo Carbon x1, HP Spectre 14 with Ivy bridge(late 2012)(Heavy), The yoga (I call it the horrible bouncing screen), the ASUS Zenbook UX31A (Excellent), and my media laptop the HP ENVY 17 3d (Ivy bridge) spec'ed out.

Why am I telling you this?

I have come to find out that the laptops with the touchscreen right in front of the keyboard has become an unused option for myself, especially when you have a good windows 8 compatible touchpad. The new touchpads have all the screen moves with no arm movement to reach out to the screen, and once you learn to use the efficiency of the shortcuts there is no real reason to take the time to reach up to the screen. (I did less and less over time.) I did however want the touchscreen tablet version for the new OS and the desire for the touchscreen but not in the way that it is presented behind a keyboard. The touchpad is great for taking notes, touchscreen games, Drawing, and just plain fun to use with the windows 8 fluent OS. I really do love it. For those of you not liking the windows 8 yet, give it time. I have come to love it for its efficiency and ability to go PC, Tablet, Phone. With the learning curve mostly past me, there is nothing else that compares in my opinion. I would think that everyone would feel the same way once they put the time in and get past the learning curve of the new Awesome OS. I certain would think so at least.

This leading me to why I love the Taichi so much. I have a great ASUS Zenbook with a great touch pad and I blow through everything windows 8 style and never even think about wanting to have to reach up to the screen. There is no reason I have to do so. I am writing Documents, Surfing the web, Productivity, anything keyboard related I really have no need for the screen to be a touch screen in front of me. Now, when I am done and I have a craving for a touchscreen or I just want consumption with a touchscreen I close the lid and Voila, a tablet for bedtime, table, anywhere. I play with the stylus (try that upright with a keyboard in front of you.) I swipe through the games, web, and I love to draw (have you tried the Fresh Paint app by the way). The awesome stylus the Taichi comes with is the perfect tool for the tablet.

When I need to go back to writing emails etc... I open the lid and instantly have my awesome Zenbook back in front of me to do so.

My next desire in a laptop cross over would be to prop the tablet up at just the right angle to watch a movie without the keyboard in front of me. Taichi does just this.

Turn the laptop around hit the outside screen switch and I have a tablet at the angle I want and can watch movies or still just use the tablet as it was meant to be used.

I hope this is making sense to some of you.

To summarize, I don't want a touchscreen when typing and doing emails and regular laptop functions. I do want a tablet when I can touch it easily, write, swipe, and draw properly. I also want the ability to look at the tablet at my preferred angle for plain viewing. That is turn it around and there is the tablet. (note; with the bottom still on the bottom, unlike the lenovo yoga with the keys down on the table, yikes!)

This is another reason why I love the Taichi.

It is the perfect tablet for me and I have not covered the dual screen (My kid loves this part). The ability to have a movie playing on the back side while I am working at the table or sofa is a very cool thing for my 3 year old. I also can do some teaching with him like this as well. He also sits and watches a show sometimes while I work. OK, OK, that is not the top of everyone's list, but who cares, that part is still cool.

Everything else about the tablet is a 10. The quality, the touchpad, the three level backlit keyboard, the FULL HD SCREENS! The screens are VERY solid and I have no concern after using them that there will ever be an issue of two screens being on the lid. It is solid. I spent the 180 bucks for ADP coverage of course but I don't think it will be the screens that I would have to use it on.

This is the number one tablet in my eyes.

I hope this helps some people in making the right choice for their new Laptop crossover.

Buy ASUS Taichi 21-DH51 11.6-Inch Convertible Touch Ultrabook Now

It kills me to write this review as I literally counted the days until this was released and I was so looking forward to how the Taichi could improve my productivity but after having to return 2 faulty Taichi laptops I am convinced that Asus rushed this product to market before they got their technology right.

This is supposed to be a productivity tool but instead it has been a black hole of wasted time. I spent hours setting up the first Taichi I received just the way I liked it with all the settings and Office applications I needed. Only to find out all the bugs and defects that Asus failed to address before shipping this product.

Imagine trying to concentrate on a meeting when your Taichi on Tablet mode is registering touch input that you did NOT initiate. So as you are having your meeting the Taichi is busy launching your applications, closing them, selecting various random parts of the screen and generally making the tablet most unusable. Good luck using a stylus with all this going on with a defective digitizer! And when I tried to actually use the mirror feature it bombed and again wasted time and was actually an embarrassment as I was fiddling with my laptop when trying to show something to a client when I could have just turned the laptop around.

The first Taichi was returned due to the faulty digitizer but the second one in addition to having the problems with the touch screen/digitizer also has a defective battery. It sometimes refuses to charge the battery above 79% or some other arbitrary % figure. Other times no matter how much the laptop is used, the charge is always some arbitrary % and never changhes only to have the power cut off completely while the Taichi is being used. So the second Taichi I bought is even worse than the first.

What makes the situation even worse is the ineffective Asus Taichi support. They call it VIP support but that is a joke and there is nothing VIP about it. Some times hold times are 30+ minutes. All their "solutions" come down to you reinstalling windows, resetting windows, and when they fail help solve the problem they want you to ship your brand new Taichi to them with your data and applications and pray that they will fix and send your Taichi back without trying to access any of your personal data on the laptop. When I found a problem with one of their chipset drivers not updating the chipset version installed, they refused to help me solve the problem other than suggesting wiping the laptop clean or sending the laptop to them.

I would never send a defective new laptop only days old to the manufacturer for repair. They can sit on the laptop and you could end up with a laptop with the same problems but you no longer have the benefit of the 30 day return window. If you buy a Taichi and it is defective, just return it to Amazon for a refund and don't bother wasting hours of your time with Asus support.

After two defective Taichis, no more for me.

I am waiting for the ThinkPad Helix. Hopefully it is a solidly built business laptop that works with a solid digitizer and touch screen. I have no more time to waste on a laptop that is more of a gimmick than a serious productivity tool.

UPDATE 6/6/2013: With Intel's 4th generation chip Haswell just released it does not make sense for me to purchase the Think pad Helix anymore. I am likely going to instead purchase the Sony Vaio Duo 13 that is coming out this weekend. Hopefully it is a solid laptop with a functional digitizer.

Read Best Reviews of ASUS Taichi 21-DH51 11.6-Inch Convertible Touch Ultrabook Here

After all the reviews I had read about the Taichi I was very hesitant; but I was compelled by the form factor. So when I found out that it was available at my local FRYS I went to their to take a look and I was pleased with the aesthetic and great build quality, so I purchased the I7 with 256 GB. These are hard to come by and I didn't want it to get away from. Asus does a great job in packaging the right materials most of which you need, the ballistic nylon case, the stylus, the USB dongles and pouch, cleaning cloth and Velcro strapping for the cables...great stuff.

When I took it home to set up it was easy and had no issues then had MS store techs do their PC tune up for $99 and the computer was cleaned out of all the bloatware and its just like getting a PC at the MS store with their Microsoft signature...it blazes now. OFFICE 2013 is great and works well with this form factor of a PC laptop, the screens are amazing both the matte finish and the tablet, you have to adjust the settings in the charm bar to stop having the system dim the display as I have read the reviews that pointed a dim display even with it being charged.

As for battery life its not that bad, 4-5 hours is good for me plus for what I use it for I can get up 6-7 hours, I didn't buy this to stream on line or gaming without the battery, this reason is a whole new PC itself, like a desktop but I use it more for email, and some web surfing, and fact finding, Sky Drive and Dropbox MS OFFICE, and travel.

Just give it some time, I think this the best form factor or "hybrid" PC laptop out their now, yes there is the Yoga and the Twist made from Lenovo and I have the twist but it doesn't compare to this, as for the Yoga I don't like the fact that the keyboard face down when in the tablet mode, this one the keyboard is not laying on your lap. And for now this is the only form factor that is out their that works the best, until the Lenovo Helix and the HP Revolve comes out, outside of that I am not sure whats out in the horizon, but I am sure ASUS will have an improved Taichi or a different named PC that has dual touch screens. I can live with one touch screen for now, the matte screen again is awesome..

The design is awesome and I am liking this more and more...again buy and give it some time and you wont regret it...

Want ASUS Taichi 21-DH51 11.6-Inch Convertible Touch Ultrabook Discount?

I have had the TaiChi for a couple days now and have to say it is everything I was looking for in an ultra-hybrid and am very satisfied with my purchase. I am the demographic that this form factor appeals to the most as I work for a large corporation, travel quite a bit, give presentations often, and like to play games at times. My goal with the TaiChi is to replace my HP EliteBook and my Asus EP121 tablet plus accessories when I travel. I won't go into specifics on the features as it has been covered very well by other reviewers but what is really nice for me is the power this device has, and the ability to put it into tablet mode and angle the screen for the perfect profile to use a touch device.

I am also planning on getting a USB with "Windows to Go" so I can have the best of both my work and play worlds. The idea is that I can leave my work PC behind and still have access to corporate resources when I need to without having to have my personal machine managed by corporate IT. This way they can be assured that I am not a danger to the network and I don't have to have VPN and the bloat of other IT processes slowing down my user experience. If you are thinking about going this route, make sure the USB you purchase is certified for Windows to Go, I will update when I have it all running.

The duel screens work very well and PowerPoint presentation mode works as you would expect with the two screens. The TaiChi comes with a micro HDMI to VGA adapter so I am good there, but I would also recommend getting a micro HDMI cable or adapter as well if you are giving a lot of presentations and need to be able to connect to various setups.

The only nitpicks I see to this experience has been:

1. Battery life – While it is not the same as my Kindle HD Fire I also understand that I have an Intel i7 processor and can run any PC software I own. I travel with my Kindle so it is not a big deal for me on airplanes and I am fine for power at work and hotels. I of course always want it to last longer!

2. Windows logo – I wish there was an option to turn down the brightness of the Windows logo that also acts as the home button for Windows 8. When I watch a movie in a darker room, or potentially in a darkened aircraft it is annoying as it can be right in my face with the unit lid screen facing me. It should dim it like the screen based on the ambient light.

3. Screen cleaning – I am always wiping down my screen but understand that it is a touch device for oily handed creatures.

4. Windows shortcut keys for moving apps between monitors does not seem to work, but maybe it is me.

Overall I would recommend this device for anyone that does a lot of travel and has to bring a lot of junk to support both your work and play worlds!

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