And what should I say? It works, sometimes even very good.
It can do anything that any other good laptop can, work is not a problem, even without the accompanying Bluetooth keyboard and its bought from me Bluetooth mouse, it can be with your fingers and / or pen very good use and work well.
The display is really glossy, but seems to have been good antireflective coating. Resolution, contrast, color reproduction all wonderful. Tilt angle is not quite as good as Asus indicated in 3 of 4 pages he comes close ran, at the fourth side, the contrast changes strangely starting at about 45 degrees angle, the image becomes darker, but everything remains visible / legible. Installed is insensitive, scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass, but it is quickly covered with fingerprints; you only normally lit room looks really. During normal work hardly noticed you do not /.
Outside the display has the same problem that just about all cell phones and laptops: by direct (and strong) sunlight you can see hardly anything. In the shade or indoors in artificial light but of course no problem.
Now for the most important for me, the abilities as a graphics tablet / Cintiq replacement:
So first you should update the graphics driver and more importantly: Download and install the latest Wacom driver for tablet PCs. The Asus Slate EP driver for the pin is in fact not so good. Firstly, the cursor was always detected 2 to 3 millimeters in addition to the pen tip and the other was the pen pressure from any graphics program even after several calibrations.
The Wacom driver himself had then done. The pen is so closely and in all programs the pen pressure eased or set has also been recognized by itself.
This came on real Cintiq feeling, very nice.
The performance of the Slate is even enough. I usually work with A4, 600 dpi, CMYK files for coloring on my computer at home. The same I wanted to with the Slate. And it's really good, with small drawbacks.
Vector-based programs such as Illustrator or Manga Studio run dazzling, no problems.
Photoshop also, with regular brushes, so the standard simple hard or soft / Airbrush brush. Some additional tips from my collection, so mimic those for example oil brush, gab`s delays and the line moved 1 to 2 seconds after, depending on the speed and size.
With many open plains can happen and also that the paint bucket ever notice from 2 to 3 seconds to fill a large area.
But drawing, mascara and "normal" colorize is otherwise loosely from his hand and popped like on paper or its correct Cintiq - very good.
Also very nice that you can rotate the screen and either cross or work on edge can, depending on your preference, the desktop and the programs turn to be - and can be also fixed, so that no accidental spin can take place. By itself is the work more on edge, because it is more like a sheet of A4 paper to the touch - also because of the size of the Slate.
The included ArtRage is a very nice program. I liked it. However, the already goes from 300 dpi Files partially run out of steam or the Asus when using ArtRage. Some tools such as paint rollers are then already more slowly and pull slightly.
The biggest problem is the battery: After drawing 2 to 2.5 hours / paint (or movie watching) is final. Therefore, only limited mobile operational, if no power connector is nearby. Even switched off WLAN and Bluetooth and down regulated screen brightness did not yield any great improvement. More than 2 to 2.5 hours was not possible.
I do not know, like a few others come here 4 to 5 hours of battery life, I guess, which make the Slate lying around in sleep mode and call only from time to time emails from or go short on the internet.
Correct work with it sucks the battery anyway empty quickly.
I hope that the next generation of the Slate is treated to a stronger battery, four to five hours of battery life under load would already be desirable. The kurtze battery life is but for me still ok, since usually a plug near is - only in the summer outdoors in the park set under NEN shady tree and work comfortably for hours is nothing ...
Otherwise, I am completely satisfied with the Slate. Great display, at all of high quality and (seemingly) built sturdy, handy size (just over A4 size), with its 1.2 kg and not too heavy or too light for me, easy to operate with hand / pen, with the envelope set the table and BT keyboard and mouse while usable and especially as a normal notebook: to very good use as a mobile Cintiq!
A bit more powerful and stronger battery and it would be perfect, but also so very close - at least for my purposes :)
SUPPLEMENT: If you like to have a different pen for tablet, which can be either a Wacom order (with a button for right-click, cost just under 60) or look for the "Axiotron Digitizer Pen" (gibt`s including at a famous online auction site ), the cost of shipping from the US and all the trimmings around 26, has 2 buttons, and works beautifully with the Slate.
It's the way every other pin, which is called "Penabled".
UPDATE: There is now a newer Wacom driver that works fine and the pin remains even up to the edges of the tablets exactly. The old was not. However, the new driver with me respond a little more slowly. I have to wait very briefly, if I accreting to draw the pin, otherwise the first pen stroke is not fully registered.
A real improvement in the performance of the Slate, there were, however, no official. Resourceful User "Tablet PC Review Forum" have some modded bios of Slate. The official bios has the CPU always too fast down too long and clocked or no longer up clocked, which is why the slate in some applications was often too slow or too slow for a PC with a Core i5 CPU. The modded bios change the settings, the CPU is running with it in applications at full power, so you can work much better and more fluid with greater ArtRage- and Photoshop files.
Can be easily created with the Winflash tool from Asus play (if it refuses, you have to "/ Nodate" append (without quotation marks) in the properties of the tools at the end of the entry in the Target command line.)
Thus, the Slate is again improved somewhat and almost perfect. The only drawback is only the low battery life.