ASUS TAICHI 21 Pro Reviews

Around the time I wrote this review, I was also working on Engadget's first-ever laptop buyer's guide. I was sure the TAICHI would be a shoo-in for the convertible section, what with its innovative design and sterling spec sheet. Unfortunately, as inventive as this is as a concept, the finished product isn't quite what we all thought it would be. The battery life is short, even for a touchscreen laptop, and it could be a dealbreaker for the business travelers to whom this is being marketed. And now that we've gotten comfortable with Windows 8, we wish the inner screen were also touch-enabled (that might not have bothered us back in June, when touchscreen laptops hadn't yet become the norm, but it's a bigger turnoff now). To be fair, there isn't really a chipset right now that can effectively power two 1080p touchscreens at once -- not without ruining the battery life, anyway. But if we had to have just one touchscreen, then, we would have preferred to use it in both tablet and notebook mode (see: the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 or the Dell XPS 12).

There's little arguing the fact that the Taichi is a well-built premium laptop. And both of its screens are of excellent quality. But like pretty much every hybrid or convertible we've seen so far, its split personality results in a compromised experience on both sides. As a tablet, the Taichi is powerful and responsive, but it's also about twice as heavy as most similarly sized dedicated tablets. And battery life is also pretty short by tablet standards. As a laptop, the Asus fares a bit better. The keyboard and touch pad are pretty great and the interior screen, while it lacks touch, offers terrific viewing angles. But you lose valuable port space to make room for two extra switches on the edges of the device, so there's no room for a card reader. And battery life isn't as good as it could be, because extra weight that could go to a bigger battery is instead taken up by an extra screen and the protective Gorilla Glass that's necessary when you put a display on the outside of the lid.

Oh Asus, you tried so hard to impress us with the Taichi 21 – and it worked … at first. The idea behind this hybrid is cool and different, and we want to like it. We wish the battery life was a little longer, the bottom was less toasty, and the Taichi had some apps that make the two screens less of a novelty and more of a must-have feature. Alas, that is not the case, and we’re genuinely sad to say so. That last issue is the most solvable of the three. If developers get creative, there is huge potential here. Even so, at $1,600 will consumers look past the Asus Taichi 21′s other drawbacks even if they’re excited by the concept? Sometimes practicality has to trump neat ideas.

The Asus Taichi 21 offers a unique dual-display design, but the end result is a good ultrabook combined with a middling tablet, at a fairly high price.

The Asus Taichi 21 is fun, inventive, and a great conversation starter. It's also likely more clever than practical for many, and has a bit of a novelty feel -- but that's true of many of the new breed of Windows 8 laptop/tablet hybrids, as PC makers struggle to find forms that will appeal to consumers. The marketplace will ultimately decide which designs move forward. If you're interested in a dual-screen Taichi, however, it's hard to not suggest waiting for the next generation of hardware (if there is one), which will likely have dual touch screens instead of this model's mix of touch and non-touch.

The Taichi could be revolutionary - it can in fact revolutionize using a Windows PC. Of course, the user has to be open for this and the high-end convertible makes that easy. But first things first. The Taichi 21 is almost on a par with the ZenBook category in terms of technology and workmanship. The aluminum unibody base unit is exceptionally stiff; the dual-screen lid cannot match that for construction-related reasons. The partly minimized ports (VGA, HDMI) and the omission of both a card reader and Ethernet are known from the smallest ZenBook UX21A. An adapter for RJ45 and VGA d-sub is included. The input devices, keyboard and touchpad, operate on a very high subnotebook standard and also includes the multi-touch input on the TFT. The mobility does not prove to be quite as perfect due to the fairly weak battery and brightness reduction (168 and 213 cd/m²). The battery is drained after a good three hours of Wi-Fi browsing (tablet mode). Working on the matte screen (laptop mode) is just as fun as on the touchscreen. The reason: Asus installs identical FHD-IPS screens on both sides. Both not only feature excellent contrasts, but also generous viewing angles. The Windows display is only inferior to high-end screens in terms of brightness. 223 or 216 cd/m² is the maximum in AC mode.

A bold, dual-screened vision of the convertible tablet, but ergonomic niggles and mediocre battery life see it fall short of the mark

It's cleverly designed, and its specifications are impressive, but the Taichi doesn't quite deliver for us - its battery life is a small let for starters. More importantly, while the two screens are an interesting idea, we'd rather have a single touchscreen with a pivot (such as on the Lenovo Yoga). You may not get the niche bonus of two displays, such as giving ad-hoc presentations, but at least you'll always have a touchscreen to hand. In this respect the Taichi feels like a compromise and at this price it's simply not good enough.