Asus All-in-one PC ET2400

The ET2400 is one of seven different all-in-one units released by Asus late last year. Much like any other Asus product, its design is no-nonsense practicality adorned in regulation black-gloss finish.

One of the first aspects of this model which sticks out for me is the lack of Blu-ray playback capability. To be fair, most all-in-one computers aren’t marketed as media centres, but for a PC with a built-in full HD screen and speakers, it seems like a no-brainer to include a Blu-ray/DVD combo drive for HD movie playback.

A digital TV tuner is also notably missing, however the ET2400 does have an HDMI input which lets you plug in a separate set top box or Blu-ray player if you want to. Asus does manufacture a version with a Blu-ray drive, which we’re told it may introduce to the New Zealand market if there’s sufficient interest.

Another feature I found wanting is the graphics chipset. The AMD Radeon HD 6470M is considerably underpowered compared to the graphics cards in the other all-in-ones we’ve reviewed. It seems unlikely that anyone would buy an all-in-one expecting to play demanding games at high quality settings, but just remember than these computers are nigh-on impossible to upgrade, so if you want to do even just some light gaming now or in the future, you’ll want to opt for something a bit more grunty in the graphics department.

I can only presume these omissions are to keep the price of the ET2400 down, and it certainly is one of the cheaper models available on the market, so that’s a major bonus.

It’s no slouch on the processing side of things – the 2.5GHz Core i5-2400S is a powerful quad-core CPU from the Sandy Bridge range of Intel chips, and the 4GB of RAM installed should be enough for most people’s requirements.

The large 23.6-inch display has excellent image quality with minimal ghosting, and the speakers are loud and clear, if not audiophile quality. The bundled keyboard and mouse are good quality, standard issue pieces. Having said that, I had a major problem with the keyboard – half of the keys have secondary functions (e.g. media control keys) which you press in conjunction with the blue ‘Fn’ key to activate. The problem is, the secondary function seemed to be activated by default, and I had to push the Fn key just to enter the normal keys. Very annoying.

In all other aspects, the ET2400 is a polished, usable device. The multi-touch screen is as good as any other I’ve used, and the packaged touch-related software is handy, if a little gimmicky.

If you need an all-in-one with decent processing power and a large, quality touch-screen, and don’t mind its shortcomings, the ET2400 will deliver in this regard, and will do so for a reasonable price.