X-bit labs

ASUS R1F – First Tablet from ASUSTeK Lab (page 4)

Category: Mobile

by Alexander Britvin

[ 07/03/2007 | 10:36 AM ]

What makes this notebook special is the way its display is fastened to its body. There is one hinge designed as a turnable block with two degrees of freedom.

The block can be turned around clockwise by an angle of 180 degrees. The display is not fixed in the limiting positions, which is somewhat inconvenient when you are using your R1F as an ordinary notebook, for example. The hinge does not protrude much at the rear, thus not spoiling the overall appearance of the notebook.

The notebook can be unfolded by an exact 180 degrees.

The external color scheme is continued inside. Everything, including the touchpad, is painted gray. There are rubber pads on the screen bezel for softer contact between the display and the body in the notebook mode. Two more pads are placed on both sides of the keyboard – these perform the softening function in the tablet mode.

This seems to be the most functional of screen bezels we’ve ever seen. There is a port of the integrated monophonic microphone in its top right corner:

The bottom of the bezel is wider and contains a decorative strip with five indicators, which are visible in both notebook and tablet modes:

• Power (alight when the notebook is turned on; blinking when in power-saving mode; off when the notebook is turned off or in sleep mode)
• Battery (alight when the battery is being recharged; off when the battery is charged or fully discharged; blinking when the battery charge is less than 10% and the notebook is not connected to the mains)
• Bluetooth (alight when the Bluetooth interface is enabled)
• Wireless (blinking when the integrated WLAN adapter is sending or receiving data packets)
• Storage (shows that the hard disk or the optical drive is being accessed)

Opposite these indicators there are three tablet-mode-oriented buttons (Control+Alt+Del, Esc, and Rotation that rotates the onscreen image clockwise), a HOLD slider (to block the mentioned three buttons), and a fingerprint scanner supporting an optional TPM module. The buttons are available in the notebook mode as well.