Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

The power cable is slim and projects only a couple of centimetres from the rear, though you will have to find room for the ‘dead rat’ transformer on the floor on the way to your mains socket. In general use, the computer runs at around 40-50W, dropping to less than 3W in Sleep mode, and 1W when shut down.

A few ports are located at the back; most are ranged down the left-hand edge.

The tray-loading Blu-ray player is accessible from the right-hand side, doubling up as a DVD and CD rewriter combo drive. Movie media is set up to play using ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3, which I found to be wonderfully free of fiddly features. It also fires up Blu-ray discs quickly rather than making you wait up to a minute to recognise them, which is what some other players do. Watching Blu-ray movies on a well-sized, native 1080p screen such as this is highly enjoyable.

Benchmark Tests

PCMark Vantage Results

Longer bars are better

Asus has paired up the PC with small but very well-made input peripherals that match the glossy black style of the main unit. The compact keyboard lacks a numeric keypad but it’s very comfortable to use, as is the mouse. Both are Bluetooth devices. The keyboard houses a pop-out stylus for handwriting and making precision selections directly on the touchscreen. This is an excellent idea that more touchscreen PC manufacturers ought to consider.

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything