The X50's display is disappointing in more ways than one. Firstly, its image quality is pretty atrocious. The level of dithering is akin to the dotty effect you find on printouts from a cheap inkjet printer, and we found it irritating to look at for long periods. The fact that the display has a 16:9 aspect ratio from its 1,366x768-pixel resolution doesn't save it, either, and neither does the fact that it's touch-sensitive.
The touchscreen is supposed to be the X50's most spectacular feature, but ends up being a spectacular failure for several reasons. Firstly, Windows XP is rubbish as a touch interface -- it simply wasn't built for that purpose. Using the stylus makes things slightly easier, but we soon stopped using that. The stylus compartment is so closely located to the power button that reaching for it often causes you to accidentally hit the power button, switching the X50 off in the process.
It gets worse, too. Double clicking icons is nigh on impossible with the X50. We're not sure why, but launching an application via double tapping can take anywhere between three and thirteen attempts -- even when we adjusted the double-clicking speed. As a result, the X50 is unusable without a mouse and keyboard -- neither of which is supplied.
We can't fault the X50's networking capabilities. It's equipped with 1,000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet, plus a high-speed 802.11n wireless LAN adaptor. You also get other little luxuries, such as a 1.3-megapixel webcam, a built-in microphone and a copy of Norton Internet Security 2009. The X50 is also available without an operating system for about £65 less.
Performance
The X50 scored a relatively impressive 2,010 in the PCMark05 benchmark test. That's around 25 per cent more than the Eee Top achieved with its N270 CPU. But you're unlikely to feel the benefit, since the X50 isn't the sort of machine you're going to be running demanding apps on. Not that you'd be able to launch those apps without a mouse anyway.
3D performance is poor, as expected. The X50 clocked up a meagre 180 points in 3DMark06. That means high-definition playback is out of the question, although you'll still be able to watch standard-definition content.
Conclusion
You'd be something of a fool to buy the Shuttle X Vision X50, because it's a touchscreen PC whose touchscreen doesn't work very well. It's also significantly more expensive than the market-leading Eee Top. We'd only buy it if we had money to burn, or if we'd bumped our heads on something really hard.
Edited by Charles Kloet
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