Shuttle X5000T

Shuttle is known for making small desktop computers that are ideal for entertainment, but the X5000T is the company’s first touch-screen device.

It follows similar computers from such manufacturers as HP and Advent – with the now available Windows 7 supporting touch-screens properly, expect to see similar products in future. We looked at the HP Touchsmart IQ522 a few months ago – that £1,000 all-in-one computer has a 26in screen, but costs more than the equivalent non-touch-sensitive computer. In contrast, the X5000T has only a 15in screen, but costs only around half as much as HP’s offering, bringing it closer to being within the price range of the average computer buyer.

The X5000T comes in either black or white and uses an Intel Atom 330 processor, similar to the ones found in mini-notebook or netbook computers. Our review model came with 1GB of memory and a reasonable 160GB hard disk. People with large collections of music or video will find the hard disk a little small but external storage is cheap enough for that not to be a big deal.

The computer was quick to start, and using our fingers directly on the screen we were able to control it without a mouse immediately. The touch control wasn’t quite as accurate as the one on the more expensive HP Touchsmart computers, but it was certainly good enough to navigate Windows menus and options.

The display itself is a 15.6in model, which is small by today’s standards, but then a larger touch-sensitive screen would have pushed the price up considerably. It sits upright on a table, the stand at the back doubling as a carrying handle. In addition to the five USB ports and sound outputs there is a webcam built in. It can connect to both wired and wireless networks.

As on a netbook there is no CD or DVD drive, which is not such a big deal on a portable computer, but on a static one such as this it’s an annoyance. It’s true that software can easily be installed from a USB memory key or over the internet, but it would have been nice to be able to directly play CDs and DVDs on the X5000T.

Performance-wise, the X5000T was more like a netbook than a full-on desktop PC. While it’s perfectly fine dealing with office and internet tasks it struggled with video, and playing high-definition video was too much. Likewise it’s happy to play music, but converting between audio formats will take longer than on a more powerful computer.

The X5000T is not large enough or powerful enough to be used as a family computer, but if you need a device to sit in the kitchen or a bedroom it would be more useful (whether or not anyone actually wants a £570 kitchen computer is another matter).

For the price, it would be possible to buy or build a more powerful desktop computer with a larger monitor, but it wouldn’t be as sleek and wouldn’t have the touch capabilities. If that’s what you’re after, the X5000T is good value.

The Shuttle website, from which the computer is available, allows buyers to select the options they want before ordering.

MORE: Take a look at our video on Windows 7's touch features by clicking here.

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