Touch and go: Asus virtually created the burgeoning market for netbook computers with its groundbreaking Eee PC lineup. Whether it can give the demand for touch-screen desktop machines the same sort of boost is open for debate. But the Taiwanese maker is giving it a shot with its Eee Top 1602, due out in Japan at the end of March. The new Eee, with its 15.6-inch LCD touch screen, looks like a miniature all-in-one desktop computer a la iMac.

In reality, it is more of a hybrid between mobile phone and desktop, for although it looks like an all-in-one, its screen is appreciably smaller than the norm and its innards are closer to those found in netbooks. Powered by an Atom N270 chip running at 1.6 gigahertz, it has a modest 1 gigabyte of memory and a 160-gigabyte hard disk. The touch screen has a decent 166×768-pixel resolution, and it has the mandatory but superfluous built-in webcam, a 1.3-megapixel number. Capping off the specifications are all three main types of wireless connectivity: the routine B and G, and, more interestingly, the high-powered N flavors of Wi-Fi. The Eee Top 1602 comes with wireless keyboard and mouse and is preloaded with Windows XP. Its appeal is twofold: It has a touch screen and it is compact.

The computer comes with some specialized programs so that users can make the most of the touch screen. These include a program for writing text, and others for using the built-in camera, playing music and movies and viewing photos. It also includes a stylus.