Acer T230H multi-touch monitor
Point and flick?
Review Apple fans have been enjoying the advantages of multi-touch computing for some time, but Windows users are little late to arrive at the party. However, with Windows 7 billed as the first version of the operating system to “fully embrace multi-touch technology”, we’re starting to see notebook PCs and add-on tablets supporting the functionality.
Making a gesture: Acer's T230H
For those of you wondering what the fuss is all about, the T230H will allow you to do away with your mouse and keyboard, if you wish, and operate your PC entirely by touching the screen. You’ll also be able to use a pair of fingers to rotate and pinch to zoom just as you can on an iPhone.
Now with the Acer T230H monitor you can make use of these functions simply by plugging it into your Windows 7 PC. The display hooks up using VGA, DVI or HDMI, with the touchscreen capabilities handled by the USB port. Windows 7 will then recognise the display as an input device and allow you to use Pen and Touch input controls automatically.
Physically reminiscent of Acer’s G24 gaming monitor – although without the garish metallic orange paint job – the T230H has an angular, modern look with a relatively thin bezel and a row of control buttons along the underside over to the right. The display comes with a decent height-adjustable stand and it all feels rather weighty and solid, which is a good thing seeing as you’ll soon be jabbing and poking at it with both hands. So, you can rest assured that this monitor isn’t going to go flying over the back of your desk.
We would have been delighted to find that the monitor’s on-screen menu could be controlled from the touch interface, but we weren’t surprised to find that you can’t. The usual, frustrating, plod through menus with buttons it is then.
Reassuringly sturdy
As a 23in widescreen display, the T230H’s specifications are pretty standard fare: supporting full a HD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution with a fast, 2ms grey-to-grey response time and decent 300 cd/m2 maxim brightness. At 160 degrees in both directions, viewing angles are adequate, but not great, and a dynamic contrast ratio of 80,000:1 is quoted.
COMMENTS
RSI and finger marks
Touch screens on hand held devices are one thing, on a fixed 22" monitor it's a ergonomic and smeary nightmare.
Fails at first hurdle - being a monitor
Apart from the comments about the number of vertical pixels, the quality of the displayed picture is very important.
Looking at the photographs, you may only be able to see what is displayed on half of the monitor, because the other half looks like a mirror - AGAIN!!!
And I haven't tried this one, but I've seen it's brother. In Excel (hardly a program requiring a large colour gamet!), the same colour box placed at the top and bottom of a diagram on page actually looked like it used two adjacent colours in the Excel colour choice, instead of the same colour!
Fingerprints will only add to the woes. People know around here that they may loose their fingers if they make contact with my screen :)
Thank goodness
Thank goodness there's someone else recognising the widescreen lunacy for what it is. My wife sent back an Acer laptop because it had a 16:9 screen, thankfully managing to replace it with what turned out to be one of Toshiba's last 16:10 models before they too followed the idiot crowd.
This monitor is clearly only any good for watching movies on, so really even less point in touch-screen for it than one at a usable productivity ratio - and not much point there either really!
5:4 on the desktop here, and staying that way even if I have to pay over the odds in future.
I was going to but,...
i was trying to consider buying two of these to replace my two 21" crt's as this is the largest toucjscreen i can find at the moment. But there are a few issues which stopped me,...
Firstly it's 16:9 not 16:10. 16:9 is ok if you just want to watch widescreen movies, but for professionals (or gamers) loosing almost 200 pixels from the bottom of your desktop is a major compromise on your desktop real estate, many applications need that height and i've been used to a 1200pixel screen height for the past 8 years. The few professionals i know who have bought one of the recent spate of 16:9 monitors have all had to return/sell them and find a 16:10 - this monitor is not professionals!
Secondly - it's made by Acer who have a well earned reputation for having crap Customer Support and unreliability. As a machine builder i only use quality parts. I honestly could never recommend any Acer product to a client, so to buy one for myself,... it's like preparing to stick your fingers in the mains socket, your know it's going to hurt.
If you really want a 16:9 for watching movies, consider the new Dell or Iiyama touchscreens. OK they're only 21.5" but they are reliable. OR wait, it seems inevetiable that some forward thinking company will come out with a 24" 16:10 touchscreen in the coming months.
If you want a monitor for games, or anything professional THIS IS NOT THE MONITOR YOUR LOOKING FOR (move along)
bad for gamers you say?
i disagree with that part..... and with the original poster's bad take on acer.
I am an avid gamer, and my last 2 monitors were both 16:9 screens, 19inch. I've always enjoyed using them tbh, and only ever had problems on a few older games that didn't support wide(r)screen resolutions.... most of these I could force with command line switches.
secondly, the first 19" widescreen 16:9 monitor I got was from acer, and cost me something like £150 back in the day.... I've had it for about 6 years now, not even a dead pixel (touch wood). its a perfectly usable piece of kit and the aspect ratio is just not an issue for me.
I appreciate that some have a specific need for a certain pixel height, and I will be looking for a 16:10 screen in future (coincidentally, i'm really only looking for a bigger one) but really a monitor is just a monitor when it comes to details like this.
this aside, the reviewed monitor is close to what I want except from the touchscreen. Need HDMI so I can plug in an xbox too, beats using the crappy VGA cable you can get for it :(
