Acer replaces laptop keyboard with multi-touch LCD
Dual-screen... er... 'touchbook' debuts
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Tablets out of the way, we now come to Acer's other big launch: a 14in laptop with a virtual keyboard.
Yes, the Iconia - as the new machine is dubbed - sports a second LCD where the keyboard usually goes, giving the laptop the look of a scaled up Nintendo DS or Microsoft's ill-fated Courier two-screen tablet.
Still, the spec is impressive: Core i5 CPU - 480M, 560M and 580M options - up to 4GB of DDR 3 memory, 320-750GB of hard drive storage, a USB 3.0 port and two USB 2.0 ones, HDMI output, 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and HSDPA 3G connectivity.
You're looking at a battery life of around three hours with the Iconia's 44Wh, 3000mAh power pack, which is not so impressive, and neither is the Intel integrated graphics that will drive those two 14in, 1366 x 768 touchscreens.
The lower one can detect ten simultaneous touches. Both are protected with highly glossy Gorilla Glass. You'll spend more time polishing it than typing, we reckon.
Acer describes the Iconia as a "concept", but the spec is more detailed than you'd expect a prototype or notional design to sport, so this is a range that will be coming to market, though at what price is anyone's guess.
Ditto when Iconia will come to market. ®
Next page: More Acer Iconia Pictures
COMMENTS
Why ?
Why are so many laptops and LCDs coming out with those horrid, glossy screens ?
We've known since the 1980s that glossy screens are bad bad bad for the user, indeed it was a very specific health and safety rule that screens should always be non-reflecting. When you sit in front of a screen, you want to see the document you are working on, not the rest of your office or, worse still, the street outside. Your eyes and brain must both do significant extra work to distinguish your document from those unnecessary reflections.
Surely, its time it was made a legal requirement for the brochures of products with such horrendous design defects to contain a serious health warning or, better still, be prohibited altogether.
Combining the disadvantages
of a laptop with the disadvantages of a tablet?
At least the ladies won't need hand mirrors
With two shiny screens this unit is as good as a make-up desk.
Which OS are they contemplating using? Two LCD screens could spell trouble - buying an extended warranty is a must.
Of course, if they build this they will have something not even Jobs has in his toy box.
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