But where’s the keypad, Acer? It’s on screen – the bottom one.
Confused? Then read on.
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The Iconia dual 14 inch LED-backlit LCD screen touch-book allows users spread their work over both screens and summon the use of a touch screen keyboard when necessary.
Iconia 6120 “brings the interaction with the tablet to a new level,” says Acer.
This is done by placing both palms on the bottom screen and voila! the full-sized QWERTY “virtual keyboard” will magically appear.
For office users, it runs on Windows 7 Premium and has 750GB of storage.
The dual screens also allow users do two things at the same time, video on the top screen and check out your multimedia library in the other both from a HD display vantage point, of course.
From the demo model we viewed at the Iconia launch yesterday, the device seems ideal for pouring over long documents and newspapers. However, the device appears both heavy to carry and on battery life, since it is powering a two screen device so double the power right?
Well, Iconia weighs 6.7lbs (with battery) and lasts for only about three hours.
These shortcoming could prove its Achilles heel among office users who require portability and long battery life when on the move.
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The touch screen keyboard which is now run of the mill on smartphones is still in its infancy on laptops, so it could be a while before it seeps in consciousness among consumers.
However, it looks great and the notebook maker could yet prove to be avant-garde in its touchpad concept, given that it is the “world’s first 10 finger multi-touch dual-screen device” according to its makers.
A joint collaboration between Acer and Intel, the touch book is powered by the Intel Core i5 processor, has HDMI out, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi as well as gigabit Ethernet.
Acer’s clear.fi technology also allows content to be transferred across multiple devices.
It also has a handy navigation ‘ring’ control allowing tools to be controlled by a single touch.
But wait that’s not all. Acer’s developers have gone a step further and created a touch sensor ‘Gesture Editor’, where users simply draw a set character or shape on-screen to command their most used functions to appear.
Acer latest invention, which it appears will be sold solely by Harvey Norman here, will set fans back a cool $2,499.
However, it seems the US price is a lot more palatable retailing under $1200 and it’s interesting the price is so much steeper down under.
