Debuted last month, Acer’s Iconia laptop, which features not one but two touch screens, has now been given a January 14th UK launch date.
Dual touch screen laptop
With touch tablets, notably the iPad, taking the world by storm, Acer last month decided to unveil the dual screen Iconia notebook, which can only be described as a tablet and laptop hybrid. Obviously the Iconia’s most notable attribute is its two touch screens, both of which have 14 inch screen diagonals, HD 1366 x 768 resolutions and of course multi-touch capabilities. They’re even covered in Gorilla Glass to prevent scratches and make fingerprints easier to clean.
Virtual keyboard
As you can see from the photo below, just like a tablet, the Iconia does not have an actual physical keyboard, with the second touch screen doubling as the keypad. Though some might miss the feeling of actual keys whilst typing, the full sized QWERTY virtual keyboard does have a lot of benefits. For example, it can switch between different language keyboards on the fly, it offers predictive text for faster typing, and you can also instantly change it to handwriting mode for jotting down notes.
Impressive specs
Impressive specs
Whilst the dual touch screen displays might garner the most attention, the other big feature with the Iconia is its performance specs, which are decidedly laptop like. In contrast to your average tablet, which typically sports a measly 1GHz CPU, the Acer laptop runs off the new Intel Core i5 processor. This CPU is in turn backed up by 4GB of RAM and a whopping 750GB hard drive (much more storage than either the iPad or Galaxy Tab). To top it off, the Iconia’s other specs aren’t too bad either and include an actual HDMI port, USB, WiFi and optional 3G & 4G (avialable through Verizon).
Windows 7 dilemma
With the Acer Iconia as a touch driven device, the first question that comes to our minds is what OS will the touch laptop be running? Unfortunately, the answer is Windows 7. We say unfortunately, because Windows 7, despite being touch compatible, has yet to prove itself as a viable touch OS.
Decent apps?
Acer claim the Iconia will ship with a wealth of onboard touch-based apps, such as Acer’s own TouchPhoto, TouchMusic, as well as SocialJogger (lets you check Facebook, Flickr and YouTube), MyJournal and Scrapbook. These all look promising, but in our opinionWindows 7 is still way far behind iOS4 and Android when it comes to tablet optimised apps. Moreover, whilst some have criticised Android as not being optimised for tablets, we have know doubt that it eventually will be, whereas the same can definitely not be said for Windows 7.
Enough battery life?
Another concern that has been brought up is the battery life. Having to power two large 14 inch multi-touch screens could easily drain the Iconia’s battery power and we wonder whether Acer have come up with a workable solution. This could be a crucial factor in the touchbook’s success, since, after all, a laptop is only as portable as its battery life.
Not at all cheap
Well, as Acer have announced a Jan 14th 2011 release date for the Iconia, one month from now, we hope our OS and battery concerns will have been resolved by then. If you’re at all interested in the double screen device, then it will set you back a very substantial £1,499 ($2,350.00 USD). The Acer Iconia might not work out perfectly, and it might be outrageously expensive, but we do at least applaud Acer for the creative effort.
just show me where to stand in line!!
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