A few weeks ago Acer unveiled its dual touchscreen Iconia. The folks at PC Authority got their hands on one of only five handmade engineering samples in existence. And having spent some quality time with this innovative computing device, it really has to be seen to be believed.
on Dec 30 2010 2:16PM
Done in a snazzy golden shade the Iconia looks from the outside to be a normal laptop.
On the left side are two USB ports and a HDMI one. The charger plugs into this side, and the hinge hides a button designed to make the keyboard appear on the lower screen.
On the right hand side sit Ethernet, D-Sub, Audio and a single USB 3 port. The power button is integrated into the hinge on this side.
One interesting touch is that the screens have a small strip of rubber edging that ensure a tight seal when the Iconia is closed, preventing dust and the like from getting in.
This thick rubber strip runs across the top edge of the screen. It is designed to stop scratches when the Iconia is folded flat (more on that later).
Open it up and the top screen acts like a normal windows display, while the lower screen can display a variety of input options.
Because this is an engineering sample we have left the plastic protective coating on the underside, but this is also golden metal.
Most laptops hide the guts under the keyboard. However because the Iconia has no hardware keyboard it is accessed through the latchable rear panel. The hard drive and RAM are easily accessed for those wanting to upgrade.
The Intel Core i5 CPU sits under this heatpipe based cooler.
The hard drive sits in a cage which should be easy to replace.
RAM is in the form of DDR3 SODIMMS, with no spare slots on this sample.
There is quite a lot of software trickery going on to make the iconia work smoothly between the two screens.
The soft keyboard lacks the tactile feel of a normal keyboard but is surprisingly responsive and accurate. The tackpadpad is quite small considering the space available but is similarly intuitive.
One can also enter text via handwriting recognition, which is surprisingly accurate.
While it's a small touch, the software shows when you plug in USB/HDMI devices and you can access the drive by clicking on the icon.
This wheel is key to Acer's touch software. Just place all five fingertips on the screen and it appears.
There are various applications that acer has tweaked for the Iconia, including this dual screen touch-based browser.
The entire laptop can be laid flat and rests neatly on the rubber strip shown earlier.
Done in a snazzy golden shade the Iconia looks from the outside to be a normal laptop.