First Look: Acer Iconia

http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/5161/acer-iconia-tablet-laptop-review
First Look: Acer Iconia
Two screens better than one?
by Lydia Leavitt published on 25 November 2010
Acer announced its brand new device, the Iconia
dual touchscreen laptop, in New York City and
Pocket-lint was in attendance to grab a First Look
review of the new dual screen laptop.
What sets this laptop apart is the fact that it has
not one, but two 14-inch touchscreens. How?
Besides the top touchscreen, the Iconia has a
second touchscreen in place of a traditional
keyboard. Both display in HD with a 1366 x 768
resolution and are multi-touch functional so you
can use all of your fingers to control the device.
Coooooooool.
The company states that the dual touchscreen
can be used to extend a web page or document
to span two screens for better readability, or so
you can do two things at once on the different
screens.
Like many of the new tools out there, the Iconia is
moving towards a super social state of
connectivity with an emphasis on multi-touch
processes, multi-touch functions, and multiple
brain waves ... at the same time. It’s
built upon the idea that consumers want to be
watching a movie on the main screen while
looking at their social networks on the lower
screen. Warning: this laptop may cause the
inability to get anything done.
The Iconia is a traditional laptop in the sense that
you can type on the touchscreen keyboard to
control what’s happening on the main top
screen whether you’re typing in a web
address or typing up an email. The moment you
assume the typing position and you put your five
fingers and palms on the lower touch screen the
virtual keyboard instantly appears and allows you
to type.
Typing on the virtual keyboard does take some
getting used to although like your touchscreen
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...cont.
At a glance
smartphone you’ll soon get the hang of it.
What is it?
Use another gesture and another set of features
Dual-screen laptop from Acer
will pop up. For example, if you put five fingers
and make a grab gesture on the bottom
Good
touchscreen, the Acer Ring media player will
Two screens, very futuristic, bottom screen can
appear. This ring allows you to scroll through your
be used for keyboard, interactive menu or
various pictures, videos, and social networks
anything else
where you can drag and drop them onto the main
screen or open them from the second screen.
Bad
You can also edit gestures using the Gesture
It's a virtual keyboard, it's expensive, do you
Editor to set customised gestures to launch
really need it?
specific applications.
Verdict
Acer is working on its own touch applications for
When it comes down to it, we're not sure if full
use with this device and similar ones like a
touchscreen is the path of the future as far as
TouchBrowser, TouchPhoto, TouchMusic,
laptops go
TouchVideo as well as SocialJogger for Flickr,
YouTube, and Facebook as well as My Journal
Price £1500
and My Scrapbook.
Your score
My Journal lets you cut and paste titbits of
information and plant them into one rich media
journal, while My Scrapbook allows for
?/10
computerised scrap-booking with easy sharing
options (think along the lines of creating your own
invitation).
VERDICT
The Acer Iconia is one of those really cool future
devices that at first glance seems awesome and
makes you want to buy it - kind of like Marty
McFly’s hoverboard from Back to the
Future. But when it comes down to it, would you
trade in your traditional laptop for an all
touchscreen device to get your work done on a
day-to-day basis? It’s kind of like trading
your car for the hoverboard - it may look cool and
make certain things really easy, but what
happens if it snows? Does the hoverboard have
all of the features that you need to streamline
your work flow?
The Acer Iconia is definitely on trend with tons of
social and sharing features built directly into the
interface, along with touchscreen capabilities,
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http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/5161/acer-iconia-tablet-laptop-review
...cont.
which makes dragging, dropping, and sharing
simple. That said, a touchscreen laptop does
pose a certain number of problems when it comes
to normal day-to-day procedures. Aside from the
coolness of Facebooking on one screen while
watching a movie, if you instead decide to type
something up, there is a certain learning curve
required to master the virtual touchscreen
keyboard. The longer the document, the more
errors you may make as you begin to rest your
hands on letters rather than traditional keyboard
space.
A laptop is a product designed to make doing
work easier, not harder, and we’re not
sure if touchscreen would actually make life
easier in the long run. The Iconia’s
operating system, Windows 7 has also been
criticised for not being super touch-friendly.
When it comes down to it, we’re not sure if
full touchscreen is the path of the future as far as
laptops go. Although the Acer Iconia may look
cool and take Facebook and sharing to a whole
new level, is it a true laptop work machine? At the
moment we aren’t so sure.
Oh, and then there’s the price. In the UK it
will cost £1500 and for that money you
could have a regular laptop and a tablet; getting
the best of both worlds.
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Copyright Pocket-lint Ltd 2003 - 2011

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