Acer are launching an interesting looking touchscreen Windows PC that Bloomberg got to review. The Iconia 6120 is powered by an Intel Core i5 CPU and is a dual screen clamshell device, so it has a 14″ touchscreen instead of a keyboard along with a a touchscreen display.
The tablet is a kind of crossover from a Notebook to an iPad. You can drag windows from one screen to the other and it has a virtual onscreen dial called Acer Ring. So you can control video, photo and music and Windows via a gesture editor using the dial.
Bloomberg.com have played with the device and they like the it but at $1199.99 and three hour battery life it’s not going to be mainstream product and the extra Acer software doesn’t really fix the problem of trying to use Windows with a touch screens. Maybe if Windows 8 is more touch friendly this could be a good platform.
Like many PC-makers, Acer is groping to find its way in a market increasingly moving toward tablets and other mobile devices; its chief executive officer, Gianfranco Lanci, resigned last week in a rift with the board over strategy.
With the Iconia Touchbook, Acer at the very least deserves credit for doing something unusual in the well-ordered if ho-hum world of Windows computing, and a certain sort of user may find the laptop’s technology-forward approach irresistible.
Most people, though, will probably conclude it is a little too out there, and too hampered by its heft and battery-life issues. If it’s possible to be a really cool failure, this one is.
One thought on “Acer’s Iconia Windows 7 Touchbook with dual touchscreens”
As I mentioned on the show a few weeks back I recently had a chance to play with one of these and whilst price an battery life are definitely an issue, I was really impressed with the attention to detail in Acer’s add on software particular the gesture interface.
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As I mentioned on the show a few weeks back I recently had a chance to play with one of these and whilst price an battery life are definitely an issue, I was really impressed with the attention to detail in Acer’s add on software particular the gesture interface.