We attended Acer's 2011 tablet showcase yesterday, where the company showed off its intriguing Iconia dual screen touchbook. Check out the rest of the gallery for our first impressions.
From the outside, the Acer Iconia dual screen touchbook resembles a regular laptop. However, lifting it open reveals what makes it special: a pair of multi-touch 14in LCD screens with 1366x768 pixel resolution.
In default mode, the toucbook's top screen acts like a normal windows display with touch functionality, while the lower screen can display a variety of input options.
The Acer Iconia dual screen touchbook boasts some decent specifications, including an Intel Core i5-460M processor, up to 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, an Intel HD GPU with 128 MB of dedicated system memory, a 640GB hard drive and USB 3.0 support.
The dual screens can be used to multi-task in any way you see fit; browsing a website on the top screen while viewing folders and documents on the bottom screen, for example.
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.
The typing experience is about on par with most tablet keyboards - which is to say, it lacks the finesse of a proper keyboard, but gets the job done pretty well.
Journalists crowd around, awaiting their chance to play with the Iconia's dual touch screens.
In addition to using each screen for seperate tasks, you can stretch the browser for a plus-sized view of websites.
The multitouch gesture engine is key to how the Iconia dual screen touchbook works, allowing you to easily swap between the soft keyboard and radial dial that allows for selection of several touch-focused apps.
Just place all five fingertips on the screen and Acer Ring springs into life for quick and easy browsing.
The Acer Iconia dual screen touchbook comes with a solid array of connectivity options. Pictured: D-Sub, Audio, Ethernet and USB 3 ports.
A HDMI output and two USB ports are located on the left-hand side.
The entire laptop can be laid flat so it resembles a giant tablet.
The Iconia appears to have overcome the limitations of touch in Windows 7. The 14in screens translates to larger icons, which respond quite well.
The keyboard appears immediately on boot up, which is a nice touch.
There is quite a lot of software trickery going on to make the Iconia work smoothly between the two screens.
With dimensions of 347x249x32mm and weighing 2.8kg, the Acer Iconia dual screen touchbook is a pretty hefty device.
Acer Iconia dual screen touchbook in action.
One thing the Iconia isn't is cheap – pricing in Australia will begin at $2499. The Acer dual screen touchbook will be available from April.
We attended Acer's 2011 tablet showcase yesterday, where the company showed off its intriguing Iconia dual screen touchbook. Check out the rest of the gallery for our first impressions.