Acer Iconia Dual Touch Screen Laptop

Two is always better than one: a philosophy evidently embraced by the people at Acer in the design of their new Iconia Touchbook. Sporting dual touch screens and more CPU power than we’ve seen in the past from laptops like this, the Iconia would certainly be an ideal toy for any young professional.

Devices similar to the Iconia have been referred to as having all flash and little substance in the past. These tend to be marketed on the strength of over-priced aesthetic gimmicks that offer little in the way of real utility. The difference here is that most of those machines had keyboards instead of a second 14” touchscreen, and let us tell you, the difference is fun. With the Iconia’s dual iPad-like screens you can do a lot more in exciting and intuitive ways. Placing all ten of your fingers on the bottom screen, for example, brings up the onscreen virtual keyboard with which to type whatever you need. This keyboard has bigger keys than the iPad’s, and to a generation getting more and more used to the touch screen texting of the iPhone, writing with it should be a breeze. The Iconia employs the familiarity of Windows 7, and packs a 640 GB hard drive and even a 1.3 megapixel camera, but it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the iPad in both sales and overall utility. 

The coolest features worth noting on the Iconia include the Acer Ring, summoned simply by placing all five fingers on the screen as if to grab, and proving to be a neat and easy way to scroll through your applications and content. If you want to take it to the next level try the gesture editor which lets you set customized gestures to do everything from open websites to lock your computer. Intuitive indeed. With the Iconia’s SocialJogger, the question of why anyone would need to own something like this gets answered. It lets you check updates for your email, Facebook, or Youtube all in one screen, while you watch a video or explore more content on the other. For any young professional this laptop may serve as a great way to keep your social life organized and have fun doing it. The Iconia Touchbook drops May 13 and will set you back about $1,200 at Future Shop, where it can currently be pre-ordered. As technology keeps becoming more engaging and interactive, the Iconia proves that in this case two really is better than one.