DualScreenLaptop
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ASUS TAICHI 21 and VivoBook X202 go up for US pre-orders, spoil the party a bit early (update: VivoTab RT, too)
Just because ASUS has planned a grand October 23rd event to outline its US Windows 8 lineup doesn't mean we can't get an advance peek. Pre-orders have officially kicked off for at least two touchscreen PCs that also give us a very good feeling for the hardware we'll see at our doors. The dual-screened TAICHI 21 is naturally the star of the show, but it will cost you: a base version of the 11.6-inch hybrid with a 1.7GHz Core i5, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD starts at $1,300, while an uprated model with a 1.9GHz Core i7 and a 256GB SSD will set early adopters back by $1,600. We'd say the VivoBook X202 is more likely to get some purchases sight-unseen at $600 for an entry laptop with an 11.6-inch touchscreen, a 1.8GHz Core i3, 4GB of RAM and a conventional 500GB hard drive. Both of the systems should arrive in tandem with Windows 8's October 26th launch and compound the traffic jams for couriers and retailers on what could be a very busy day. [Thanks, Donny] Update: As Computerworld noticed, Newegg also has a pre-order listing for the VivoTab RT, which costs $599 in its lone 32GB configuration. It ships the same day as its bigger cousins.
Acer Iconia first hands-on! (update: video!)
Acer's dual-screen Iconia laptop is bold, for sure -- eschewing a physical keyboard for another display -- but its LCD panels are also mighty glossy. If you've got a light in the vicinity above you, there's gonna be glare -- we saw it on stage, and we just saw it now in person. That said, the screen is clear and the touch functionality is pretty clever (five fingers open up a widget where you can scroll through other touch-friendly apps). The keyboard, on the other hand, is pretty hard to use -- even the rep admitted there's a learning curve. You can't rest your fingers down without hitting something, of course. We managed to browse to Engadget, but it took several tries. Check out the photos below! Update: Now with video! It's after the break. %Gallery-108107%
Acer's dualscreen laptop leaks out with Core i5 CPU?
We knew dualscreen laptops were the future after our Toshiba Libretto review, but unfortunately for Toshiba theirs was a future attempted too soon. Acer, however, is apparently testing a rig that might be powerful enough to do the trick -- pictures bequeathed to Tech Review Source purportedly show a 2.67GHz Intel Core i5 processor (likely a Core i5-580M) with dual fifteen-inch multitouch screens, making both the Libretto and MSI's 7-incher look positively dated by comparison. Sadly, the publication's source says this device is "still slow and buggy," so retail availability is probably a long while off, but now you can tell your friends you too saw the future and it looked reasonably good. Peep a couple more shots of the laptop at our source link while you wait for a frameless version to pop out.
Toshiba Libretto W105 review
At this point Toshiba's dualscreen Libretto W105 shouldn't need much of an introduction -- or at least after glancing at the picture above we figure it won't. It looks like a laptop straight out of the future. And it kind of is. It's the sort of clamshell gadget we've seen rendered and rendered for years, but that's never made it to market... until now that is. In celebration of Toshiba's 25 years in the laptop business, the company's gotten bolder than ever, and it hasn't just created a gadget with two seven-inch capacitive touchscreens, but it's actually brought it to market. Sure, it's only available for a very limited run, and at a lofty $1,100, only die-hard gadget geeks are bound to fork over the cash. That said, it's still one of the most intriguing devices we've seen all year, and that's saying something. And it's even more compelling when you consider that packs the parts of a 12- or 13-inch ultraportable, including an Intel Pentium processor, 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD and also runs Windows 7. But that's exactly what's wrong with the Libretto -- it looks like the future, but it's held back by modern day laptop parts and software. We've spent quite some time with the W105 -- we typed half of this review on the bottom screen! -- so you'll want to hit the break to find out just what we're talking about. %Gallery-101684%
Toshiba Libretto W100 preview
The Toshiba Libretto W100 made a guest appearance on the Engadget Show last week, and since we got to spend a bit more time with the dualscreen laptop we thought it was only right to release some more impressions into the ether. We also got confirmation from Toshiba that the somewhat-of-a-concept-PC will be hitting retail channels in August, including Amazon, and will cost $1,100. It may be one of the only dualscreen tablets on the market, but no matter how you break it down that price seems a little outrageous. But you wouldn't make up your mind before reading some further impressions and watching a close up video of the screens working in tandem, would you? Well then, we'll see you after the break. %Gallery-96145%
Dualscreen GScreen Spacebook reappears, will now have two 17-inch screens
Last time we saw the GScreen dualscreen Spacebook laptop it was sporting two 15.4-inch screens and promising to be ready by the end of 2009. Obviously the small Alaska-based company missed that cut off, but we're told there's a reason -- and it's an interesting one at that. Apparently the two 15-inch displays didn't provide enough screen real estate, and the company has now opted to use two 17.3-inch screens. We're not sure that move makes the most sense considering that this thing is supposed to be mobile, but we don't claim to know what people want from dual screen workstations. What does makes sense is that the laptop has been updated with new specs, including a 2.66GHz Intel Core i7-620M processor, 4GB of RAM, a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTS 150M GPU and Windows 7 Professional. The entire rig still looks rather thick in the pictures below, but GScreen's CEO Gordon Stewart assures us that it won't weigh more than eight pounds. The revised plan is to sell the long-awaited machine through online retailers, including Amazon and Buy.com, starting in May for $2,895. Of course that's if they don't decide to go with two 20-inch screens in the meantime. Our fingers are crossed this time around. %Gallery-85360%
Dual-screen gScreen laptop gets pictured, hopefully launching this year
We were pretty skeptical of gScreen's plans to produce a line of dual-screen laptops rocking when we first heard about them in February, but here we are, looking at the first picture we've seen of the Spacebook laptop. We're told it has two 15.4-inch displays -- since the company knows you don't always need both screens, the second stows away behind the first and slides out when you need it, just like the Lenovo W700ds. Except, you know, with a full-size screen. Inside, you'll have a selection of Core 2 Duos, 4B of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 900M GT graphics, and a 7200rpm drive -- all of which explain why it's expected to cost just south of $3,000. gScreen's planning on having this on sale by the holidays, along with a dual-13-inch model -- let's hope the company can pleasantly surprise us yet again.
