Dual-Touchscreen Notebook Is A Heavy Newspaper Replacement
Dual-monitor setups aren't really all that convenient when you're on the move – that extra screen tends to be an awkward and cumbersome addition to your hand-luggage – but laptop manufacturer Estari seem to think they've come up with the answer. Finally getting round to acting on a 1998 patent for a dual-LCD notebook design, they've cobbled together the DC15: two passive touchscreens with a hinge.
It's pretty much a standard laptop – 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor, up to 2GB of RAM and a choice of 60GB or 100GB hard drives – aside from the fact that they've chucked out the keyboard and trackpad and instead slapped another screen there. Those screens are actually 15-inch XGA-resolution panels, that will respond to fingers, styli or even your nose jabbing away at them.
Estari are boasting handwriting recognition, but through some third-party software running on Windows XP Pro. They've obviously been too busy bolting the thing together to keep up with the developments of the OS world, because not only is Vista not an option but they claim their use of passive digitisers means XP Tablet Edition won't work. I'm sure that would be a surprise to all the UMPC owners, among others, who have been happily taking advantage of Microsoft's loosening of the spec requirements.
Still, there's bound to be someone who'll want one of these babies, and I admit it would be cool to open it up in the local Starbucks. Probably not the best for typing that great American novel on, though.
Yours for upward of $4,350