Acer Releases Dual-Screen, No-Keyboard Laptop

With Research in Motion (RIM), Dell, and of course Apple all releasing their own variations on the tablet computer, it seems like slate devices are here to stay. But is there anything else trendy enough to knock off the tablet? Acer's new Iconia "touchbook" might actually indicate the emergence of a new line of dual-touchscreen devices.

The Acer Iconia-6200 is now available to American and Canadian consumers via Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. Coming in at a thunderous $1,200, it isn't cheap, but with a pair of 14-inch displays and a whole lot of power, it is very, very cool.

Dynamic Touchscreen Replaces Standard Keyboard

The most notable difference between the Iconia and the standard laptop is the absence of a keyboard.

The keyboard is replaced with a 14-inch 1366x768 Gorilla Glass display which relies on touch input. That means Acer has been forced to design and implement a whack of proprietary software that allows a user to activate a virtual keyboard, numpad and touchpad at the lower end of the bottom display. (Source: techpost.com)

Worried typing on Gorilla Glass will lead to oodles of typos? Well, Acer has built in a predictive text feature designed to seek out and correct errors as you go along.

Reports say Iconia may soon receive a handwriting recognition upgrade that will allow users to scrawl notes on the lower touchpad. There are also rumors about touch-optimized controls for browsing the Internet and music and video collections (similar to iPod controls).

Higher Price Point Brings Beastly Machine

One thing is for certain: there's a lot of power under the Iconia's hood.

Acer's machine sports a dual-core 2.66GHz Intel Core i5-480M Arrandale processing chip and is capable of playing 1080p video. There's also 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz RAM, 640GB of storage, a 1.3MP webcam, three USB ports, an HDMI out, Ethernet, WiFi, and a four-cell battery capable of lasting about three hours unplugged.

Unfortunately, this won't rival the iPad or PlayBook in terms of portability. At six pounds and one-inch thickness, it's considerably bulkier than the tablet competition. (Source: time.com)

The Iconia-6200 will be available in brick-and-mortar retailers starting next month.