Mobile Computing News

Photo: Toshiba

Toshiba has unveiled its U500-1EX laptop, with the killer feature being its touchscreen display. The company hopes this technology will allow it to separate itself from the many competitors in the laptop space, as well as justify its high price.

Under the hood

At just over 2kg, this Windows 7 laptop has a 2.13Ghz Intel Core processor, 320GB hard drive, 4GB of ram, and the expected extras like USB slots, Bluetooth and a built-in webcam. The 13.1-inch touchscreen display has a respectable resolution of 1280 x 800. These features, not altogether mind blowing, but not to be sniffed at either, are not this laptop’s core selling point. The touchscreen is.

For the touchy feely

Insofar as Windows 7 is not a touchscreen-friendly computer, the built-in applications, which support this technology, are both intuitive and responsive. The standard multitouch functions like pinch to zoom are there, and Toshiba’s proprietary photo application shows off the laptop’s fluidity.

The odd transition

The barriers to adoption for this laptop are its price tag and limited applications. At £650, the device is certainly not cheap, but questions will be raised about whether the touchscreen display functionality can be exploited fully. As indicated, none of the core Windows applications supports touchscreen technology, and the bulk of software manufacturers are not building touchscreen-ready software for laptops. This means that unless Toshiba is able to entice developers to make more touchscreen applications or sets up its own in-house team dedicated to developing the necessary programs, the U500-1EX will have touchscreen display as nothing more than a rarely-used gimmick.

Corporate strategy

Photo: Toshiba

It appears Toshiba’s current corporate strategy is the development of hybrid devices where core products have an additional layer of technology on top of it. They have recently done so with their Cell TV, as well as their Freeview HD plus PVR set top boxes, with each aforementioned product being priced at a premium. The extent to which this will be a success is yet to be seen, as each of these products has yet to be released. Toshiba has announced that the laptop will be available soon.