The hero of this review -- perhaps the most unusual notebook of all, what I’ve seen lately. Not for nothing at the CES 2011 Tablet PC Acer Iconia won first place as “Best New Product of the Year. What is it such a remarkable? Let’s start with the fact that its 14-inch screen -- the touch, with support for multitouch technology. Nothing special, we have already seen more than once, would you say if these developments and limited. However, his SECOND 14-inch screen is also touch and also supports multi-touch. Acer Iconia -- a laptop with two identical displays, each of which has a resolution of 1366 x 768. The second screen is located where a conventional laptop is the keyboard. Mechanical keyboard is not at all, instead it uses the screen.
The package, besides the laptop includes the charger and the USB-card reader (built-in Iconia not). The charger has an additional line filter for protection against small surges. It includes a main charger, and it is already connected to the computer directly. Personally, I use this scheme was not very convenient, since the whole structure is obtained rather cumbersome, and the power cord from the filter to a computer rather short, so that this filter is constantly thwarted. No one forces them to use, so I simply disconnect it, resulting in a standard charger from the laptop Acer. In general, the idea is not bad as an extra protection never hurts.
Running laptop on a powerful processor Intel Core i5 (480M) with a frequency of 2660 MHz and support of technology TurboBoost, which increases the frequency to about 2930 MHz, if you need additional processing power. Like most powerful notebooks, Acer Iconia has on-board 4 GB DDR3-1333 (two modules of 2 GB), enough for today. Hard drive (Toshiba MK6465GSX) 640 GB in capacity and speed of 5400 revolutions per minute can be described as not too fast, but roomy. Responsible for the video processor built into the graphics core Intel GMA HD -- it is enough for watching movies and simple toys, but any serious graphic work will be difficult.
So, open your laptop and press the power button located on the right side of the apparatus. Both the screen come to life at the same time, the bottom immediately activated the virtual keyboard. Just below the keyboard area is displayed touchpad, and slightly above -- a few function keys and control panel player. With the function keys you can go to the settings menu and get a laptop on the bottom screen access to virtually all the necessary functions -- brightness control (each screen separately), power supply, wireless connectivity, USB devices, and lots of rest, up to choosing a screen saver or theme registration of most on-screen keyboard. All this occurs in large friendly menus on the bottom screen and perfectly controlled with the simple flick of a finger.
When you press the button in the upper left corner of the keyboard switches to handwriting. This is pretty funny, to the same system is quite cleverly detects written words, but in practice much of this I have not found as text input with keypad keypad is easier and faster in most cases.
In general, the active keyboard on the bottom screen, Acer Iconia can be used as a conventional notebook with a touchscreen. You can control the cursor with the touchpad, or you can simply click on the controls on the screen. If you disable the keyboard, the bottom screen can be used as a continuation of the upper. You can drag open windows from one screen to another, or disclose them on both screens simultaneously. You can watch a movie on one display and another to keep open the browser, or work with documents.
When you first start training shows where users are familiar with the principle of the touchscreen, the main action gestures and control functions. To consolidate invited to repeat all the actions of the instructor. Completed training rather sensibly, and things are not difficult to understand at first. However, it should be noted that if the touch-control used quite simply, to touch the keyboard will have to adapt a little longer. Blind dialing will not work at all, you always have to look at the bottom screen. Area of pad could also be bigger, because we have a touch screen for it, why stop 3x4 square centimeters? Another interesting feature of Iconium -- Exclusive interface Acer Ring, which is activated pyatipaltsevym gesture on the bottom screen (as if you hide the bulb). It is a pie menu that provides access to programs specially adapted to control the two screens, such as TouchBrowser, TouchPhoto, TouchMusic, TouchVideo. The latter are easy to guess, are responsible for internet, photos, music and video. In the bottom pane displays the control panel, and at the top to play movies or show pictures. As a portable media center laptop use is very convenient, simple and clear management.
TouchBrowser produces more mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is better adapted to the finger control than standard web browsers, on the other -- to surf the Internet on two screens was not very comfortable. Screens arranged at an angle to each other and it is very important to sit down in front of a laptop, so that was ok seen both screens (since the viewing angles are not 180 degrees), which significantly reduces the freedom of body movement. Between screens big enough gap so that the Web page is not perceived as one.
In general, the conflicting feelings is not just a browser, but the entire apparatus as a whole. On the one hand, press your fingers on the screens, drawing gestures, drag and drop applications from one screen to another, or stretch on both screens at once -- very fun, interesting and exciting. On the other hand, the practicality of it all does not add. Most household tasks easier and more efficient to solve the classic notebook with a mechanical keyboard (which is more responsive, which do not have to constantly call on the screen and where you can find the button on the touch, never taking his eyes off the screen). At vskidku name any specific application, which is convenient to work on two screens arranged vertically one above the other, and at the same angle to each other, I did not get. It should also be noted that the software part is not fully optimized, which sometimes leads to minor disruptions. For example, once the machine starts up again, on-screen keyboard appeared, but refused to work -- had to reboot. In the game World Of Warcraft did not work hard keys WASD. The latter, incidentally, is not so bad as to play modern games with the touch screen is impossible in principle -- on the right buttons are not hit. Besides gaming performance leaves much to be desired, the same WoW gave only 10 frames per second at minimum graphics settings. By subjective sensations, the machine runs slower than models with similar characteristics but without the second screen. Results of synthetic benchmarks confirm this.
At a high load on the system CPU temperature did not rise above 65 degrees, which is quite acceptable. The lower screen is practically not heated, just getting a little warm in the upper left corner (above the CPU). An exhaust cooling system rather hot air is expelled from the left side of the notebook. In terms of noise is nothing special, the notebook is neither loud nor quiet. Even at minimum load, the fan still works, albeit rather slowly. Two screens have a negative impact on the weight machine. 2.72 kg -- this is too much for 14 “laptop, because conventional models weigh about two kilograms. Also strongly affected battery life -- just three hours in reading mode. When watching HD-movie (1080p) on the middle screen brightness laptop showed impressive 1 hour and 12 minutes. It is a pity that the movie had some great length.
Acer Iconia -- is primarily a multimedia entertainment center, rather than a laptop for serious work (unless your job requires two screens). Watch movies, photos, Internet and perform other similar tasks is quite convenient. Work with documents or playing games -- no. In addition, the unit quite heavy for its size and quite a bit of running on battery power. It’s definitely -- the goods are not for everyone. If you want to get from a laptop in the first place convenient and practical tool, the icon is not for you (www.laptopi5.com).
