I absolutely love the idea of a touch screen laptop. In 2008 HP introduced their TouchSmart TX2Z touch screen laptop.  Touch screen laptops aren’t entirely new to the computing world but the way HP approaches the technology is cutting edge.

HP has joined the revolution that Apple did with the i-phone.  They are utilizing multi-touch functionality.  In the past touch screen laptop computers would support the ability of the user to make selections on the screen with a digital pen or in some cases a finger.

Multi-touch input allows you to touch in two places on the screen at once and the computer will recognize the multiple input points.  An example of how this would be used is in manipulating photographs.

A user might be looking at a photo on the screen and simply touch two corners of the photo, move their fingers in or out and the image will automatically re size.

The same can be done to rotate an image.  Just touch the photo in with two fingers, rotate your fingers on the screen and viola!  The picture rotates!

Shortcut gestures are also supported on this touch screen laptop.  Simply draw a squiggly line on the screen with your finger and an application opens.

The touch screen laptop can be opened and used in the traditional way or you can open the lid, rotate the screen 180 degrees and close it.  Now it is a tablet computer.  You can use it just like you did with the old clipboard.  It even comes with a digital pen to make input even more convenient.

The specs are impressive:

  • The processor is a 2.4GHz AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core ZM-86
  • Comes standard with 4GB, 800MHz DDR2 RAM
  • 400 gig hard drive
  • Windows Vista Home Premium
  • Screen is 12 inches wide by 8.8 inches tall
  • 1.5 inches thick
  • Weighs in at 5.0/5.8 pounds
  • Networking: modem, Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
  • It comes with a DVD burner

This revolutionary touch screen laptop would be a really great choice if you are in the market for a new laptop.

Smudges are always a concern when using any touch screen devices.  The digital pen works best to avoid this problem.

I recently had the chance to play with one of these little toys and absolutely loved it.  I had a hard time adjusting when the computer mouse first came out.  I think I’ll adjust more quickly to the new touch screen laptop computer.