More and more computer manufactures are eagerly entering the touch screen laptop market these days. Acer isn’t one to be left behind. They recently introduced the Acer Aspire AS5745PG-3882 touch screen laptop computer.

This is one of Acer’s first computer to be shipped with a touch screen.There are some neat things about the AS5745PG touch screen laptop.  The first is cost.  The suggested retail cost of this touch screen laptop is only $999.  For the hardware that Acer put into this model, that’s an excellent price.  Acer is known for providing quality computers that the average Joe can afford.

This Acer touch screen laptop was launched with the intent to taking full advantage of Windows 7 multi touch features.  Windows 7 is the first operating system built to fully support mult touch technology.  The AS5745PG comes with a passive digitizer touch screen which means that users can use their fingers to interact with the touch screen.

It also supports multi touch and gestures.  A gesture is a sort of shortcut that the user can do by touching the touchscreen.  For example, the user can touch the touch screen and make a swirl and a list of navigation features pops on the screen.  If the user is reading an ebook on this touch screen laptop, he or she can touch the screen and turn the page just like turning the pages in a real book.  Pretty cool!

This touch screen laptop computer comes with a button that you can press to disable the touch screen though I’m not sure when you would actually want to.  After all you are buying a touch screen laptop to be able to use the touch screen.

Specifications:

• Windows 7 64 bit
• Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Mobile Processor(6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 1.6GHz)
• 4Gigs (2Gigs installed in each of two or four memory slots) DDR3 1066 SDRAM, upgradable to 16Gigs
• 15.6″ high definition touch screen 1366 x 768 px
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M graphics
• 500 Gig hard drive
• WiFi  802.11a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth
• Ethernet
• Dolby Built-In Stereo Speakers
• Webcam
• 8X DVD Blue-ray combo drive
• HDMI port, VGA Port, RJ-45 LAN, and 4 USB Ports
• Measures 14.9″x 9.8″ x 1.0″
• 5.7 pounds with the battery installed

If you are in the market for a touch screen laptop computer that has a lot of muscle but is still affordable, the Acer Aspire AS5745PG-3882 may be right up your alley.  It’s affordable cost will put touch screen laptops in the hands of a lot of people who are anxious to try out this new way of interfacing with computers but couldn’t afford the higher priced models.

Click here for the lowest price on the Acer Aspire AS5745PG-3882

I just read something interesting on touch screen laptop and notebook computers computers on wikipedia. I immediately had this image in my mind of some 90 pound computer geeky looking kid walking around with Popeye like arms. That’s not what gorilla arm means but it was a fun image to hold onto for a moment.

People are simply not designed to interact well with vertically oriented touch screen laptop monitors.  Repeated motions of our arms above the waist make it difficult for the user to make very precise movements.  After a lot of use, arms may become fatigued and the efficiency hoped to be gained by touch screen interfaces, could be lost.

People who use  touch screen laptop computers for very long may begin to have movements resembling that of a gorillas since their arms become tired.  This makes their arms feel heavy and they become clumsy in their movements.  Hence, the term “gorilla arm” was coined.

Touch screen laptop computers are relatively new to the world of computing.  There are only a few models available at this time.  Due to their scarcity, we don’t currently have enough data to make any accurate decisions about whether or not touch screen laptop computers will actually be a productive tool.

We know that factory workers who are sitting in front of a vertical control station and are constantly raising their arms to push buttons all day are prone to repetitive strain injuries.

Measures have been taken to limit the range of movement that these operators need to make in order to reduce fatigue.  One must wonder if we are actually going backwards in the evolution of technology by introducing touch screen monitors to computers.

As I sit here an write this article, I find myself frequently using my mouse to move the pointer to various positions on the screen.  While doing this, my hand his rested on the desk and only my wrist moves.  Resting my hand on the mouse has become comfortable. The amount of effort that it takes to manipulate the mouse is minimal.

I remember when people first started using the computer mouse as a computer input device.  I thought that it wouldn’t catch on because you need to move your hand from the keyboard to the mouse frequently.  I was certainly wrong about this prediction.  I wonder how I will feel about operating future touch screen laptop computers?

If I had to raise my arm and touch the screen instead of using the mouse, I wonder if I would quickly tire of the task.  Don’t get me wrong.  I will buy a touch screen laptop in the very near future.  At that point I’ll be able to report more.  I really would like to see a touch screen on mini laptops in the very near future.

I really wonder if the gorilla arm phenomenon will present a problem with future touch screen laptop computer users.