The HP TouchSmart laptop computer will get attention from curiosity seekers when it debuts on November 28 because it is the first consumer-grade full touch-screen-capable notebook computer. If you watch the video demoing the the device above, however, you’d be forgiven for thinking HP may be in a bit of an awkward position once the actual sales numbers from this product start to get tallied.
Watch how taking advantage of the touch screen’s functionality requires two hands – one to hold the open screen steady at the side or the base, and another to actually perform the touch gestures on the screen. It also seems from this demo (which is apparently not a final release version of the product) the screen is not especially sensitive to touch gestures, that many “commands” have to be “repeated” twice and three times before the screen registers them. The screen itself is high-gloss and, well, I know how I feel about finger oils on a glossy glass surface. If these machines do end up taking off for some reason, there ought to be a bull market in screen wipes.
When Apple introduced the iPhone in June 2007 it rocked the mobile computing world almost as much as it rocked the mobile phone world. And with the launch of the AppStore this past summer, Apple’s business and iPhone software development exploded, with both continuing to outpace a clearly struggling global economy.
I don’t expect HP is going to have nearly the impact iPhone has had, despite introducing the kind of product many have been clamoring for from Apple.
20 responses to “HP’s TouchSmart Laptop Looks Underwhelming”
Exactly what Apple wouldn’t do!
Can you imagine Steve’s face if he had to hold the screen with his other hand?
Look for MultiTouch on a tablet long before it comes to laptops (unless they are convertible laptops).
Cheers,
Ashley.
I begin to understand why Jobs stated that ‘for notebooks we haven’t yet been able to get convincing added value of multi touch interfaces’ or something like that. This looks clumsy!
LOL, it looks terrible. I take my at off to Apple for thinking out-of-the box yet again and introducing their “touch” features through the glass TrackPad instead of producing something like this hokey HP effort. No really, this guy doing the video, he must be trying to make it look bad, mustn’t he? This could not possibly be an effort to make the HP machine look good, it is way too bad.
That video isn’t going to sell any laptops. Time to pull it.
The essential illusion that must occur for touch to be a success, is when you “touch”…something happens. Not a moment later – but immediately!
Otherwise you get either the frustrated second attempt, or the user thinks the touch action doesn’t work at this point in the the interface.
Immature.
It’s interesting to see just how useless the multi-touch laptop is. A lot of suckers will buy this because they think the idea is cool. Unfortunately the execution isn’t.
They should have called it the TouchDumb.
From the video, all the multi-touch gestures look slow. On the iPhone, it zoom, pans, scrolls, or rotates WHILE I am doing the gesture. In the video, it looks as if the laptop reads the gesture and then performs the action. Given that is the case, I would write the whole thing off as gimmick.
Now that was stupid.
Having to hold the screen still with your left hand, while touching the screen with your right.
Yeah, right. Steve Jobs will love that idea (not!).
Getting the screen oily is also going to be enjoyable. You’ll have to keep a cleaning cloth handy.
The touch response is also slow. That is not up to Apple’s standards.
Looks like a loser to me.
Not terribly surprising – touch interface technology for laptops and desktops simply isn’t prime time yet, regardless of what HP’s Touchsmart PC commercials tell you. Sure, it can be useful for scrolling between photos and controlling a media player’s play/pause buttons, but good luck trying to do anything a bit more detailed.
That being said, I’m still of the mind that multi-touch/keyboard combinations will eventually prove to be the future of displays and computing outside of the office. We just need to watch the technology evolve a bit, and I think Apple’s got it right so far.
The touch-screen should be okay in tablet mode, but needing to possibly use two hands to swipe and tap in notebook mode is just a bit too much. What’s odd is that it looks like it still has a click pad, so the touch-screen input is just an alternative means. It might be fun at first, but I would think it would get tiresome fairly quickly. Those screen hinges are definitely not tight enough if everytime you need to make a pressure gesture the screen tilts back further.
Touch input in fine for devices that lie flat, but I don’t see it as being useful to have to keep raising your arm constantly to input commands on a vertical surface. A multi-touch pad right below the keyboard wins hand-down.
I don’t think this is going to be a big seller and I think users will have quite a few complaints about having to repeat touch commands.
Well I’m not surprised a room full of Mac fan-boys shit all over what looks to be a decent lap top just cause there isn’t an apple on it. I suppose of you had to operate the thing with only your hands the touch would be a problem but using combination of keyboard and screen you would be able to navigate quickly. The video also fails to mention the whole “tablet” part of the lap top which allows you to get a stylus out and take notes etc. You don’t have to hold the screen in tablet mode, where I’m assuming the touch would mostly be used… look I’m not saying it is the end all be all, but lets give credit where its due and take into account ALL the features of said product. If you ask me you are just pissed there is no multi touch Mac laptop, if there was you’d all be saying how useful it was and how smart Steve Jobs is for coming up with a cool idea.