Apple may have been the first company to offer multi-touch technology on a notebook, but it’s certainly not the last. HP has just announced that its debut multi-touch device, the TouchSmart tx2, will go on sale in January 2009 – and it uses a full-screen touch display.
The tx2′s 12.1-inch screen is fully multi-touched up, but in a different way to the iPhone/iPod touch etc. It uses capacitive touch, which enables more accurate inputs, as well as brushes and swipes and two-handed gestures. For instance, you can use two hands to crop photos.
The screen can be twisted and folded all the way round, converting the standard notebook into a tablet PC, and the included digital pen can be used to make notes, with your scribblings converted straight to editable text. The display is pressure sensitive too, so pressing harder with the pen will result in heavy strokes if you’re using an art program.
Aside from the touchscreen, the tx2 also features an integrated digital TV tuner, dual core AMD Turion X2 processor and ATI Radeon 3200 graphics.
Out January 2009 | £799 | HP
