HP Touchscreen PC
March 14, 2009
HP Touchscreen PC.
Although touchscreen technology has made leaps and bounds since the first touchscreen devices were released, it has never really been adopted too much into mainstream products.
Recently I had a look at a HP Touchscreen PC, to see how this technology has progessed. The computer itself looks relatively futuristic, with a screen that folds out from the box itself. From what I could read of the specifications, it appears to use a laptop chipset to help it keep such a small form factor.
Unfortunately, the model that I looked at was a demo unit in a store, and as such was not technically supposed to be used, something we guessed when we found it powered down. Unfortunately, since we did not know the code to logon to the pc, and after a few guesses we couldn’t work it out.
Anyway, the first pitfall with the device revolved around the wireless keyboard. It didn’t work, or it had run out of power. Regardless, this meant that we ended up having to use the touch screen a little earlier than originally planned. It seemed responsive, however the glossy screen seemed to be very susceptible to finger prints, which is pretty silly in a touchscreen PC.
Using the on screen keyboard to type in the password, it became immediately obvious that the keyboard is the only reasonable option for text input. I have quite skinny fingers, and I found it very difficult to hit the right button on the before mentioned keyboard.
So, what use is having a touchscreen then? According to HP demo’s, you can use it to navigate music collections, scroll through documents, files with ease and go through other multimedia collections.
I don’t really see the point in the product though. It does what it says on the box, but overall, I don’t see what use it has outside of looking cool in a store display.
A bit later i’ll post up a video of me failing to use the pc.
