Acer's inventive Iconia laptop falls into that exclusive category we sometimes call executive laptops. These are typically high-priced, highly designed systems that look great on a CEO's desk or in the first-class airline lounge. But they're also usually underpowered, overpriced, and too reliant on gimmicks that offer little in the way of actual utility.
Acer ICONIA 6120 Dual-Screen Touchbook - 14 - Core i5 480M - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 640 GB HDD
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The high-concept feature that sets the Iconia apart is actually two: two 14-inch touch screens. Instead of a screen and a keyboard, the Iconia ditches the keyboard for a second screen, which can be used either as an extended desktop or for a virtual keyboard. (We've seen a similar concept before, but with dual 7-inch screens, in the Toshiba Libetto W100.)
In practice, it works better than you might expect. Onscreen typing is still nowhere near as intuitive as the real thing, but a few generations of iPhones and iPads have trained us to tap-type without too much trouble, at least for short writing tasks. The experience is much closer to typing on an iPad than typing on one of the many Windows tablets we've tried over the years--and that's a good thing.
There were still frustrations with the Iconia, however. The onscreen keyboard had a hint of a lag, although it would probably only affect the fastest of touch typists. The onscreen touch pad is too small, and it lacks the kind of touch gestures a purely software touch pad could easily offer. And, most annoyingly, the CPU is one of Intel's last-generation Core i5 processors. By moving up to the current generation of CPUs, the Iconia could have faster performance, longer battery life, and better graphics.
One final positive note: unlike other so-called executive laptops we've seen, such as Dell's Adamo XPS, the Iconia is arguably reasonably priced, at $1,199; it's not a budget system by any means, but it's less than we'd expect to pay for two 14-inch touch screens.