14 DAY TRIAL // Aside from the Marine Cool concept motherboard ASUS brought at the CeBIT 2009 show in Hanover, Germany, the company also presented a new conceptual portable computer system, which is designed as a dual-LCD notebook. Although the device is still in its early stages of design, the company appears to be taking a keen interest in new products, which will likely be part of our day-to-day lives in a not-so-far future.
Unfortunately, ASUS failed to provide any specific details on said portable PC, even setting a “Don't touch sign” in front of the portable device. Both displays featured touch-screen technology, consequently offering the end-user a greater accessibility compared to standard notebooks. The system could also be used in both landscape and portrait mode, which means that it could be marketed as both a laptop and an e-Book reader.
No matter what you think the dual-screen concept laptop from ASUS is capable of, you should know that, unlike the Marine Cool board, this concept hasn't yet received a potential release date. This basically means that we might not even see the product come to the market. However, it's nice to see that ASUS is considering ways to improve its notebook lineup, as the company needs a means to compete with rivals such as Dell, HP or Acer.
On the other hand, the concept behind the dual-screen laptop isn't all that new, so we might see such notebooks sooner rather than later. OLPC's next-generation XO2 laptop is expected to boast a dual-screen configuration, although the fruits of those promises still seem to be far away at the moment.
“The dual panel offers a flexible working space in which users can adapt to suit their prevailing usage scenarios, for example adjusting the size of the virtual touchpad and keyboard,” says ASUS in the press release announcing the concept. “Through hand gestures, handwriting recognition and multi-touch, users are presented with a control surface that is both flexible and intuitive.”
