Quanta Demonstrates 'Touchless' Touching

Posted Thursday, December 11, 2008 by Laptopical.com
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Windows 7 is known for its multi-touch capabilities, and many are excited to develop implementations of this which will be effective and easy to use. Quanta has devised their Optical Touch technology so that people will be able to touch... but without touching.The Optical Touch tech relies on two webcams places at the top corners of a display. These cameras will watch your hands as they gesture and interpret the commands accordingly. No expensive touch screen with smudgy fingerprints all over it. Just your hands waving around. Interesting. There will be support for image rotation and screen zooming as well as standard cursor movement with this technology. Theoretically, it could be much cheaper and last much longer than a special touch screen, although we have a hard time believing it will be as responsive. Follow the jump for a video to see how all this might actually work. Via jkontherun. ´

1. Dell XPS M1730

Ah, the customizability of Dell. There seems to be no limit to what you can do with the 17" (1920x1200 standard) M1730, and the price can range dramatically. We selected a review model which sported an Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz (which Dell said was overclockable to 3.4GHz, joy) and 4GB DDR2 RAM. For storage we got dual 320GB 7200RPM HDDs, and for graphics we chose dual nVidia GeForce 8700M GT 512MB GPUs. The M1730 is graced with a generous sampling of ports, including 4USB, DVI, HDMI, FireWire, S-video and ExpressCard, and sports the standard Bluetooth/WiFi and webcam. You can also get Blu-ray and even WWAN! While many laptops of this size and strength give up on battery life, Dell has opted for a 9-cell battery, giving the notebook half a chance at a life away from home. Of course, such a huge battery has its side effects, and the 10.6lb weight makes it very unlikely you'll choose to travel much with it, battery life or no battery life. If you're not convinced, we'd like to next inform you that it's about 2" thick, or nearly as thick as 3 MacBook Airs. Nevertheless, if you can get over the weight issue and see the computer for what it really is on the inside, you will see a premium computer. The price on Dell's website lists it at $2999 for this specification (reduced from $3648), and you'll be hard pressed to find a more powerful notebook anywhere for that price...............link

2. Toshiba Portege R600

We've already seen an 11" and a 13" ultraportable, and now here comes Toshiba with a 12.1" entry. The resolution isn't bad for the size at 1280x800, but that's hardly the best part. With the Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4GHz powering it, this laptop is rated at up to 7.53 hours of battery life (although you should expect a little less). It comes with 3GB DDR2 RAM and a 128GB SSD. There's no dedicated GPU so the graphics will only be average at best, but with a weight of only 2.4lbs you'll have so much fun just picking this laptop up with one hand that you'll forgive it a few slight omissions. It has 1 USB/eSATA port to go along with 2USB ports too. This laptop will run you $3000, but if portability is your thing, you won't find a better option..............link

3. Lenovo IdeaPad Y730 - 40523EU

This 17" (1920x1200) offering from Lenovo gives you plenty of power for gaming or multimedia. It runs Windows Vista Ultimate and wields an Intel Core 2 Extreme X9100 3.06GHz with 4GB DDR3 RAM, which means it can do almost anything you'd want it to. Given those spectacular specs it's a slight letdown to have merely a single 320GB 5400RPM HDD, but the ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 512MB GPU is fine, and the whole package together is still very impressive. It also features a Blu-ray drive as well as Bluetooth and WiFi. The weight isn't bad for such a powerful laptop at 8.05lbs, although it's still quite heavy, and while Lenovo doesn't rate the 6-cell battery we would guess it'll net you between 2-3 hours. The list price for this item is $3499, although it's currently marked down to a more affordable $3199. We're not sure if this is a selling point or not, but we felt we should mention the cover is a glossy orange.............link

4. Lenovo X301

Returning to the true ultraportables for a moment, we have the 13.3" Lenovo X301. It features an excellent resolution for its size (1440x900) and is fairly lightweight, tipping the scales at a meager 3.3lbs. The processor is an efficient Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 (1.4GHz), although it only bumps the battery life to around 3.5 hours. We were able to throw in 3GB RAM and a 64GB SSD, to go along with the standard Webcam, Bluetooth and WiFi, for a reasonable (for this price range anyway) price of $2985. If that's not enough storage space, you can double the SSD size for $400, although unfortunately there is no option for a dedicated GPU. And as far as design, it's a ThinkPad, so you know you're getting something sturdy with lots of black. We should add that we were particularly fond of the X301's superb keyboard, and it's nice that it has 3 USB ports. This is definitely a business person's type of laptop. ............link

5. MacBook Pro (15")

It's rare when you can call a MacBook good value for performance without even considering style (which it of course has in spades), but the MBP actually stands out pretty strongly here. The resolution on the 15" screen is just average at 1440x900, but the Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5GHz is competitive and the 4GB DDR3 RAM is strong. We upgraded the respectable 320GB HDD to 7200RPM from 5400RPM for $50, but ignored the $500 SSD option. The MBP packs a capable nVidia 9600M 512MB GPU, and can last around five hours running on battery thanks in part to built in support for switching between dedicated and integrated graphics. It weighs 5.5 lbs and features 2USB ports, a FireWire800 port, a Mini DisplayPort, and an ExpressCard slot. All told, the 15" MacBook pro strides the line between the clunking desktop replacements and the lightly powered ultraportables with grace and dignity. More to the point, the price is right in the middle too, offering a taste of both worlds for just $2550. ................link

6. Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q708

This gaming laptop has a lot going for it. The 17" (1680x1050) display packs a nice resolution, if not the nicest. More importantly, it comes packing an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 (2.53GHz), 4GB DDR3 RAM, and dual 512MB nVidia GeForce 9800M GPUs. It's important to note that there is also an integrated graphics card, and that the X305 makes use of SLI, allowing you to switch between integrated and dedicated graphics to save battery. It also has both a 320GB 7200RPM HDD and a 128GB SSD, providing ample and speedy data storage. The two typical problem specs with gaming laptops are the weight and the battery life, and at 9.04lbs and around 1.5 hours respectively you can see this laptop was not spared. There's also WiFi and Bluetooth and an eSATA/USB port to go along with 3 standard USB ports. This kind of gaming power isn't cheap, but you are getting a very powerful machine for your $4200 investment............link