Touch is becoming a common feature on netbooks, with HP launching its first touch-enabled netbook a day after Lenovo announced its own entry at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The HP Mini 5102 has a capacitive touchscreen option , like the iPhone’s, but it may be a little used feature at first , with few applications able to take advantage of the display’s capabilities.HP will charge $50 more for the touch version of the 5102.
“Not long ago, touch was a very expensive option, we want to make it affordable so that people, who might not need touch today, for $50 they can futureproof the device for when applications come to market,” an HP spokesman said.
The 5102 is a high-end netbook starting at $400 in black, red or blue. It features the new Intel Atom N450 processor, can offer HD resolution on its screen and there is an optional carry handle that HP thinks will appeal to students. The 5102 has another first for HP – the company is offering facial recognition through the built-in webcam as a means of logging in to the netbook.
The leading PC maker is announcing a slew of mobile devices at CES including ProBook and EliteBook notebooks, some lower end Minis – the 210 and 2102 – and the TouchSmart tm2, a notebook whose screen swivels to become a tablet device. It uses a version of the TouchSmart software HP developed for its all-in-one PC, including touch-enabled access to Hulu.com videos, Twitter and the HP Music Store powered by Rhapsody.
Yesterday, Lenovo announced the IdeaPad S10-3t Netbook Tablet: “the industry’s first convertible netbook tablet to feature a capacitive multitouch screen.”
Both were beaten to touch on netbooks by Dell, which launched the Latitude 2100 last May.
