Toshiba has gone with the adage that two screens are better than one with its new libretto W100 ultra mobile PC (UMPC). Featuring dual 7-inch diagonal dual-touch LCD screens, the clamshell form factor W100 opens up to provide the equivalent of a 10-inch wide screen display that allows the desktop to be extended over both screens, different applications to be displayed on either screen, or one screen to be used for the virtual keyboard. The device can also be used as a netbook in the horizontal orientation, or flipped on its side for reading ebooks.
Each 7-inch LCD capacitive touchscreen sports WSVGA (1,024 x 600) pixel resolution and LED backlighting to cut down on power usage. This is just as well since the standard battery pack will only provide around 2 hours of operation, while the heavier (819g as opposed to that standard’s 699g) high-capacity battery pack will double that.
Many people hate virtual keyboards but Toshiba is doing its best to please by providing vibration feedback for user input with the W100’s multi-mode virtual keyboard offering the flexibility of full 108 key, simplified (cutting the numbers and symbol keys), thumb and 10-key numeric pad typing modes.
Running Windows 7 Home Premium, the compact device is powered by a 1.2 GHz Intel Pentium U5400 (CULV) processor and comes with 2GB of RAM, integrated Bluetooth v2.1, 802.11n wireless, optional mobile broadband, microSD card slot, USB 2.0 port, 1.02 Megapixel webcam with face recognition and a 62GB SSD.
The W100 measures a very mobile friendly 7.95 x 4.84 x 1.2-inches (L x W x H), weighs in at 1.8 lbs and sports a sexy black, brushed aluminum finish. Although Toshiba calls the Libretto W100 an “ultra mobile concept PC” the company plans to release the device in Japan at the end of August. No word on pricing or whether it will make it to other markets as yet.
