Laptop Magazine hands-on with the Dell multi-touch update
We just found out earlier today about Dell’s long-awaited firmware update to enable the multi-touch capability of the Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC and I should have known that those folks at Laptop Magazine already have been playing with the feature. Joanna Stern has been using the update for a couple of weeks and has released a hands-on video of the XT in action using the fingertip control of that N-Trig digitizer. Have a look at the video and see what you think. Me, I think that multi-touch on that big screen seems a big clunky, especially trying to close windows and things. The Vista interface is just not designed for precise fingertip control as you will see in the video.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
James–
Have you ever used a Dell XT? The last thing I would call it is clunky. It is the best touch interface there is. Granted, my hands are small, but I have no trouble doing things like picking a command out of a dropdown list or hitting the x to close a program. It’s very slick.
I was surprised that the reviewer was using two hands to zoom, rather than the pinch gesture. I think this may be what made it look “clunky” to you. This would be natural if you had the computer on a table, but I would definitely want to use the one hand pinch if I were holding it in slate mode.
I can’t wait to try out the multi-touch functions. But please don’t call the Dell clunky. At least not until you’ve actually used one. It’s very different from any other touch screen tablet in its feel.
sbtablet, I didn’t call the Dell clunky. I said the interface looked a bit clunky based on the reviewer’s consistent difficulty manipulating things on the screen and closing windows. That’s what appears clunky to me.
I do agree that she was having a little trouble with stray windows popping up, etc. I attribute that more to the fact that she had it in laptop mode, which is great for the camera, but more awkward and inaccurate for touch, and that she didn’t seem all that familiar with the new gestures and using the tablet, period.
Yeah, I agree that Vista could be more touch friendly, too. Some of my friends with bigger hands are looking forward to zooming a window just to make small icons, etc. easier to touch.
I agree with stablet — the “clunkiness” definitely seems attributable to the fact that 1) it was in laptop mode, and 2) she was standing to the side so that she didn’t obscure the screen. Not sure how those two conditions could result in anything but “clunkiness”. I’m eager to hear how people fare as this looks like a pretty decent addition to the Dell.
I’ve used an old slatevision and also dabbled on an XT. The touch screen on the XT is nice, but the system is too slow and the interface is not optimized for touch. You notice a lag between motions and response, and also have difficulty with small buttons. Also, as we noticed in this video, trying to scroll can result in misclicks on *gasp* advertising.
It’s sad that the iPhone/iPod touch, with their much slower processors and lesser ram, can zoom, pan, scroll, etc., with a faster response time, and even maybe more accuracy than a larger system. I attribute the flaw not to Dell, but to MS Vista and it’s lack of touch optimization.
Maybe it’s also Dell’s fault for shipping it with slow processors and with too little memory. I mean really, $2,000+ for a Core Solo and 1GB memory?
If I wanted that processing power I’d save 1,500 and get a Asus EeePc. Then I could spend $1,000 on a big screen, and then hookup Johnny Lee’s wii-remote-hack on it to get multi-touch. Save money and get more.
I was wondering why you were saying that Vista operation with fingers only was clunky. Then I watched the video and noticed that the Touch Cursor (the virtual mouse) isn’t appearing on the Dell, which must mean that they have changed the driver for the screen so that it doesn’t report to Windows that it is a touch screen and thus the Touch Cursor (or was it called the touch pad/control?) doesn’t appear anymore.
JK, you should be familiar with the it right? Since you’ve used both the 1610 and 1620 with Vista.
I find that very useful cause thanks to the screen bezel and size of elements, the Touch cursor definetly helps make reaching those things better.
The latitude XT can be found for bargain prices on various places on the net (I got mine off Ebay fully configured with 3GB Ram + 64gb SSD for much much less than DELL’s qouted price on it’s website)
PS. The Processor is NOT a Core Solo.
And has anyone managed to find a copy of the firmware upgrade yet ? It’s July 15 over here in UK and the update is nowhere to be found