Dell Adds New Touch To Tablet PCs
AUCKLAND, Dec. 12, 2007 – Dell is setting new benchmarks for tablet PCs with the addition of the Latitude™ XT. Designed with business users in
mind the Latitude XT is the thinnest and, at 1.6 kilograms, one of the lightest 12.1-inch convertible tablets available
in New Zealand – and will be the first to be sold here with new capacitive touch technology (also supports future
multi-touch capability, see vlog).
The Latitude XT has been developed in response to feedback from customers who want a tablet device but with the
connectivity, durability, security and manageability features native to its corporate PC platforms.
In New Zealand the Dell Latitude XT starts at $4,100 and the company will begin to take orders next week (Dec. 19th).
More information on our blog.
Background
What’s capacitive touch? Tablets have traditionally used resistive touch technology which requires pressure to sense input and cannot support
multi-touch. Capacitive touch uses the natural electricity produced by the human body to sense input. Capacitive touch
is a more efficient and usable interface, especially in combination with pen technology. The capacitive touch on the
Latitude XT offers:
Sense on contact – no pressure required
Consistent smooth scrolling, dragging, flicks, gestures
Better durability and reliability- resistive screens wear more often
No interference with handwriting recognition – resistive makes this worse
High resolution/accuracy (same as pen)/High report rate – much better performance
90 percent transparency (high 70s with resistive) – means more brightness
Efficient palm rejection
Microsoft Vista enables a collection of touch-based flicks and gestures that can enable greater efficiency in everyday
computing (the tablet also comes with XP should the customer prefer but Vista’s native integration of touch technology
is considered better).
What is multi-touch? Multi-touch allows users to use multiple simultaneous touch points to allow gestures and interaction with multiple
fingers or hands and can provide rich interaction (including direct manipulation) through intuitive gestures (yes, ah la
the iPod phone). More information can be found here.
ENDS