Hands On: MSI’s Dual-Screen Tablet

So MSI apparently has no plans to actually release this dual-screen, Windows 7 tablet, but I stopped by the booth to play around with it anyway. It’s pretty impractical, but hey! Two screens!

It’s clearly not meant for actual release – the touchscreen was very temperamental, the device as a whole was super slow and they hadn’t made enough changes to Windows 7 to make that dual-screen setup worthwhile. The standard Windows 7 soft keyboard is pretty mediocre, and if this was a real product I’d probably criticise it more. On a basic level, you can tell this is a mere proof of concept – they just slapped two screens together, with no thought as to what benefits that setup might give.

The hardware, on the other hand, is surprisingly nice – it’s super thin and light, the two 10-inch screens definitely keep it netbook-sized, and the brushed metal finish is really nice. But it’s all kind of a moot point – MSI’s got no plans to bring this to market. Still, cool idea, even if it’s pointless so far. [MSI]