Tosh launches touch-screen laptop

Laptosh punts iPad with a lid

Toshiba Computer Systems today announced a touch-enabled version of its ultra-portable Satellite U500.

The compact, thin and light  now comes with a 13.3-inch touch-sensitive display that enables navigation using Windows Touch, which comes in Windows 7.

It allows users to scroll through documents or web pages by dragging a finger on the screen. To click tap a finger twice on the display. Files can be tapped and dragged. And two-fingered zooming iPhone-stylee is enabled.

The Satellite U500-1EX is based on Intel's Calpella platform, running flavours of its Core i3-330 processor. It sports 4GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive.

It will ship before the end of March, possibly for as little as £650.

Thomas Teckentrup, General Product Manager, EMEA said, “The dual approach with support of conventional keyboard input and innovative touch-gesture control takes the usability concept of our ultra-portable laptop to the next level.”