HP Introduces Multi-Touch Consumer Notebook

The TouchSmart tx2 carries the multi-touch capabilities of its desktop predecessor over to ultra-portable tablet territory.

Multi-touch technology – the ability to use more than one finger to control objects on a touch screen – isn’t just for smart phones and desktops anymore. HP introduced the TouchSmart tx2, one of the very first notebooks with out-of-the-box multi-touch capability, on Wednesday.

Although Dell’s extraordinarily pricy Latitude XT boasted half-baked multi-touch ability when it debuted nearly a year ago, the capability wasn’t enabled until July of 2008, and mostly applied only to scrolling and zooming functions. The tx2 will come with HP’s own MediaSmart software, which has already been tailored to multi-touch capabilities after its introduction on the TouchSmart media PC.

The notebook also includes a rechargeable digital stylus, which allows users to take written notes and have them converted automatically to typed notes through handwriting recognition.

Other specs include an array of AMD Turion X2 processors, up top 8GB of DDR2 RAM, hard drives up to 400GB, and an optional ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card.

The notebook can be ordered immediately and will begin shipping in late November. Prices start at $1,150.