Sharp Intros Mebius NJ70A Netbook with Touchsreen Trackpad

Posted by | 04/21/2009 | 5 Comments

sharp-mebius-nj70a-netbookHow can I make a Netbook that stands out in a crowd? Looks like Sharp has an attack on that problem. The Mebius NJ70A has a touchscreen trackpad that can also double as a secondary display. It can be used as an app launcher, controller, and it also has handwriting recognition.

Otherwise the Mebius is a 10 inch Netbook with all the familiar bells and whistles and is schedule to launch in Japan in May on the pricey side for just over $800.

Hint to Sharp: If you want to differenitate you’ll need to do so while staying within the price point expectation.   Video after the jump.

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Category: Hardware

About the Author (Author Profile)

Warner Crocker is a professional theatre director, producer and playwright and also a Tablet PC enthusiast. He is also a Microsoft MVP for Tablet PCs. Send email to Warner.
  • eoin

    dont see the point why not just make it a touchscreen.
    now i’ll be looking at the little screen instead of the big one i paid for

  • Betty

    I think this is very interesting!

  • http://idk Tim

    I really lke this website!<3

  • http://www.lorenheiny.com Loren Heiny

    “dont see the point why not just make it a touchscreen”

    Almost all clamshell notebooks have trackpads as the default, built in pointing device. Even most convertible Tablet PCs have them. So like Apple has done, one incremental step to supporting multi-touch is to put it in the trackpad. Synaptics has been supporting this capability for awhile. This would make sense with or without a touch display. The next question comes up as to whether the trackpad should be active (LCD) or passive (no LCD).

    Although I agree that an excellent place to put a touch digitizer is in the display, I can appreciate the design here. Personally, I’d like to see this approach in an external keyboard.

  • Fleon

    Well, this isn’t really all that new. Toshiba had something like this on their laptops 4-5 years ago. Had a notepad thing, a calendar, app launcher, etc.

    Here’s my problem with it on this category of notebooks- the battery life is pretty bad on netbooks already, LCDs are the largest battery drain, and we’re now putting in another one of them to suck the life out of the machine even faster? I mean, it’s not like anyone is buying a netbook to be their ultimate “cool” machine.

    Put one of these on a high-end laptop, not on a cheap mini-computer.

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