Sharp Mebius PC-NJ70A: World's First Netbook with Optical Sensor LCD Trackpad

Something extraordinary was anticipated since SHARP recruited 100 trial users for the "innovative new device" in their Mebius notebook line on April 15th. We weren't disappointed.

The new Mebius PC-NJ70A turns out to be a somewhat groundbreaking netbook with touchscreen trackpad. Not only eye-popping, its new touch-sensing recognition method allows handwritten input and intuitive direct-touch operation.

Read on for details and pics.
Sharp Releases Notebook PC with Optical Sensor LCD Pad | Press Releases:SHARP

The 4-inch optical sensor LCD trackpad allows pen-based input of drawings and text, as well as multiple-finger-touch operation (gestures) to enlarge, shrink, or rotate items on the screen, thanks to the new touch-sensing recognition method.

Comes in two colours.

Black.

Logo. The brand name "Mebius" comes from Möbius band.

White.

LCD trackpad.

Unlike usual trackpads, the optical sensor allows it to react to gloved hands and other materials such as tip of a pen.

You can write and draw on the pad.

Input unfamiliar characters (Hangul in this case) you've encountered outside the computer(e.g. on a package of foreign food) to search it in dictionary.

You can change the appearance of the trackpad screen by choosing from five design themes for icons and wallpapers. There are trackpad gadgets like calendar and clock installed, and softwares and add-ons to make the most of the LCD trackpad will be further improved and updated.

Calculator.

Keyboard.

E-book reader. You can read on the big screen and flip the page by trackpad.

Carries Intel’s Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of RAM (2GB supported), a 160GB hard-drive and 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display and a 1.3M pixel web camera. Measures 260 x 190 x 23.3-39.8mm and weighs 1.46kg. To be on sale in late May, the retail price will be around 80,000 yen (about 800 USD).

Stereo speakers on front.

Ports and jacks.

"Add on Jacket" to change the appearance will be on sale.

The design sheet of "Add on Jacket" comes in five patterns.

-Specifications-

Model name: PC-NJ70A-B/-W
Installed OS: Windows Vista® Home Basic with Service Pack1 (SP1)
LCD: 10.1-inch Wide Pure Clean LCD (WSVGA compatible)
CPU: Intel® Atom™ processor N270 (1.60 GHz)
Chip set: Mobile Intel® 945GSE Express Chip Set / ICH7-M
Main memory: 1 GB standard (expandable to 2 GB, DDR2 SDRAM)
Keyboard: 86 keys (JIS layout)
Hard disk: Approx. 160 GB (Serial ATA)
Optical sensor LCD pad: Display function:4-inch optical sensor LCD (FWVGA, 854 x 480, LED backlight, 65,536 colors)
Web cam: CMOS camera with approx. 1.3 million effective pixels
Communication functions: LAN (100Base-TX/10Base-T), wireless LAN (IEEE802.11b/g compliant), Bluetooth® functions (Bluetooth® wireless technology Ver. 2.1 + EDR compliant [class 2])
Card slots: SD memory card, SDHC memory card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, xD-Picture Card
Sound functions: Built-in chip set + High Definition Audio Codec, built-in stereo speakers, built-in monaural microphone
Interface: External display output (analog RGB, 15-pin mini D-sub), Microphone input (3.5-mm-dia. stereo mini-jack), Headphone output/audio output (3.5-mm-dia. stereo mini-jack), 3 USB port (USB 2.0 compliant), LAN (RJ45)
Battery life: Approx. 3 hours
External dimensions, weight: Approx. 260 (W) x 190 (D) x 23.3–39.8 (H) mm excluding protrusions; approx. 1.46 kg
Software: Handwritten character input, hand-drawn illustrations, calculator, gesture operation, home menu, favorites menu, electronic dictionary menu, e-book menu, photo menu, entertainment menu (mini-bowling, piano, matching puzzles, sticky notes), Sharp LCD pad settings, Sharp power-save settings, Iwanami Shoten Kojien Dictionary 6th edition, Gakken Shinseiki Big Visual Dictionary, Kanjigen Dictionary 3rd edition JIS No. 1 and 2 standard edition, Super Anchor English-Japanese Dictionary 1st edition, Super Anchor Japanese-English Dictionary 1st edition, Gendai Japanese Dictionary revised 3rd edition, Personal Katakana Dictionary, Bunko Viewer for Mebius, Omakase Internet, Windows® Internet Explorer® 7, Windows Media® Player 11, Windows Live Suite (Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery), JWord, Yahoo! tool bar, Raku-Raku Postcard Select edition for Sharp, Adobe® Reader 9, Virus Buster™ 2009 90-day edition, McAfee Site Advisor 30-day trial edition, i-Filter 5*11, hard disk erase utility, Recovery Disk Creator, etc.