For creative persuits such as graphics or audio it rules!

Everybody knows the touchscreen keyboard is a bad idea… but that’s not the primary (or secondary) use of the unit. I’m fairly certain I’ve seen tablets PCs without keyboards.

In this era of SUVs, it’s kind of like questioning the ground clearance on a sports car…

But seriously I see a whole lot of problems with using a touchscreen as a keyboard. For a start, most people have enough trouble trying to keep fingerprints off their screens. Then there are issues with multi-touch sensitive panels and their response times. I suspect that touch typists will have issues with that, not to mention lack of tactile feedback. Running a second screen as a keyboard is sure to sap battery life. Finally and a bit more signifiant, if there is a blue screen of death type crash, there will be no way to give it the three fingered salute. All you will have is a BSoD in stereo. There will also be no way to access the BIOS on startup, unless you have an external keyboard attached (assuming the thing still has a dedicated keyboard port).

A dual touchscreen machine is a neat trick, and it does have a certain element of geek lust, but I don’t see it as being that practical for most users.

Maybe the ultimate gaming laptop with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Also, there’s got to be several applications that are not typing intensive but could use the added screen real estate.