The HP Compaq L2105tm 21.5-inch Multi-Touch Widescreen Monitor is one of a handful of Windows 7 multi-touch capable monitors that are new on the market as of late October. The 21.5 inch monitor has a stunning 1920×1080 native resolution. This multi-touch monitor has a fairly bland exterior and has the expected single DVI and single VGA ports. There is no HDMI or Display Ports for those users looking for something a little more flexible. The monitor has a fairly reflective screen. I’m guessing that this is part of layer that helps protect the monitor from repeated touching of the screen.
The monitor boast a 16×9 widescreen aspect ratio, has a contrast ratio of 1000:1 and a responsible 5 ms response time. However, one of the most impressive stats of the L2105tm is the cost of this relatively new technology. Priced at $299.00 this monitor should be a no -brainer for those interested in an learning more about multi-touch. While there isn’t a lot of multi-touch monitors on the market, Dell has a similar multi-touch monitor but it’ll cost you an extra Benjamin.
The optical touch is powered by Laser Light Plane (LLP). I used a modified camera to take a take a look at the two Infrared lasers in the top corners of the L2105tm. The lasters produce a plane of light across the monitor. When your fingers come close to the surface and break the laser plane the monitor registers the event and the connected USB cord updates the operating system with the coordinates of the touch event.
I first fired up the new L2105tm on a Macintosh with the Leopard operating system. The monitor fumbles on this operating system. It’s clear that it’s capable of sending events to the operating system but it struggles with accuracy. It’s possible that a user might be able to fight through a series of ‘next’ or ‘ok’ install screens but unfortunately the precision wasn’t there to accomplish any real activities.
On Windows 7 the L2105tm touch accuracy immediately improved. The first application I opened was Microsoft Paint. The application performed as expected and was pretty responsive to multiple touch inputs. After about two hour of drawing around in paint and trying to navigate with the HP L2105tm I found the stylist tucked away in the bottom right corner of the monitor. The stylist is surprisingly helpful when doing anything substantial in Windows 7.
I also tested the L2105tm touch screen with the new Beta version of Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe Air 2. With this monitor you can detect both Transform Gesture Events as well as single Touch events. This monitor would be an excellent choice for any developer who’s interested in diving into the new multi-touch capabilities of the Flash Platform.
Overall, I’d recommend that anyone interested in multi-touch go snag this monitor.
Pros:
Accurate multi-touch inputs in Windows 7
Excellent 1920×1020 resolution
Solid screen clarity and sharpness
Cons:
Limited to two touch inputs
Bland monitor design
No HDMI or Display Port ports
Doesn’t play well with other operating systems
Where to buy:
I found the best price at the Small & Medium Business Store directly on HP site
Anyone else have experience with this monitor? Others have a multi-touch monitor that they’d recommend? Please let us know in the comments.
Thanks. This was good information. I’m considering buying this $299 monitor for my Air app demos. Do you know if the HP TouchSmart provided more multi-touch event support than just the monitor by itself?
Also, are you aware of any monitors that would support two people interacting with the same air app at the same time? e.g. two people zooming two separate pics at the same time, like you see on Wall demos?
I appreciate your test results. I have a Mac, so it concerns me about the accuracy. But, I also have a Dell so I’ll be ok for now.
Thanks,
Don
@Don, I’ve had it now for about a month and I’d still say it’s worth picking up. You’ll like it as an everyday monitor even if your primarily using it to test out some of your Adobe Air touch applications.
[...] what I really wanted was an OS X that correctly implements the Multi-touch events so that I can use multitouch monitors with my existing [...]
@Don, at this time, there are only 3 MT monitors on the market, and they all support only two touchpoints at a time … this likely means that they’re all using LLP
http://codecube.net/2010/02/which-multitouch-monitor-to-buy/
@Joel, here is a great list of devices: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/LarryLarsen/Where-the-Multitouch-Devices-Are-pt-2/
Plus there are a ton of new things coming out everyday. It’s getting hard to keep track of it all.
Let me know how you like your monitor when it shows up.