Acer 21.5" Full-HD Touch Smart Display

So-so reviews (2.8 out of 5.0) over at amazon and check out this hands-on review over at engadget

“Dual Point” touchscreen is NOT what most people expect of a touchscreen. It uses infrared to detect the position of your fingers. Not nearly as accurate or smooth as a regular touchscreen.

Just sayin’

This was just on here a few weeks ago, & general consensus was to avoid it: out of date Android that will not update, slow, poor touchscreen that frequently does not work, no support from Acer. Might be OK for kids, but many games/apps will not install because screen does not auto-rotate. Does work as monitor for Windows, but still has touchscreen issues.

Bought this last time on Woot. So far we are happy with it, no problems with the touch screen. It has a slow response time, but that is no different than our Dell tablet.

We bought this for our son with disabilities. He loves my Dell 19" all in one tough screen, but that is too expensive to let him play on. I have been able to download the apps he likes and so far very pleased.

TI OMAP 4430 processer… isnt this the same as the slow processor in the Moto 360 watch???

Being TI is the biggest problem here. Didn’t they say Galaxy Nexus can’t get the latest Android because it has a TI processor?

With all the complaints about processor speed, touch screen issues and lack of Android upgradeability, any reason why this wouldn’t work well in say a kitchen?

I have been wanting to put a TV in the kitchen ever since we remodeled it but this would/should work better. It would just be used for general browsing, watching Youtube or looking up recipes.

Oh, how I wish I could entice my mother in law to try something like this, but a couple of years ago I tried setting up a Shuttle all-in-one touchscreen and she acted like I’d brought live munitions into her home. Just dragged it out of mothballs to see if I could press it into use around the house, otherwise I’d probably hop on this.

I think the person who mentioned light kitchen use has the right idea. Maybe there’s even a USB TV tuner adapter that can work with it.

TI OMAP 4430 was a decent when it was released. I think this is what went in Nook HD a few years back. That’s not why it’s not updated though. It’s not like doing a windows update where a new OS comes out and you just do an update. Updates are highly customized to a device based on its hardware- this is why cheap devices rarely get OS updates and even phones only get updates for a certain amount of time. So don’t be surprised that the manufacturer isn’t updating the OS on a product like this. The place where you’ll find updates is if you can get a modded ROM somewhere cyanogen mod…for your device. The Nook HD has cyanogen mod support for kitkat rom and it uses the OMAP 4430, but this is/was a popular tablet, so ROM development was active on this device. Don’t expect the same development on today’s Acer because it’s not nearly as popular. Android 4.0 is not that bad. At the very least this can be an extra monitor, or you can run some netflix and multimedia off of it. It’s probably about $35 more than what would make it a good deal- but it’s not a horrible deal as is.

Is it battery powered / chargable or does it have to be plugged in to use?

If it’s battery powered, then an external battery powered monitor of that size to stick in my laptop bag is worth the price.

It has to be plugged in. It comes with a power adapter.

Voltage: AC-DC power (Input: 100V~240V / Output: DC 19V , 2.1 A)

This should work fine. Try not to use it for sensitive financial work though (a separate Google account for the play store not connected to your credit cards or bank account would be ideal). I am saying this because there is a known severe security flaw (WebView) that may not be patched in devices below Android 4.4 Kit Kat. If you’re careful enough, it shouldn’t be an issue but better safe than sorry.

I don’t currently have a credit card number associated with my Google Play account but it’s good to know just in case.

I am still looking around but I expect one could upgrade the nand flash to 16GB and then install Chromium OS. One of the Chromebooks has a Ti OMAP processor, so I think that would be a better use of this. Chromium also supports touch.

Would this work well with Skype? Anyone tried the camera and know if it’s real grainy or laggy?

Thinking of purchasing this for the kitchen as mostly something to browse the web, look up recipes, and Skype on.

I also just discovered that you can use this as a touch monitor for Windows 8.1 out of the box.