Next week a new touchscreen kit designed for Samsung NC10 netbooks is expected to hit eBay for about $95. The kit comes from the same folks who brought us a solderless touchscreen kit for the Acer Aspire One.
The company also has touchscreen kits for 8.9 inch netbooks including the Asus Eee PC 900/901 and 10.2 inch laptops including the Eee PC 1000 series and the MSI Wind U100. Additional models designed to work with the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, Dell Inspiron Mini 9, and several other netbooks will be coming soon.
You can check out their eBay store to see some of the other models available.
While $95 might seem like a steep price for a touchscreen kit when you can often find touchscreen displays for under $50, this model has a few advantages. First, no soldering iron required. And second, the seller includes instructions for installing the touchscreen on specific netbook models. If you know your way around a soldering iron and the insides of a laptop, you can probably save some money and find a cheaper option. If not, these kits look like good solutions.
On the other hand, word on the street is that Asus, MSI and several other netbook makers could begin introducing netbooks with touchscreens as early as next month at CES. So the whole idea of a touchscreen kit might be obsolete by early next year.
“So the whole idea of a touchscreen kit might be obsolete by early next year.”
but us netbook geeks gotta prove we are the geeks we are by installing one. 😛
While I’ve never really understood the attraction of a touch screen on a netbook, it might be useful to anyone who really can’t get used to the small touchpad on the NC10.