Smart Displays

I'm trying to decide whether there's a case to be made for the utility of the Smart Displays being marketed by ViewSonic and Philips, among others. Smart Displays are essentially an LCD monitor that runs a customized OS that allows you to connect wirelessly to a Windows XP-based desktop (or laptop, one assumes) PC.

Now I can see a number of uses for this, from the obvious...browsing the web anywhere in the house without dragging around a bulky laptop (yes, I know they make light ones, but mine is a monster, and I'm not willing to give up the features to lose the weight)...to the geeky, like attempting to use it to write and/or test ASP.NET code or articles, etc. in bed.

But at a price anywhere from $799 for a 10” display to $1349 for a 15” display with dock, I have to wonder whether the usefulness that Smart Displays offer would be worthwhile compared to using a lightweight laptop and Terminal Services.

Given the limitations of laptops in terms of hard drive and bus speed, and the attendant lack of performance relative to desktop machines, I've been considering buying a nice workstation, and using Terminal Services to use that box remotely from an inexpensive laptop. But the Smart Displays have me intrigued, too.

Has anyone used one of these? What do you think about the price/value of these devices?

Here's a thought...wouldn't it be cool if you could connect to your desktop at home over the internet while on the road? You could use it to take notes at the PDC, and not have to lug around a full-size laptop. Of course, at that point you might as well start looking at a Tablet PC, since those are more optimized for note-taking (and don't get me started on how those are priced!).

4 Comments

  • Well, from what I've heard (and inferred) they aren't worth snookie grunt, especially compared to a tablet. The pens on them don't work worth much, the use of then is entirely dependent on available 802.11b connectivity and bandwidth. I think they just make a terminal services connection to the pc.



    For the price of one, I'd just buy a tablet. It has WiFi and Ethernet, and you can easily run the terminal services client. You've got the Mira functionality (mira was the name for smart display before they called it a smart display), and a hell of a lot more.



    Just my two cents.

  • I have not used one but did spend a bit of time looking at viewsonics web info....



    seems to be that the price point is wrong on them.....



    as Brian said: you can get a tablet pc for just a bit more and then you get all the other options.



    now if say a 15" display for say the price of an LCD + say $100 for the "smarts" was offered I *MIGHT* go for it

    but 700-800 for a 10" display is too much cash

    for too small a screen.



    from what I read the thing runs Windows CE as a dedicated TS / Remote Desktop client.



    I emailed VS on just letting it run as a giant PDA when out of range.

    they said "Good Question, well get back to you"



    that was about 3-4 months ago.



    :-)

  • I agree with the other comments. I'm currently using a (too old) laptop (Pentium II) as a terminal to my XP pro workstation.



    I'm convinced the next good move for tablet PC is to come down in price and invade the living room as a browsing device on the couch (especially the slate design) Tablet PC should be marketed to home users to become successful, or they'll just dwindle and die. Regarding smart displays, they already died in my opinion.



    When this laptop dies, I'll most likely get a slate tablet. I like the expression 'Giant PDA' ...

  • As for accessing your computer from wherever, I am using www.gotomypc.com and have found it to be pretty useful. Available on any machine with an internet connection and a browser (well, almost any - one of my clients and a hospital I spend a great deal of time in actually block www.gotomypc.com). It is a subscription, but I got it for $99.00 for the first year. It is good enough that I don't need to have everything installed on my laptop, and if I do feel the need to rebuild the laptop, it takes very little time.

Comments have been disabled for this content.