Okay, it’s the second mention of an Acer product launch today but even after the tablet announcements of this morning, the unveiling of the company’s Iconia dual-screen laptop is a bit too swish to ignore.

Early reviews say: ‘The touch functionality is pretty clever… but the keyboard, on the other hand, is pretty hard to use.’

The laptop-cum-tablet computer with two touch-screens sure looks the part anyway, and at its New York launch it was announced that those screens will be protected by ultra-tough, wonderfully-named, Gorilla Glass. In addition, it was revealed that the Iconia will use the Intel Core i5 processor, come with a minimum of 4GB memory and have up to 750GB worth of hard drive.

The big selling point obviously will be the option to use the Iconia as a traditional laptop with the second screen doubling as a virtual keyboard, or simply work with it as a tablet-style PC.

A report in The Telegraph notes that users can spread the desktop across both screens, or use one to watch a video or surf the web, and the other to write an email or edit photos. The device features palm sensors to detect the position of the user’s hands, and automatically launch the virtual keyboard when needed.

Like one of the trio of tablet PCs being released in early 2011, the Iconia will run on Windows 7, with the company’s Jim Wong adding proudly that, “This level of commitment to touch technology is something no other PC vendor can compete with”.

The London-based paper reports that the Iconia will be available over there from 8 January and will cost £1,499, so don’t expect it to be too long before we see it over here priced at about €1,780.

An early Engadget hands on review interestingly tells how, despite the rather cool appearance, there certainly are some teething problems. “If you’ve got a light in the vicinity above you, there’s gonna be glare – we saw it on stage (at the launch), and we just saw it now in person,” begins the review.

“That said, the screen is clear and the touch functionality is pretty clever (five fingers open up a widget where you can scroll through other touch-friendly apps). The keyboard, on the other hand, is pretty hard to use — even the rep admitted there’s a learning curve. You can’t rest your fingers down without hitting something, of course.”

Some good, some not so good at all then – but this looks like it will cause plenty of interest when it goes on wide release in early 2011.