The Enduring Legacy of Toshiba's Libretto Series: A Look Back at its Innovative Design and Limited Success

Toshiba's Libretto series, introduced in 1996, has always been a source of fascination for tech enthusiasts. These subnotebook PCs combined the best parts of both palmtops and laptops, offering a compact yet functional package that allowed users to enjoy a proper Windows 95 PC in the palm of their hand. However, despite their innovative design, the Libretto series was ultimately discontinued in the mid-2000s due to its limited I/O capabilities.

But Toshiba didn't stay away from the portable computer market for long. In 2010, they brought back the brand and introduced a new line of ultra-mobile PCs, including the Libretto W100. This device was touted as the world's first dual-touchscreen Windows PC, a claim that may be easy to make but is actually difficult to verify. While there were certainly pre-2010 prototypes and concepts for dual-screen devices, such as the 2006 Estari 2-VU and the ASUS EeeBook Reader planned for 2009, they never made it to market.

The Libretto W100's dual touchscreen design was a unique selling point that marked Toshiba's 25th year in the portable computer market. However, this feature came with its own set of compromises, which ultimately limited the device's appeal. Despite its innovative design, the Libretto W100 remained a niche product that failed to gain significant traction with consumers.

One of the closest things to the Libretto W100 is Microsoft's Surface Duo, but it's an ARM-based Android smartphone rather than an x86 Windows PC. Even devices like the Ayaneo Flip DS, which is a true Windows PC inside, don't offer dual matching full-size screens. This leaves us with a number of questions: What exactly does it mean for a device to be considered a "dual touchscreen PC"? How did Toshiba manage to create a portable computer that met this unique specification?

As we look back on the Libretto series and its successors, it's clear that Toshiba was experimenting with innovative designs and technologies. While their efforts may not have always resulted in commercial success, they paved the way for future generations of portable computers. The legacy of the Libretto series lives on in devices like the ASUS ZenBooks and the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, which offer a more traditional laptop experience but with the added convenience of portability.

In conclusion, Toshiba's Libretto W100 was an ambitious device that pushed the boundaries of what was possible in portable computing. While it may not have been a commercial success, its innovative design and unique features make it an interesting footnote in the history of tech. As we continue to explore new frontiers in portable computing, it's worth remembering the pioneering efforts of Toshiba and their Libretto series.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- I've always admiredToshiba's Libretto series,their range of subnotebookPCs introduced in 1996.Librettos combined the bestparts of a palmtop and a laptopin a compromised but lovely little package,letting you have a proper Windows 95 PCin the palm of your hand.As fun as they could be though,they really were just shrunkenlaptops with little I/O,and in the mid 2000sthe line was discontinued.However, Toshiba brought thebrand back once more in 2010.This time was something truly uniqueand with more compromises than ever.The Toshiba Libretto W100,an ultra-mobile PC sold for a limited timeto mark Toshiba's 25th yearmaking portable computers.And it was heralded as the world's firstdual touchscreen Windowscomputer, which – yeah probably!Easy to claim it's the first to hitthe regular consumer market, at least.There were pre-2010 dual screen prototypesand concepts that never went on sale,along with specialty productslike the 2006 Estari 2-VUthat were mostly boughtby the US government.And the ASUS EeeBook Readerthat was planned for 2009but seemingly never came out.Whatever was first,the dual touchscreen PCcategory is poorly documentedand is not a common configuration,especially in a handheldsubnotebook size.Acer made the Iconia 6120 in early 2011,but that Windows laptop was a beefything with 14-inch touchscreens.And today we have machines likethe various ASUS ZenBooksand the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i,but these are all significantly largerthan a Libretto ever was.About the closest thing that comes to mindis Microsoft's Surface Duo,but that's an ARM-basedAndroid smartphone,not an x86 Windows PC.Even the Ayaneo Flip DS,while being a true Windows PC inside,doesn't have two matchingfull-size screens.Amusing that they called it\"the first ever dualscreen Windows handheld.\"It depends on your definitionof \"handheld,\" I guess.The Libretto W100 does awaywith traditional physical inputs.There's no keyboard ormouse, not even a stylus,just two 7-inch touchscreenswith haptic feedback.Back in 2010, this led toit primarily being comparedto tablets and ebook readerslike the iPad and the Kindleand the upcoming Blackberry Playbook.But each of those were their own platformrunning a customized OS,whereas the Libretto ranthe full desktop version of Windows 7.And although the multitaskingpotential was exciting,it cost more than twicethe amount of any tablet,so skepticism was understandable.$1,099.99 was what it costto order one from Toshibain the US in 2010.And from what I can tell, that was it.There were no customizationoptions or upgrades.Consumers got oneconfiguration, and that's all.And being that it was a25th anniversary thingand the final Libretto model,it's no surprise Toshiba sold out fast.Not too many were manufacturedand it was available fora very short time onlinebeing announced in Juneand being gone by that October.You could say the pricematched its exclusive status,but no matter what, it was expensive.15-inch Windows laptopscost between $400-$600,less than half the costfor better overall specs,just no touchscreen.And for something closer in size,a netbook cost $300 or less,offering similar performance, more ports,and a real keyboard.Now of course, the wholepoint of the W100 wasthat dual touchscreen setup, so who cares?It looks like the future andyou can't put a price on that.And for its \"priceless\" $1,100,you've got a nifty little box of goodies.Starting with an assortment of accessoriesand documentation, includingthe 19 volt power adapterwith a US-style cord connected.The rest of this seems to be European,as evidenced by things like the CD-ROMwith its Cyrillic lettering.Also included is this quick start guidewith its two sides coveringthe guided quicknessof starting in the form of a guide.Along with an instruction manual,packing a couple hundredblack and white pagesof facts and figures, setup and troubleshooting tips,and how to use a touchscreenin case you forgot how fingers work.Also in the box is this delightful leatherette storage thing,debossed with Toshiba Libretto branding.An uncommon style of premium-feelingprotective carrying casewith a red velour interiorfor the computer tosnugly slide inside of.There's nowhere tostore the power adapter,so you'll still want a bag on the go,making me doubt its practicality,but hey, you can store it ona bookshelf like a weirdo.So that's something.And of course there's the computer itself,a tidy clamshell designthat unfolds into a beautiful little slabof handheld computing goodness.On launch, it was often comparedto a thicker, wider Nintendo DS.And while I don't have one of those,I do have the newer 2DS XL,which is even larger than theDS or even 3DS was in 2010.But the Libretto W100 is even larger stillwith its twin seven inch screenscompared to the XL's 4.88 and 4.1-inchers.It's also a much higher resolution,with a native 1024x600 oneach capacitive TFT LCD.And it weighs just a little overone and a half pounds on its own,with the battery adding anotherfive and a half ounces on top of that.The normal battery anyway,there was a heavier high capacity packthat took battery life from twohours up to a possible four.Nothing to write home about either way.Oh, and under the battery is another signof this being a European W100,which, by the way, you maysometimes see called the W105.And to my knowledge, thatwas the business variant,whereas mine is the consumer one.Same core specs on both,but some also had a SIM slot on topfor cellular communication.Mine doesn't have it.It does have this though,a slot for microSD cards up to 16 gigs.Netbooks often had an SD MMC slot,but I haven't seen microSD before.The lid holes don't stop there either.There are also cooling ventsand fan grills scattered aroundsince most of the hardwareis packed behind the lid.On the right hand sideis the power connectorand an indicator for wireless modes.The rear has no ports at all,just a big hinge for the two screens.And the left side hasthe machine's only I/O,a headphone jack, and one USB 2.0 port.That's it.If you need anything more,I hope you're all about that dongle lifeor embrace Bluetooth 2.1.Otherwise you're limited tothose touchscreens for input.The only buttons on thething are one for power,one for bringing up a virtual keyboard,and this home button,acting as a multifunctionsoftware shortcut key.And there's also a webcamwith microphone builtinto the top screen bezel,a sad little 1.02 megapixel thingwith a microphone that sounds like this...But hey, at least you get thefull 32-bit desktop versionof Windows 7 Home Premium.Unfortunately though,it's the full desktop versionof Windows 7 Home Premium!A great OS on a nicely-specced system,but a chore to use and a sluggish ballsackof an operating environmenton the Libretto W100.For starters, it's runninga 1.2 gigahertz Intel Pentium U5400,one of their consumer ultralow voltage processors,and it's paired with two gigabytesof 800 megahertz DDR3 RAM,the maximum supported configuration here.So you run into the issuenetbooks often did back thenwhere you wanted an OS newer than XP,but we're stuck with less thanideal hardware for the job.Now, it's still notablybetter than an Intel Atom,and it does at leastutilize a 62 gig mSATA SSD,so it doesn't chug as much as it could,but it's still prone tolagging and throttlingand going nuts with the thermals.And the aluminum top lid actsas a conductive heat spreader,making the whole upperhalf toasty to the touch.It's nice that the bottomremains rather cool,sat on your lap at least,with only the battery warming up a bit.But man, that lid justroasts no matter what you do.And its little high RPM coolingfans never stop wailing.But even if the hardwarewas 10 times faster,Windows 7 is still a poor choice herebecause it's a desktop OSand this is a dedicatedtouchscreen device,dual touchscreens at that.So all the annoyances of usinga non-touch-optimizedinterface are doubled.And even with Toshiba's custom software,it just sucks to use.Heck, I don't even like using touchon modern Windows laptops either.For touchscreen devices to be decent,they need a UX designed for touch,properly taking intoaccount the differencebetween a mouse cursor and a human finger.Stock Windows 7 simplydoesn't provide that.All of that being said though,I have certainly had worse experienceswith full desktop versionsof Windows being crammed ontoa tablet style touchscreendevice in the past.So it could be worse,but yeah, it could still be better.In fact, if it hadsomething like Windows 8that would've been better,with its metro interfaceor whatever they called itand the tiles, and just moretouchable kind of design,but it's Windows 8,would you really wanna put that on here?And besides that came outa couple years after this,so it wasn't even anoption when this was made.Now, was there a Linuxdistribution of some kindthat's touch optimized forsystems of this generation?I'm not aware of one.If there is, let me know.I'd be kind of curious to see that.But just standard Windows7 being treated reallyas an extended display,just two displays on top of each otheras if you have two monitors.Because that's what it is,and Windows sees it as two monitors.That's all it's doing.And so if you want,you can actually changethe way that this works.Like, if you wanted to do it side by side,it freaks things out.You know, for instance,if you wanna just clone the two displays,or have them, come on now,duplicated across both.There you go.Yeah. Anyway, let's put that back.It's also important to notethat you can really justtouch one screen or another.You can't do both at the same timebecause it really is justone large desktop we'reworking with here effectively.And the mouse andkeyboard are both treatedor both function likeit's just an applicationbeing touched by a mouse.So really the mousecursor goes from up hereto being down here.So you can't like keep the mouse up hereand adjust the keyboard down here.No, it's gonna go back and forth.You also get thesedifferent keyboard layouts,so you have that right there.This with way more keys,but of course makes everything smaller.It's nice to have yourFunction and Alt and stuff.And you have this splitdesign, which is kind of cool.Actually a couple of those.And if you press this,I think twice, yeah,this brings up like a virtual touch pad.Again, it's kind of odd though.Now you see like there's justthe mouse cursors movingaround sort of independently.And then sometimes, if you tap down here,it'll treat it like themouse cursor is clickingand moving down here becauseit's also treating this partas a mouse like separately,it really doesn't work well.One thing that is really niceare the keyboard haptics.There's a bit of a delay sometimes,but it's actually,especially when you'reholding it handheld,I'm not doing that herejust because of the video recording,but you know, when you do it like this,it feels genuinely quite good,again, except for the lag.Sometimes it's a little bit laggy,but the haptics are actually pretty nice.Now, it's still not anamazing experience, of course,I would very much prefer even a basic,kind of crappy netbook keyboard to this.You know, even these with the EBC,with the teeny littlekeys that I don't like,I still prefer havingeven those than this.You do often run intopresses not happening.Yeah, if you type too fastor if you don't hit exactlyin the center of the keys.Now, another mouse quirk hereis you don't actually have right click.So you have to do thishold down and then secondary tapto bring up the right click.Or you can go to this Penand Touch Control Panel here.You've got all these options,flicks and pseudo-gesturesand handwriting recognition,a bunch of things.Some of 'em work better than others,but you have this right here,this touch pointer option.If you enable that,you have this mouse overlay that pops up.So, instead of having tohold and then tap again,you can just click that rightmouse button virtually there,it pops up every time youdo anything with the mouse.So it's kind of annoying.Sometimes it gets in the way.I kind of prefer the other wayof just the tap and then duh-deh-da.But yeah, you got options.The accuracy is quitenice, pretty responsive.Sometimes you get alittle bit of weirdnesswhere it'll lose it if there'snot enough surface area.For instance, if you're justdoing a fingernail over,it won't do it.You have to kind of giveit more of a surface area.It also means using a capacitive penjust doesn't do anything.Like this is just one that I useon my different touchscreen devices,phones, tablets, mytouchscreen, other laptops.Nope, doesn't do anything.You have to kind of usethe thicker side here,if you have one of those,closer to a finger basically.And that still doesn't do anything,but if you press down sothere's enough surface area,eventually it'll kinda work.Yeah, it really does just want a finger.As for some of the Toshiba software,you have this homebutton, you can press thatand that'll bring up this Toshiba boardthat does various things.So just a bunch of shortcuts really tothe sponsors that they have going on.You got your users guide,some driver updates,diagnostic security, that whole deal.Also saw this bulletin boarda lot in the press photos.I guess they were pretty happy with this,but I just don't likethese type of things.What is that? Why is thatpopping up? I don't know.But yeah, it's one of thosewhere you can just addlike notes and stuffand just put a bunch of things down herewhile you're working onsomething else up here. Okay.I don't know, I just, I find these thingsa million times more finickyand kind of annoyingto use rather than justphysical notes out on your desk.What's wrong with real Post-It notes.I don't want virtual ones down here.It's just kind of annoying.And of course, Toshiba included all kindsof other applications.So a whole bunch of things in here.I hate navigating the start menu on this.So yeah, Bluetoothapplications, CD and DVD,even though it doesn'thave any of those drives.Media controller, justgeneric playback kind of stuffand different utilities.Dang it. Nope. There we go.Eh, I'm gonna plug in a mouse.We know how it works withthe fingers at this point.I'm so tired of fingering this thing.Oh, it feels so much better.Right. So then the utilities here.Eco utility for battery saving,face recognition is interesting.So it actually uses, youknow, just the camera thereto have you log in using your face.Oh man, how fascinatingfor the time.Flashcards is just for managingthe microSD that's in there,but of course you can do thatstraight up through Windows as well.This is an odd one.HDD SSD alert, all it saysis \"Your SSDs working.\"If it's not, I guessit'll tell you it's not.But yeah, most of this is pretty generic.About the only thing else toshow is this Book Place deal,and this is their ebookreader type of thing,which again, the press weretalking about quite a bit.It goes into thisvertical mode, of course.I don't know if these arejust example freebie booksor things you could buy or something.I'm assuming there weresome purchasing optionssomewhere in here,but you can bring up the user manualand the quick start guide and whatnot.Let's bring up one of these,I don't know, \"Grilling Basics.\"Yeah, so I was thinkingthat this would be a little more optimizedfor this particular setup,like having Windows orparts of the interfaceproperly split between the two screens.But no, it's just expandingit fully across here.Like any other program really.Man, it is so hot across the back of here.But yeah, you can see it'snot particularly great.Like fullscreen modeis a little bit bettersince you don't have thatWindows interface going on,but you still have this stuff down hereand then your startmenu is still over here.It's just, it's so awkward. Ugh.I don't even know how toget out of it at this point,so we're just gonnaControl + Alt + Delete,which you do by holding downthe keyboard button for a while,and it's vertical.I just have to restart.Like I don't even havea start menu anymore.This is the crap you run intoall the time using this thing.It seems like every applicationbreaks something in a new way.It's a fascinatingly annoying experience.So what exactly is ideal onhere in terms of use cases?Well, pretty much themain thing that I sawmentioned over and over in oldreviews is the multitasking.So like, watching avideo on the top windowor the top screenand then having somereading material down below.Yeah, I mean it's fullycapable of doing that,surprisingly so.Even running YouTube inthe edge browser here,you pretty much limited it like 360or 480p really for running YouTube videos.But it's surprisinglydecent, or tolerable,compared to a lot ofcrappy Intel Atom machines,at least in regards to basic productivityand things like that,which is really what it's designed for.If you start doing anything with gamingand 3D acceleration, ah, there'sa bit of a different story.So I've got a DirectX 10benchmark gonna be running here.3D Mark Vantage obviously.Yeah, I know this is not made for this,but just kinda curious, right?I know I am.And the answer is...I mean it wasn't gonna be great,but it doesn't even open this,it just gets stuck on \"creating shaders\"every time I've tried this.Oops. It's unfortunatelyencountered an unexpected problem.I'll say. Problem isit doesn't do anything.I forgot to even say what we had in here.It's just some intel integratedgraphics of some kind,whatever's in thisPentium chip set going onsharing between 64 and 728 megs.I'm assuming it takesthat from System RAM.You'd think DOS box wouldbe just fine, right?Well, it does actually loadup and all that kind of deal.We can move around andwhatnot with our arrow keys.Eh, it's kind of playableControl holds down therebecause it's treatedas a toggle button, soyou just kind of press itand it eventually will stop.No, it actually doesn't. I thought it did.But yeah, it stops wheneveryou press another buttonand surprisingly the arrow keys actually,sort of function how youwould think you'd be able to,like you can hold up orback, and left and right.You are able to justpress, I think two at once.That's the maximum multi-touch on here.But yeah, it's the togglefor like Control andAlt, that kinda sucks.Let's try full screen here now.Alright, now here's wherethings get a little bit weirdand by that I mean it doesn't work at all.Yeah. Like the keyboardwent away entirely.I dunno what, well, okay, there it is.Let's go back into, can weget back into fullscreen?Nope, try that.Yeah, no it gets real wonkywhenever you run prettymuch anything in fullscreen.It's a bit of an issue for games.Perfectly fine for your standardmouse controlled things.In fact, it's actuallypretty darn pleasantfor stuff like Solitaire,or Bejeweled or whatever.You know, I don't dislike this at all.Wish things were a littlebit bigger in terms of scale,but hey, it's about as good as it gets.Another kind of ideal situation here.Well, nevermind.What the heck is going on with the mouse?I guess it's good now.Okay, well an most ideal situation.Yeah, games likeRollercoaster Tycoon here.Because yeah, it's a more or lessfully mouse driven experience.So, there we go.Yeah, place all the burger bars you want.Soda drink stalls.Perfect.Yeah, it seems to play just fine now,once it figured out what's going on,of course it really freaks the heck outif you do anything down here,so just pretend this doesn't exist.But then you run prettymuch anything else.Quake III here, like yeah,doesn't know what the heckto do at all with the mouse.It does work with this mouse.But if we go into an actual game here.Yeah, that's what happenswhen you try to move.Because this down here, all these controlsfor the keyboard orwhatever are the mouse.And so it thinks I'm basically movingthe mouse really rapidly ina bottom right kind of way,because that's effectivelythe mouse cursor and clickingdown in the bottom rightquadrant of the screen.And so, you really need toplug in a physical keyboardand a physical mouse in orderto play something like that.It's possible though.And about the newestthing that I've gottento kind of run on here is Minecraft.Specifically one from 2010 or 11ish,one of the beta versions thatwould've been more appropriatefor this back in the day.'Cause I saw some old coverage mentionthat they tried it onhere when it was new.Bring open the virtual keyboard here,and it's incredibly slow and sluggish.My goodness. That is awful.And this is the very lowest settings, too.But again, you run into this issue whereif you try to actually moveusing the virtual keyboard,it thinks that you're moving the mouseto the bottom right and clicking,you just gotta have a physical keyboardin order to do anythingin terms of games, which thisis not really designed to do.So I guess you can't really blame it.That is not what this is for.And something it does feellike it's almost made to do.Nintendo DS emulation,we got the dual screen thing going on,so I've got the DeSmuMEor whatever the heck,I don't know, it's just aemulator that seemed likeit would work in Windows7 with these specs.What happened to my mouse cursor?It's a little wonky.Obviously this emulatoris not optimized for this,the interface or anything about it,but yeah, it actually kind of works.Didn't mean to press that but...Well, I spoke too soon.I'm gonna try one more thing herethat I was testing out earlier,I was having some issues with,I don't think I had all the buttons mappedor, well, I didn't have akeyboard to press the buttons.Yeah, Sim City DS,which works just fine here with the menu,but eh, you know,it's a little iffy once youget into the actual game.Okay, build a power plant.And the sound is just turned off right now'cause it's so sluggisheven without sound,that adding it makes itjust that much worse.Half the time the inputsjust don't respond at all,then they do and it's like catching upand speeding up and slowing down.The fan's going crazy.Anyway, this machine isn't made for this,but you can do it andit's just kind of cool.Yeah, another little niftything that this came with,I almost forgot about this.Yeah, this Libretto piano program.Yeah, kind of neat.Unfortunately thatlimitation of just being ableto press in two placesat once gets in the way.So yeah, only two note polyphony here,but you know, got somedifferent voices and things.Charming demo, that's all that is.That's about it for theLibretto W100 I guess.Obviously there's all sorts ofthings you could try on here,but results are wonky,especially with games,but it is not a gaming machine.It was never supposed to be reallyfor anything other thanbasic internet browsingand email and office stuff.That's about it.And it's pretty clear fromthe design of the whole thing.It's one of those devices that they didbecause they could do it,rather than they should.And why not?It was Toshiba's 25th anniversaryof making little laptopsand portables and things.So they were excited tojust put out something cooland that's what we got,in very small numbers.A limited edition novelty,kind of technological toyfor the well-off nerd or business personor whatever kind of weirdodecided to buy this thing back in the dayfor a lot of money.You just have to reallybe into the noveltyto choose the W100 overpretty much anything else.You know, even netbooks,which were unfancy and slow and just bleh,but they were far better in termsof usability and productivitythan this Libretto W100 is.At least until you startplugging in external peripheralsand then by the time you do that,it's no longer the dual screentouch-only wonder that it is,or hoped to be, or tried to be.The ambition here in the experimentationis what I most admire.Anyway, if you've ever usedone of these Libretto W100s,let me know what your experiences were,what you did with it, what happened to it.It's just that it's fascinating to methat this dual touchscreen ideawas even hitting themarket in 2010 at all.It's still such a nichedesign and form factor.Again, if you've ever used one of theseor even a modern dual touchscreen device,lemme know your thoughts in the comments.It's a fascinatingsubcategory of computingand I hope you enjoyedtaking a look at it with me.If you did, then do stick around.I have more LGR thingscoming soon on tech,both the old and not so old,and as always, thank youvery much for watching.\n"