Hands-on : Sony's Xperia Touch turns (nearly) any surface into a Touchscreen

Hands-on: Sony's Xperia Touch turns (nearly) any surface into a touchscreen

What's This?
It's a portable projector that plays sound, and outputs an image you can interact with.

Sony's newly-launched Xperia Touch says it can convert any flat surface into a 23-inch wide touchscreen.

In practice, we found this worked pretty well, but with some caveats that we'll get into.

The Touch detects movement using an infrared light and built-in camera, essentially projecting a tablet-like experience onto a surface. 

The device runs on Android 7.0, so you can expect it to run a ton of compatible apps in the Google Play store.

So feel free to load up a game of air hockey: 

Do some flashy DJing:

Unleash your inner DJ with the Xperia Touch
Play the piano:

Or even ask Google for food recommendations:

Overall, the Xperia Touch was easy to use, but there were times that it wasn't as responsive as it could be.

While writing a math problem for example, the Touch misread a number:

The Touch also appears to require a purely flat surface. When we tried it on a slightly textured floor, the projected touchscreen refused to respond to any of our gestures.

You can also take the device and position it vertically to project a screen onto a wall — though the Touch does take a couple of seconds to re-calibrate itself every time you move it round.

The default projection size is 23 inches, but can go up to a maximum size of 80 inches — perfect for a home movie night — though the resolution does get noticeably less sharp at the largest size. 

Its sound quality is pretty impressive, as you would expect from a device that prides itself on its two-way stereo speaker.

Have a listen:

It also has USB-C and HDMI Type-D input, so you can also plug your laptop or phone in, and use it as you would a normal projector that mirrors your device's screen.

The 5.3" by 5.6" device is also pretty small and portable, and I can see it getting carried around the house by kids wanting to play a game, or placed on a coffee table to watch a film in the living room.

The battery life however, does leave quite a bit to be desired.

According to Sony, it can last some "1.5 hours on intensive usage," which means if you're watching a full-length movie, you might have to plug it in halfway through. 

The company also says there has been interest in using the Touch commercially, such as in mall spaces that might want to replace their screen-based directories with a touch projection on a wall, revealed Vincent Yip, Director and Market Head of Sony Singapore.

All that said, the Touch is a pretty sweet device, and might come in handy if you'd like to take your screen into a group setting.

But is it worth the hefty $1,694 (S$2,298) price tag? I think I might just stick to my laptop and iPhone for now.