An Acer touch-screen Windows 8 laptop has popped up on the Home Shopping Network, along with other systems.

Brace yourself: touch-screen laptops will not be cheap.

Most of the specs are pretty underwhelming: a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U "Ivy Bridge" processor, 750GB hard disk drive, DVD drive, a thickness of over an inch (that's considered plump in the age of the ultrabook), and a weight of 5.4 pounds.

But one hardware feature sets it apart from the Windows 7 rabble: a 15.6-inch touch screen to go with Windows 8's touch-centric interface.

And that distinguishes it from Apple, too: no MacBooks today boast touch screens.

In fact the touch screen is so integral to Windows 8 that it will become standard fare on both high-end clamshell laptops and hybrid "convertible" designs -- not to mention Windows 8 tablets.

And the price? It goes for $999.95 on HSN, which lists its "retail value" at about $1,334.

Expect plenty of touch-screen systems in the coming weeks and months. But let's hope more of them are like Hewlett-Packard's Spectre XT TouchSmart Ultrabook, which will sport a high-resolution 1,920x1,080 pixel 15.6-inch display.

The Acer system above has only a grainy 1,366x768 15.6-inch screen.

Other Windows 8 systems appearing on HSN include a $699.95 Gateway laptop (no touch screen) and a $1,199.95 Gateway 23-inch All-in-One touch-screen desktop PC.

HSM does not state availability on its site. Windows 8 is slated to go on sale officially on October 26.

[Via ZDNet]