Usefullness of a Touch screen laptop?

[Judson Green]

So I'm still looking for a laptop and I see a ton of these touch screen laptops (and I'm not really talking about the two in one's, though I don't understand those either - seem to big to use comfortably) and I don't get it, is having a touch screen a usefull feature?

To be clear I'm looking at 15.6" screens and I understand the usefulness of this feature on a tablet, something without a keyboard and pointing device. It just seems coving 15" with your fingers and on a screen that is generally further away is a step back.

But perhaps I'm missing something.

[Myk Rian]

You aren't missing anything. I don't get it either.
Windows 8/8.1 is made for touch screens. I hate it. You can get laptops with Win 7 on them.
Look at MicroCenter . com

[John McClanahan]

I've owned a Panasonic Toughbook with a touchscreen for a long time. The desktop interface of Windows 7 (and XP) are useless for touch. Everything is too small to touch accurately. Even with the Windows 8x Metro, constantly lifting your arm to touch the screen is tiring. As such, I seldom use the touchscreen.


John

[Mike Circo]

My son has a Windows 8 laptop with a touch screen.
He 26 and the target audience for all things tech.
He admitted to me that he almost never uses it. Clumsy, uncomfortable and minimally useful. If you can't convince the heavy technology consumers, you've definitely lost the regular folk. I'm working just fine with Windows 8.1 on my non-touchscreen laptop. It will get even better with Windows 10 later this year. Save the touchscreen money and invest it in more memory.

I've been working full time in I.T. since the punchcard days and Windows 8 and the touchscreen are the dumbest thing since Microsoft "Bob".

[Bruce Volden]

You aren't missing anything. I don't get it either.
Windows 8/8.1 is made for touch screens. I hate it. You can get laptops with Win 7 on them.
Look at MicroCenter . com

I'm with Myk!!!!!!! Bought my wife a new laptop, WIN 8.1 after running XP. Now it's just about worthless to both of us.
Touch screen WHO CARES??

Bruce

[Chuck Wintle]

You aren't missing anything. I don't get it either.
Windows 8/8.1 is made for touch screens. I hate it. You can get laptops with Win 7 on them.
Look at MicroCenter . com

This. I can not understand the touch screens since i never liked fingerprints on the screen at all. Buy a laptop with Windows 7 and use a mouse.

[Jamie Buxton]

... I can not understand the touch screens since i never liked fingerprints on the screen at all. ...

So you don't use a smart phone?

[Chuck Wintle]

So you don't use a smart phone?

I don't use one at all.

[Brian Elfert]

The constant moving of the hands from the keyboard up to the screen would get annoying to me real fast. I bought my current laptop right before Windows 8 came out so it still has Windows 7 on it.

I am constantly wiping off my smartphone to get fingerprints off of it. I won't write emails of any length on my smartphone because it is so hard to type on the touch screen.

[John Coloccia]

I am constantly wiping off my smartphone to get fingerprints off of it. I won't write emails of any length on my smartphone because it is so hard to type on the touch screen.

Bingo. A little smudgy mess on my phone is annoying enough. Wiping my computer screen constantly is not really my idea of progress. There are definitely some applications where some sort of touch interface, especially combined with a stylus, is really the way to go, and is very useful and convenient. Everyday computing doesn't really seem like one of those applications.

[Jim Matthews]

The interface doesn't appeal to longtime users, but makes perfect sense to young(er) people.

There's money to be made from those that like the similarities to their phones.
I wouldn't abandon the touchscreens, altogether.

The Ipad, in particular, is rich in features and works flawlessly.

All most of us really need is a keyboard...

http://www.cnet.com/news/fund-this-a-bluetooth-adapter-for-your-favorite-wired-mouse-keyboard/

[Greg R Bradley]

If they can convince enough users to use this crap on anything larger than a tablet, it is going to be a goldmine to the injury attorneys in about 5-10 years. If you have teenagers, it might be a good time to send them to law school.......

[Judson Green]

If they can convince enough users to use this crap on anything larger than a tablet, it is going to be a goldmine to the injury attorneys in about 5-10 years. If you have teenagers, it might be a good time to send them to law school.......

LOL! I can hear the ambulance chasing commercials now.

Unable to work because you're a victim of touch screen? Call now!

[Judson Green]

The interface doesn't appeal to longtime users, but makes perfect sense to young(er) people.

There's money to be made from those that like the similarities to their phones.
I wouldn't abandon the touchscreens, altogether.

The Ipad, in particular, is rich in features and works flawlessly.

All most of us really need is a keyboard...

http://www.cnet.com/news/fund-this-a-bluetooth-adapter-for-your-favorite-wired-mouse-keyboard/

Perhaps age has something to do with it, but feel it really more of a form factor. Touch makes perfect sense in a tablet or smartphone maybe in some designing and point of purchase applications perhaps other vertical markets.

[Jim Falsetti]

Is a Surface Pro 3 something you are thinking about? For the work I do, MS Office is the standard, so Windows is most familiar to me.

I had an old laptop in a docking station, a surface pro, and an iPad. I suffered through that setup for a year or so, but the laptop finally quit on me. Junked it and gave the Surface Pro away; my wife had taken over the iPad some months ago. In December, bought the Surface Pro 3, migrated everything over and it works great. Having only one computer, with everything on it, is a huge plus. I also am OK with the touch screen.

Would not buy a Surface tablet that was lesser screen or functionality than the Surface Pro 3, because, so far anyway, the Surface Pro 3 has everything I need in a laptop with a lesser form factor.

I have a Pluggable USB 3.0 hub (looked at the MS surface docking station, but did not like it) with a mouse, keyboard and good size monitor. So when I am doing real work stuff, there is the ability to use "traditional" interface plus the touch screen.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Jim

[Jim Matthews]

To be clear - I'm a PC user running Win7 pro.

I stay pretty much on the porch.
I'm old enough to remember the first generation Palm Pilot,
and the day I dropped it out of my shirt pocket into the toilet bowl.

I'm not an advocate of access, everywhere.

I'm only suggesting that the tablets are inexpensive,
powerful and easily modified to work like a PC,
with the addition of a keyboard.

[Judson Green]

To be clear - I'm a PC user running Win7 pro.

I stay pretty much on the porch.
I'm old enough to remember the first generation Palm Pilot,
and the day I dropped it out of my shirt pocket into the toilet bowl.

I'm not an advocate of access, everywhere.

I'm only suggesting that the tablets are inexpensive,
powerful and easily modified to work like a PC,
with the addition of a keyboard.

Sure you're absolutely correct and for most of my computing needs my 7" android tablet has me covered, but for CAD drawing and a little desktop publishing my tablet leaves me wanting.

[Judson Green]

Is a Surface Pro 3 something you are thinking about? For the work I do, MS Office is the standard, so Windows is most familiar to me.

I had an old laptop in a docking station, a surface pro, and an iPad. I suffered through that setup for a year or so, but the laptop finally quit on me. Junked it and gave the Surface Pro away; my wife had taken over the iPad some months ago. In December, bought the Surface Pro 3, migrated everything over and it works great. Having only one computer, with everything on it, is a huge plus. I also am OK with the touch screen.

Would not buy a Surface tablet that was lesser screen or functionality than the Surface Pro 3, because, so far anyway, the Surface Pro 3 has everything I need in a laptop with a lesser form factor.

I have a Pluggable USB 3.0 hub (looked at the MS surface docking station, but did not like it) with a mouse, keyboard and good size monitor. So when I am doing real work stuff, there is the ability to use "traditional" interface plus the touch screen.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Jim


I might be looking at something like a Surface Pro. My current (and now very old PC) is a compac TC1000, a convertible slate. But using something like that in the feild really didn't seem to be that useful and I ended up resortimg to the tried and true clipboard, paper and pen. It was great for showing my portfolio and I think the gee whiz factor won over some clients, but that was in 2002. Now a very inexpensive tablet or smartphone can do all that, however the gee whiz factor of that ilk of tech is gone.

[Scott Hackler]

Im a tech junkie and the last laptop I bought was a Windows 8 (hate it) touchscreen laptop. The touchscreen is absolutely worthless to me 99% of the time. If fact I use it so infrequently that I forget it is a touchscreen! I would only want touchscreen again if I was buying a detachable screen (convert to tablet) of a Surface type pc.

It is weird how little the touch screen on the laptop gets used because I tote around a Samsung Note 4 phone (huge smart phone for those who dont know) and use the touch screen constantly.

[Wade Lippman]

I guess I am unique. I have a 14" with W8.1 and love it. You need the keyboard for typing and occasionally something is too tight to hit with your finger and you need the pointer, but for the most part I use the touchscreen.

I used to have a 10" tablet and hated it because typing was so clumsy.

[Judson Green]

Holy cow! Sure aren't giving away those surface pro's are they. 800 beans for the entry level! Nope too much for this guy. I'm trying to be sub 500.

[Lee Reep]

I'm old enough to remember the first generation Palm Pilot,
and the day I dropped it out of my shirt pocket into the toilet bowl.



Been there too. I had an HP 200LX Palmtop. Set it on top of the TP dispenser in a stall at work. It somehow got swept into the toilet as I turned around to hang up a coat. (Clean toilet, thankfully!) A plunging in and out of some alcohol, and a subsequent drying out, and then a bunch of sanitary wipes, and I almost got to the point that I could use it without getting a bit queasy ... :eek:

Now, regarding laptops, I tried my daughter's Win8 laptop. She needed a new laptop for her business, and didn't know she would struggle so much adapting to it. I had a really hard time figuring it out when I tried it. I like my iPhone, but it is a phone, and not a design tool or writing tool. A touchscreen serves a useful purpose on one. My wife has an iPad and we both use it alot. It is great for browsing the internet, handling some simple email, and such, but I sure would not want to write a long document on it.

Typing and using CAD to me are best suited to traditional laptops/desktops, using standard mouse/trackpad and possibly a special pointing/navigating device like a 3D Connexion SpaceNavigator. I'll either look for a Win7 machine the next time around (and maybe it needs to be soon), or maybe make the jump to a Mac.

[Brian Elfert]

An application that can be run 100% from the touch screen with little or no typing is a great application for a touch screen. I have seen some pretty good applications written for service people that are a lot better than pen and paper.

[William Adams]

Touch allows access to pinch and grow gestures which can be nice. I agree it makes more sense on a two in one device, though I prefer having a machine w/a stylus which allows easy sketching on the go (trying to get back into the drawing habit), handwriting input and markup/annotation of documents.