Touchscreen monitors - yer or no?

[TUS 373]

Like others here on PHs, I'm looking at changing my 5 year old TFT monitor for a larger widescreen one, such that prices have dropped so much.

With the advent of Windows 7 appearing, and supporting touch screen monitors, its another avenue that is under current consideration.

I have touchscreen on my phone and on the sat nav in the car. They work well, the downside being the appearance of finger prints on the devices, and the need to regularly clean. With respect to my current computer monitor, I try to avoid anyone touching it with their greasy mits as I hate it when people leave finger prints on a monitor - needlessly - when trying to point something out.

I am therefore seeking opinion as to whether the PH collective believe that the benefits bestowed by having a touchscreen PC monitor, outweight the potential disadvanatge of having a lovely display covered in fingermarks?

Edited by TUS 373 on Thursday 12th November 11:36

[J.P]

I think most touchscreen monitors are resistive as opposed to capcative (iphone) therefore you have to apply more pressure to trigger. That would really wind me up, especially watching the LCD crystals make pretty patterns as I dragged my finger across the screen.
Plus capacative screens would more than likely have a glass front making for easier cleaning - not sure if the hardware is mature enough to support the OS I'm afraid..

James...

[Mr Will]

Also consider, do you really want to be sitting that close to your PC screen?

[6655321]

For a desktop, or laptop, no, for a tablet, maybe.

[audi321]

I bought a Dell recently with a touch screen thinking it would be a good idea. I used it for the first day and then haven't used it since. The mouse is much quicker and IMHO its a gimmick to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Stick with your mouse!

[TUS 373]

It was a Dell I was thinking about, the SX2210 as recommended in another thread. They now do the SX2210T which is the touchscreen model, but there is about £200 premium on top. I was not taking that cost into consideration at this point, but the monitor screens have a good reputation.

[audi321]

Yeah, no problem with the quality of the Dell touchscreens, I just question the need for one! They can't do anything you can't do with a mouse and they are much fiddle'ier and slower to use than a mouse (even a touchpad!)

[dilbert]

I don't have anything with a touchscreen, but years ago I had to regularly use some test equipment that had a touch screen. It was infra-red with beams crossing in front of a CRT tube. You didn't have to touch the actual surface of the CRT, but you invariably did.

I was a pain in the ass. Since then I have always been fastidious about keeping displays that I use free from muck and bullets. The display gets covered in crud no matter how hard you try, and you end up reading the text through a film of muck.

I can see the benefit on a mobile or something, but for a big display it's pain.

If you do get something like this look at ease of cleaning before anything else. Best is a glossy surface with absolutely no raised edges.

For a proper display I prefer a matt surface anyhow, and these are very difficult to keep free of crud.

Edited by dilbert on Thursday 12th November 14:20

[Noger]

J.P said:

I think most touchscreen monitors are resistive as opposed to capcative (iphone) therefore you have to apply more pressure to trigger. That would really wind me up, especially watching the LCD crystals make pretty patterns as I dragged my finger across the screen.
Plus capacative screens would more than likely have a glass front making for easier cleaning - not sure if the hardware is mature enough to support the OS I'm afraid..

James...

No, most are optical if they are mutitouch. And they have glass fronts.

The problem isn't the hardware or the os, it is the application support.

I was very impressed with a Sony multitouch. Browsing and flicking about through stuff was very natural.

But I do wonder about the usability on everyday apps, rather than stuff that it is clearly good at.

This was always the problem with pen computing. When some thought had gone into pen use, such as marking up word documents with comments or scribbling notes into Onenote, then it was excellent. But for anything else it was a bit pointless.

I can kind of see how it might work as an all in one pc in the living room, for media playback and looking at pictures. But for a desktop..... Hmmmm.

It probably needs a killer app. Is there one ?

[bonsai]

My opinion is that, in an office environment, it is a gimmick and nothing more.

Having to use it for anything other than showing off or pretending you're in the Minority Report would be a pain in the arse.

[TUS 373]

bonsai said:

pretending you're in the Minority Report

Excellent - quote of the week!

[cottonfoo]

The concept has never taken off because it's extremely uncomfortable to use, and you get "gorilla arm". When our desks are just large monitors, then there'll probably be a shift, but not a replacement I don't think.

[Noger]

They work pretty well in the right situation.

Call centre systems where the team leader can just select a sales rep on a standalone screen and set simple stuff.

As 2ndary screens displaying scanned documents. Flipping though pages with a finger.

[Podie]

Noger said:

They work pretty well in the right situation.

Agreed, the application makes all the difference.

Pointless on the main PC in our house, but would work quite well on the one in the kitchen

[va1o]

I don't see the point in using one at home in place of a conventional monitor in the office, I really don't.

[Dracoro]

Smudge screen central.

I can about put up with cleaning a phone type type device once/twice a week with a "lint free cloth" once a week, but on a 21/24/27/30 inch screen I think not.

Give it a few a years and people will be hailing the advent of these keyboard type devices that mean you don't have to keep reaching and poking screens - that invariably get broken as well as requiring cleaning all the time........

Surely they can't be as bad as those pub quiz touch/train ticket machine screens that are ALWAYS going wrong, surely....

Bet their kid friendly too

Anyway, we'll see..................

[Noger]

Have never cleaned the screen on my 7" Samsung UMPC. And that has been prodded a lot.

[jimothy]

I'd love to get a small 7" one to use to control my mac mini, save having to turn the TV on to play music. Other than as a fancy remote control though, can't see the use.

I used to work for RBS and some guys near me we're looked into them for traders so they can do simple trades on them instead of using the keyboard. Tests proved the keyboard/mouse beats touch screens hands down.

[pmanson]

jimothy said:

I'd love to get a small 7" one to use to control my mac mini, save having to turn the TV on to play music. Other than as a fancy remote control though, can't see the use.

I used to work for RBS and some guys near me we're looked into them for traders so they can do simple trades on them instead of using the keyboard. Tests proved the keyboard/mouse beats touch screens hands down.

I've got a small 7" one for running my Media Centre PC through... works well if you've got guests over and you want some background music on without the TV being switched on as well

[sadako]

I hardly ever used the touch screen on my tablet, just used it as a laptop.

A touchscreen monitor would be pretty good for playing eve on...