Ask HN: Touchscreen Laptops, yay or nay?

Posted by classicsnoot on Thursday May 01, 2014 @12:57PM
from the ask-hn dept.

Are touchscreen laptops a new direction in user/computer interaction or a fad spawned by the prevalence of cheap technology and excess capital?

currently saddled with an Acer Aspire. thus far, ubuntu 12.04 is the only one that can keep it together, sort of. On xfce now, and Mint 16 was a nightmare. The touchscreen seems to throw Linux builds for a loop...

( 8 comments | 10 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Touchscreen Laptops, yay or nay? by rm445 on Sunday May 04, 2014 @09:16AM (#7694166)

I'm not enamoured of them, but it's quite possible that they will be popular with the world at large. One factor is that so many laptops have frankly bad touchpads, that people may see the touchscreen as an improvement. People seem to like touchscreens, have got very used to them, and there may be a perception that modern devices get touchscreens.

Overheard in the wild: "I'd like to buy a Macbook, but it seems so weird that they don't have touchscreens yet. I'm holding off buying one in case the next one has a touchscreen."

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Re:Ask HN: Touchscreen Laptops, yay or nay? by MatthiasP on Friday May 02, 2014 @03:43AM (#7684529)

It is a fad, one that has already been rejected on the market. See www.digitimes.com/news/a20131211PD217.html

My personal experience with a touchscreen laptop running Windows 8 was that once the novelty wears of, it feels unnatural to reach beyond your touchpad to the touchscreen for input. The touchpad is closer to the user's hands and therefore faster to access and that beats everything a touchscreen could offer.

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Re:Ask HN: Touchscreen Laptops, yay or nay? by logn on Thursday May 01, 2014 @01:45PM (#7681393)

I have a touchscreen laptop but almost never use the feature. On Xubuntu it seems to work without any issues though.

I suspect it's just a fad because the tech is cheap (my laptop was < $400). I think the movement is unnatural. I'd rather see companies focus on innovation in the trackpad.

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Re:Ask HN: Touchscreen Laptops, yay or nay? by DanBC on Thursday May 01, 2014 @01:06PM (#7681093)

I would hate touchscreen laptop.

I find it weird to be poking something that I am also expected to read. My fingers obscure the screen, and there is increased screen cleaning.

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Re:Ask HN: Touchscreen Laptops, yay or nay? by bhartzer on Thursday May 01, 2014 @01:05PM (#7681082)

I think it depends on your usage of it. If you're going to be coding mostly, then you'll really only be using the keyboard... so a touchscreen may not be needed.

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Re:Ask HN: Touchscreen Laptops, yay or nay? by crystalmace on Thursday May 01, 2014 @07:10PM (#7683220)

I would agree with that; my sister has a nice touchscreen laptop (~$1000) and she uses it for watching movies, tv shows, etc; mostly media based uses. She loves it and uses it all the time, so I would agree with you that it does depend on what the user will be using it for. Myself, as a programmer, and programming being what I primarily use my laptop for, I would find it unnecessary and I wouldn't pay extra to have it.

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Re:Ask HN: Touchscreen Laptops, yay or nay? by matmann2001 on Thursday May 01, 2014 @07:57PM (#7683387)

I bought an HP laptop with a touchscreen around 2010. I still use it today, but I've never used the touchscreen aside from showing off.

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Re:Ask HN: Touchscreen Laptops, yay or nay? by hashtag on Thursday May 01, 2014 @06:49PM (#7683137)

I think it's a cool option to have but not something I'd require

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