Touchscreen vs. regular screen

[Vince53]

A lot of this might be repeats of what's scattered around the forum, but I was looking at some Android touchscreen computers today, one of which was $220. There is no keyboard or mouse. The entire computer is built into a 1/2 gigabyte RAM screen, and the screen is tiny. You would lie it on your desk and work away.

So how much would a good touchscreen, without a computer cost? Is it worth it? Are the mouse and keyboard better than a touchscreen?

 

[Medicted51]

Depends on whether you want a toy or you want something you can actual do some work on. I will keep my desktop and laptop PC's thank you and continue working on the desktop UI

 

[whs]

Touchscreens are nice for little toys. But for a system with which you want to do work, I think a mouse and keyboard will be a much better solution. Plus you need not wash your hands so often. LOL.

 

[Vince53]

The Android computers I looked at today struck me as expensive toys that won't work well. But let's say you had a good-quality touchscreen computer for Win 8. For detailed work, you could use a pointer, and it would have a built-in keyboard you can turn on at the bottom of the screen. You could still attach a mouse and a keyboard for home or office use.

I still believe that we are only a few years away from the day when no one manufactures non touchscreens.

 

[tripmaster]

I teach high school and am constantly mobile both in and out of the classroom. I use a touch screen tablet, Samsung S7S, have set up a deskless environment inside my classroom, and use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse when needed. At meetings or when I take the students to a lab or to the library, or when I'm evaluating work I mostly just use the touch screen and the included pen. With Box and the cloud the slate frees me up to be a lot more interactive with the students in a way that a tethered keyboard and mouse wouldn't allow me to be.

 

[Vince53]

What is the best design for a touchscreen computer? PCWorld discuses the problem at :

What Will Windows 8 Touchscreen Laptops Look Like? | PCWorld

 

[GMan]

They're trying to fix something that was never broken by making touch so out up front in your face and marketing it as a need-to-have item; even designing an entire OS around it.

It's the latest fad to make the industry money. Years from now, people will look back and be like "ya that was something I really didn't need."

When you've already made Windows 7, that leaves a lot of time for gimmicks.

 

[Vince53]

I did some research, and the cheapest touchscreen I can find is $336 from Dell. Complete Android touch screen computers (the whole thing is one piece, and does not include a keyboard or a mouse) start at $106 and include Wi-Fi, on a 7" screen.

 

[stefalopod]

I think that what differentiates a Win 8 tablet from say, and Ipad or an android tablet, is that you can use all the handy touch features for every app that works best with touch, and then still have a complete pc computer when you need one. Plus handwriting recognition, doodling, and touch document markup in Word and OneNote, etc.

Therein lies the beauty of a clamshell tablet pc: when you want to, you use the keyboard and touchpad, and when you don't you just use the touch screen (and stylus if you've got one). The screen reverses and lays flat, so you can lay it on your desk and work away. Or, if you don't want a huge headache in a few minutes, the keyboard works as it's own screen stand so you can reverse the keys away from you and tilt the screen to an optimum angle and just use touch. -- this works especially well on Airplane tray-tables, lounging on the couch, or at narrow coffee shop countertops.

Granted, the clamshell is more expensive than a slate, but if you consider the savings in external mice and keyboards, screen protectors, and stands (not to mention the reduced hassle in having to carry all that junk around) I still think the clamshell is the better buy.

I love my touchscreen. I wouldn't want to give up my keyboard, as this is not so much my primary work machine as it is the machine I use most often to work. But with a clamshell tablet you don't have to.