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...ouse-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...ouse-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