Personally, I hate it. Most of my laptops are non touch: thinkpads, dells. .Even when ram price drops and i could afford the Framework, i would only go for the non pro 13 version. For the ones that came with touchscreen, I disabled it if i can.
Touchscreen just doesnt work for me on a laptop. If i want a touchscreen then i use my tablet or phone.
I don’t want fingerprints on my laptop screen.
I had a Chromebook with touchscreen. I’d mostly just use it to tap on links when browsing lying on my back.
But I developed the bad habit of trying to do the same on my work laptop.
I owned one back in 2013, I think. It was very annoying and I’m sure the tech is better today. Still wouldn’t want one because it is so counter intuitive and extra steps to do something you already could do just fine with a mouse or touchpad.
Certainly interesting that we’re only talking about it when Apple just announced it, after Windows laptops have done it for over a decade.
I had a touch screen laptop once. After the initial novelty of it, I never touched the screen again. And it was the convertible type that could open all the way round and turn into a tablet (keyboard/trackpad were disabled when it was open past a certain point).
I think the more interesting factor is bringing back the glowing logo. And that it’s an OLED. Certainly looks like a nice laptop that tells everyone around “I have ‘fuck you’ money”. I say this as a guy with a MacBook. They aren’t all that expensive. But Apple’s gone and done a wonderful job of telling thieves which one to grab, and it won’t be mine, so that’s a plus.
Touchscreens have their use on other devices but are a gimmick on laptops. Reaching up and over your keyboard, suspending your arm in the air while you tap on a thin, wobbly display is an ergonomic disaster and a shite input method in general.
Now if the screen can flip around into a tablet position then it makes a lot more sense, but just a touchscreen on its own is a gimmick.
It’s only useful if the laptop is convertible (screen can flip all the way around & become like a heavy tablet). Particularly useful when I need to run something Android-based. I don’t see the point in a touchscreen you have to reach out over the keyboard to use.
Even then, it’s only useful when you are using a program that doesn’t need the keyboard, and only if you don’t need to use any other programs at the time.
For example, if you are in class and you want to take notes, a separate tablet works a lot better than folding the laptop.
Touchscreens can serve a function. And that’s predominantly when you have your laptop atop your lap. In a cafe or on a plane where even operating your touchpad may be hard for a lack of space (or for me size of gut). On the couch is another scenario like that. If you don’t encounter those situations a lot, don’t get it, especially if it’s more expensive. If you hate fingerprints on any screen, don’t get it. If you’re not sure and money isn’t an issue, take the extra feature.
I have a touchscreen laptop from work. And I only ever used the touchscreen to actually verify that it has touchscreen. Other than that, I have literally never touched the screen.
Never understood touchscreen on laptop. I can imagine artists might need this in some workflows but I doubt they’d use shitty touchscreen instead of specialized tools like stylus or dedicated device. But for everyone else idk when do you even want to use them.
Sometimes it’s faster to lift my finger to tap than go to the touchpad and move that + click, but it’s not often
If you have to reach out to a screen to touch it, you’re at risk of developing Gorilla Arms, a RMI.
Laptops are hell on your spine. Seriously reconsider.
Depends what you do with it obviously. Lighting software like Chamsys or Grand MA screams for touchscreen. For work I also need a Mac, and I stupidly hit the screen all the time.
If you’re not into graphics / art design enough to have a separate wacom tablet, again it is useful in a pinch.
There’s no “it’s good!” no “it’s bad!”, it is just a matter of how useful it is for you. I don’t know on windows, but with Gnome touchscreens work very well.
Unless I have a physical mouse the next best thing is touchscreen for me. I really hate touchpad. I haven’t had much practice with the pointing stick aka red nub, but I’d probably prefer that with a little bit of practice over the touchpad as well.
I do get that an overly used touchpad screen on laptop is gross and I’d avoid using it, but if there weren’t better alternatives…
Have you tried a Mac trackpad? Those are so good it might make you change your mind.
This. There are two kinds of trackpads not made by Apple. Those that try to be as good as the Apple one and those that don’t. I have more experience with the ones who don’t, as I’m sure is the case with the person you replied to.
As to the other type… I imagine they’re a bit better. Bigger surface area, multi-touch gestures, might even have a trick the Apple one doesn’t, but still wouldn’t be quite as good.
It a nice toy.but not having a touchscreen on a laptop is not a deal-breaker for me, other than low-resolution screens (everything below roughly 200 DPI).
I like those for very bad laptops, like when the touchpad is buggy I can still use the touchscreen
