Touch or not - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ramonest
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2018, 07:14:51 pm
content: Hello,I decided to get a new laptop. The one I've right now started doing weird things, it's too heavy to carry with my notes and it's battery lasts about 30 min.The one I've decided (at least for now) is the Lenovo L380(not yoga).The question I've is if the touchscreen is worth it. I never used a laptop with a touchscreen and I don't know if it would be useful in any situation.The reason I'm posting it in this forum (eevblog) is because many of you probably use the laptop for similar stuff: writing code, simulations, PCB design... .P.S.: If anyone has a better choice than the L380 from Lenovo I'd be glad to hear. The reason I've chosen this model is price range, size and weight and good keyboard. I had to change the keyboard from my actual laptop, it sucks and drives me nuts when writing for long.Thanks for your opinion!

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2018, 07:28:55 am
content: Quote from: ramonest on March 29, 2018, 07:14:51 pmits seems good because its Gen8, but the price in website i browsed is a little bit high (for my taste at least)...Quote from: ramonest on March 29, 2018, 07:14:51 pmwell if you have to ask me. not really worth it except maybe if your main job is presentation to clients. we have Gigabyte M912 for wife usage, bought mainly because its portable size and touchscreen we thought it will be usefull to ease job, well not so. it has a touch pen stuck next to monitor, it spent its almost entire life there. very seldomly used because she has full PC in the office but when she want to do the typing on the M912 she always complaint for the small size. now i use it with a projector for slideshow or presentation to students but yet the touch pen is still there in its rightful place, not really useful nothing beats a keyboard and a mouse.recently we bought Acer Aspire 5 for her (i pick she pay and use) no more touchscreen no more complaint. i like it other than because its Gen8 and lightweight, but it also an almost full qwerty keyboard, ie it has full numpad on the side so it should be programmers/economists friendly. my 2cnts ymmv.

author: ramonest
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2018, 02:08:28 pm
content: Quote from: blueskull on March 30, 2018, 07:47:37 amT series makes no sense to me, for the cost of a T480s or T480 you can get a Dell xps 13(at least now at their webpage), with same specs and still have enough margin to get a decent dongle + screen for home.Still i think it's a bit too expensive, i don't think I'll ever use the thunderbolt ports that those models (T480 or dell xps 13) have compared to the L380.Quote from: blueskull on March 30, 2018, 07:47:37 amThe CPUs on the market with 35/45W TDP are 7th gen, the 8th gen is supposed to be a great improvement, there's no much difference in performance and I'm sure the battery life will be much better. But the MSI GS63VR looks quite good.The post was about touch or not you didn't even mention it, guess it's no good.

author: ramonest
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2018, 02:18:19 pm
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on March 30, 2018, 07:28:55 amOh man don't get me started on the price. About 5 years ago when I got my actual laptop I added 4gb of RAM for 20€(didn't even try looking for low prices or offers), now the same model goes for 31€.And when you add ram/ssd capacity on the configurator of their webpage, prices don't add up. Adding the same amount for myself would cost me quite less.Quote from: Mechatrommer on March 30, 2018, 07:28:55 amI'm not going to give that use to it, so I guess touch would be pointless. Tanks.

author: LeonR
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 31, 2018, 02:43:27 am
content: The only use for a touchscreen I see for someone into electronics is if you use a USB oscilloscope and the software for the interface supports it. Aside it, touchscreen is mainly focused into consuming media, not creating it (unless it is a pen-sensitive device for drawing).

author: ramonest
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2018, 10:25:38 pm
content: Quote from: blueskull on March 31, 2018, 03:10:43 amI explained myself bad. I meant that touchscreens were no good, not your answer.Quote from: blueskull on March 31, 2018, 03:10:43 amI'll take your advice on that then. Hopefully I'll save some money and some trouble. Thanks.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 01, 2018, 10:36:15 pm
content: Personally I loathe touchscreens. I tolerate it on my phone because I don't want to carry around a keyboard and mouse in my pocket but they have no place on laptop and desktop PCs. It drives me nuts when someone comes up to point out something and leaves a finger smudge on my screen. I was using my friend's laptop the other day and I couldn't wipe something off the screen without messing up the stuff that was running.

author: LaurentR
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2018, 11:00:47 pm
content: I have a few laptops of each kind and my conclusion is:* For productivity applications (office apps, coding, commercial sw...) , the touchscreen is of little to no benefits. However, it does make the screens thicker and glossier, so I avoid it as much as possible.* For media consumption, a touchscreen can make sense. However, it is much better paired with a convertible laptop.So, for my and my family use, I buy:* For work/productivity: traditional laptop with no touchscreen and a matt screen. Examples: Lenovo T470S or X1 Carbon without touchscreen.* For general family media use, a convertible laptop with touchscreen like a Lenovo Yoga or a MS Surface.