Fewer touch screen laptops available?

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jonb

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#298470 20-Jun-2022 10:03

Back in the laptop market again for an XPS/zenbook style one, for a person who very much uses the touch screen on current XPS with a dodgy power port. Seems like the majority of these premium style laptops no longer have touch screen, when back in like 2017 it was more like the other way round with the majority having touch screen. Even the current model Dell XPS only has touch screen on the 4K screen upgrade now.. making it trickier to find a good one that fits criteria. Has there been a general shift away from touch screen after the rush towards it 5yrs ago?

Dynamic

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#2932001 20-Jun-2022 10:15

My suspicion is that touch for general laptops has been considered pointless as its so rarely used with that form factor but adds weight due to the extra layers required.

If you look for something like the HP Elite x360 1040, where the x360 in the model name denotes the hinge that folds all the way back so the laptop becomes a tablet. Touch on this model makes sense (to me).

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wratterus

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#2932024 20-Jun-2022 11:13

You can also get Probooks with touch pretty easily at the moment, but that might be a bit lower end than you're looking for.

Inphinity

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#2932027 20-Jun-2022 11:16

I feel like it's dropped off many feature lists because it is in most cases not often used, and adds weight and thickness and also increases failure risk and cost. I'm pretty sure it was only on so many devices early on because it was an extra 'flash' feature to list as a marketing thing. I've rarely seen it actually used or useful, aside from those models that fold up in to a tablet-like mode and get used that way.

OldGeek

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#2932153 20-Jun-2022 13:37

I never saw the point of touch-screen laptops. Why bother when you have a built-in keyboard and mouse whose precision is a huge improvement on fat-finger screen-stabbing?

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Dynamic

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#2932162 20-Jun-2022 13:52

OldGeek:

I never saw the point of touch-screen laptops. Why bother when you have a built-in keyboard and mouse whose precision is a huge improvement on fat-finger screen-stabbing?

Don't want to derail the OP's post too much, but you triggered a memory. I used a tablet once to Remote Desktop into my office computer when I needed to retrieve a password from my password vault at the time. Trying to use my finger as the mouse to navigate to where I needed to be was a horrible experience. One client asked to be set up to remote into their office computer from their Samsung tablet with stylus, and IIRC they used it twice and gave up for similar reasons.

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1101

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#2932478 21-Jun-2022 13:02

jonb:

Has there been a general shift away from touch screen after the rush towards it 5yrs ago?

There was never a rush towards touchscreen Laptops .
I rarely saw them , rarely never sold any .

tablet like laptops will have touchscreen

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richms

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#2932580 21-Jun-2022 15:16

I use it a lot on my laptop for zooming and panning things around. Something that the mouse with single touch can never do and zooming with touchpad never seems to do it right.

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jonathan18

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#2932611 21-Jun-2022 16:21

Yeah, moving from an HP X360 Spectre with touch screen to a Z-Book without has been a bit annoying! Months since the change I still find I try to interact via the screen… I used it whether in tablet, V or laptop mode, for similar purposes as richms, or even just for cursor placement.

Having it also makes for a more consistent UX when using other touch-based devices such as the iPad I’m writing this on; when the screen is just in front of me, it now just makes sense to touch the screen.

While there do appear to be fewer touch-screen laptops - and most are 360-types or Surfaces etc - there are still some ‘standard’ and still decently spec’d laptops, eg some within PB Tech’s offerings:
https://www.pbtech.co.nz/category/computers/laptops/shop-all?fs=21607495&o=highest_price

Handle9

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#2932741 21-Jun-2022 18:14

Dynamic:

My suspicion is that touch for general laptops has been considered pointless as its so rarely used with that form factor but adds weight due to the extra layers required.

Touch on a laptop was always a solution in search of a problem. Touch makes complete sense on a tablet or convertable, not so much on a laptop.

Rikkitic

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#2932802 21-Jun-2022 19:44

I couldn't live without a touchscreen. I use it all the time for scrolling. I haven't gone near my Apple laptop for months for exactly that reason.

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