Capacitive vs Resistive Touchscreen

Capacitive vs Resistive Touchscreen

The smartphone technology
is evolving each day. The new devices launched these days come with real
advanced features. The one feature that fancies our attention the most
is the dispaly style of the handset. Most of the devices, in general,
offer capacitive touchscreen or resistive touchscreen.

For an
average mobile phone user, it becomes difficult to analyze a handset on
the display front, if one doesn't know the basic diffrence between these
two common display types.

If you are also not sure which type of
display is better for a smartphone, we help you understand better the
difference between a capacitive or resistive touchscreen phones. Also,
there are few things to look forward to if you have made up your mind to
purchase a new touchscreen for yourself.

There are basically
two types of touchscreen technology mostly found on the mobile phones –
resistive and capacitive. Obviously, you may encounter different
experience while using any of these touchscreen type devices. We have
analyzed the resistive and capacitive touchscreen interface below to
clear all your doubts about these technologies.

How they work
The
foremost reason for the two touchscreen technologies to differ when
used is the way they respond to your fingers command. Whether you press,
poke or prod, the touchscreen will follow the input as per the
technology inside. The Resistive technology simply works by sensing
pressure.

To understand more about the this technology, you need
to peel off its layers literally. In short, the resistive touchscreen is
made up of several layers. When compressed, the first layer passes the
sensation to the next layer. The top most layer when pressed passes on
the vibe no the layer beneath it. This chain sequence completes a
circuit, thus helping the phone know which part of the screen is being
pressed.

On the other hand, the capacitive touchscreen works in a
different way. It doens't rely on the pressure of the finger, rather
the capacitive touchscreen uses electrodes to sense the conductive
properties of objects, such as your finger. It simply means that a
capacitive touchscreen device may very well understand the command by
your finger but not that of a stylus. So, you won't be able to get any
desired action on these devices if you prod it with any pointed
objected.

Phone Finder
To help you understand
more, we have selected some popular smartphone devices that come
equipped with capacitive or resistive touchscreen technology. In the
table below, you can very well figure out which sort of touchscreen the
devices available in the stores use. In fact, we have categorized them
on the basis of the popular operating systems used on the smartphone as
well for your ease.

In Practice
Once
you understand the basic difference, you can easily recognize the type
of technology used on a smartphones once you use it. One of the most successful smartphones of the recent times, the Apple iPhone comes
integrated with a capacitive touchscreen display. Due to this, the
device offers a 'light touch' interface.

Other than the light
touch or least contact for the capacitive screen interface, the users
can swipe across them very lightly and get just as good a response as
you would with a slow, full-fingered drag. In fact, most of the
resistive touchscreen devices will not react similarly for the swipe
feature.

However, the latest smartphones with resistive
touchscreen phones, such as the Nokia N97, HTC Tattoo and Samsung Jet
are far more responsive compared to the resistive touchscreen devices of
yesteryears. Which by far has somewhat bridged the gap between the two
touchscreen technologies. Still, there is hardly any resistive
touchscreen device which is any way near to the capacitive technology.

The
capacitive touchscreen responds really well when you work on it with
your finger. So, it may sound like a capacitive touchscreen is the way
to go, without any doubt. Having said so, don't presume that resistive
touchscreens are completely out of the race. It has some benefits to
offer as well.

The first advantage you have with the capacitive
touchscreen is that you can operate it with any hard object or finger.
They don't only rely on the touch command or organic properties of your
finger. Another big advantage with this technology is that it has more
potential for accuracy.

You will get pinpoint accuracy if you
work on a resistive screen with a stylus. But it will not be the same
for both the types of screens, if you are operating them with your
finger. You will have to try twice or thrice to get the desired results
in most of the cases.

The operating system issue
The operating system plays a significant part on the touchscreen technology.
As Apple offers light touch navigation on its iPhone or iPad devices,
it is becoming the order of the day. The new generation smartphones are
integrating operating systems which are increasingly becoming
capacitive-friendly, with larger icons and more gesture integration.

Earlier,
Windows Mobile phones have always relied on resistive touchscreen
phones. Thus, leaving no chance for the users but to prod the device
with the stylus for getting desired result. Now even Windows Mobile is
coming out of the box and exploring the Apple way of thinking.

The
Windows 6.5 offered several user-friendly updates designed to make the
operating system more accessible to new smartphones. The new updates
helped users to rely on their fingers more than the stylus. The result
of these efforts was that the operating system also became much more of a
suitable partner for capacitive screens – as the excellent HTC HD2
proved.

So, it doesn't matter if you are a frequent texter,
casual user, or one who sends loads of emails or work on documents,
there's not a clear-cut choice as yet. Although, capacitive has slight
edge, but both the technologies have there pros and cons.

Conclusion
The
touchscreen technology is still evolving. We now have resistive
touchscreen devices with improved responsiveness and at the same time we
are witnessing capacitive technology now getting integrated on
entry-level devices. However, if you want to use your fingers rather
than getting out a stylus, we'd always recommend looking for a
capacitive-screened device.