Advantages and Disadvantages of Touchscreens

Advantages and Disadvantages of Touch Screens

When the first iPhone came out in 2007, it was a start of an era. Apple had introduced touch-screen mobile phones that were more than just phones and would take over the mobile industry within a few short years.

Now when you go out to buy yourself a new phone, you have to go for a touch screen device. Your only other viable options are perhaps a Blackberry phone or a very simple feature phone. Every other device will be dominated by a big touch screen. There are many advantages of touch screens, but there are some disadvantages, too, and these are described below.

Touchscreen in Tablets

The touch screen is taking over the computer industry. First, it made phones with keypads obsolete. Now it is hitting the computer market. PCs are in a decline and are fast being overtaken by tablets with no keyboards.

So what makes touch screens so good that devices with touch screens are simply irresistible? Read on and find out pros and cons of touchscreens.

Function Duality

The first great thing about touch screens is that they can perform dual functions; they are input devices and output devices at the same time. So when making a mobile device, you can save up a lot of space by using a touch screen. Touch screen phones usually have screens more than twice the size of older phones. Big screens means that you can see web pages, emails, photographs, videos etc comfortably without straining your eyes. In the future, touch screens may also function as solar cells and produce energy to charge the device's battery.

Not for Typing

A disadvantage of touch screens is that they are not suitable for fast typing. The touch keyboards do not give that reassuring feeling that physical keyboards provide. So if you are going to be doing a lot of typing, then touch screens are not for you.

A possible solution to this problem was presented at this year's Electronic Show in Vegas. Here a firm showed off a prototype device whose touch screen could pop up keys that bulge out of the screen so that fast typing becomes possible. This feature can be expected to be in production in the coming years.

Battery Loss

Another problem with touch screens that people face is that they consume a lot of batter y power. A Smartphone nowadays cannot be expected to last for more than a day whereas older phones could last for a week without charging. High quality screens are mainly responsible for this.

Adding touch screens also makes a device sensitive. A fall onto a hard surface could be the end for a device. On the other hand older devices were very resilient and could survive several falls.

These were advantages and disadvantages of touchscreens. Although touch screens have a few disadvantages but their pros far outweigh their cons. So we can expect them to dominate the computer and mobile phone markets in the coming years.

Do you like touch screen device? Share your experience with a touch screen phone, or other device, letting us know more cons and pros of touch screens.

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