Do you actually use 'finger touch' a lot on your laptop notebook tablet hybrid and if so in what positions/ postures?

Do you actually use 'finger touch' a lot on your laptop notebook tablet hybrid and if so in what positions/ postures?

I am wondering if it makes any sense to have a FINGER Touch screen on a laptop notebook hybrid when it is not as comfy or used that much. I share this viewpoint based on the personal usage data of the 3 devices.

I have the following devices:
- Thinkpad T61 - Only like to use it as a laptop
- Thinkpad X61T - Love to annotate and take notes using a Wacom Stylus Pen Active Digitizer (Not finger touch enabled)
- iPad - Use it to read etc for natural finger touch and move it around at any angle and location and read as if reading a book. FLEXIBLE ERGONOMICS.

I wish all 3 'usage flexibilities' were properly built into a single machine.

I am thinking it would be tiring and painful to use my hand on a touch screen all the time at a desk or usual laptop style working...
UNLESS it is sitting on my lap or in such a way that my arms are rested as well e.g. When lying on a couch or a very relaxed position.. in iPad style working

I am wondering if any people use their 'finger touch' on their Hybrid Laptops i.e. the ones like Yoga, Flip and most hybrids with the 'FOLDING & TWISTING HINGES'. Because, I can honestly not imagine using those in the tent and other modes.

If you do use it a lot, in what way and how do you see and use that benefit/ feature. What kind of personal posture/ position do you use it?

If I wanted to use finger touch, I'd like to have it be free from any angles and restrictions that hinges create for hybrids. I'd want it to be 'ergonomically' freestyle for touch and reading like an iPad.

 

Absolutely, positively, never. But that's me.

 

Some machines do offer all three. The two that come to mind is the XPS 12 and the Microsoft Surface. It looks like the higher-end ThinkPad Helix also falls in that category. The Surface has superior stylus support to most touchscreen devices today, similar to the classic tablet PCs, and thus should deliver as good of support for that as the X61T, but the keyboard aspect isn't as good as the other two. I don't know how the XPS 12 and Helix fare in writing support - although given the price, I'd hope the Helix at least was good.

I don't have a notebook tablet hybrid myself, though. At once point I had a ThinkPad X41, but that, like your X61T, didn't have touch screen support.

 

Same here. Touch makes absolutely no sense whatsoever on a standard laptop for the vast majority of users. I have not, nor will I ever us the touch capabilities of my M3800, and I would have ordered it without a touchscreen if I could have.

Full disclosure: Of course, I have not, nor will I ever use Windows 8.x on this or any other laptop, either.

 

On my regular laptops, absolutely not either. Kind of stupid if you ask me. And certainly not on my desktop.

However, after receiving my Asus T100, I have used it once or twice while in laptop mode. However, it's a very small laptop so the screen is right there next to my fingers when I'm typing...

 

People sometimes give extreme answers on these topics. Mine is more nuanced. For the most part, the touchscreen is not used on my Dell XPS 15. But there are a couple of occasions that it is convenient. Two finger zooming on maps for instance. Also, as much power as it has, for some graphic heavy PDF files, two finger scrolling is jerky. I can scroll much faster rolling my finger down the screen.

If the XPS 15 screen had been fully rotatable Yoga-style, the touchscreen might be more useful, especially with Windows 8 apps. It can be convenient to scrub movies and such. Hopefully, OEMs make more fully rotatable 15" laptops as long as it doesn't add to the weight and bulk much. Those who never want to use in tablet mode can simply ignore it.

 

My Dell Inspiron 11 has a touch screen (glossy - Gorilla Glass 3). I do not use it, because I hate cleaning it afterwards. Tablet is a different story, but I have a matte screen protector on it (as well as on my smartphone), which makes it sort of fingerprint/smudges resistant, besides in smartphones and tablets touchscreen is a primary interface between the user and the device. For laptops keyboard and mouse will always be my input interface of choice. IMHO touchscreens in laptops are a retarded idea.

 

I use my Vaio Flip both as a normal notebook and as a tablet using the touch screen and also the included pen (it has an Ntrig-based digitizer). This multitude of options is why I bought it in the first place.

In notebook mode I mostly control it with a regular mouse (when on the table) but also often(!) with the touchscreen (when in my lap) as using the touchpad takes more time. I was never that efficient with touchpads anyway but that's only me.

In tablet mode I mostly have it in my lap (it's a rather large & heavy tablet with 15.5" @ 4.6lbs), controlling it via touchscreen and sometimes using the pen for image post-processing, drawing and taking notes. In some applications the pen works much better than the mouse so I have a pen on most of my machines now (I use a Wacom Intuos 5 on my main PC and I also have a Galaxy Note 2).

I also I use it sometimes on a table to draw on but I'm still experimenting with the optimal angle (by putting something under the top half) and I'm trying to improve my drawing abilities...

However, I haven't used the Flip that often in its third mode, yet, the so-called "viewer mode" where the display is tilted upright and hiding the keyboard behind it ( display here ->|_ ).
This may change in the near future, though, when I use it more often to watch movies when away from home.

 

All the frickin' time on my VAIO Duo 11. Obviously it's the only input method when the slider is closed. When the slider keyboard is open, I use it more than the trackpoint. The distance from the keyboard to its touchscreen isn't longer than the distance from the keyboard to a trackpad on a traditional laptop, so all of these arguments about "gorilla arm" or whatever simply don't apply. And IMO, it's very intuitive and natural-feeling for most UI interactions (selecting text is still done with the trackpoint though).

 

This is what I figured that FINGER TOUCH is barely used on standard or TENT modes of a laptop / tablet screen. It comes into more intuitive use USUALLY when it is in the PAD ergonomics where you have it in your lap or CLOSER to the BODY in a more RELAXED or RESTING position?

Am I correct? It is not CONVENIENT to lift hands/ fingers and use UNLESS and until I am in a DIFFERENT kind of POSITION (typically couch, bed, relaxing, reclining etc).

Thoughts?

What are the POSITIONS where YOU with your DEVICE (Laptop-Tablet combi or iPads):
-- ALMOST NEVER USE TOUCH
-- ALMOST ALWAYS LIKE TO USE TOUCH

 

Just want to add that I have an Asus T100TA which never leaves the keyboard dock. I have tried finger touch to make sure it's working (once).

For the rest of the time, I need the system to do something specific: and the keyboard/mousepad is the way to do it, with precision.

I didn't buy the system for it's touch enabled prowess; I kept it for the size and long, long, long lasting battery.

 

Embedded replies

 

Pretty much the same for my TPY... I only use the digitizer for drawing, and I have touch disabled altogether.

 

more than I thought I would.

 

Why all the SHOUTING?

With the Duo 11, because of the size of the device, it's not so much moving the hand up as moving the hand forward. From the home keys on the keyboard, I need to move my hand about one inch up and two inches forward to interact with the screen. For me, it's just as comfortable as constantly moving the hand backward a couple inches for my index finger (or multiple fingers) to interact with a trackpad. I do this with a deployed keyboard (1) while the device is on my lap while I'm sitting, (2) and while the device is on a desk or table that I'm sitting at, and (3) while the device is on a floor/bed and I'm laying down. While I'm standing, I typically have the device in tablet mode.

As for using the trackpoint versus using the screen, this is how I divide things.

(1) Scrolling is always done with the touchscreen (both desktop and metro). I definitely think scrolling with a touchscreen feels more natural than with a good trackpad, and FAR better than the poor trackpads that many Windows machines have (such as my Vaio F23).
(2) On the desktop, closing windows and hitting the back button is typically done with the touchscreen.
(3) On the desktop, interacting with larger buttons (the controls on outlook.com, for example) is typically done with the touchscreen. It's typically faster for me to just tap the button on the screen than to figure out where on the screen the pointer is, bring it over, and click.
(4) Interacting with metro apps is always, always done with the touchscreen. I tend to use Metro apps for recreational reading and browsing (the Reuters and the News apps are both good tech equivalents of reading the paper over breakfast, for example). And multimedia apps, such as Netflix, are often superior than the web interfaces for the same service.
(5) Interacting with smaller buttons (the "paragraph" formatting menu of MS Word, for example) is done with the trackpoint. The precision on these menus matters more than the quick response described in (3), above.
(6) Selecting text or placing a cursor in text is always done with the trackpoint.

 

Seriously! Why?


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Does "I chose a true matte non touch laptop" qualify as an answer?

 

Not really. It's like going into a gaming laptop thread and saying "I don't play games on my laptop!" Or on an automotive forum, going into a thread "how do you off-road in your 4x4?" and declaring "I drive a Prius on paved roads!"

 

You know, I'd be very amused to see an off-road capable Prius. I'm thinking lifted suspension, huge tires, rollcage, etc.

 

I'd love to hear the details, just as they have been outlined above by another member

I wasnt shouting I was typing replies INLINE, and reorganizing for myself.. so as and when I felt some part was to be emphasized (in my own brains as well as for the reader) as I typed it, it became larger. Ideally, I'd rather have bolded or underlined them.

There are people who may buy a BMW (drivers car) in Asia and never drive it themselves but be chauffer driven. Every persons USAGE INTENT & EXPERIENCE is different.

 

Yes, bold would communicate the emphasis without constantly "shouting" in the readers head.


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I didn't use touch screen capabilities much in the beginning but with my VAIO I have I find myself using them occasionally. Especially if I'm doing homework and I have a ton of books blocking the track pad...maybe I'm the only one who has that problem

 

Yes, you were. Learn some forum etiquette!

Then why didn't you? It's only a mouse-click away - or are you ignorant?

See how easy it is?

 

Relax. Apologies. Honest mistake. It happened.. was not intentional
Can we refocus on what's key for this thread?