Installing a touchscreen "after market"?

Hey!

So, I've been trying to find a spiffy new laptop that checks all my boxes and the thing that's been giving me the hardest time is finding ones that offer the gaming performance I'm looking for and the 'professional' aesthetic I like while still having a touchscreen.

I've tried to do homework and figure this out on my own and asking around has led to a lot of people telling me "no" but I never understood 'why not.' I did some more digging today and it seems like there are a few (old) examples of people installing touchscreens on top of their laptop's stock displays.

Note: I'm aware of 'accessory' touchscreens like the airbar, but I don't want to have to worry about plugging/unplugging an accessory every time I take out my laptop. The touchscreen, for me, is a convenience, and adding an external accessory defeats the purpose in my opinion.

Here are two articles that demonstrate people doing what I'm trying to achieve:

• "Eeepc & touch panel"
• "Install a touchscreen in your netbook"

My main concern is, these articles seem a little dated and the build quality/tolerances of laptops (especially at the price point I'm aiming at) has gone way up over the past several years.

Is there any reason I can't purchase a touchscreen, install it on top of my laptop's (possibly upgraded) panel, and be good to go?

Laptops I was looking at were the MSI GS63VR and the Gigabyte Aero 15, but Computex has made me consider waiting a little longer. I want a thin-and-light laptop with a ~GTX 1060 or better and good battery life. (Battery life led me to start leaning towards the Aero 15, but I like the aesthetic of the GS63VR a lot more.)

Thanks for any input.

 

do you know airbar?

 

Yes. I mentioned in my post that it's not what I'm looking for, I don't want an external solution.

 

The problem is the interface for the touch panel. Since your laptop was not built for touch you will have to route a wire to a usb port.

 

That makes sense. Is it possible to still make the connection internally on some laptops? Is there any way to check that on specific ones?

I assume it would be possible on laptops that have some models compatible with touch, but most of my considerations don't have options with touch...

 

There are 3 problems

1. Laptops generally do not have headers. Even if another model of the same series has touch, your particular variant may not have the connector installed.
2. Also, even if it does it may not have a standard connector. For, full details search the forums of your particular models, including the manufacturers forums.
3. As the article from PC WORLD says, you must be prepared to cut the lid and the body, & solder on the motherboard.
4. While the panel with touch may likely to be dimensionally compatible, it may not be electrically compatible.

 

I definitely respect that this is on the extreme side of things, but giving up one USB port on something like the GS63VR isn't too big of a deal. If it's as "simple" and "local" as trying de-solder a USB port, it seems low-risk enough to be worth trying?

 

In that case go ahead and please post pictures of your mod.

 

@zovc these solutions are traditionally resistive - meaning, they're not very precise.

 

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say.

 

Just get a capacitive touch panel. I've used resistive touch, and it's a pain in the a@@. My OPINION is its resistive, it is definately NOT worth the bother.

 

There are two types of touch screen technologies for touch displays. Capacitive and resistive. It refers as to how touch input is detected at the hardware level. Capacitive touch displays is what you find in most devices these days. If you are old enough to remember older touch screen devices that had a stylus, no glass cover like the old PALM devices and so on where the touch felt unresponsive and wonky, then you have experienced a resistive touch display.

In my opinion, you're better off buying a laptop that has touch or one that doesn't and live with not having it than try to shoehorn a touch display in it unless the laptop is one you're willing to part with should it break while you are trying to mod it.

 

Seconded, buying something with one built in will always be better than modding one in.

 

I definitely agree that it'd be best to buy a machine with a touchscreen built in, but no laptop that meets all of my other requirements--including aesthetic preference--has a built-in touchscreen. At least not to my knowledge.

I want a laptop with a 1050 Ti or a 1060, a good battery, decent-to-good build quality, and a thin and light design. The Gigabyte Aero 15 is pretty much the perfect candidate, but I like how MSI's GS63VR looks more and those are basically the two I'm torn between. I think it's a Dell Inspiron which comes close to checking all of my boxes and having a touchscreen, but I just can't stand how it looks. I'm not going to purchase something at such a high price point and not be happy with the product as a whole, and it seems like my best shot is adding a touchscreen to one of the machines that I like since fixing that Dell's aesthetic is even more far-fetched. (The grill design would be pretty difficult to cover up and covering it up would probably cause cooling issues, it's possible I could paint the grill to make it a color I liked more but I still wouldn't like the design... etc.)

 

@zovc if you'd tolerate 1050, there's Lenovo Yoga 720 15 - not only does it have a touchscreen, but also pen input and convertible form-factor. Ticks all other boxes.

 

That one's not bad looking either.

 

I'll have to look more into whether or not the regular 1050 is good enough for me. It probably is in all honestly. At the lower price point of the Yoga 720 (closer to $1,000 rather than closer to $2,000) it might be the closest I can get to having my cake and eating it.

Looking at a review, the biggest reservation I have (besides the GPU) is the YOGA branding on it (which, maybe I could remove?) and the especially glossy and kind of dim display. The display doesn't have a great response time, but I doubt I'm doing any MLG SERIOUS BUSINESS GAMING on the go.