Capacitive vs Resistive
 

I mention this only because the N900 is resistive and I hear people asking for a Capacitive screen.

I made an interesting observation last night.

I bought my Girlfriend an ITouch for Christmas (i know, it's not yet Christmas), but I gave it to her last night.

To sum it up....she can't use it as she has fingernails and the screen doesn't recognize her "touches". Why does resistive get such a hard time when it can do everything the capacitive can do (plus more)? Is this an over looked issue with capacitive screens?

I should add that it didn't even cross my mind when i ordered this. She doesn't have freaky nails, but a nail is a nail...if it comes out past your finger, it's too long for the itouch.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

Yes, resistive screens are superior to capacitive in terms of precision and they have the ability to use any object as a pointer, but they must be soft for the pressure to register and that significantly lowers their durability. And I certainly don't want my €500 device's screen scratched.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

Because Apple has clever marketing that is able to sell the worst crap as best innovation. And because resistive touchscreens are associated with WinMo devices which are a horror to use.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

Resistive is usually designed to be single point precision, where as capacitive came with two form single and multi points but less point accuracy.

Yet Resistive is cheaper to make (now), but only single point. Multi points is harder to achieve and expensive. Resistive doesn't require heat or skin contact to operate. Easier to scratch if you scratch it. lol

Capacitive is also quite cheap to make as well. But easier to implementing Multi points contact than resistive. Does required skin and body heat contact. For this matter you cant use stylus or with nail or gloves. Less feel on the screen because you dont get the feed back pressure. Though, it has better protection against rough surfaces and scratches due to its using body heat to operate. Therefore the screen can be coated glass.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

Which is exactly my reason for prefering resistive, and one of the many reasons I chose n900. :)

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

1. Whats an iTouch?

2. When I had my iPhone -- even though I don't have nails protruding past my finger tips -- I'd use the print of my thumb to poke at the screen. The natural look probably looks way better on your girlfriend anyway.



Buy a screen protector they're like 5 bucks.

I'm for either resistive or capacitive but I hate people that strongly take sides, they both are excellent at what they do and offer some great features on both sides. One isn't better than the other. (not trying to single anyone out with this one)

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

Basically an IPhone without the Phone and camera. It's also skinner and lighter.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

The main differences have been pointed out:
Capacitive:
- hard surface
- faster response to input(?)
- higher cost per pixel for a given screen size
- less accuracy (end of finger is smallest object that can be "hit"?)
- multi touch

Allows you to assign different "meaning" to one and two finger swipes etc. NOTE so far this has only really been seen on Apples new mouse!

- Danger of a "big" sheet of glass (cracking, chipping etc)


Resistive:
- lower cost per pixel for a given screen size
- anything can be used for input
- accuracy

This combined with the higher resolution screens means that you don't need to zoom as much.

- worry of scratches

minor worry for me, only after a year of HARD stylus use did my old palm pilot start to show scratches in the "grafitti" area, but as most of the time I'm using my finger, or the keyboard, I think it will last OK.
Anyone with an N8x0 care to comment on durability of the screen?

I think much of this argument has been caused by the iPhone. What was revolutionary was the UI was better and faster, and it seems the tech press confused this with the switch to capacitive.
Also, I think this was the first mass-market device with a capacitive screen that did not cost stupid amounts of money.

I had a chance the other day to have a short play with a Nokia X6 (3.2“, capacitive, 360 x 640) and at the same time(on the same display was an N97 mini (3.2“, resistive, 360 x 640).
From that, I could not find much to recommend one over the other (reaction time, responsiveness etc) all were about the same! [Disclaimer: this was a 5-10 minute semi-random stabing at icons play, not a proper scientific test, in Verkkokauppa.com's Helsinki Store]

for comparison of screen resolutions, the iPhone has a 480 x 320 screen (i.e half hight VGA), and the N900 wins with a 800 x 480 one.
So total Pixel counts are:
iPhone - 153600
S60 5th - 230400
N900 - 384000

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

The browser on the N900 would be severely compromised if the device had a capacitive screen.

Due to the screen being small when webpages are rendered the html links are small in size.

In order to accurately select the required link when two links are close together a high resolution touch interface is required.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

I was being sarcastic, the name of the product is iPod Touch.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

People, please stop saying this. Any store that sells iPod Touch or iPhone will sell you a capacitive stylus (for about £9 in the UK). For sure it has a rounded tip rather than a small point like the N900 stylus, but you absolutely can use a stylus with a capacitive screen.

Regards,
Roger

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

It's a bit misleading though. Yes you can use a capacitative stylus but you still won't have the complete benefits of accuracy that a stylus on a resistive screen provides due to the design of the screen.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

Agreed. Especially in the context most have been using for the stylus and it's application.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

Try using a capacitive device in the pouring rain. With a resistive device slap it in a sandwich bag with the zip and its good to go. Great for hiking trips etc!

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

the only advantages of capacitive screens are that they are capable of multitouch and they often have a glass-surface. although the latter is not necessarily an advantage.

i never owned a device with capacitive screen to be honest, but i now how one feels like due to the htc magic of a friend of mine.
and really, i didnt realized its a capacitive screen until my friend told me.
obviously the screen "felt" different, you could feel its much more stiff propably because of glass or hard plastic, but other than that i didnt found that it was much different than my s8000's resistive screen. minus the multitouch, that is.
all my touchscreen-devices (samsung jet, nintendo ds, nintendo ds lite and n900 in future) had resistive screens so basically thats "all i know" anyway.
i'd like to have multitouch, but on the other hand, i dont want to loose the stylus.

an iphone without the phone is an ipod touch.
"itouch" makes you sound like pedobear :>

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

:rolleyes:

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

Have an iPod Touch and a HTC HD phone and I much prefere the HDs screen... I find the iPod Touch (from now on the iTouch) :p screen too whimsy... too responsive and I sometimes open stuff just because i held of swiped it wrong... with the HD it much more feels like you "press" a button and screen feels nice and responsive... (you very quickly "learn" how to use it...)

oh yeah and this never happens:
http://talk.maemo.org/attachment.php...1&d=1260921615

Resistive ftw

P.S.
how do I hide the attatchment window (kinda annoying to see same pic twice...) :o

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

I find the ipod touch screen far far more responsive than that of the N900. Never made a selection by mistake on the ipod touch but have done so quite a few times on the N900. Very often it seems my presses are not registered although I think that is more to do with the device being sluggish at times.

And it is not a case of me being used to using the ipod touch screen. I had it for only about two months before I had to sell it off as I couldn't bear to be a commoner any more. So I did not have that much time with the device to be totally used to the different technology. More importantly I had no trouble with the device from day 1 so was not a case of getting use to it. Was just easy and great to use from day 1. In fact I used a resistive screen before capacitive - the N97. Was a nightmare to use and returned it after 3 days. I know the N900's screen is far better than that of the N97 though even though they are both resistive.

The general public are probably also the same which is why the mainstream Maemo Nokia phone will be capacitive. But appreciate that the resistive has some major advantages over capacitive such as being able to select smaller items.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

Wow, did you throw this phone onto a brick wall?

HD2's screen is glass, what do you expect? It's scratch resistant though...So it all has it's ups and downs.

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

U sure that is resistive? Look like Capacitive to me lol. Resistive is soft like LCD cant just break

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

That smashed up phone is the HTC HD2 which has a capacitive screen.
Photo was from this site this site

But just because a screen is capacitive doesn't automatically mean it will equal the responsiveness of the iPhone... we have to think of the fact that they often have to move ALOT more pixels around... Just take a look at the Hero, Droid and the HD2 (before it was smashed up) :p

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

I'm glad that n900 has resistive touch screen instead of capacitive. Why?

Because phones with capacitive screen cannot select a web link with finger, especially those tiny ones placed closely to each other, without zooming in first! Imagine how frustrating zooming in and out many times for web browsing. with Resistive all we have to do is select the link with the tip of our finger nail or stylus!

IMO, capacitive or multi touch is only good for gaming. when it comes to Web Browsing, resistive screen rocks!

Re: Capacitive vs Resistive
 

IMO a keyboard owns a capacitive screen for gaming ... ;)