would you want a touchscreen on your laptop?

[Toutou]

many PC laptops effectively “throw one in”

Yes, and then you get a thicker lid with unnecessary hardware in it, an OS that's either optimized for touch with tons of whitespace and annoying for mouse users, or optimized for a mouse with tiny touch targets, you get devs that ignore touch users because they hate touch, you basically get the kind of chaos that Apple never allows in their systems and devices.

 

[trash eighty]

My Chromebook Pixel (which I have just replaced) had a touch screen though I never made use of it. I can see some limited cases where it may have been useful but I'd have rather they not bothered.

 

[radus]

a touchscreen is a welcome and ergonomic extension of a laptops inputs.
because you can choose which input you use you can find the most ergonomic for you.
may be switching between the different is the best.
it is is our interest as customers to be able to use different inputs, even a pen input on a macbook would be wishful

it is a false sense of loyalty to repeat marketing slogans of a restrictive manufacturer

 

[nph]

You missed an option, "Hell no!"

 

[Jack Neill]

Im not opposed to it, I have a Windows laptops that have them, can be handy in a pinch. I hardly even remember that they have it. Windows 10 and the current iteration of macOS UI isn't conducive to touch.

 

[PCMacUser]

Touchscreens on laptops are extremely useful under certain circumstances. No, you don't have to like them, or even use them. But to even be having this debate, years and years after the rest of the industry has embraced this technology, is really quite bemusing. I bet that if Apple released a touchscreen on their next laptop, 90% of those that voted against touchscreens would declare "touchscreens are amazing, the best!" You know it's true.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I've had it on a work laptop (XPS). Never... ever... used it. A few times I used it to scroll like it was my phone but outside of that, never.

Nope, not here.

 

[Toutou]

years and years after the rest of the industry has embraced this technology

I would like some serious sources on this, please.

Because to me it seems that the rest of the industry (We're talking mobile computers, right?) is currently struggling with finding ways to market and sell touchscreens.
For most (even high-end) laptops the touchscreen is optional.
None of the main desktop OSs (Windows, macOS, ChromeOS and Linux) offer a mature touch-first UI, there are always tiny buttons and context menus to hit and none of them are even close to the fluidity of, say, iPadOS navigation.
There are 2in1s and convertibles that try to solve the problem of touching a wobbly laptop screen by ridiculous tent modes that look stupid and absolutely unprofessional, or by tilting the display all the way back under the body of the machine, so that you keyboard is now the underside of the machine and whatever you place the device on, you place your keyboard on, so that it gathers dust and dirt from everywhere and it still look stupid. Or there are mechanisms that allow you to rotate the screen, so now you device has a single tiny hinge that can loosen up over time and make the whole thing even more wobbly.

So yeah, that's far from 'embraced', more like 'clueless' I'd say.

 

[svanstrom]

Just a reminder that this product didn't exactly become a commercial success:

AirBar – Get touchscreen on your notebook!

Check out AirBar by Neonode. It is a sensor bar that you attach beneath your PC screen. Then you can pinch, swipe, zoom and scroll to your hearts delight. Launching on CES in January and is available for pre-order right now. Plug-and-Touch, when you need it!

air.bar

 

[dazzer21-2]

Nope. Nothing wrong in my mind with hybrid tablet/laptops. But on a dedicated laptop, my hands remain over my keyboard and trackpad or mouse. Ideal input method as far as I'm concerned. As for fingerprints! 😱

 

[Lioness~]

Actually yes 😄

Because I have found myself trying to touch it many times and just realized, sh#t I'm on my MBA and not the iPad.
Especially if I'm multitasking between them.
Not sure I need all functionalities of the iPad over to the Macs. But it would be handy.

 

[AppleMacLoven]

For the current MacBook as is, I voted no. Without first changing MacOS to be more touch friendly and making the screen hold still when touched (without making the display thicker) I'd prefer not to pay more for a touch screen Mac. My two cents would be to put the same effort into making an even larger iPad Pro (16" at least) with an enhanced iPadOS that's better at multi-tasking.

 

[Zazoh]

You folks know the trackpad is a representation of the screen and supports touch and gestures without lifting your hand to touch a vertical surface, right? It was created to supplant the need for a screen that needs to be touched.

EVEN the iPad magic do-thingy came with a trackpad and it DOES support touch screen. That is how effective it is.

 

[Cheffy Dave]

no because it just ruins the ergonomics, both hands are already resting on the keyboard and trackpad, having to lift your hand and touch the screen and back to the keyboard and trackpad is just tiring and inefficient.

unlike with the ipads which are tablets and are touch-based devices, while macbooks are computers specifically laptops that focuses on the use of mousepad because of it's precision and accuracy particularly in office work like spreadsheets or even video editing.

mousepad allows you to go to each and every corner and spaces of the screen without touching the whole area of the screen instead just scrolling in the comfortable small area of the trackpad.

Join a gym!

 

[Isamilis]

No. That’s why Apple provide a large touchpad on their laptop.

 

[Furka]

No. For me, the best way to work with a laptop is his touchpad, followed by mouse on tasks that require a little more precision, but never, IMHO, a touch screen (except the Ioga laptop style models, that flexes the screen 360º). Ergonomically for me it's a no go. I can't imagine to touch a screen that is vertical in front of me, 50 or 100 times on a day.

 

[ryanmillercg]

Been there done that. Had a Razer Blade Stealth (lovely laptop) with a touch screen and found:

1. Fingers are too fat for precise desktop interfaces.
2. Leaves the screen too smudgy (even with good oleo-phobic coating)
3. The screen bounces annoyingly when you touch it (even with a good hinge)
4. Chance of malfunctions or false-positive touches when laptop lid is closed can lead to problems
5. Would rather not have components in my laptop that I won't use (cost/point-of-failure)

Now if we're talking Apple Pencil support then things are looking a little better, but then we start needing fancy hinges that can bend over backwards etc.

 

[Cyprusian]

Absolutely not for me.

 

[VaruLV]

Truth be told, I would love to, but it would have to be with proper 360 hinge to fold over.
Then I could make do with Macbook for Mac apps and iPadOS touch apps(if devs add support or someone comes up with another workaround) and, say, largest iPhone and not buy another expensive iPP.
My 2c.

 

[DummyFool]

I would always have said no in the past but now I can't find a mouse that works without lagging with my MacBook Air M1, so now it would be yes because of that issue but not for a windows laptop.

 

[Jonathantuba]

I don’t understand all those strongly against. If you don’t want to use touch, then no-one makes you, but whenever I use a MacBook I instinctively reach for the screen only to find it does not work.

I don’t care about the M1 chip - unless Apple makes a touch screen MacBook, I will never buy another Mac. The iPad Pro is the device for me, although I wish Apple would close the gap to enable it to do everything enabled in the Mac

 

[BigMcGuire]

I don’t understand all those strongly against. If you don’t want to use touch, then no-one makes you, but whenever I use a MacBook I instinctively reach for the screen only to find it does not work.

I don’t care about the M1 chip - unless Apple makes a touch screen MacBook, I will never buy another Mac. The iPad Pro is the device for me, although I wish Apple would close the gap to enable it to do everything enabled in the Mac

I've seen touchscreen laptops. They're like constant grease smears. It's disgusting. Granted, I've only seen/used touchscreen laptops with Windows and those implementations are less than ideal. When I had a work provided XPS I did use touch to scroll a little but that was bout it - it wasn't terribly useful for much else.

But what gets me is the grease-smeared screens - blah. I like my screen to be clean. I often work in dark mode too.

 

[Zazoh]

I've seen touchscreen laptops. They're like constant grease smears. It's disgusting. Granted, I've only seen/used touchscreen laptops with Windows and those implementations are less than ideal. When I had a work provided XPS I did use touch to scroll a little but that was bout it - it wasn't terribly useful for much else.

But what gets me is the grease-smeared screens - blah. I like my screen to be clean. I often work in dark mode too.

Yup. Add bulky screens and another thing to break. When we were going to the office and someone would touch my monitor, I’d make them clean it.

There is no advantage to touching the screen that touching the trackpad already doesn’t do.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

We already use touchscreens on our macs. Our desktops and MBP’s use Wacoms Cintiq touch displays & Intuos control surfaces. A proper digitizer is more useful than a touchscreen but either is more useful than a non-interactive display. Wacom famously half-asses its drivers and implementation, and Apple would do a 1000x better job of it if they put even one engineer on supporting them properly, but Wacoms absolute coordinates option still whips the shag out of any mouse or the godawful trackpad for accurate, predictable cursor movements required for efficient design work. And collaboration, oh yeah let’s huddle everyone together around and shove their fingers in the trackpad like it’s 1994. But since Apple used the excuse of OSX not being “made for” touch, as the differentiation that opened up space for the iPad, they can count on having you all parrot that forever and sell you a glorified typewriter that runs on a series of menus chosen with a pointy stick, as well as a tablet that’s more intuitive and natural but crippled by its mobile phone software. lol ok guess I needed a little rant this morning.

 

[svanstrom]

Join a gym!

Adding more physical strength doesn't necessarily protect an average person from a lot of the very serious problems bad ergonomics can cause.

It might make for a fun joke to simply call people weak, but if they don't take proper care they might end up spending the last several decades of their lives every day dealing with pain.

I'm absolutely a bit sensitive when it comes to this subject, but that's just because I am dealing with pain; and have been since I was 18yo (that was due to sports, though).