Personally, I hate it. Most of my laptops are non touch: thinkpads, dells. .Even when ram price drops and i could afford the Framework, i would only go for the non pro 13 version. For the ones that came with touchscreen, I disabled it if i can.
Touchscreen just doesnt work for me on a laptop. If i want a touchscreen then i use my tablet or phone.
As others have pointed out, touch has it’s uses. For most people, probably not needed and maybe more of an active annoyance anyhow.
However, my Framework 12 foldable laptop with touch is extremely handy for my purposes. I intentionally purchased it over the larger/better Framework 13 because I need a touchscreen for work and I wanted it to be foldable to sit on cramped flat surfaces more easily.
I often work as a lighting technician supporting live DJs, and despite the venue having it’s own touch screens, it’s absolutely clutch to be able to bring my own and either use my lighting software or remote desktop to control the venue’s lighting panels. Sometimes the venue will have panels that are unfortunately positioned or simply uncomfortably far away from the DJ’s mixer. The mixer displays a waveform I need to be looking at to do effective lighting. Being able to have my touchscreen laptop there so I can touch the lighting cues as needed is crucial.
I don’t like them. Anytime someone who uses one goes to use one of my normal laptops, they always try to touch the screen, which leaves fingerprints.
If you want a touchscreen, get a tablet.
My work laptop is touchscreen. I only know because I was pointing something out to a colleague and accidentally touched it. I have never wanted it to be touchscreen and, since finding out that it is, I have never intentionally touched it.
I have never owned one. As a creative, I already have other devices for stylus use (iPad and Wacom). I see touch screen on laptop as a gimmick, as a rub in the face that the iPad isn’t shipping with a real unlocked OS already. It’s a good way to make the display dirty with finger grease. A good way to realize how flimzy they are.
So… it depends. If it’s a normal laptop I’m not SUPER interested in it but don’t hate it. I do use the track pad a lot so if that was messing up I could use the touch screen. But normally I won’t use it in laptop mode. The depends is a 2 in 1. If I can flip it over and use it as a tablet I will do that. How nice it is depends on software tho in that case. A nice gesture based experience like Gnome would be great. But I doubt I’d enjoy doing that on windows. I haven’t used windows in years but I imagine a touchscreen on it would be not very intuitive.
So the Framework Pro 13 annoys me since it can’t flip all the way around. I actually am considering making a cyberdeck with an existing framework 13 mainboard I have and a framework pro screen and making it into a tablet form factor but nice and thick with plenty of ports and maybe a CD player. I’d love something like that.
surprisingly useful to me
Negative. A device trying to be everything will not succeed at anything. It also bumps the price which is already not cheap if you want a descent machine.
It can be very useful for quick actions when you don’t have a mouse.
Mine is convertible to tablet mode, which is actually really useful when cooking etc or in small spaces.
Probably wouldn’t have a problem buying one without a touch screen though.
I was given a laptop for work and it has a touchscreen. In fact, you can fold it all the way and use it as a tablet. But I always forget that it can do either.
So, I guess my opinion is that I don’t need or want it.
The best use I have is if I’m filling on a huge form with lots of checkboxes. Steering the mouse to each one with a track pad is so fiddly compared to just tapping.
And for dragging maps around, where I don’t have to with press to click or tap and hold every drag.
I don’t want fingerprints on my laptop screen.
It’s only useful if the laptop is convertible (screen can flip all the way around & become like a heavy tablet). Particularly useful when I need to run something Android-based. I don’t see the point in a touchscreen you have to reach out over the keyboard to use.
Even then, it’s only useful when you are using a program that doesn’t need the keyboard, and only if you don’t need to use any other programs at the time.
For example, if you are in class and you want to take notes, a separate tablet works a lot better than folding the laptop.
i find it pretty great for idly browsing the internet or otherwise passively consuming content, like you’d do on a phone. they can do well with notes if you don’t mind mixing typed and written notes.
Touchscreens have their use on other devices but are a gimmick on laptops. Reaching up and over your keyboard, suspending your arm in the air while you tap on a thin, wobbly display is an ergonomic disaster and a shite input method in general.
Now if the screen can flip around into a tablet position then it makes a lot more sense, but just a touchscreen on its own is a gimmick.
Certainly interesting that we’re only talking about it when Apple just announced it, after Windows laptops have done it for over a decade.
I had a touch screen laptop once. After the initial novelty of it, I never touched the screen again. And it was the convertible type that could open all the way round and turn into a tablet (keyboard/trackpad were disabled when it was open past a certain point).
I think the more interesting factor is bringing back the glowing logo. And that it’s an OLED. Certainly looks like a nice laptop that tells everyone around “I have ‘fuck you’ money”. I say this as a guy with a MacBook. They aren’t all that expensive. But Apple’s gone and done a wonderful job of telling thieves which one to grab, and it won’t be mine, so that’s a plus.
There are two times when i use it -
1 - when the touchpad stops working
2 - i have some work screens that involve checking boxes and signing.
