Touchscreen or not?

[hilgerone]

For those that have used both touchscreen and non touch screen chromebooks, I'd like to hear whether or not it "works" to really utilize the touchscreen in the laptop format. Obviously there are times where it may be handy, but is it something that you find yourself using a lot? I'm considering ordering the new Acer 13 with the Tegra processor but I'd like to hear some opinions first. This will be my first chromebook. And I use most of Google's services via desktop, phone and tablet.
Thanks in advance.

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[B. Diddy]

I have an Acer C720 and HP Chromebook 14 (both non-touchscreen), and have only used a touchscreen Chromebook briefly in a store. I also have access to a touchscreen Windows 8.1 laptop. Basically, I find the touchscreen feature on laptops to be fairly superfluous. I don't find that lifting my hands from the keyboard to touch something on the screen is any more efficient than using keyboard shortcuts or the touchpad--in fact, for me, it feels very awkward. So I personally wouldn't pay extra money for a touchscreen, if that were an option. Acer and HP touchpads are very good, so manipulating things on the screen using the touchpad is very easy.

That might change in the future, though, depending on how Chrome OS develops. We've already seen some hints of how it might become more tablet-like in some ways (e.g., touchscreen keyboard, Chromebooks that convert into a tablet form).

 

[UJ95x]

Not a Chromebook user, but I thought I'd weigh in on the touchscreen. I have a desktop (albeit a Windows 7 one so it's not really made for this) that has a touchscreen, and owned two Windows 8 laptops for a few weeks. Like B. Diddy said, it's awkward for me to use the touchscreen. Hovering my arm over the keyboard and keeping it there for the duration of my navigation to whatever it is I'm trying to get to is very counterintuitive. Now I have a Macbook Pro and use the trackpad (the one on the rMBP is great) for everything that Windows OEMs want you to use the touchscreen for.

 

[hilgerone]

Thanks for the input. That was my gut feeling. Seems like unneeded effort to touch the screen when you have a decent track pad or even a mouse. I'll put the extra $ towards better internals.

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[ukbuk]

As above I doubt have a chrome book but do have a Windows 8.1 touch enabled laptop.

For anything other than some really basic web browsing I use the mouse or touchpad. Even when I do use the touchscreen I tend to use my thumb with my fingers wrapped behind the back of the screen otherwise I'm effectively holding my arm straight out almost at arms length... Not comfortable.

Cheers

Nick

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[James Welbes]

I started with the Samsung 5 550, then the Acer C720, then HP 14, now I'm using the Acer C720P (touchscreen).

Honestly, I still feel that touch screen is mostly a gimmick. I've had several discussions about this on G+, and it seems that games are really the only reason to use the touchscreen. I mean, the Chromebook really is just the Chrome browser. It can't be touch optimized. The web pages you view are either touch optimized, or they aren't. Has nothing to do with the Chromebook.

I've had the touchscreen model for awhile now, and I've never once felt the urge to lift my hand all the way to the screen, when I'm practically already touching the touch pad.

There is a very small percentage of users who are just used to touch screen, so I guess for them it makes sense. But I'm not used to using a touchscreen computer, and I am wildly inaccurate when I try to touch links and things. The only reason I even have the touchscreen model is because it's white, and I found a really good deal.

 

[B. Diddy]

Good points. Perhaps as more standalone apps are developed for Chrome OS, and as more Android apps become available to run officially on Chromebooks, the touchscreen will become more handy!

 

[coltoz]

If the chromebook do not have a touch screen the chromebook apps will be culled same as win32 apps.

 

[SlymeBox studios]

From my point of view touchscreen is absolutely useless thing on any laptop(i have some experience on acer aspire s7) if it cant convert to tablet, so chrome books do no need this stuff

 

[Devil13n]

I've got a bit of a different take on this - I'll agree with everyone above and say that there really isn't a need for a touchscreen....UNLESS the monitor can do a complete 180.

Just picked up an Asus Chromebook Flip and I have to admit, there have been many occasions (way more than I expected) where I flip the screen completely around and use it as a tablet and it works really well.

For a feature that I didn't think I'd need/want, I probably couldn't live without it now.