Capacitive touch screens

[Deeko]

So it seems pretty much everything on the market that uses a capacitive touch screen has a 480x320ish screen. iPhone, G1, myTouch, Palm Pre, BB Storm, Zune HD, etc. Meanwhile, other screens are getting sharper - resistive touch screens are running around 800x480, Blackberry Tour/Bold are a little higher (on a smaller screen, so sharper). After toying around with a Blackberry Tour and Touch Pro 2, the resolution on my G1 is now disappointly blurry, especially when web browsing and not fully zoomed in.

Is this a limitation of the technology in the screens? I did some quick Binging on the issue and didn't turn anything up. Or do they just not want to use higher res because then it becomes less touch friendly? I don't see what's stopping them from using high resolution screens with bigger icons, like what Touch Flo 3D does for WinMo phones.

Just curious. Resistive touch screens (IMO) don't have nearly as nice an experience, but they look so much sharper these days.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Storm is the same res as the Tour/Bold @ 480x360, but it's not a limitation of the touch screen aspect, as that is simply four or more sensors at the edge of the screen reporting the location of your finger via electrical resistance. The screen tech, aka the LCD panel is below the glass and could essentially be any resolution.

 

[Deeko]

The Storm has a bigger screen than Tour/Bold, doesn't it?

 

[DivideBYZero]

Yep, it's physically bigger, but has the same resolution.

 

[Deeko]

Right - so those phones have a higher pixel density & look sharper.

I just don't get why all these top-end phones have relatively low resolution screens. Throw the Touch Pro 2's screen on a G1 or a Pre and you've got a damn solid device.

 

[her209]

Cost?

 

[Deeko]

Sure its more expensive - but these aren't exactly free phones. These are the phones that are supposed to be the flagship phone for their carriers.

HTC has multiple WinMo phones with 800x480 screens. Why not their Android phones?

 

[aceO07]

Originally posted by: Deeko
HTC has multiple WinMo phones with 800x480 screens. Why not their Android phones?

Android doesn't support multi resolutions (from what I've read). The new version will support more resolutions and there will be more devices for Android that are higher res.

I can't wait for more phones to be 4" screen or bigger with at least VGA resolution. My iPAQ hx4700 is 4" VGA and from 2004.

 

[DivideBYZero]

To be fair most consumers don't care about the resolution, that and anything under 4" really won't benefit from SVGA res screens. Also, high res costs. It costs in production, memory and power consumption, so somethings got to give.

 

[TheWart]

Originally posted by: aceO07

Originally posted by: Deeko
HTC has multiple WinMo phones with 800x480 screens. Why not their Android phones?

Android doesn't support multi resolutions (from what I've read). The new version will support more resolutions and there will be more devices for Android that are higher res.

I can't wait for more phones to be 4" screen or bigger with at least VGA resolution. My iPAQ hx4700 is 4" VGA and from 2004.

I dunno, a 4" screen would be really neat to use, but at the same time I would think portability would suffer for a lot of people....at that point it would be hard to fit in one's pockets it seems.

 

[skriefal]

Windows Mobile 6.1 doesn't support capacitive screens. This is supposedly because resistive screens are capable of higher sensitivity (resolution?) to location of stylus taps & etc... thus allowing for smaller buttons and UI controls. This is a result of WM's origins in the primarily stylus-driven Windows CE. Capacitive screens are better for finger-driven gesture interfaces, but Windows Mobile has yet to introduce a good finger-driven interface.