Buying Guide: Choosing the Right Touchscreen Phone

First off, let me just say this is purely an opinion based article as there are quite a few old school mobile users that have absolutely no issues with using mobile handsets with tactile keys and will swear by them. Personally, I’m not swayed in any direction but if it came down to it, I’d go with a touchscreen handset that met a few particular pointers I keep in mind when testing. Allow me to elaborate.

Before we get into that, and this is just for users who aren’t absolutely well versed with the kinds of touchscreens that are out there, there are two types of touchscreens – Capacitive and Resistive.

Capacitive
A capacitive touchscreen is a lot more finger friendly than resistive. It provides you, the users, with a little more control with your finger as these displays will require no external object like a stylus for making a connection to the operating system.

Mobile phones are getting touchy

In technical terms, since the human body is a store house of energy and electrical properties, the screen simply uses these properties to detect when and where on a display the user places his/her finger. With a capacitive touchscreen you’re required to apply little to no pressure to activate features and functions.
Here are a few of the more famous examples of handsets equipped with capacitive touchscreens -
Apple iPhone 4
Samsung Galaxy S
LG Optimus One

Resistive
Now don’t misunderstand, all resistive touchscreen handsets don’t necessarily require the use of a stylus. Quite few can be very easily operated with just your fingers, however even handsets like the Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic or the N97 still come bundled with a stylus. It also largely depends on the User Interface designed for the device. For example in a Windows Mobile 6.5 device, you’ll find the stylus very necessary in quite a few instances, even if you can use your fingers with most other functions. Most manufacturers design custom UIs to help facilitate finger usage but to access certain features and settings further into the handset’s UI, the stylus can become absolutely integral.

Resistive screens are more accurate

In more technical terms a Resistive touchscreen is designed with multiple layers separated by thin spaces. You’d be required to apply a little bit of pressure with either your finger or stylus in order for the layers to come in contact with each other to complete the circuit and activate features or functions.
Some of the popular handsets equipped with Resistive touchscreens include -
LG GD 510
Spice S-7000
Micromax Andro A60

SurePress
The BlackBerry Storm is the only capacitive touchscreen handset that incorporates SurePress technology that actually feels like both resistive and capacitive, as you’re required to exert a bit of pressure to click on or select options, and you can scroll through menus and pages with smooth, light gestures on the screen. This technology didn’t bode well with the entire mobile community but it’s nevertheless quite intuitive in its design in my opinion.

Another aspect of the touchscreen genre I’d like to mention in case a few of your readers would like to know is haptics. Simply put, haptics offers tactile-like feedback to your fingers.

Nowadays we also find touch-sensitive keys on many Android smartphones, these fall in-between physical buttons and a touchscreen function. While it does eliminate the somewhat "bulky" feel of an external button, it still has a pre-defined function for the touch key. So you don't really have to press a touch-sensitive key, just gently tap on it and you're done.

Newer models like the iPhone 4 are equipped with Retina Displays that are designed to offer optimised viewing with extremely high resolutions. With Nokia's E7, although the resolution isn't too high, their Clear Black DIsplay technology provides for excellent viewing even in direct sunlight. There's also the Samsung Galaxy SL with a S-LCD (Super LCD) planel and Wave II with an AMOLED display that enhance colours and contrast levels to provide a vibrant array of colours and clarity. We've even reached the stage where handsets like the LG Optimus 3D or the HTC EVO 3D are capable of 3D stereoscopic playback. Don't expect these handsets to be cheap of course as the technology really isn't, but it's getting there.