Friday, February 6, 2009

Keep your Touch powered!

The new generation of touch screen phones use finger touch, have large 3.5 inch screens and are the latest rage among smart phone users. One will of course worry about the maintenance of their precious darling screens! And your fingers operating the phone means an increased exposure to dust particles causing precision problems due to continuous usage.
Two new technologies for touch screen phones are resistive and capacitive screens which work on different principles but try to achieve the same final outcome। Resistive touch screens, such as the one available in the new Nokia N97, work on the principle of connection between two layers। The connection between the two screen layers helps the controller calculate the strength of the action. Capacitive touch screen are similar to the multi-touch technology in the iPhone that judge user action based on sensors. Ok enough of tech gyan, lets move on to some काम की चीज़ (useful talk)!

Some of the common problems that can occur in touch screen phones, if not handled carefully are

Scratches – A large screen size makes the phone vulnerable to scratches. A major cause for scratches is dust particles that can stick on the screen and create minor scratches in the screen. The resistive touch screen is protected against scratches especially caused by dust particles. However, all touch screen phones are vulnerable to external elements such as sharp pieces of equipment.

Non Response – The response to a user action requires the right calibration in the touch screen. With constant use, the calibration can shift sometimes causing non-response in case of pressing minor screen elements. This happens more in case of phones where stylus is not used. The new touch screen technologies have alleviated this problem to a large extent.

Dirty Screen – Recall the time when you had to pick up your phone while having dinner....aggggg! Doing so could have caused a problem with older touch screens. The new resistive touch screen help users overcome these problems as these screen have been tested and verified to handle most of these conditions.

But all is not wrong in this big bad world and as the old doctor says, prevention is still better than cure ! Hence if you are buying a touch screen phone its important to take a few preventive steps to ensure a long and stable life for your phone.

Install Scratch guard – Scratch guards are available with most mobile phone vendors that install another thin and resistive layer over your standard touch screen. The scratch guard helps prevent your screen from direct scratches and you can replace it easily in due course of time to keep your touch screen as good as always.

Clean with scratch resistive cloth – Every touch screen phone comes with a scratch resistant cloth similar to the ones available for cleaning spectacles. Its advisable to use these on a regular basis to clean the dust from your screen.

Finally, touch screen technology has come a long way in the past few years and with companies like Nokia investing in building high quality and long life touch screen phones.The future of the mobile phone world seems to be simple – Touch!

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

A lot of information about touch screens. With almost all the big players going for touch based products, it has become very important to be aware of how to maintain them. I just wish touch phones would get faster.

Gaurav Sarayan said...

this post goes a long way in clearing a lot of misconceptions that people, especially urban Indians, hold about touch-screen phones. there is a certain degree of phobia still persistent, which needs to be overcome in order to fully accept the might n power of something like a N97!

Unknown said...

Ya ryt , people here are still relucant on touchscreens coz of these problems... now out of the 2 technologies in touchscreen-resistive and capacitive , which one is better and why-
is any other phone also offering resistive apart fom this gadget- n97?

Shreya Kapur said...

basic problems i find with touch screens is i dont realise if i have pressed any button (virtual one) on the screen or not...so end up pressing it twice...makes the phone again repeat the action...and results in wastage of time!

Sam said...

I agree, its hard to get use to a touch screen. I tired once with my Motorola A760 and failed miserably. I hope the new ones from Nokia are much better in terms of user response over a period of time

Aslan said...

using the stylus is a pain. touch is much better and yup, even though usual inhibitions exist re. dust n' scratches, folks aren't stuck with a phone long enough for it to add up to matter. it's different for the N97, however. one wouldn't let go of that sort of phone for a long long time, i'm sure!

djvnom said...

Nokia, Apple, Toshiba, Blackberry, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, HTC are all coming out with top of the line touch models. Touch screens are definitely going to become ubiquitous. What shall set a product apart is the inherent strength of its software and UI. With the Nokia widgets launched for the N97, users will have all the information they need at their desktops. Touch is just an interface that is grossly overrated. The Nokia N97 offers a QWERTY as well because its designers understand that users dont want to be limited by speed/usability of a particular interface. When a phone is so much in itself, it finds expression in the way its users want to eventually use it.

Kumar Ramadorai said...

stylus is not pain actually,one would be better off using it than screwing up your fingers,Aslan!!

Geetika Shah said...

problems with touch screens is reallllly slow response when they start getting old..now you cnat replace the screen...so what option other than dumping out of frustration and buying a new phone?especially when its priced at 35k its rather silly.

Geetika Shah said...

and just because sony xperia, samsungs omnia etc etc are coming up with new models which have touch screens,nokia should not necessarily give in.Nokia's turf is the ruggedness its phones have..

djvnom said...

@ Geetika - Nokia has hardly had any touch screen models in the past. The current market demand is for touch screen's especially after the launch of the iPhone. With the N97 you have best of both worlds..... Touch as well as keypad.

djvnom said...

@ Geetika - Thanks a lot for your detailed comments. Please let us know if there is any particular article or feature you would like us to cover. Keep visiting the blog and posting comments.

Sunaina Joshi said...

i have a touch screen laptop and it can be damn slow in responding at times...wonder how it is with touch screen cell phones.though the ipod touch i have seen my friends using is quite good

Shantanu said...

I have seen the Jesus phone (i-Phone fanboys call it the J Phone! :P) die with a fall (The Glass Breaks and it becomes useless)

Shantanu said...

I hope Nokia lives upto its name in Ruggedness... thats how the devices shud be... they make ur world they shudnt be ur world! ;)

Gaurav said...

Does the screen also protect itself even in case of a fall. The essence of the phone and I hope that Nokia lives upto its reputation of ruggedness here as well

Smita Jindal said...

it would be great if nokia gives scratch guards for free with their n97...users who dont know abt the concept dont have to wait till they discover the first scratch on the phone!

Chintan Mehta said...

touch screens can be delicate darlings...scratches hurt even on our usual screens...wonder how painful it wld be for a touch screen!

Arpita said...

Touch screens are cool. Have you seen the morphing touchpad?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4RWL2xD0UU

Nokia, are you listening?

Vipin said...

I had read about iphone somewhere that the touchscreen responds only to touch of the skin as such and hence was causing problems with people with long nails (which essentially translates to ladies mostly).. wonder if such problems shall occur with n97 as well..

Amit Mahalingam said...

@Arpita: Morphing touchpad?awesome!

Ravish Chaubey said...

good gyan. i think phone companies should start giving a printout of this blog with their phones. though lazy hounds like me long for the day when we may even rub our phone's screen against the wall and still nothing happens to it.

Paromita said...

i've seen the responsiveness go down. all the info is great, not just for n97 users, but all touchphone owners in general.