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Ask HN: Laptops with a touch screen are terrible?

by puppycodes on 4/10/25, 6:01 PM with 5 comments

Is it just me or are laptops with a touch screen terrible? I like a touch screen and I love a laptop respectively but the combination feels extremely discordant and prone to accidental clicks and errors. Am I just old and stuck in my ways? Just wondering if anyone has additional thoughts on this topic?

  • by bencelaszlo on 4/11/25, 2:38 PM

    I have a Thinkpad Yoga 260. I disable the keyboard in "tablet mode" and use plasma-mobile for better touchscreen UX. It's a tolerable experience this way, but it's nowhere near as polished as a mainstream tablet or smartphone.

  • by JohnFen on 4/10/25, 7:45 PM

    I think they're awful. They're not useful, and they sometimes actively cause me problems. I just disable the touch screen on them entirely.

  • by devonnull on 4/10/25, 8:44 PM

    I'm ambivalent. My employer issued me with a touch screen laptop and I rarely touch the screen. So much so that I forget that the screen is touch sensitive.

    It does get a bit annoying on those occasions when I try to wipe a bit of dust of something off the screen and accidentally hit the button to leave a meeting or close a window. That doesn't happen too often, though.

  • by pabs3 on 4/11/25, 3:21 AM

    In 2011 I got a laptop with a touchpoint, touchpad, touchscreen with both finger and stylus input, and it was great to have the additional inputs when needed.

  • by SvenL on 4/10/25, 6:11 PM

    I like it. It allows here and there to use touch gestures. Have a Baby on one arm and need to scroll in the recipe or make it larger with other arm? Yes, touch gestures are easier for me in such a situation.

    I mean touch display does not annoy when you are using laptop the normal way, but opens more ways of using it in unusual situations.