Resisitive vs Capacitive - Know your touchscreen

Maybe you have realized that your touchscreen device does not work quite the same way as your friend's, but do you know why?

Well, it can be because you're both using different touchscreen technology.

You see there are two types of touchscreens:
1. Resistive touchscreens  
2. Capacitive touchscreens

Resistive touchscreens work based on pressure - the screen is made up of several different layers of plastic.  As you apply pressure to the top-most layer (the part you can touch) it flexes onto the layer below allowing a circuit to be completed, this of course tell the device which part of the screen was pressed.

Pros:

• Cheaper to manufacture - as a result they are found on cheaper devices
• Resistive touchscreens are versatile - they can be operated with a finger, fingernail, stylus, pen, pencil etc.
• Can be used with handwriting recognition systems - being able to write with a stylus as you would with a pen on a sheet of paper
• Somewhat more accurate than capacitive touchscreens
• Does not "break" as easily as capactive screens' glass panels

Cons:

• There is little to no multi-touch support - this means that pinch-to-zoom is not something you can count on with this type of screen
• It is quite vulnerable to scratches - then again it is plastic
• Poor visibility in direct sunlight mostly due to the multiple layers reflecting light

Capacitive touchscreens do not rely on pressure, instead they are made of a glass panel coated with a transparent conductor which is able to sense the conductive properties of objects, such as the human finger (or toe...lol).  Because of the presence of glass as opposed to plastic, capacitive screens tend to used hardened or chemically treated glass such as the now famous Gorilla glass from Corning.

Pros:

• Supports multi-touch - the newer ones supporting up to ten-points multi-touch
• Excellent visibility even in direct sunlight
• Not easily scratched if you're lucky enough to have something like Gorilla Glass
• Highly sensitive to finger touch making it extremely easy to use
• Smoother response
• Glossy look and feel which makes it seem more expensive - oh yeah it is more expensive...lol

Cons:

• More expensive than Resistive touch screen
• Does not work with inanimate objects such as fingernails or pens
• The glass panel is more susceptible to breaking than resistive screens