Engadget says a touchscreen is a minor perk on a laptop. Tablets cost less, and a touchless laptop may give you more for the money.
Paying extra for a touchscreen laptop is hard to justify on touch alone, according to a new Engadget piece. The touch part is a small bonus. The real value of a laptop is everything else it includes. If touch is what you want, a tablet may be the better and cheaper buy.
Apple recently announced its first touchscreen Mac, the PROLED MacBook Pro. That is a surprise, because co-founder Steve Jobs once called touchscreen laptops "ergonomically terrible" and pointed buyers to the iPad, launched in 2010. Meanwhile, iPads have grown more Mac-like, and some Android tablets have become more PC-like. The line between the two is blurring.
Tablets are often hundreds of dollars cheaper. That matters now, since the article notes that memory prices are rocketing. They are also lighter, which helps on a long flight. Their touch-first design matches a phone, so the writer sometimes recommends an iPad as a first computer for kids and seniors.
Every laptop comes with a keyboard and trackpad. On a tablet, those are paid add-ons. A physical keyboard is easier to type on and frees up screen space. A trackpad is more precise for tasks like selecting text or working with audio and video timelines.
Professionals and serious gamers who need heavy-duty tools have little choice but a laptop.
On a laptop, touch can make some things a bit easier, such as scrolling a long page with a finger or testing a mobile app you are building. Foldable 2-in-1 laptops can double as a tablet on the couch. But Windows and macOS are not built around touch, and long note-taking or drawing on an upright screen is uncomfortable. For that, a drawing pad or tablet is better.
Start by asking whether you need touch at all. The article says it is rarely essential unless you do illustration, handwritten notes or high-end photo editing. A touchless laptop might cost about the same as a comparable tablet. It could also let you put the savings toward a better graphics chip or a bigger screen.
Memory and storage are another option. More RAM, the short-term memory that helps a computer juggle tasks, can make multitasking smoother. More storage means deleting files and apps less often. Those upgrades help for the life of the device. A touchscreen you do not need may sit unused after a few weeks.
Before paying extra for touch, check whether a cheaper tablet would do, or whether a touchless laptop with more RAM or storage serves you better.
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