Industry info - Capacitive Touchscreen vs Resistive Touchscreen
Time:2023-03-21
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What is Resistive Touchscreen?
Resistive touchscreens use pressure as input. Made up of several layers of flexible plastic and glass, the front layer is scratch resistant plastic and the second layer is (usually) glass. These are both coated with conductive material. When someone applies pressure to the panel, the resistance is measured between the two layers highlighting where the point of contact is on the screen.
Advantages
Some of the benefits of resistive touch panels include the minimal production cost, flexibility when it comes to touch (gloves and styluses can be used) and its durability – strong resistance to water and dust.
Disadvantages
Resistive touchscreen panels are unfortunately more susceptible to dents and scratches. Their poor visibility in direct sunlight does not make them ideal for outdoor applications. Their inability to respond to multi-touch inputs can be a disadvantage in fast-paced applications requiring such. Because resistive touchscreens rely on the pressure applied to the top layer, they tend to be abused and mishandled, which makes them less durable over time than capacitive touchscreens.
What is Capacitive Touchscreen?
A capacitive touchscreen panel is made of an insulator, usually glass, that is coated with a transparent conductor. Capacitive touchscreen displays respond to conductive inputs like a fingertip and don‘t require pressure to activate a "touch event." It detects and responds to changes in capacitance caused by the screen‘s electrostatic field when the screen‘s surface is touched.
Advantages
If you want increased screen contrast and clarity, capacitive touch screens are the preferred option over resistive screens, which have more reflections due to their number of layers. Capacitive screens are also far more sensitive and can work with multi-point inputs, known as "multi-touch". However, because of these advantages, they are sometimes less cost-effective than resistive touch panels.
Disadvantages
The cost of a capacitive touchscreen is slightly higher than a resistive touchscreen panel due to more complicated manufacturing processes. The enhanced responsiveness can be a downside depending on how and where the display is used. For example, a capacitive touchscreen would not easily respond to the user while wearing certain types of gloves. Although capacitive touchscreens don’t respond to inorganic inputs, they can still be accidentally activated by other conductive elements. One of the the most common elements that causes interruptions is water. Rain, humidity, and condensation on the surface of capacitive touchscreens will often cause accidental inputs and reduced accuracy until the water is removed. This is one of the main reasons why a resistive touchscreen would be chosen over a capacitive touchscreen in certain situations.
