Thinking About Laptops, 2-in-1s, and Convertibles (Premium)

Several years ago, Mary Jo Foley and I debated the merits of multitouch displays on laptops. Mary Jo, who’s as set in her ways as anyone with that level of experience should be, wanted nothing to do with it. She argued that multitouch wasn’t just unnecessary on laptops, but undesirable. And I know she went on to specifically seek out laptop models that did not include multitouch displays, something that’s become quite difficult for much of the PC market.

My argument was logical enough: you may not think you want a multitouch display, but its presence on a laptop surely doesn’t hurt you. And you may find, over time, that you adapt to using its touch capabilities from time to time, that multitouch becomes just another way of interacting with the PC, alongside the keyboard and touchpad. For example, many people find it easy and natural to scroll through a document or website they’re reading using the touch screen.

And then some amount of time went by. Years. I don’t remember exactly. But I started to notice something. Because I use all portable PCs---more on this below---like laptops, in a traditional clamshell form factor, I rarely need a multitouch display. I’m a quick typist, and I don’t like taking my hands off the keyboard, and the traditional keyboard and touchpad interface almost always does the trick for me.

More to the point, however, multitouch can be a problem, too. Even if you’re not touching the display all the time, like you would with an iPad or other tablet, it can get smudged or dirty or, if you have cats or dogs like I do, covered in hair. And so you blow on the screen and, when that doesn’t work, you touch it to wipe off whatever unwanted thing is on there. And when you do that, you can inadvertently trigger all kinds of actions on screen. Because it supports multitouch.

Because I review so many laptops, I use a lot of differently configured PCs. And I recall thinking it was odd, some years ago, when Lenovo briefly switched its ThinkPad X1 Carbon to non-multitouch screens, the idea being that the more flexible X1 Yoga would be the sole place for customers in this market bracket that wanted touch (and smartpen) support. Presumably, customers complained, because that didn’t last very long: within the year, you could once again configure an X1 Carbon with a multitouch display.

I don’t think that Lenovo was onto something per se. After all, customers should at least be given the choice. But I’ve brushed aside enough cat hairs, or whatever, in my day to now realize the downside to multitouch, especially on a traditional laptop. And, increasingly, I believe as Mary Jo always did: if you don’t need or want it, you shouldn’t get multitouch on a traditional laptop. It’s just not worth it.

Related to this, laptop reviews tend to be a feast or famine situation where I go through a month or two with no new devices in for review and then I’m suddenly inundated with more PCs than I can ...