Hi All,

Recently I noticed N900 screens on sale over at ebay (some here & here). These screens are resistive type and exactly similar (that's what I think) to the ones used in the N900. Buying the screen also gets you instructions and necessary tools to carefully replace it all by yourself.

Now as the screen is user replaceable, I was wondering, if we can use a capacitive screen instead of the resistive screen. Not sure about the compatible connectors and all other stuff though.

As I understand the main reason why MeeGo (with Nokia UI on top) won't be officially supported on N900 is because Nokia's UI are quite optimized for multi-touch/capacitive screens. Hoping that a capacitive screen on our N900 would be able to run Nokia's UI happily.

Any thoughts/experiences?

Why? Whats the benefit of Multitouch except for pinch to zoom (wow) and rotate images with two fingers (how could this ever be usefull? i mean if I want to turn the picture i just turn the phone...)

Sure! Maybe Nokia will support MeeGo for the n900 if we all replace our screen with an capacitive one!
Seriously, the main reason is because the n900 is dead and Nokia is lazy.


I thinki every UI made for Multitouch will be useable with non-multitouch screen. Just replace pinch to zoom with swirl to zoom and rotate with accelerometer.

I use Nitdroid a lot, and this could possibly help it`s progress!
Then, on meego, and N8 apps if they could ever be avaiable to N900,
I would prefer to have a multitouch screen.

That's quite short-sighted.

Why do we need TV remotes, when we can walk to the tv and press the channel up/down button 300 times?


To OP:
You have to check if the N900 mainboard supports the connections. The screen may also need drivers from whichever OS you plan to use.

The touch screen controller (Texas Instruments TSC2005) of the N900 only supports resistive. Even if you can make the connector fit it won't work with capacitive.

Just forget about it, devices like this aren't made with hardware upgrades in mind.

Well, but as an example, using it on Nitdroid, can`t we use other drivers?
I'm not sure how open source the android is, but maybe the drivers are
models specific? If not, it`s possible to set it up, not?

It is not only a driver problem but of different chip controller. Capacitive and resistive touch screens are very different technolgies and need different hardware for interfacing. May be someone can build an I2C interface to a capacitive controller and then a driver in the kernel would be able to use it, but is not a simple way.....
And what about mechanical compatibility?

The comparison to TV remote is wrong:
better:
why do we need a TV remote that you can only use with gloves made of anti-static conductive foam and where you have to press two buttons at once to get one action.


Sorry but I never needed Multitouch up to now.
In my opinion a user interface that needs two fingers instead
of one is somewhat broken.


It seems that resistive touchscreen can do multitouch:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistive_touchscreen
I for myself do not see the need for it.

Why I rather like resistive touchscreen:
"Resistive touchscreen technology works well with almost any stylus-like object. In some circumstances, this is more desirable than a capacitive touchscreen, which has to be operated with a capacitive pointer, such as a bare finger."
and
"Capacitive sensors detect anything which is conductive or having dielectric properties.
...
A standard stylus cannot be used for capacitive sensing, unless it is tipped with some form of conductive material, such as anti-static conductive foam.

Capacitive touchscreens are more expensive to manufacture and offer a lesser degree of accuracy than resistive touchscreens.[5]

Capacitive touchscreens cannot be used with gloves, and can fail to sense correctly with even the smallest amounts of water - you could use a resistive screen briefly in the rain, or with wet hands, not so with a capacitive screen.
..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitive_sensing

I think this is a huge disadvantage for capacitive touchscreens
as I always want the choice between stylus, my finger and a glove
(if it is cold outside).
Needing an additional property ("having dielectric properties")
is senseless for such devices.

i would only consider doing the replacement if it was with a resistive multitouch screen (or some other technology better than resistive, which capacitive isn't)

Sorry, let me put it in simpler terms.

Multitouch is a different/simpler method of doing the same action (pinch to zoom is faster/simpler than pressing a button x number of times to find the perfect zoom factor).

You say there is no need for a different/simpler method.

The remote is a different/simpler method for changing channels on a TV.

So, by your views, there is no need for a different/simpler method for changing channels on a TV, i.e. a remote.

I support capacitive on the N900, but it would take too much effort and have very little pay-off in the end.