Because phones with capacitive screen cannot select a web link with finger, especially those tiny ones placed closely to each other, without zooming in first! Imagine how frustrating zooming in and out many times for web browsing. with Resistive all we have to do is select the link with the tip of our finger nail or stylus!
IMO, capacitive or multi touch is only good for gaming. when it comes to Web Browsing, resistive screen rocks!
I can't speak of capacitive and resistive screen in general but can speak of the touch-screen phones I've used - that is: the iPhone 3GS, the Nokia 5800 and the Nokia N900.
The iPhone was (and still is) a real pleasure to browse the web with. The capacitive touchscreen seemed to always know what I wanted to do. I can't remember a single occasion where I clicked a wrong link or had to zoom in to click on the iPhone. Or perhaps I had to zoom but zooming was so smooth and natural that I didn't even notice it (and more importantly, it didn't piss me off). As the usability test posted in another thread here mentioned: the iPhone really shows how touch screens should be.
The Nokia 5800 with its resistive screen was another story altogether. Clicking links was a complete nightmare alright and it would get it wrong most times as soon as there were links too close to each other. Always had to zoom in or get the stylus out and either was a real pain (it's really quite shocking to see how bad the zoom functionality is on S60 smartphones).
The N900 on the other side is miles better than the 5800 and pretty much on par with the iPhone. I don't remember ever having to zoom in or get the stylus out to click links. The only occasions where I had to do it were when I was trying to click buttons on a Flash media player. But then, the Flash integration on the N900 is in general quite clunky and hasn't been well thought-out IMHO. On the other side, few if any other phone even support the full version of Flash ATM so I won't complain too much. One thing that really annoys me with the N900 however is that it doesn't always act when you click a link. I'm seeing this often when browsing talk.maemo.org. I click a link in a post and the browser highlights it, indicating that it registered my tap. But it doesn't do anything. I sometimes have to tap 4 or 5 times before the link eventually opens in a new window. This small bug does ruins a little bit for me whatever advantage the resistive touch screen might have when it comes to clicking links.
I think this all demonstrates that hardware technology is of little value when not coupled with the best software. Even if you consider resistive touch screens to be the best technology for a touch web browser, the Nokia 5800 demonstrates that it's worthless when coupled with poor software. And the iPhone demonstrate that inferior hardware technology can lead to vastly more enjoyable and usable products when coupled with the best software.
What makes the N900 so good as a web browsing device in my opinion isn't the resistive screen but simply the fact that Nokia finally got the software right. I'm sure it'll be just as good with a capacitive screen in the next iteration of Maemo.
n900 screen rocks!
only thing that is frustrating is selecting tekst from a website en copie and paste tekst. Bij i am still working on this item how to do this anyone any idee?
n900 screen rocks!
only thing that is frustrating is selecting tekst from a website en copie and paste tekst. Bij i am still working on this item how to do this anyone any idee?
hmm.swipe you finger from left outside of screen and lock cursor and use cursor to select text.Or on textbox like this shift+cursor keys.
capcative screens are much easy to use when driving (but then i dont use it in my stand- it sits inbetween my legs)- i control my mp3's my maps , my email, my txt my phone) on the m25 on my iphone laoods- jeas i couldnt do that with my n900 or other resistive screens.
imagine trying to get out a pokey stick whist driving jeas
multitouch is so good- on fast devices that its so easy to zoom and click.
but resitive still has its place and works very well on this device.
i would be interested to see which one would work the best overall
id say just capactive-- but its really nice playing with that drawing programme i love it- and surely that wouldnt be the same on capactive
