Resistive Vs. Capacitive Android Tablet

If you are in the market for a new Android touch screen tablet, there are some things to keep in mind. The two most common types of touch screens are resistive and capacitive Android tablet screens. This is an important distinction to discuss. Everyone's needs vary widely, so checking out the pros and cons as well as simply the difference between the two screen types are of utmost importance.

What is the difference between a resistive and capacitive touch screen?

Wikipedia defines a capacitive screen as "one which consists of an insulator such as glass, coated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide (ITO). As the human body is also a conductor, touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the screen's electrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance. Different technologies may be used to determine the location of the touch. The location is then sent to the controller for processing."

A resistive screen, according to Wikipedia, "is composed of several layers, the most important of which are two thin, electrically conductive layers separated by a narrow gap. When an object, such as a finger, presses down on a point on the panel's outer surface the two metallic layers become connected at that point: the panel then behaves as a pair of voltage dividers with connected outputs. This causes a change in the electrical current, which is registered as a touch event and sent to the controller for processing."
(Source cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen)

Now that you are more familiar with each screen type of touch screen tablet devices, let's go over the pros and cons of each before making a decision:

Resistive Touch Screen Tablets

Resistive touch screens have a high resolution of 4096 x 4096 DPI and up. This allows for accurate control of the touch screen using any object. This type of touch screen tablet responds to pressure on its surface; thus, it can be used with fingertip or stylus pressure. The downside to a resistive screen is that it isn't nearly as responsive as a capacitive screen and is of lower quality.

Capacitive Touch Screen Tablets

Capacitive Android tablets are more responsive than resistive touch screen devices, but are significantly less accurate with their markings. In general, a capacitive screen is of higher quality than a resistive screen. On the downside, capacitive screens are more expensive to produce, can't be used with gloves, don't work well when even a small amount of water is present on the screen, and usually can only be used with a fingertip; a regular stylus will not work. Special capacitive styli can be used in lieu of a fingertip.

Susan Slobac is a consultant in the personal gadget industry. Susan writes about trends in touch screen tablet & capacitive android tablet.