What is the difference between the Capacitive Touchscreen and Resistive Touchscreen? Which is better?

What is the difference between a capacitive and a resistive touchscreen tablet/phone?

• Answer:

  1. Resistive: requires the application of pressure at a point on the screen, e.g. using a fingernail or stylus/pen, onto a layer over the display itself. Used on older displays, on the toughest weather-, dust-, and shock-proof electronics (e.g. Panasonic ToughBook laptops, which are used in the field by the military), and now on lower-end, cheaper consumer electronics. Traditionally seen as the most precise, most physically robust, and hardest to trigger of the main touchscreen technologies, though I'm not sure if that's still the case. 2. Capacitative: requires very close proximity to the skin, as it uses the skin as a conductor and detects its presence using a layer made up of a grid of capacitance sensors applied over the display itself. The most sensitive/easy-to-trigger, and expensive of the main touchscreen technologies. Perhaps not as precise as resistive. Popularised by Apple's iPhone, and in use on most mid-range to high-end smartphones and tablet computers today, for the iPod scrollwheel (from second generation onwards), and in laptop touch/trackpads.