You're not crazy, and neither are we: The touchscreen on the Apple iPhone really is more responsive than the screens on the BlackBerry Storm, the Motorola Droid, the Nexus One and many other phones, even though all of these devices use essentially the same touch-sensing hardware.
Though handset makers buy their touchscreens as components from the same select pool of suppliers, a good touchscreen experience requires more than just hardware. It requires a bit of design alchemy blending software, engineering and calibration for the perfect feel. Few smartphone makers have managed to get that balance right, say experts.
“If you think that no other touchscreen out there is as good as the iPhone, its not all your in your head," says Chris Verplaetse, vice president of the Moto Development Group, a product design and development firm. “It's like asking what makes a Mercedes door close like a Mercedes door and a Hyundai door close like one though they use the same steel. There's clearly a difference."
Variables include engineering details such the calibration of the touch sensor so it can separate the signal from the noise, the quality of the firmware and the level of integration of the touch experience into the phone's user interface. There are also more difficult-to-quantify things such as as the level of the company's commitment to making the best touchscreen experience possible.
“Many layers account account for the performance of a touchscreen," says Verplaetse. “But it all comes down to how well the electronics and the mechanical hardware are integrated."
As cellphones became more powerful, allowing users to surf the internet and check e- mail, handset makers started to add touch capability to their phones. The earliest screens were resistive touchscreens, where two thin metallic layers are separated by a narrow gap. A finger pushing down on the top layer makes contact with the bottom surface and the point of contact is computed by the accompanying electronics.
But resistive touchscreens didn't make most consumers happy because they weren't responsive enough -- you had to really push and hammer away at the display with your fingernail or a stylus to get it to respond.
Though handset makers buy their touchscreens as components from the same select pool of suppliers, a good touchscreen experience requires more than just hardware. It requires a bit of design alchemy blending software, engineering and calibration for the perfect feel. Few smartphone makers have managed to get that balance right, say experts.
“If you think that no other touchscreen out there is as good as the iPhone, its not all your in your head," says Chris Verplaetse, vice president of the Moto Development Group, a product design and development firm. “It's like asking what makes a Mercedes door close like a Mercedes door and a Hyundai door close like one though they use the same steel. There's clearly a difference."
Variables include engineering details such the calibration of the touch sensor so it can separate the signal from the noise, the quality of the firmware and the level of integration of the touch experience into the phone's user interface. There are also more difficult-to-quantify things such as as the level of the company's commitment to making the best touchscreen experience possible.
“Many layers account account for the performance of a touchscreen," says Verplaetse. “But it all comes down to how well the electronics and the mechanical hardware are integrated."
As cellphones became more powerful, allowing users to surf the internet and check e- mail, handset makers started to add touch capability to their phones. The earliest screens were resistive touchscreens, where two thin metallic layers are separated by a narrow gap. A finger pushing down on the top layer makes contact with the bottom surface and the point of contact is computed by the accompanying electronics.
But resistive touchscreens didn't make most consumers happy because they weren't responsive enough -- you had to really push and hammer away at the display with your fingernail or a stylus to get it to respond.
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