Differences between a resistive screen and a capacitive Screen

First, the resistance screen:
The screen part of the resistive touch screen is a multilayer composite film. A layer of glass or plexiglass serves as the base layer, and the surface is coated with a transparent conductive layer (itofilm ), the top is covered with a plastic layer with a surface hardened and smooth scratch resistance. Its inner surface is also coated with an ITO layer, which is separated by many small (less than 1 inch) Transparent isolation points between the two conductive layers. When the finger is in touch with the screen, two layers of ITO are in contact, and the resistance changes. The controller calculates the coordinates of the contact points based on the detected resistance changes, and then performs corresponding operations according to the coordinates, therefore, this technology must be applied to the screen to obtain the touch effect.
The resistance screen is divided into four-wire, five-wire, and Other types based on the number of leads. The outer surface of the 5-wire resistive touch screen is conductive glass instead of conductive coating layer. This conductive glass has a long life and a high light transmittance.
If the ito coating of the resistive touch screen is too thin, it is easy to Brittle Break. If the coating is too thick, it will reduce light transmission and form inner reflection to reduce the definition. Due to the frequent touch, the surface Ito may have small cracks or even variants after a certain period of time, so its life is not long.
The resistive touch screen is cheap and easy to produce. The appearance of four-wire, five-wire and seven-wire and eight-wire touch screens makes the screen more reliable and improves its optical properties.

Let's talk about the capacitive screen:
Capacitive touch screen uses the current sensing of the human body to work. Its touch screen consists of a layer-4 composite glass screen. When the finger is touched on the touch screen, due to the electric field of the human body, the user and the surface of the touch screen form a coupling capacitor, for high-frequency current, the capacitor is a direct conductor, so the finger sucked a small current from the contact point. The current flows out from the electrodes on the four corners of the touch screen, and the current flowing through the four electrodes is proportional to the distance from the fingers to the four corners. The controller accurately calculates the ratio of the four currents, obtains the position information of the touch point.
Capacitive touch screen has the advantages of high sensitivity and easy multi-touch technology. However, the disadvantages of the capacitive screen are also obvious, and the screen reflection of the capacitive screen is serious. The four-layer composite touch screen of the capacitive technology is not uniform in the light transmittance of each wavelength, and there is a problem of color distortion, the reflection of light between layers also blur the image characters. In addition, the technical features of mobile phone users determine that they can only operate with their fingers (now this disadvantage is regarded as an advantage ...). The biggest drawback of the capacitive screen is "floating ". Because the capacitance varies with the temperature, humidity, or grounding conditions, when the ambient temperature, humidity, and ambient electric field change, the capacitive screen may drift, resulting in inaccurate positioning.
Multi-touch technology:
The definition of multi-touch comes from the application. The biggest feature of multi-touch screen is that you can operate the content of the screen with two hands, multiple fingers, or even multiple people, making it more convenient and user-friendly. multi-touch technology is also called multi-touch technology. For example, the iPhone uses two fingers to drag and zoom out the image on the screen, however, currently, the iPhone and meizu M8 mobile phones can only work with two fingers at the same time to complete the rotation, scaling, and other functions. It can be considered as a dual touch at most. The principle of multi-point touch screen is that many independent touch units are allocated on the conductive layer, and each unit is connected to an external circuit through an independent lead. Because all the touch units are arranged in a matrix, the system can respond to the corresponding finger action no matter which part the user's finger is exposed.
Capacitive screens are easy to implement multi-touch technology. The resistance screen can also implement multi-touch technology. Currently, a company has implemented more than 4-point multi-touch on the Resistance screen.

Resistive touch screens are commonly known as "soft screens" and are mostly used for mobile phones in Windows Mobile systems. capacitive touch screens are commonly known as "Hard screens", such as iPhone and G1.

1. Indoor visual effect
The two are usually good.

Ii. Touch sensitivity
1. resistive touch screen: the screen layers must be in contact with pressure. You can use your fingers (even with gloves), nails, and pens to perform operations. Support pen touch is very important in the Asian market, where gesture and text recognition are valued.
2. capacitive touch screen: the most subtle contact from the surface of the electrified finger can also activate the capacitive sensing system at the bottom of the screen. Inactive objects, nails, and gloves are invalid. Handwriting Recognition is difficult.

Iii. Precision
1. resistive touch screen: The precision can reach at least a single display pixel, which can be seen when touched by a pen. It is easy for Handwriting Recognition and helps you operate on a small control element interface.
2. capacitive touch screen: the theoretical precision can reach several pixels, but the actual contact area is limited by the finger. This makes it difficult for users to accurately click targets smaller than 1cm2.

Iv. Cost
1. resistive touch screen: Very low.
2. capacitive touch screen: The capacitive screen prices of different manufacturers are 10% to 50% more expensive than the resistive screen. This extra cost does not matter to flagship products, but it may block medium-price mobile phones.

5. multi-touch feasibility
1. resistive touch screen: impossible, unless the resistance screen is reorganized and connected to the circuit of the machine.
2. capacitive touch screen: depending on the implementation method and software, it has been implemented on the G1 technical demonstration and iPhone. The 1.7t version of G1 can implement the multi-point touch feature of browsers.

Vi. Damage Resistance
1. resistive touch screen: the fundamental feature of a resistive screen determines that the top of the screen is soft and can be pressed down. This makes the screen very easy to produce scratches. Resistance screens require protective film and more frequent calibration. The advantage is that plastic-layer resistive touch screen devices are less vulnerable and less vulnerable.
2. capacitive touch screen: glass can be used for the outer layer. Although this will not be indestructible, and may be broken under a severe impact, but glass should be better suited to daily scratches and stains.

7. Clean
1. resistive touch screen: Because touch pens or nails can be used for operation, it is not easy to leave fingerprints, oil stains and bacteria on the screen.
2. capacitive touch screen: touch the screen with the entire finger, but the outer glass is easier to clean.

VIII. Environmental Adaptability
1. resistor touch screen: the specific value is unknown. However, there is evidence that the Nokia 5800 with a screen resistance can work properly at-15 °C to + 45 °C, and there is no requirement for humidity.
2. capacitive touch screen: a typical operating temperature ranges from 0 ° to 35 ° and requires at least 5% humidity (working principle limited ).

9. visible effect in the sun
1. resistive touch screen: Usually very bad. The extra screen layer reflects a lot of sunlight.
2. capacitive touch screen: still good.