Touchscreen usage...

[CrippsCorner]

Just wondering how much you guys find you're using the touchscreen on your Surface? My setup's only been going a few weeks and I've been changing the ways I use it quite a bit...

Just for a recap I use Modern UI on Surface, extended to an external monitor with Desktop on it. At first I was using the old Alt + Tab to switch between the two, but now I find myself just touching the screen. It's close, and just easier!

I was interested to watch my girlfriend using IE on Surface (I had other things going on on my external monitor) and she still used the mouse for everything... didn't like touching the screen! Despite her using her own iPad all the time.

She also doesn't like the Apple Trackpad I bought her as much as I do lol. So, how about yourself?

 

[kristalsoldier]

I'd say in my case the ratio would be something like 35% touch screen usage and 65% not. But this is because I find myself using the TYPE cover and the RT in laptop-mode (I also use a Wedge mouse). The only times I seem to touch the screen is when I use the RT as a dedicated reading, media consumption and/ or browsing device. In the latter instance, the keyboard is almost always taken off. I had toyed with the idea of getting a TOUCH cover for the RT, but that would have been a waste for me.

 

[brocharlieb]

I guess I would just have to say that I use my Surface differently than its predecessors. The difference being directly related to the fact that it is a touch screen. I usually have the Surface set up with the type cover, but I use the screen a lot. I don't notice how much I use it until those rare occasions (now) that I choose to use my laptop, and keep finding myself trying to touch or swipe on the screen to navigate, and it just won't do it. So I'd just say that the touch nature of the Surface has changed the way I use the device.

 

[jnjroach]

I use the touchscreen about 90% of time....I use the OSK quite effectively.

 

[Lolvo]

I incorporate touch into about 90% of my use with the Surface; even now, when I have the keyboard attached, I still use touch gestures to navigate the device - only using the type & touch covers for typing and commands.

I couldn't see using the Surface without touch...

 

[compnovo]

I'm with the 90% crowd, even when in the desktop UI.

 

[jimkraz]

I have had a touch screen on my desktop since windows 7, used touch now and again, when I remembered, since getting my Surface RT, I find even on my desktop I use touch more often, on the surface I would say I join the 90% group.

 

[Nuspieds]

I don't think I can put a percentage to my touchscreen usage, but suffice to say I use it very regularly, even though I spend most of my time in Desktop mode.

As a matter of fact, I am so accustomed to using the touchscreen that when I switch to docked mode, I have found myself reaching to my external monitors to swipe (they are not touchscreen).

 

[whiteblazer01]

What? How is this even a question? The touchscreen is one of the main reasons I bought the SP over the Samsung Series 9. I didn't even know what the SP was until I was in a Best Buy with my brother so he can look at the iPads. Then we wandered over to the SP, and he was playing with the touchscreen. I said out loud, "Is...that...Windows?!" Sold. Yay touchscreen!!

 

[mitchellvii]

I'm just using my SP now pretty much like a tablet in a support role. I found it too limiting to use as my primary desktop (or laptop) replacement.

 

[Wayne Orwig]

What? How is this even a question? The touchscreen is one of the main reasons I bought the SP over the Samsung Series 9. I didn't even know what the SP was until I was in a Best Buy with my brother so he can look at the iPads. Then we wandered over to the SP, and he was playing with the touchscreen. I said out loud, "Is...that...Windows?!" Sold. Yay touchscreen!!

+1

I use the touchscreen over 90% of the time. And I use it in portrait orientation over 80% of the time. I find programs that force landscape irritating. I seldom use the type keyboard that I bought in fact.
I one day I was working on some data entry into a spreadsheet to verify some equipment calibration. The data was going into somewhat random cells. After about 10 minutes of using my work PC and the mouse and being bored to death, I pulled out my SP and did the job by just touching each cell and typing in the number. What a time saver that was compared to finding, wiggling, and clicking that mouse for each entry.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Well I find this very encouraging for Windows 8 in general, let alone the Surface

I guess my usage would be a lot higher myself if I used it more as a tablet and less as a desktop replacement.