resistive v. capacitive touchscreens

Touchscreens are used to interact directly with the displays on mobile phones, computer monitors, portable media players, portable game consoles, GPS receivers, and retail kiosks. 2 common touchscreen technologies are resistive and capacitive panels. In a resistive panel, there are 2 transparent conducting layers separated by a narrow gap. When pressure is applied, the layers make contact at a point whose position can be calculated by the resulting change in the electric field. Capacitive displays are coated with a layer that stores electrical charge. Touching the screen with your finger creates a measurable distortion in the electrostatic field, which is used to determine where the screen is being touched.

• Practically anything can be used as a pointing device on a resistive touchscreen, e.g., a finger, a stylus, a pen, or a twig. Capacitive touchscreens only respond to the presence of conductive materials like your fingers; a stylus or gloved hands won’t work.
• You can gesture using more than one finger to zoom, scroll, rotate, or otherwise manipulate items on a capacitive touchscreen. While multi-touch can be implemented on resistive displays as well, most commercial multi-touch devices are capacitive.
• Resistive touchscreens require pressure to operate; capacitive touchscreens will work with light contact.
• Resistive screens detect input more accurately, but capacitive screens are more responsive.
• Virtually all Windows Mobile devices use resistive touchscreens. iPhones and most Android phones use capacitive touchscreens.
• Capacitive sensors are more transparent than resistive sensors, allowing for brighter screens.
• Resistive screens are cheaper to manufacture than capacitive screens.

Quezi on resistive v. capacitive touchscreens

Wikipedia on touchscreens