If you’re an avid social media user and have a 3-in-1 laptop that can be folded over and used as a giant touchscreen tablet, then a laptop with a large, premium touchscreen could be lots of fun for you to use.
But does battery life take too much of a hit to justify the laptop touchscreen experience?
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Do Touchscreen Laptops Use More Battery?
Yes. Touchscreen laptops do use more battery than non-touchscreen models – somewhere in the region of 10% to 25% more – with 10% being closer to the norm. This is because touchscreen laptops have to power an additional component called a digitizer (a thin see-through plastic layer that registers touch input and sends it to the CPU).
Touchscreen laptops are also usually higher-end models with brighter, higher-resolution, and more color-accurate screens that use more battery power than regular HD laptops.
Will Disabling The Touchscreen Improve Battery Life?
Unfortunately, disabling the touch screen via your operating system’s settings will likely save very little if any battery power. This is because the components of the digitizer will remain on and continue to draw power from the battery, however, the touch inputs will just be ignored by the operating system.
To get any significant power-saving benefits, you’d likely have to physically disconnect the hardware that controls the digitizer and this would no doubt void your warranty and run the risk of you damaging other parts of the screen.
Also Read: Are Chromebooks Better Than Laptops? (All You Need To Know)
How Can I Save Battery On My Touchscreen Laptop?
When compared to other features of high-end screens, like added brightness and UHD resolution, the additional power usage required for touch screen functionality is small.
If you have a touchscreen laptop and would like to save battery power, you’d save far more by focusing on things like reducing screen brightness, disabling features like Bluetooth and WiFi when not needed, and watching content in full HD instead of 4K.
Is Having A Touchscreen On Your Laptop Worth The Shorter Battery Life?
A touchscreen will be worth the shorter battery life if you enjoy using it and have a few different uses for it. If you like to use a stylus to draw on the screen, use touch to navigate web pages, a pinch with your fingers to zoom closer into maps and pictures, or fold and flip your screen into portrait mode to read or scroll social media, then a touch screen will be worth the reduction in battery life.
2-in-1 touchscreen laptops are great for use in confined spaces.
Being able to flip your laptop over and use it as a touchscreen tablet is great for tight spots in cafes and libraries or on public transport.
Students also find 2-in-1 laptops handy for note-taking, presentations, filling in PDFs, reading, sketching, etc.
So if you’re a student or someone who’ll enjoy interacting with a touch screen to scroll social media, browse the web, read or zoom into photos, then a touchscreen laptop will be well worth the bit of battery life you’ll have to sacrifice.
But if you find that you rarely stray from the trackpad and keyboard, then save yourself the extra expense and the battery life.
