Touchscreens used to be an important innovation on laptops, but today it seems as if manufacturers only include them because they are expected to be part of the specifications. Although most new Windows laptops still have a touch screen, the feature is rarely highlighted as an important advantage of the device.
During the presentation of new models at the CES 2026 fair, it was possible to see that many laptops have a touchscreen, but manufacturers almost never demonstrate how this function is used in practice. The presentations talk about performance, artificial intelligence, battery or games, while the touch screen remains in the background.
You are buying a laptop – what do you need a touch screen for?
One of the main reasons for this is the fact that most Windows applications are not adapted to work with touch commands. In the early stages of the development of Windows 8 and Windows 10 systems, there was an idea that the computer could be a device primarily intended for touch work, but that vision never fully came to life. Today, working on a Windows PC is still mostly mouse and keyboard based.
Although Windows 11 technically has a tablet mode, it is significantly simplified compared to earlier versions of the system. The changes are minimal, and the interface still remains adapted to classic work. Even the touch gestures are in some cases worse than before, so many users rarely use the touch screen.
There are also devices with two screens or convertible laptops whose screen can be rotated 360 degrees, but they also fail to take full advantage of touch operation. Without more serious optimization of software and applications, the touchscreen remains only an alternative way of managing the classic Windows interface.
The only segment where a touch screen still makes clear sense is working with a digital pen. Devices like the Surface Pro model allow for very precise note-taking or drawing in professional applications. However, most users do not use this function often.
Because of all this, the touchscreen screen on a laptop today represents an additional option that rarely changes the way the device is used. If the laptop that the user wants already has a touchscreen, it can be useful in certain situations, but in most cases it is not a decisive factor when buying, concludes PCWorld.