There are many touch phones on the market today but none of them are comparable to the Apple iphone.  Most prominent touch phones such as BlackBerry Storm, Motorola Droid, and Nexus One do not have screen as responsive as Apple iphone.  Even though all these devices use the same touch sensing hardware and they all essentially get it from the same set of suppliers, it would not be wrong in saying that hardware is just a part of the overall touch experience. What makes iphone different is the blend of design, engineering and calibration to get that perfect balance.

Before, iphone, every single device in the market used the resistive touch screens, which did not do much for the consumers, except add a bit of irritation to their experience because resistive touch screens weren’t very responsive. A customer really had to press down the stylus or finger to get the display to respond.

With Apple iphone’s incorporation of capacitive sensing technology, the game of touch was entirely changed, because capacitive touch screens are not pressure sensitive. For the first time a user could effortlessly move literally meters of address book with just a flick of a finger. 

Smartphone users have no way of measuring how well the capacitive touch screens work. The users have to feel it to believe it. However, Moto Labs, Moto Development Group’s research group devised a simple test that tested different touch screens by using a drawing program to draw a few lines on the display.

On a good touch screen, users can draw straight lines; while inferior touch screens show lines that look scribbled (see the photo above). The scribbled lines happen because of the large sensor size or the touch-sampling rate may be too low to faithfully represent user inputs.

Moto Labs’ tests showed the iPhone had the most precise lines, though there was loss of sensitivity around the edges. The HTC Droid and Nexus One also did well, while the Motorola Droid’s touchscreen came out at the bottom.

In conclusion, I feel that this test is anything but accurate. If you move your fingers faster the lines tend to be straighter and cleaner. Also, it could also mean the finger strokes aren’t applied equally across all phones, may be the examiner was more careful on the first phone and lazy on the other ones. This test needs to be tested by several people to make more accurate assumptions and conclusions.

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