2024’s best touchscreen laptops for the ultimate user convenience

Every modern gadget seems to come with a touchscreen whether it needs one or not, but somehow finding the best laptop with touchscreen has always been a little tricky. Like many hybridised technologies, adding this new input tech to devices that already have several others to choose from hasn't always resulted in the best laptops. Sometimes this is down to the operating systems not having touchscreen-friendly UIs. Others suffer because of poor sensitivity and lack of support for pressure-sensitive pens.

But now, the best laptop with touchscreen is a true hybrid – both in software design and form factor. The technology has finally come of age, and now even some budget laptops have touchscreens that can flip backwards to become a tablet. But what are the benefits of a touchscreen laptop, and which one is right for you?

The best touchscreen laptops at a glance:

• Best overall: Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 360 – View at John Lewis
• Best budget: Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 – View on Amazon
• Best high-end: ASUS Zenbook Duo 14 OLED – View on Amazon

Well, it's worth mentioning that if you're looking for the best laptop deals, opting for a touchscreen will reduce your choice a little. Touchscreens – at least, the reliable type – don't come cheap, but they can still be affordable. There's a lot more choice out there the higher your budget, with some seriously powerful laptop hardware behind them. Essentially, there are many great reasons to buy one of these – from productivity enhancements to being able to fold it into a tablet to take notes on. Thankfully, we're here to help you narrow things down – with our expert buyer's guide and more at the end of the article.

We've found touchscreen laptops for under £1000 as well as a few that tip the scales at almost £3000. If you need all that power and have deep enough pockets, some could even rival many desktop machines. So, fingertips and stylus pens at the ready – here are our picks for the best laptop with touchscreen of the year.

The best touchscreen laptops of 2024:

All prices are correct at the time of writing. Prices, stock and deals are subject to change without notice.

FAQs

Can you disable the touchscreen on a laptop?

It depends on and varies by model, but for the most part, you should be able to disable the touchscreen. If your device is leaning towards the tablet side of design, it may not be possible, but it will be an option for any standard laptop with a touchscreen.

To turn off the touchscreen, you'll need to disable it via the device manager. This is usually located in the control panel, which you can find in your settings. There should also be other options here, so you could turn down the sensitivity if that's the main issue.

Certain laptops will also have key shortcuts to enable and disable the touchscreen, which is much easier and more convenient than hunting down the exact settings page.

Are touchscreen laptops good for drawing?

While they don't rival dedicated drawing tablets, touchscreen laptops are fantastic for drawing. Many come with a stylus or are at least compatible with one, so drawing should feel more or less automatically natural. The touchscreen provides a better sense of tactile feedback that a regular laptop cannot replicate.

The best touchscreen laptops for drawing perform well with creative apps. Any laptop well-suited to using the Adobe Creative Suite gets bonus points here.

Who is it best suited for?

If you're a digital creative working in media or photography, the best laptop with touchscreen is your best friend. Often bundled with a pressure-sensitive stylus or pen, having a screen you can work directly with in this way is a godsend, unleashing new types of creativity, Of course, underneath this is still a laptop rather than a souped-up tablet, so you should prioritise the graphics card and RAM. Yes, the best 17-inch laptops will give you a massive screen to work on, but touchscreens at this size are a bit of a rarity.

If you need to use your touchscreen laptop as a business productivity or study tool that will work well with Office 365, look at the CPU and keyboard. Casual users who like to do a bit of everything can afford to look for less high-end but more evenly-balanced specifications.

How to use a touchscreen laptop?

So, you have a laptop that can turn into a (although slightly less slim) touchscreen tablet. But when is it time to use a laptop like a tablet and vice versa? Well, touchscreens are everywhere in all manner of devices these days – but that doesn't mean we should take them for granted.

Very specific uses for a touchscreen on a laptop are being able to interact fluidly with websites designed for mobile devices. And there are also various mobile games that work best with touchscreens. Plus, there's using the touchscreen as a handy extension of your existing control interfaces. For instance, photographers use pinch to zoom and designers take full advantage of the special pressure-sensitive pens that make drawing and design work direct and intuitive. Also, students can use the same accessories to take notes the old-fashioned way and convert that handwriting into editable text. Business people can utilise touchscreens for giving desk-based presentations, avoiding constant mouse or keyboard interactions.

Should I use a screen protector?

Don't forget that you'll need to protect that beautiful shiny touchscreen. A range of easy-to-apply adhesive glass screen protectors are available to suit all models. They will also allow the touchscreen to work as normal and protect it from light impacts and scratches. Make sure you have enough money left to keep it safe and secure too, with a laptop backpack, case or an impact-resistant bag.

Can you use a mouse with a touchscreen laptop?

Yes. Just because a laptop has a touchscreen doesn't mean you can't use it as a regular laptop. You can connect an external mouse, keyboard and more via Bluetooth or the available ports. While touchscreen laptops are great for creative work and tablet-style browsing, gamers (other than fans of mobile gaming) will prefer a mouse for their sessions. For hardcore players, a dedicated gaming laptop is the best option – but those are less likely to have a touchscreen.

Will I still need a VPN?

Having the best laptop with touchscreen means it's much more usable in a number of settings. So, chances are you'll need to connect to public wifi at some point. While you should invest in security suite software such as Bitdefender or McAfee, what about your personal data and privacy? A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a secure tunnel to the internet that hides your IP address from would-be hackers and snoopers. If privacy is your priority, we highly recommend an affordable VPN for that extra layer of security.

Best touchscreen laptop of 2024: Jargon buster

Capacitive Touch

This is the key technology that makes a screen sensitive to touch from your finger or a stylus pen. They work by having a conductive material embedded between the layers of the screen. That layer is sensitive enough to detect minute changes in electrical charge caused by your fingertip touching the screen. The software relays that to the operating system as the same sort of coordinate-based input used by a standard mouse. Of course, a capacitive touchscreen can achieve more than a normal mouse, thanks to supporting multiple touchpoint gestures; such as using two fingers to pinch and zoom.

Solid State Drives (SSD)

SSD is a newer version of HDDs (Hard Disk Drives). You're more likely to find them inside the best laptop with touchscreen because they're slim, silent and fast. They use no moving parts: it's far quicker at data retrieval. They write and read using electronic flash memory, much like USB flash drives. Data is stored in grids and blocks, and though the process is more complicated than in HDD, the available space is utilised more efficiently thanks to a series of processes that go on behind the scenes.

CPU

A Central Processing Unit, or CPU, processes and executes instructions. They often consist of multiple cores. The higher the number of cores the more processes it can carry out, improving performance. CPUs have a 'clock speed' that is measured in GHz – the frequency of the number of operations. In theory, the higher the GHz number, the better and quicker a computer can operate.

RAM

Random Access Memory, or RAM, is short-term memory. It temporarily holds information for quick access by the CPU as it runs various programs and services. The more RAM available, the more quick-access information there is for the CPU, thereby improving computer performance.

GPU

A GPU is a Graphical Processing Unit – the central component of a graphics card. It handles the rendering of images to the computer screen. The best laptop with touchscreen is going to have a cut-down version of the much larger cards available for desktops.

Resolution

Resolution is the measurement of pixels on your screen, such as 1920 x 1080 (Full HD). Therefore, the higher the pixel count, the greater the resolution of your screen which means more detail. 4K screens are currently at the higher end of available PC and touchscreen laptop resolutions.

Kyle Purves is a Commercial Content Writer for What’s The Best, with an avid interest in all things gaming and tech.

They’re well-versed in reviewing a variety of tech products, with a soft spot for speakers and earphones. They’re also no stranger to hunting down the best savings, always wanting to get the best deal possible. Outside of work, they can often be found playing through an RPG, listening to Japanese noise rock, or trying to catch up with their ever-expanding list of shows and anime to watch. If possible, they try to play Dungeons and Dragons a couple of times a week, but getting six adults to be free at the same time is easier said than done.

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