I have a Touch Pro. One of my managers has an iphone. I’ve used his quite a bit, setting up Exchange and so on. I have to say, a properly configured high quality resistive screen outshines a capacitive screen any day. Sure, the iphone (et al) has better touch response because it takes little force and no calibration to get proper on-screen keyboard response. However, how much better is “better?” In my experience, not much. It takes very little finger pressure to activate the on-screen Touch Pro keyboard. The biggest fault of the TP/Diamond’s onscreen keyboard is just the size. It’s small because the 2.8″ screen is small. The second “fault” is that swipe-scrolling is a shim ontop of the existing OS layer where scrollbars were king. It’s not perfect yet. Given time, the swipe-scrolling will improve greatly. Especially since WM7 and beyond will be much more “finger friendly” so swipe scrolling will be less of a kludge and more smoothly integrated.

Despite these faults, which are mentioned over and over and over by capacitive screen fans, I think the resistive screen is superior for the following reasons:

1. Stylus support. Precision is NOT POSSIBLE on capacitive screens since you can’t use a stylus. If you have a document (or web page) zoomed all the way out, there is no way to precisely click on the tiny link (or whatever) with your finger, but with a stylus — no problem! This is the biggest drawback. I use my fingers a lot and love finger-touch friendly apps. But when I need to get down to business taking notes, writing emails, scheduling appointments, etc., I can’t live without my stylus!

2. HTC has found a way to discern whether you are using your finger or stylus. If I use my stylus, I’m selecting text (which you can’t even do on the iphone). If I’m sliding my finger, I’m scrolling. Holy crap this is the most useful feature like EVAH!!! It makes my manager with the iphone jealous!

3. Response on lightest touch is not all it’s cracked up to be. Heck, there is an entire software market for the Diamond/Touch Pro because the screen is TOO sensitive and calls are answered in one’s pocket. Granted, with a capacitive screen this is less likely since you need to use your actual finger to activate the screen (most of the time), but it is still possible to click when you don’t want to because the screen responds to the lightest pressure (almost no pressure).

4. Detecting pressure sensitivity is possible on the Touch Pro/Diamond’s resistive screen. This is awesome. I have not seen this implemented properly in the most killer apps that could really use it (such as art/drawing programs where pressure could equal pencil pressure for example), but it’s still possible. You can change / calibrate the sensitivity of the pressure sensor for TouchFlo, for example. I have never seen this at all on a capacitive device, so I’m not sure it’s possible.

Just wait until resistive screens get multi-touch capability.

Capacitive has it’s place. For example, it’s really cool on the diamond/pro’s bottom panel, but over the entire screen… I’m just not feeling it.