This is my first phone with a capacitive screen, so perhaps it is a quirk of them, but I have noticed that if I am not holding the phone in such a way that I am touching the metal bezel, the screen does not recognise touches that are close to the edges of the screen. It seems that the screen requires a circuit to be made with other metal parts on the phone before recognising the touch.
For example, if I put the phone on my desk and touch the backspace key with a single finger, nothing happens. If I keep holding my finger on it, and touch the metal bezel, hey presto, the button clicks.
This reminds me of a watch a friend of mine had a long time ago, that had a capacitive "hair trigger" button that only worked for him (because it required a circuit to be made with the back face of the watch, meaning when he pressed the button it completed a circuit through his body)
Anyone else noticed this? It is slightly annoying because I have to hold the bezel when I want to use the phone..
Confirmed.
And you might very well be correct in the assumption about the circuit not closing in every part of the screen. I think it's the nature of any capacitive surface tbh. If you press in the middle of the screen then there is enough adjecent space to actually complete the circuit while on the edges there is simply not enough space around your fingertip to not close the circuit at all. That is why touching the bezel works.
But as I have been holding my little Hero in my hand while typing anything I simply didn't know this little odd thing. I have read about it though.
Yet another reason to hold your precious little Hero in your hand...
Wierd not like that on my samsung.. its all plastic tho
Mine is the same.. especially on the right hand side of the screen. If it's in a case it makes it really bad!!
Sounds like bad shileding and grounding to me
Didn't notice this until I put a screen protector on but now it's really bugging me.
On a related note (metal bezel related), I've noticed that in dim lighting the button backlight flickers. But if i touch the screen and bezel, it stops.
herman3101 said:
Didn't notice this until I put a screen protector on but now it's really bugging me.
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Same here. Could it be that the screen protector slightly touches the aluminium casing and thus grounding the screen (or creating a wrong potential)?
I noticed that when i touch (=ground) the outer aluminum frame with just one single finger then the touch screen works flawlessly.
(I'm using the offical HTC screen protector).
joemax said:
On a related note (metal bezel related), I've noticed that in dim lighting the button backlight flickers. But if i touch the screen and bezel, it stops.
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Hmm definatly bad grounding issue. Its either some pretty poor design or a defect.
i confrim, using hero without touch the metal edge result in less responsivity and difficult on multitouch operation
hope new firmware can solve this, too many errors using it like a normal keyboard on a table!
Related
Anyone else notice that the edges of the screen on the cmda diamond, cdma pro, and the HD seem to be MUCH less responsive than the screens of previous devices?
I "miss" the exit and start menu buttons pretty often and its pretty annoying lol.
Also the notification/title bar area plus other buttons along the bottom and side.
The rest of the screen is more responsive certainly than say the vogue, mogul, diamond or tp. But its the edges of this and the last 2 mentioned devices that get me..
Well I also feel it's less responsive, but not so much actually. Besides this is caused by the technology of the touch screen.
pozytywny said:
Well I also feel it's less responsive, but not so much actually. Besides this is caused by the technology of the touch screen.
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You mean the edges or the whole thing? The main part I feel is more responsive...
Edge responisiveness depends highly on screen calibration. Try to recalibrate screen more precisely, I think situation should improve ...
kosta0955 said:
Edge responisiveness depends highly on screen calibration. Try to recalibrate screen more precisely, I think situation should improve ...
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Hey thanks a lot. Thought the same thing myself.
Re-calibrated as accurately as I possibly could.
Still no go. I would really like someone else to try this. Take out your stylus even and press in the very corner of the X-button...you get nothing.
Sort of fix: I found that if you hold your press just a little longer it registers (much better) though I'm not quite convinced that it's still normal nor complete.
jim256 said:
Still no go. I would really like someone else to try this. Take out your stylus even and press in the very corner of the X-button...you get nothing.
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I don't see any problem in pressing X-button on my Touch HD. I had similar problem like yours using right vertical scrollbar and recalibration helped, so I though it might help you too, but unfortunately it seem this ain't the same problem
kosta0955 said:
I don't see any problem in pressing X-button on my Touch HD. I had similar problem like yours using right vertical scrollbar and recalibration helped, so I though it might help you too, but unfortunately it seem this ain't the same problem
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Hmm...I wonder if I should try to get it replaced under warranty.
I would want to, but I have noticed the same problem in a sprint diamond in the store, a sprint touch pro in a store, and a friends sprint touch pro.
What do you (guys) think? Replacement? It could get really annoying...not being able to close out of things. Right now since its new and awesome and stuff I'm kind of trying to ignore it or whatever but...hmm idk.
The fact that the screen is less responsive near the edges is caused by an inherent technical limitation of resistive screens. The screen has no real bezel, and thus, the screen is attached to the body frame right where it ends: at the absolute edges of the screen Where it is attached, it cannot move. A little further away from the edge it can move (eg be pressed down) but this requires more force since you need to bend the screen much closer to the fixed edges than when you would press the center of the screen, which bends the easiest.
Don't know if this makes sense, but it's like a window... Hitting it in the centre will break it much easier than when hitting it close to the edges, since the glass bends much further/easier at the center, so the same force will have more effect.
Anyway, resistive screens have this problems, capacitive screens do not, obviously, since they do not rely on pressure.
If hitting the OK/Close button is a problem for you, just use the hardware button below the screen, the one with the arrow on it. It does exactly the same thing I believe. With 'I believe' I mean I assigned OK/close to that button using AEButtonPlus, which should be the default behavior for pressing it once. I find this to be much more convenient than trying to hit that tiny X/OK button.
nin2thevoid said:
The fact that the screen is less responsive near the edges is caused by an inherent technical limitation of resistive screens. The screen has no real bezel, and thus, the screen is attached to the body frame right where it ends: at the absolute edges of the screen Where it is attached, it cannot move. A little further away from the edge it can move (eg be pressed down) but this requires more force since you need to bend the screen much closer to the fixed edges than when you would press the center of the screen, which bends the easiest.
Don't know if this makes sense, but it's like a window... Hitting it in the centre will break it much easier than when hitting it close to the edges, since the glass bends much further/easier at the center, so the same force will have more effect.
Anyway, resistive screens have this problems, capacitive screens do not, obviously, since they do not rely on pressure.
If hitting the OK/Close button is a problem for you, just use the hardware button below the screen, the one with the arrow on it. It does exactly the same thing I believe. With 'I believe' I mean I assigned OK/close to that button using AEButtonPlus, which should be the default behavior for pressing it once. I find this to be much more convenient than trying to hit that tiny X/OK button.
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Hey thanks for your informative opinion.
This theory seems to fit, except it doesn't quite explain nor fit with these 2 things:
1. I can apply a pretty decent amount of pressure in the corner with no results whatsoever. But I can get full results if I apply less pressure for about .5-1 second rather than just tapping.
2. I have never seen any evidence of this on any other resistive touch devices (vogue, titan).
Why in the world do these resistive touch screens have to suck so bad anyway? The HD is the best I've seen lately, but does HTC just suck at it, or is it everyone (haven't owned a non-htc ts device for a yr or so, and that was a treo where I didn't really notice sensitivity).
My dad has a 3+ yr old Dell Axim X5 and that screen is AMAZINGLY sensitive. Responds to stylus and is too old to be capacitive. But it is literally 100% as responsive / sensitive as the screen of the iPhone. When I used it I couldn't believe it. You had to be VERY delicate and careful and trying hard to touch that screen and not have it know.
After owning the Touch HD for a full month I just noticed that down the middle of the screen there is something which I can best describe as an oil stain. It looks as if there is a liquid in between the glass/plastic screen and the resistive layer that lays on top of it.
The screen works normally and this "stain" can only be observed if I look at how the light reflects of it.
Any idea what happened?
Hi,
I have a small idear. The TFT-Monitor ist touching your Touchscreen. Probeply you pressed something on your HD, that the two Monitor touch each other, that is why it looks like a Water or Oil spot.
This can happen for example, if you are carrying your HD in your trouser pocket.
If you want to try to remove this spot, you have to turn with your both hand the hd, like the right hand turn with the clock and the left hand turn to the other way.
Sorry, my english is not very good for such a discribing. What I mean is like "to contort" or "to skew (up)". But you have to be very carefully. Before you start, remove the Battery
(I'll be incorporating a clearer explanation along the lines of what Dude10 was trying to say)
The effect you're seeing is IDENTICAL to what causes the colours to appear on an oil film actually!
The way the Touch HD screen works is to have the hard glass (polycarbonate plastic actually as far as I'm aware, but that's not important here!) with a squashy resistive sensor layer on the top.
This resistive layer detects touch as an increase in resistance at the spot that's compressed - be that by a finger or a stylus. Because the upper layer can be compressed, it can also be malformed by stronger than normal pressure, such as an object in a pocket. The effect can be more pronounced if your body heat warms up the screen surface making the screen "set" in position rather than spring back as it should do...
The "oil" effect is cause by the reflections of light from the outermost plastic layer and the outermost surface of the hard screen. When the gap is small enough, these reflections can interfere with each other, cancelling and re-inforcing different wavelengths depending on the thickness - hence the tapering of the screen from thinnest to thickest results in a "rainbow"
Now, why explain all this you may ask? Partly because I like science and it fascinated me in school to learn what caused that effect so wanted to share this! (And this also explains why it only presents itself when you look at the light reflections)
Anyway, more importantly, the solution to your problem is to restore the thickness of that part of the touch layer to it's original uncompressed state.
I'd firstly start trying to hold your finger flat against the top of the phone screen (on flat surface, portraint orientation, finger "left to right") then pressing resonably hard (the hard screen should protect the device - if not you're pressing too hard!) slide your finger down the screen from top to bottom trying to keep an even pressure. This should hopefully even out the surface.
Failing this, as Dude10 suggests, take the battery out and use your thumbs (holding with fingers in the battery well) to press and "smear" around the problem area.
Unfortunately, other than this I don't think there's a particular way to remove the effect totally if it doesn't work...
Obviously it's speculation given that you didn't mention how it happened in the first place, but it does sound like it got knocked or pressed by something either in bag or pocket - maybe even a fold in the pouch
Hope you manage to smooth it out!
WhO_KnOwS said:
After owning the Touch HD for a full month I just noticed that down the middle of the screen there is something which I can best describe as an oil stain.
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Just a long shot, but:
Sometimes a similar effect can be caused when some moisture has got between the layers of a display.
Have you used the phone anywhere damp or very humid ?
Keeping it somewhere warm and dry might be worth a try?
- Steve
Thanks for all the tips. The issue happened when I had the Touch HD in the pouch and in my pocket - so the idea that it was a fold in the pouch holds water.
The funny thing however is that before I saw all of your replies I was already out the door (with the Touch HD back in the pouch and pocket). 5 minutes later when I pulled it out the issue was gone. I am guessing that I reapplied the exact amount of pressure needed or something like that.
Thanks again for the tips and especially to chaosdefinesorder for the nice explanation.
Thx for helping explanation
5 minutes later when I pulled it out the issue was gone.
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no, i don't think it was gone. check again under a fluorescent light....
i have this on my diamond. my HD is flawless (till now...)
i phoned to a technician and explain the phenomena and he invited me to replace the screen. when i got there, to my complete amazement and embarrassment the stain was gone. only later i discovered that the stain is visible under fluorescent light only.
chaosdefinesorder said:
Unfortunately, other than this I don't think there's a particular way to remove the effect totally if it doesn't work...
Hope you manage to smooth it out!
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thanks m8, already tried this (on my diamond) and tried now again with both yr methods. no results. the stain is still there...i think only a replacement can solve it.
here u have the paralel thread in diamond forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=439410&highlight=oily+stain
you can not do it yourself. the best way will be to go to your seller or straight to HTC, because I think you HD still have warranty.
I repaired ones an Diamond and I can tell you, it wasn´t an easy way.
is the screen heat or pressure sensitive, and how is the multitouch?
Neither. And so far I can't complain about the screen one bit. I do find myself simply tapping the screen to auto-size the browser, been easier than using two hands.
Its heat although the proper name is Capacitive meaning is only works with fingertips or a specialized " iphone " stylus, which i have and dont work very well tbh although mine was a cheapy off ebay (like 60cent for 2)
i just tried one at the store and noticed that it was not as sensitive as the iphone's. if my finger was on the hero light enough there was no response, but no matter how light i try to go on the iphone it always responds.
It is not heat.
Wiki:
"A capacitive touchscreen panel consists of an insulator such as glasshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass, coated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxidehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium_tin_oxide (ITO). As the human body is also a conductor, touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the local electrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance."
And who cares if it's not as sensitive as the iphone? When would you ever try to press a button as lightly as possible in real life? I find it better that you actually need to touch the screen for a button press, leads to fewer mistakes with random light button brushing. I have yet to find a time when the screen doesn't respond when I want it to.
Feels just as sensitive to me. I very lightly ran my finger over the screen and it responded just as well.
So I removed the included screen protector since it had a deep scratch on it. I read on the forums that you don't need the protector and that it actually works better without it.
Well my experience has been the complete opposite. Ever since I removed the protector I'm ready to smash this bloody phone. It's next to impossible to use due to the humidity in my area or something. The SMALLEST amount of moisture on my finger tips or even in the air will cause the screen to go haywire and register touches all by itself. Apps will open by themselves...i can barely type anything as it keeps typing multiple characters on it's own or other silly stuff. If I wipe down the display it will work fine for the first little bit until it gets that tiny bit of moisture from my fingers on the screen again and it starts going haywire again. It's a hassle just to try and unlock the phone from the lock screen at times.
So is my phone defective or is just the suffering I must incur by living in a humid area. I can't use the phone like this so I guess I'll have to look at buying a new screen protector. But if this is not normal and is a fault in my hardware then i would like to return it and get a different phone. I didn't really have issues with the screen protector on.
Ive kept my screen protector on my phone, works fine until i have moisture or (rain drops) on the screen, then my phone doesnt respond and also misfunctions the position of where i touch on the screen not sure if this is normaly as its the rain drops on the screen..
Tested witht he iphone 4 in the rain and works brilliant, why doesnt the X10 do the same !! :/
duffy1807 said:
Ive kept my screen protector on my phone, works fine until i have moisture or (rain drops) on the screen, then my phone doesnt respond and also misfunctions the position of where i touch on the screen not sure if this is normaly as its the rain drops on the screen..
Tested witht he iphone 4 in the rain and works brilliant, why doesnt the X10 do the same !! :/
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As you may know, those screens are capacitive displays, that means they're activated by sending (very) small amounts of electricity and are kinda "looking for a conductive material" in order to register an input.
The conductive material can be your finger, or something like... a raindrop or your screen, so that's why it thinks you're pressing that part of the screen...
Now it's even more obvious without the screen protector since it's directly on the screen.
As for why the iphone doesn't have issues with that, it does, but the screen being multitouch it's not as bad...
thanks for the info.good to know.
I didn't like the thick screen protector as my thumb/finger seemed to drag and not slide smoothly. I took it off and replaced it with a slightly thinner protector. I'm much happier with the feel now.
Angie
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
@smok3yjk - probably best if you do as Angelahp - get another screen protector on there.
Is there a tool that can test/adjust the sensitivity of the Epic's capacitive buttons? Mine seem unresponsive and I'd love to know if the hardware is not sensitive or the software is ignoring the taps.
Something that displays a readout showing which button is being pushed would be really useful.
Thanks,
Jason
there really isnt. its being classified as a hardware issue. i swapped the board out on mine the other day with a returned phone and it started working. taking the phone apart to fix the button at the bottom is a complete pain in the face. and if the gorilla glass faceplate comes out (which needs to happen to swap out the buttons) then it never really goes in correctly. nor does it stay stuck.take it back to sprint and see if you can do a 30 day exchange on it.
Thanks. I got mine at Best Buy and have their insurance. They'll fix/replace it for free but they have to send it to their service center and give me a loaner. I almost replaced it within the 30 days but when I took off the screen protector (Skinomi) to give it back, the keys were working great. I decided to hold on to the phone. Now I have another protector on it (Realook) and am having the same problem. I'm assuming the button is less sensitive than it should be so it works fine without the protector but not well with it. I might have to switch to a partial-screen protector.
So if my buttons are very difficult to press then its an issue and not the general design of the phone itself?
My wife said she has no problems with the buttons so I'm going to have to compare hers to mine.
jasonsf said:
Thanks. I got mine at Best Buy and have their insurance. They'll fix/replace it for free but they have to send it to their service center and give me a loaner. I almost replaced it within the 30 days but when I took off the screen protector (Skinomi) to give it back, the keys were working great. I decided to hold on to the phone. Now I have another protector on it (Realook) and am having the same problem. I'm assuming the button is less sensitive than it should be so it works fine without the protector but not well with it. I might have to switch to a partial-screen protector.
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Same exact situation. I was using the Realook screen protector and everything worked fine except for the back button. After I took it off I noticed that the back button worked just fine. After using it a little longer I still feel like it's not as responsive as the other three buttons.
jasonsf said:
Is there a tool that can test/adjust the sensitivity of the Epic's capacitive buttons? Mine seem unresponsive and I'd love to know if the hardware is not sensitive or the software is ignoring the taps.
Something that displays a readout showing which button is being pushed would be really useful.
Thanks,
Jason
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There's a couple of ways you could do this:
Every time you press a capacitive button, it should blink right after it registers. This indicates it was pressed.
Another way is to boot into Clockwork Recovery Mode, goto Advanced, and use the key/button test option that's in there.
I'm also using a Realook screen protector, so far it's the best I've tried. I've used Zagg, Invisishield, StealthGuard, and Amzer protectors and non of them had the clarity or feel of the Realook. It feels and looks like nothing is there, aside from being an oil magnet. Anyhow, I don't have any reduced sensitivity when using it compared to bare.
One trick I use to apply the Realook is cover the whole phone with 4 or 5 strips of scotch tape (overlapping each other) before application, it helps to get rid of all the super fine dust particles that are floating around. Also, use a high power flashlight, and shine its beam across the surface of the screen, it will make all the dust you couldn't see before light up. Have a few looped pieces of scotch tape ready to pluck off dust particles that get stuck on the protector and screen. Then get the Realook protector ready, pull your strips of scotch tape as one from the top and quickly align the protector, pull more tape off and follow with the protector, this insures no dust thats floating around will get on your screen or protector, if some does, you have the flashlight to easily show you and the tape at the ready to pluck them off.
Reason I said the above is because you might have minute dust particles that are creating a gap with just enough space to prevent your capacitive buttons from registering.
I took drastic measures and cut a rectangle hole out of the Realook protector so I could have direct access to the buttons. It is ugly, but it works. The back button works much better now.
Jason