Touchscreen monitors have a few advantages over their regular, non-touch counterparts. They offer a more interactive experience, are more suitable for people with certain physical disabilities, and make for a more clutter-free desk if you mainly use a stylus and an on-screen keyboard. They are good for both office and educational use. Some touchscreen monitors are also decent options for light gaming.
However, shopping for the best touchscreen monitors can be very difficult, mostly because there are so few viable options on the market, especially if you narrow down your choices to monitors designed for personal or professional use. But fortunately for you, we already got you covered with this product guide to the top touch-sensitive displays on the market.
Planar PCT2235
The Planar PCT2235 is a great budget option if you can only spend around $200 on a touchscreen monitor. It’s a 10-point touchscreen monitor, featuring a 22-inch screen and a 1920×1080 native resolution, with good color accuracy and decent viewing angles. You can get it for just around $200, easily making it the most affordable item on this list.
This Planar display has a thin frame with thin bezels on the top on the top and sides, with the control buttons sitting on the slightly thicker bottom bezel. The controls are also touch-sensitive and are easy to use, but their placement is not ideal. You need to lock the controls to avoid accidentally pressing them while working on the screen.
A versatile display with multiple input options, including VGA and HDMI, the PCT2235 is good for general use and casual gaming. It works well with Windows 10, with the touchscreen easily reading accepted gestures. It comes with a well-built U-shaped stand with a good tilt range and features internal speakers, but don’t expect the best sound quality. The PCT2235 is a solid touchscreen display overall, offering good value for the money.
HP E230t
If you want a touchscreen monitor that looks more like a regular office monitor than an oversized tablet, check out the HP E230t. It’s a 23-inch IPS display designed for business use, featuring a 1080p native resolution, a good response time, and multiple connection options. While clearly not built for gaming, it also works well for casual gaming, which makes it a versatile unit.
The E230t has a minimalist design, with very thin bezels on three sides and a clean back panel with not much branding. The 10-point touchscreen is easy to use and features an anti-glare coating, which is great if you mainly work in a bright room. You’ll find one HDMI port, one DisplayPort, one VGA port, and a couple of USB 3.0 down ports on this monitor. There is a small hole in the stand for cable management, which is great.
Regarding picture quality, the E230t is good, with good color accuracy and decent brightness, along with wide viewing angles, which is expected from an IPS display. The contrast ratio is on the low end, though, which is a common issue among IPS panels. If you want a versatile touchscreen monitor that’s good for office work, general use, and casual gaming, go for this HP product.
ViewSonic TD2230
An IPS display selling for less than $300, the ViewSonic TD2230 is a 22-inch touchscreen monitor with good picture quality and good input lag. It’s a 10-point touchscreen display that comes with internal speakers and multiple connection options, featuring one DisplayPort, one HDMI port, one VGA port, one analog audio out, and USB 3.0 ports.
On the surface, this ViewSonic offering is very similar to the Planar monitor above. It has a thin frame with a matte back panel and thin bezels at the top and sides, with the on-screen menu controls located on the thicker bottom bezel. The connection ports are found on both sides of the monitor, which makes them easy to access. But on the other hand, the side ports lead to messy cabling, especially since there is no basic cable management.
The TD2230 is easy to set up out of the box, easily connecting with compatible devices. It’s got good picture quality, with good color accuracy and wide viewing angles. The native resolution is 1080p while the refresh rate is locked at 60 Hz. If the 22-inch screen is too small for you, ViewSonic also offers larger variants, with the 24-inch and 27-inch units both selling for over $300.
For more quality options like this, check out our guide to the best 4K monitors.
Acer T232HL
Considered one of the best touchscreen monitors currently out, the Acer T232HL is a fantastic display that offers great value for the money. It’s a 23-inch IPS display with a 1080p resolution and a common 16:9 aspect ratio, boasting good color accuracy and viewing angles.
A 10-point touchscreen monitor, the T232HL features a simple design, with thick borders and an extended bottom frame to give it more elevation, which makes it easier to interact with. The stand is stable and easy to tilt with only one hand, while the on-screen display controls are conveniently located on the side. On the back panel, you’ll find one HDMI port and one VGA port for input. Moreover, there are USB ports on the side of the monitor.
While it has a few issues, such as the weak-sounding speakers and the subpar contrast, the T232HL is a great product overall. It works well for different tasks, including basic photo editing, casual gaming, editing documents with a virtual keyboard, and internet surfing.
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Dell P2418HT
Like the HP display listed above, the Dell P2418HT is a touchscreen monitor that can be easily mistaken for a regular monitor due to its design. It’s not that different from Dell’s other non-touch office monitors, featuring a minimalist design with narrow bezels on three sides, with the menu controls located on the slightly thicker bottom bezel.
The P2418HT is an IPS monitor with a 24-inch screen, a 1080p native resolution, and a standard 60 Hz refresh rate. As with most other Dell monitors, it’s got a lot of connection ports, featuring one HDMI port, one VGA port, one DisplayPort, one audio port, and a total of four USB down ports, one of which supports fast charging.
This Dell touchscreen monitor is easy to use and offers good ergonomics, with height adjust, tilt, and swivel options. It’s great for both productivity and general use, with good color accuracy, wide viewing angles, and a 10-point touchscreen that easily registers Windows 10 gestures.
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Gechic 1503I
If you want a very portable touchscreen monitor, check out the Gechic 1503I, a 15.6-inch IPS display with a 1080p resolution. Weighing just 3 pounds, it’s the lightest monitor in this guide and will easily fit in your backpack.
The 1503I is the complete opposite of the Dell P2418HT in that it looks much more like an oversized tablet than a monitor, featuring a thin frame with thick borders all around. Both the OSD control buttons and the connection ports are located on the monitor’s side. The 1503I connects via HDMI and VGA, with no DisplayPort option out of the box, which might disappoint some of you.
A 10-point touch-sensitive display, the 1503I has good color accuracy and viewing angles but has a low contrast, and the brightness could be better. It’s a good secondary screen for your laptop and works well for different tasks, including light gaming and internet surfing. It has mediocre ergonomics, though, with the worst adjustability among the products on this list.
Acer T272HL
The Acer T272HL is the T232HL’s big brother, featuring a 27-inch screen with a 1080p native resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio. Other than the screen size, the most notable difference between the two is the panel technology: the smaller model has an IPS panel while the larger one comes with a VA panel, which has more limited viewing angles.
In design, the T272HL is identical to the 23-inch model, with thick borders on all sides and an extended bottom frame for added elevation. The OSD controls are on the right side while the USB ports are on the other side. The input ports – composed of VGA, DVI, and HDMI – are down-facing on the back panel, with the HDMI port offering Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) compatibility for your smartphones and tablets.
This Acer display is great for both productivity and general use, featuring an easy-to-use 10-point touchscreen that works well with Windows 10. It has a decent picture quality overall, though the contrast is not that great, which is disappointing considering the VA panel.
Buyer’s Guidelines
Like with regular monitors, there are several aspects to consider when shopping for touchscreen monitors, from panel technology and resolution to refresh rate and connectivity. Here’s a quick rundown of the things you need to keep in mind:
Screen Size
Compared to regular monitors, there are fewer screen size options when it comes to touchscreen monitors – almost all good displays currently available are under 27 inches. If you want more space for multitasking, consider larger displays. If you want a very portable monitor, consider displays smaller than 20 inches – like the Gechic 1503I, which will easily fit in your backpack.
Resolution
Unfortunately, touchscreen monitors come with limited resolution options as well, with most products only offering Full HD (1920×1080). In fact, all products listed in this guide – from the cheapest option down to the most expensive – offer that resolution. While there are displays with a QHD (2560×1440) native resolution, they are even fewer in number, not to mention they are considerably more expensive.
The good news is that Full HD is good enough for screens that range between 22 and 27 inches, though some might find the pixel density of a 27-inch, 1080p monitor unappealing. If you want a display with a 4K UHD (3840×2160) resolution for sharper texts and more detailed images, then you are better off shopping for regular monitors.
Refresh Rate
Touchscreen monitors typically come with a standard 60 Hz refresh rate, which is good enough for office work, media consumption, general use, and even casual gaming. If you game on home consoles, 60 Hz is perfectly fine, considering games are typically locked at 30 or 60 frames per second. If you want a touchscreen display with a 100+ Hz refresh rate for hardcore gaming, you are out of luck.
Panel Technology
When it comes to monitors, touchscreen or otherwise, the most common panel technologies are In-Plane Switching (IPS), Twisted Nematic (TN), and Vertical Alignment (VA). Each panel type has pros and cons that need to be considered.
IPS monitors usually offer the best overall picture quality and have wide viewing angles, which means the picture quality is good even when viewing the screen from the side. TN monitors have inferior picture quality, with poor viewing angles, but they got the best response times, which is great for serious gaming, and are usually cheaper. VA monitors offer the best contrast among the three, which translates to very deep blacks, but on the other hand, they have narrow viewing angles.
If you are shopping for touch-sensitive displays for productivity and media consumption, IPS monitors are the best options, with VA monitors right behind them. TN monitors are most ideal if you are going to use your screen mostly for gaming and love to play fast-paced games, such as first-person shooters.
Input Ports
Not all touchscreen monitors come with the same input ports. While some displays offer a DisplayPort and an HDMI port, others only include one of the two. Moreover, some units include legacy ports while others don’t. Always double-check whether your source device is compatible with the monitor out of the box, with no need to buy adapters. If you want to connect your monitor to a gaming console, the most important port to look for is HDMI.
Features
Like with input ports, not all models are the same regarding features. There are models that include internal speakers, an analog audio port, a USB hub, and a fully adjustable stand. But there are also displays that offer fewer features. Consider the monitor’s features carefully before you open your wallet, especially if you are going to use the monitor as your primary screen.