using external monitor with laptop

agusanois

Hi, sorry if this should be posted somewhere else but...

I'm hoping to buy a touchscreen monitor for my boyfriend for his birthday, I was wondering is it possible to connect his laptop to a touch screen monitor? have tried searching online but cant find any info on the touch screen ones! its a Sony laptop if that makes a difference?

was also wondering if this would work, would the touch screen mean that he would not need to use a keyboard or mouse? as in can you pull up a keyboard on the screen or something?

I have been looking at the 'Iiyama ProLite T2250MTS-1 Touchscreen Monitor 22 inch (1080p) TFT LCD 1000' on laptopsdirect.ie so far, any info on it would be great?

Thanks!

CreepingDeath

> I was wondering is it possible to connect his laptop to a touch screen monitor?

Should be, most laptops have a VGA socket at the side/back.
And the screen also has a USB cable which needs to plug into the laptop too.

Does your boyfriend work in graphics/desktop publishing/digital photography or something ? Touch screens are a bit gimmicky, unless he's big into graphics.

You can only abandon the keyboard for specific applications, and that tends to be for things like customer information desks, shop cash registers etc.

And more than likely he'll prefer to use the keyboard and mouse most of the time as it's more ergonomic than reaching up to the screen all the time.

ricman

I cannot see any point in buying a touchscreen monitor, unless hes an artist or an animator/editor .
Get a 22 inch widescreen with vga and hdmi inputs, it can be used as a monitor for ps3, or 360 console, or blueray device screen display, while also
being connected to a laptop vga cable.
IF his laptop has only 15pin vga out, buy a vga male to male cable.ten euro approx.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector,
if he has hdmi out , buy a hdmi cable.

agusanois

Thanks for that advise, its really helpful!

its made me think of the uses of touch screens too, I'm only a beginner really when it comes to knowing about computers but he is really into them, he does edit films quite a lot, so would the touch screen be any advantage for that type of work? he is also doing a photography course this summer so maybe it would help that?
he does like his techy gimmicks but if theres no advantage other than graphics to the touchscreen it seems like a bit of a rip off?

thats a pity you can only abandon the keyboard for certain things, I thought there might be some app to download or something, but again I'm just a beginner with these things!

if I did just go for a normal monitor, would it be possible to attach an external keyboard to it, rather than having to use the laptop keyboard? just thinking of the way his desk is set up that an external one would be more practical!

Thanks again!

melekalikimaka

http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?pid=0&lang=en

anyone whos into photography will love one of these, start from bout 100euro, and up

ricman

YOU could buy a usb keyboard ,or even a bluetooth wireless keyboard,if his laptop has bluetooth installed.
There are windows slate pcs on the market, like the ipad, touchscreen controls around 500euro.They have vga out to connect to standard lcd monitors.
GOOGLE pc slate .
see here eg http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20001760-1.html,
or buy a standard wireless keyboard, non bluetooth,from maplins/peats.