Touch Screen

I am new to a touch screen anything.  I love it, however.  I'd like to know how long does a typical product with touch screen last?  I mean, does the touchy part wear out eventually?  My daughter's friends have iPod touches (not phones, you know) and they use them like crazy.  My daughter has a NintendoDS and pokes on it all the time with the stylus and it still works.  So, I'm asking if anyone knows the expected lifespan of a product with a touch screen.  I've been very careful with mine.  The main reason I'm asking is because to play Bejeweled, it works better with a stylus and I'm just afraid I'm going to press too hard.  Can anyone shed some light on this subject?  Thanks in advance!

I had an old Handspring Visor, and an old Palm One... (Just dated myself a bit, I guess... didn't I?) in any case, the Visor worked flawlessly up until about 3-4 years ago... when I gave it away. The Palm One screen stopped working when it got too scratched from the stylus.

The difference? A Screen protector. The Visor had one, the Palm didn't.

The iPod touch's screen should theoretically last forever, since it's a capacitive screen, that requires no pressure to make it work. As I understand it, your finger literally just by touching the screen completes the circuit, so no pressure is nessecary. It's one of the many reasons the Touch's interface is so good. The Capacitive screens are showing up now in Android devices, but they are far more expensive than the classic, resistive touch screen such as on the Impression.

The resistive touchscreen does require a small amount of pressure, as the electrical connection is derived basically (if I understand it correctly) from 2 pieces of film touching each other on the screen of the phone. A resistive screen does not require a lot of pressure, and in fact, shouldn't even require more pressure than you would normally apply to a touch tone phone, unless it had VERY squishy keys. Stylus use is OK for them, but again, with a screen protector, and don't 'poke' at it... just touch it. The stylus may, or may not be more accurate, it kind of depends on the device. I've not used one on my impression, as the touchscreen on it to me seems remarkably accurate.

Touchscreens are pretty durable in my experience. And they last a long time... usually your display will burn out before the touch portion of it actually goes bad, and with a phone, let's be honest, they're really only built to last 3-4 years, and in that 3-4 years, the technology could radically change, so through normal use i would think that your phone would die from other nefarious means before your touchscreen went bad.

I have had my Samsung phone since June and the touchscreen is not working on it. I am waiting for my replacement phone. Good Luck!!

The key word is.."if"... right?... lol

Did it take a shock? That'll cause that problem... if it's just randomly happened, it could be a factory failure, but those are pretty rare. One phone out of 50 =/= a pattern... heck, 1/20 =/= a pattern.

If it was working before, more than likely SOMETHING happened. Touchscreens don't just 'go bad' in general. There's nothing really TO go bad, unless some outside force like moisture, a shock, or misuse happened. Not saying you're misusing your phone... a simple drop on the carpeted floor from waist height could have done it... but electronics are pretty predictable. They don't just 'go bad' for quite a long time.

My screen went out yesterday & now I have no way of using my phone or retrieving my pictures. Any suggestions on getting it fixed? Warranty went out in July. Was at AT&T store today & they confirmed there was no water or other damage & were unsure what happened.

Will that item make the screen come back to life?

The touchscreen quit working on me last week (Samsung Impression a877).  I took it to an AT&T store but they couldn't find anything wrong.  But I found online yesterday a Samsung service code that does a full reset of the phone.  That fixed the phone.  Now that I can operate my phone again the software version is A877UCID3, model SGH-A877. 
So far the phone is working.  Hopefully this will work for you. 
I typed the code using the keyboard and used the keyboard "enter key" when done typing.  A screen message came up briefly.  Something about processing and that the phone will shut off and restart.
code:   *2767*3855#