19

Now that it is starting to get cold it is more difficult to use touchscreens while outdoors. I use both an iPhone and a Garmin GPS to geocache and both have touchscreens that require me to take my gloves off to use.

I used to have and pair of gloves with the tops cut off that might work. Do they have gloves with just the fingertips missing? I think there are also gloves that are supposed to work with touchscreens. Do they actually work?

Brad Patton
  • 1,089
  • 1
  • 9
  • 26

8 Answers8

26

I think capacitive gloves are your best bet. Basically, they are gloves with something that allows the screen to close a circuit with your body (your hands) and that makes the screen work. I've provided some links to reviews, but the bottom line is this: at the temperature you're describing (around 0 degrees Celsius) they will probably do the job reasonably well.

Both "Capacitive Gloves That Don’t Suck" and "Best touchscreen winter gloves" are fairly critical (which makes them trustworthy in my eyes).

This link to an early Engadget article is a little old, but it seems to capture the impression that such gloves made when they first arrived on the market.

And if you want to go the do-it-yourself way, here's a link to a video/description of how to modify existing gloves to work with a touch screen.

Eyal
  • 3,014
  • 3
  • 26
  • 42
8

At my local army shop they sell neoprene gloves with detachable finger ends for the index and middle finger ends. Something like the picture below, but without the thumb, and the ends are not cut out but foldable.

I have ones without this feature. They are not too warm (good maybe down to -5C), but are very comfortable - I cant type and call on the phone with them on.

enter image description here

I live in Bulgaria. The shop's website is arstar.bg. They claim to import directly from Germany.

Vorac
  • 7,049
  • 5
  • 40
  • 77
8

Two suggestions. You can get fingerless gloves that also are mittens. Here's a child version so you can see how they work:

mittens and fingerless gloves

Second, you can try to get a touchscreen that works with gloves. For example the Nokia Lumia made quite a big deal out of this at their launch.

lumia 920 with gloves

It makes sense that people in Finland would consider cold weather use for their phones...

Kate Gregory
  • 12,838
  • 3
  • 52
  • 75
7

I know it might sound crazy, but (if you don't have those capacitive gloves) you can always touch screen with your nose ;)

worked for me just fine this winter.

Steve V
  • 171
  • 2
5

I would probably combine a pair of glove with a pair of mitt:

  • A pair of glove allowing me to use a touch screen equipment. Unfortunately, those are not than warm (Could be fine for some people)
  • A pair of mitt with a fingerless feature like this one providing you with the extra warmth

Given the temperature provided in your comment, you could start with the pair of glove and buy the mitt if you are too cold.

Amine
  • 3,076
  • 18
  • 45
5

Several people have already mentioned getting special gloves that have "flippable" finger tips, but no one has specifically mentioned sensory gloves which can be a little bit different than gloves that just flip their tips. In addition to flip-tips they also have a little hole that you can touch through, so you don't actually have to take your finger tip all the way out of the glove. They're for Photography and give you the use of your fingertips when you need them. In extra cold weather you could layer them with a thinner pair of gloves that can still operate a touch screen, like a pair of those capacity gloves everyone else here is talking about.

enter image description here enter image description here

ShemSeger
  • 53,669
  • 10
  • 128
  • 297
3

You need a capacitive stylus. See this Wikipedia article for a description of the technology.

Mr.Wizard
  • 9,546
  • 1
  • 40
  • 77
1

A few phones have a setting that adjusts the capacitive screen sensitivity for use with gloves. An example is the 'Touch Sensitivity' setting on Galaxy S5s: http://www.androidcentral.com/how-increase-touch-sensitivity-galaxy-s5-use-it-gloves

gbronner
  • 421
  • 3
  • 7