Soladapt TouchGenie review

If you’re desperate for a touchscreen but don’t want to lose your old monitor, the Soladapt TouchGenie could be the product you need. It’s a 6-point touchscreen overlay that fixes to the front of your monitor with two Velcro straps. It also comes with four sticky strips to help secure it in place.

The TouchGenie’s hard, sharp edges and thick black bezel aren’t hugely attractive, but when we tested the TouchGenie with the plain-looking 21.5in BenQ GW2265HM, the TouchGenie soon blended in with the rest of the monitor. You also need to connect the USB cable that extends out of the TouchGenie’s bottom left corner to your PC to enable the touch support, but luckily the built-in cable is roughly two metres long, so it should be more enough to reach your PC, even if it’s tucked away on the floor.

On the whole, we found the TouchGenie was very responsive. We were able to close and minimise windows and open new internet tabs without too much trouble. We could also drag windows around our desktop with ease. Multitouch gestures such as pinch-zooming and two-finger scrolling worked perfectly, but the TouchGenie’s thick bezel did tend to get in the way when we swiped from the side to perform Windows 8 shortcuts. This meant they didn’t always work first time, and we had to make sure our fingers went right to the edge of the screen.

Our main concern is the TouchGenie’s price. Prices vary depending on the size of the overlay, but our 21.5in review sample costs £195, which is around what you’d pay for a monitor with an integrated touchscreen. The HannsG HT231HPB, for instance, is cheaper (£183, www.debenhamsplus.com). A 6-point TouchGenie for the HT231 would cost £205. The TouchGenie is certainly more cost-effective if you want touch support for a display that’s larger than 27in, but unless you want to keep your current monitor you may be better off buying a new touchscreen monitor.