A method of controlling a touch panel display device, and a touch panel display device using the same, facilitate a user selection (touching) of a specific icon to improve the reliability of registering a touch event for the specific icon, thereby enabling smaller icons to be used with greater accuracy. The touch panel display device includes a touch panel exhibiting a plurality of coordinates corresponding to a screen area of the touch panel display device, the screen area including a zoom icon area; a touch panel controller for recognizing coordinates of a touch event, for storing the recognized coordinates in an internally provided memory, and for outputting a coordinates signal corresponding to the touch event by converting a value generated by the touch event into a corresponding coordinates value; a microprocessor for determining whether the coordinates value output from the touch panel controller corresponds to the zoom icon area of the screen area; a touch driver for outputting a zoom function signal corresponding to the coordinates value output from the touch panel controller; and a display for displaying a magnified icon area corresponding to the zoom icon area, if the microprocessor determines that the coordinates value output from the touch panel controller corresponds to the zoom icon area of the screen area. A method of controlling the above touch panel display device includes steps of displaying a zoom icon area on at least part of a screen made up of a plurality of coordinates; recognizing coordinates of a touch event, to determine whether the touch event corresponds to the displayed zoom icon area; and displaying, if it is determined that the touch event corresponds to the displayed zoom icon area, a magnified icon area corresponding to the zoom icon area.