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Comment by iainmerrick | Hacker News Reader

As in the old model, the Synaptics touchpad is very wide. It's not terrible by any means, and its glass surface allows your finger to glide effortlessly, But I'm a little disappointed that, just as with the old version, it's not a Precision Touchpad.

One of the best PC laptops you can buy has a trackpad that's "not terrible"? This is why people buy Macs!

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Definitely the worst part of most laptops. I often have to tap my touchpad 3 or 4 times to get it to register one click, and that's pretty normal from what I've used. I'm surprised that nobody except Apple makes much of an effort to improve the situation. Maybe it pushes people to replace their computers more often because of how painful it is to use them. I'm sure there's some reason. Probably just inertia and lack of direct influence on sales.

Lenovo has the TrackPoint pointer nub, which is a big part of why I love and buy ThinkPads. I'm constantly amazed nobody else ever picked that idea up...

You think Lenovo would let them?

There are (were?) similar devices in other laptops, mostly the ones from "professional" lines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick#Naming_and_bran...

Most dell business laptops have one.

HP had some laptops with a blue trackpoint in the past, e.g. the tc4400 convertible.

Agreed. And that's why lousy trackpads never bothered me.But even then, I only use the nub if I'm not working on a surface where I can use my mouse.

I've used laptops from Dell and HP with pointing sticks in their keyboards. None worked as well as the ThinkPad ones. Apparently, some of IBM's patents on the TrackPoint are still in vogue. I wonder how much of the poor quality of Dell and HP stick points has to do with that.

As I recall, Apple has made sure to patent all of its touchpad technologies, making sure only Macs have those excellent touchpads. It seems like any competition would have to make good touchpads some other way :/

Yep. Easily the worst part of every PC laptop I've ever considered buying. Genuinely mystifies me that no manufacturer seems to prioritise it.

After 20 something years I never have changed my workflow when doing serious detail work in a DAW - I need a mouse. Some producers use the trackpad on the Macs, because it's the industry standard, sure, but there are times for me when left hand keyboard / shortcuts and right hand mouse / scroll for zoom and high precision edits by click. With good portable laser mice on the cheap I've never been lacking so far. Then, having the mouse around, it just helps with other computer convenience use. Personal thing I guess.

Same here. I have never been a fan of touchpad and can't imagine using DAW with it.

A coworker bought the skylake spectre x360 13 inches. The touchpad is as good as my mac's. This is the first windows laptop I used that I've felt this way.

The author doesn't compare it to a Apple trackpad, so it's difficult to say which one's better. The author is just a little disappointed that it doesn't have all the features of the Windows Precision Touchpad implementation. It may just as well be that the touchpad is excellent. Besides that the Spectre has a touchscreen, which I often find more convenient than a touchpad. But that's just my personal preference.

I haven't used a high-end Windows laptop recently, and the mid- to low-end ones I've used all have bad trackpads, so I'm assuming that "not terrible" means it's still way behind Apple trackpads.

I use a MacBook, and anything less than a great trackpad would be a dealbreaker for me if I were to switch. (I would potentially be interested in a good Linux laptop otherwise. I guess I could just install it on the MacBook...)

Then again normal pcs have ctrl in the bottom left corner, where it belongs, -or at least a bios option to fix it.

This is part of why people still buy pcs.

OK, I'll bite -- I can see this would be annoying for some people, but it's something you can easily work around. This MacBook has Fn, Ctrl, Alt and Cmd down there, there are plenty of buttons to assign all the functions you want. There's no way to work around a bad trackpad.

Sometimes you want a mouse, sure (and Apple's mice are awful!) But if all you have is a trackpad, it has to be a great trackpad.

> the Synaptics touchpad is very wide

How do people type when the trackpad is very wide? I find myself constantly moving the mouse to different parts of the screen on a Dell laptop I have occasionally used for work.

On macs, palm detection is excellent, don't remember ever having the cursor move while typing (though I'm sure it's happened).

Now that you mention it, I realize I've definitely used mac laptops without this happening! So it's all in the drivers, I guess?

I just tried this out for fun on my macbook, I found it very difficult to get the mouse to move with my forearm/palm even when trying, I had to use my carpal bone instead (which is essentially a point like a finger).

Dell's XPS line of laptops have fantastic trackpads, for instance.

> This is why people buy Macs!

Really? I thought because they "look so nice" and are so "easy to understand". Never heard anyone say: "I bought a Mac because the touchpad is so fantastic".

I bought a Mac because the touchpad is so fantastic.

I've used PC's for ten years prior, and wow, what a relief. It's just next level, you can't compare.

What are you doing with that touchpad that it would make you change your whole software infrastructure?

Hell...it's just the touch pad.

It's not so much the thing that makes you switch to a Mac, as the thing that makes you stay there.

Every time I use a Windows laptop I recoil in horror at how unusable the trackpad is. How do ever get anything done?? It just seems bizarre.

(I realize plenty of people do get things done on Windows laptops; I'm just describing the visceral reaction I have, along with quite a few fellow Mac users.)

> How do ever get anything done?? It just seems bizarre.

There is a wonderful thing there since 1941. It's called: a mouse.

I don't know what you do but if I need something done it's either at work, where I have a docking station with all that ergonomic stuff attached to it like a mouse or keyboard, or it is at home where...you probably guessed it already, I have just another docking station and/or a Desktop-PC.

Even if I work on a train and don't have a table, I mostly use my keyboard for work. So I'm curious what involves so much mouse movement to base such a huge change primary on a touch pad.

Honestly, I was just like you. I could never understand those Mac users. Why the hell would they work with touchpad. It's ridiculous and can't even compare to mouse.

About a year ago I was forced to switch to Mac ( forced by work). And, trust me, it is a Big deal. This is one of the things I loved about Mac.

I have a "docking station" (not per se) with wireless keyboard, touchpad and mouse. And I find myself finding using touchpad much more often than mouse. Because it IS comfortable. Obviously, for some specific things that require precision mouse is much better. But for fast workflow, touchpad and its gestures are awesome. Similarly at home, I can use it anywhere without bringing mouse with me. And not struggling with terrible ( admittedly my cheap) pc touchpad.

I think it's that Mac touchpads are really well integrated with the OS.

I could never used multiple desktop on Linux. But after one day on a MacBook Air (that a colleague lent me) it became my natural workflow.

The three-finger swipe on the touchpad that swipe between virtual desktop is awesome. I tried to replicate this on another OS, but sadly I failed.

Yes really. It is a common sentiment. For example:

8 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11078492

8 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1550998

Oh I see. A 3 votes thread with "heavy commenting" and whatever was 8 years ago. It's a century on the internet.

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