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Comment by holstvoogd | Hacker News Reader

Great news, now I know what my next laptop will be after 17 years of macbooks :P

Until they fix that weird off-centre trackpad, I'd continue suggesting people go Dell XPS, also the only PC laptop with a trackpad response even approaching that of a Macbook

I just noticed that. Weird placement.

I guess it has to do with the layout of their hardware below it?

My guess is that it's to keep it center-aligned with the main part of the keyboard. The Librem 15 has a built-in numpad on the right, which pushes the letter and number keys over to the left.

Personally I'd have them just ditch the numpad entirely and center everything, the way they do on the Librem 13. USB numpads are cheap and widely available for those who need them, and typing on an off-center keyboard feels weird.

The keyboard has a numpad, so the trackpad is actually centered between your hands when you're typing.

I will not buy a laptop that doesn't have physical buttons on the touchpad. The reliability of knowing that my clicks are exact, saves me time and frustration. Sadly this is my only reason to not own a Purism.

But if you are considering the Dell XPS, I recommend you instead check out their Latitude 7xxx series. (On the website you find them under "For Work" instead of "For Home"). Like the Dell Latitude 7390 or 7490. Yay for real buttons. And pretty good in other areas as well, such as the keyboard quality, and ports.

It doesn't have touchpoint though. I just want a touchpad with real buttons. There aren't many options for that anymore. Another nice and relatively unknown option is the VAIO (no longer from Sony). https://us.vaio.com

I would LOVE to get a Purism if only it had the buttons.

Isn't it a clickpad (the whole touchpad being a big button)? I despise tapping, but I don't mind clickpads with softarea versus separate buttons.

Not sure. I hate the Lenovo style "the whole clickpad moves so much when you click that you're almost certain to miss" thing. But I also hate the soft "you have no idea if you just clicked or not, do you" thing too. So I really need my buttons and don't remember which variant the XPS has :)

The off-centre trackpad is especially awkward to use for those of us with centred arms.

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