Windows laptop touchpad Poll

[MS Bob 11]

So there are 3 kinds of touchpads/trackpads basically.

 

1. Old style touchpads with left and right buttons (similar to how a mouse works). With these touchpads, as long as they are Precision Touchpads, everything else also works - tap to single click, two finger tap to right click, two finger swipe to scroll, tap twice and drag to select. Also multitouch gestures are the same - pinch, zoom, 3/4 finger swipes/taps.

 

2. Buttonless touchpads but the bottom portion of the whole touchpad clicks/can be pressed to click. You press near the bottom left to left click and towards the right to right click. As long as they're Precision Touchpads, all the standard single touch and multi-touch gestures and tapping/scrolling functionality works.
 

3. Buttonless touchpads where the only possibilities are tap to single click, two finger tap to right click, two finger swipe to scroll, tap twice and drag to select and multitouch gestures - pinch, zoom, 3/4 finger swipes/taps. But clicking physically which gives haptic feedback is not possible.

 

Also #2 and #3 kind look the same on laptops - it's only after using them or reading reviews do you find what kind you've got. So, which kind has your laptop got, what kinds have you used and which do you prefer and why?

 

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I've got a buttonless touchpad, but the bottom of the touchpad clicks and it differentiates between the left and right side for left and right buttons. So I went for option 2.

 

I guess I prefer this setup, but I've used touchpads with physical buttons.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

#2 for me. I've used #1, but never really liked em...

[MS Bob 11]

I think #1 are almost extinct now. Very few notebooks have them.  But it's hard to tell just from the photos (if you buy a laptop online) whether it's #2 or #3.  Have to read the reviews extensively to see how the touchpad is.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

12 minutes ago, MS Bob 10 said:

I think #1 are almost extinct now. Very few notebooks have them.  But it's hard to tell just from the photos (if you buy a laptop online) whether it's #2 or #3.  Have to read the reviews extensively to see how the touchpad is.

Yeah, only old ThikPads still have the buttons...

[Sergey "hb860"]

I would like to have #1. But all my modern devices have #2.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

I think most of my laptops have the first time, but since they are ThinkPads I use the TrackPoint and usually end up disabling the touchpad in the BIOS (UEFI) firmware.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[MS Bob 11]

Those modern ThinkPads seem to have buttons on top instead of bottom. In older models, they used to be on top as well as bottom. Now they simply seem to be present because the TrackPoint (pointing stick) is there but yes they can be used with the touchpad as well. I remember in some generation of ThinkPads, Lenovo removed the TrackPoint top buttons too and there was a huge backlash from the community to put them back.

 

What I don't seem to understand is does the average laptop buyer not care about the touchpad when it is such an important input device that affects the whole user experience? How does one tell without access to reviews if it's a clickpad or just a buttonless rectangle built around taps only and haptics/vibrations? At least the ones with buttons - you can tell easily from pictures.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

On my ThinkPads P72 and P50, mouse buttons are located both above and below the TrackPad.  On smaller sized ThinkPads, I think Lenovo has gone to just one row of mouse buttons

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[ZakO]

The poll is worded a bit ambiguously, is it supposed to be voting on which our laptop has got, or which we prefer? 

 

My Dell XPS has #2 "clickpad" but in the 3 years of having the laptop I've never actually clicked it, and use/prefer #3 style. 

[MS Bob 11]

18 minutes ago, ZakO said:

The poll is worded a bit ambiguously, is it supposed to be voting on which our laptop has got, or which we prefer? 

 

My Dell XPS has #2 "clickpad" but in the 3 years of having the laptop I've never actually clicked it, and use/prefer #3 style. 

Sorry about that. I just assumed that the one which is preferred is the one people will get.

[MS Bob 11]

Do buyers check what kind of touchpad and keyboard any laptop has or do they focus only on the other specs like RAM, SSD, processor, display? Plus the 2nd and 3rd type of touchpads described above look the same in photos.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

2 hours ago, MS Bob 10 said:

Do buyers check what kind of touchpad and keyboard any laptop has or do they focus only on the other specs like RAM, SSD, processor, display? Plus the 2nd and 3rd type of touchpads described above look the same in photos.

Few people care about the track pad. Most people just use external mice anyway...

[cork1958]

FWIW, I prefer to have the buttons for left/right clicking but in actuality, I HATE touchpads as they are always clicking things when I'm not clicking and trying to high lite things I'm not high liting! 

 

I just about always have a usb mouse and keyboard plugged in so I don't have to use those stupid touch pads! Don't know what it is about typing on a laptop, but it always feels like my fingers want to get all kinked up when using them. I can't type nearly as well as I used to (82wpm) but on a laptop, I bet I can't even do 20wpm.

[spy beef]

I love the #3 touchpad on my MacBook. Force Touch haptics make it feel exactly like pressing a real button, but with no moving parts, couldn't tell the difference between the mechanical one on the 2013 vs FT one on the 2020 MacBook.

[MS Bob 11]

Even in the "clickpads" type (#2), we have sub Type A and Type B (see the 2 videos). I miss the ones with buttons.

Recently Dell did this as an "upgrade" to one of their best-selling business notebooks, Latitude 15-inch. They went from this to this: