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>The Unibook’s keyboard is pretty good, and its trackpad is pretty bad. Just like 98% of non-Apple laptops. Amazing how after all these years nobody could repl

>The Unibook’s keyboard is pretty good, and its trackpad is pretty bad. Just like 98% of non-Apple laptops. Amazing how after all these years nobody could replicate the feel of macbook's trackpads.

varun_ch 1mo ago
The new Framework Pro laptop is supposed to be pretty good. Anyone have any experience with it yet?
- collabs 1mo ago
  I have not tried it myself and I'm skeptical of reviewers on the topic of touchpad. I remember sitting next to someone who seemed to be using Photoshop in a MacBook professionally like literally making fine edits with a cursor more than ten years ago. While I'm sure our track pads have gotten better, I doubt we have reached the level of Apple's track pads. I don't know how much of an accolade I can give a USD 2k+ device for having almost the same trackpad experience as a USD 999 MacBook.
  - NuclearPM 1mo ago
    You work for Framework?
stodor89 1mo ago
I'd say my Thinkpad X9's glass haptic touchpad is as good as my Macbook Pro's. Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen13 has a great optional haptic touchpad at almost no added cost, which makes the years of negligence even more insulting. "Yeah, we can do it. No, it's not expensive. But we had to choose what to copy-paste from Apple this time around, and a haptic touchpad was $2.93, whereas hating our customers was free!"
LoganDark 1mo ago
It's hard to replicate the R&D that went into Apple's trackpads. I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that most laptop companies do not actually engineer their hardware as much as cobble together existing hardware. Even among those that do engineer their hardware, they don't pay as close attention as Apple. (Also they might not engineer on a low enough level in the first place) There are some haptic trackpads popping up that are okay.
- baybal2 1mo ago
  [dead]
makeitdouble 1mo ago
> nobody You're saying there's 2% of non-Apple laptops with good trackpads. Apple laptops are below 10% share, so by your own account that 2% is nothing to sneeze at. Yes, there's a pretty decent number of good trackpads out there. If you really care, you'll find them, same way a few decades ago only people who really cared were buying macs.
Peanuts99 1mo ago
This is mostly a solved problem. My ThinkPad track pad is as good as any Mac.
- auggierose 1mo ago
  > mostly a solved problem > as good as any Mac Yeah, no. If you don't feel or care about the difference, good for you. The rest of us will have to use a mac.
  - televisionsaval 1mo ago
    I think the whole trackpad idea is stupid and unusable (like anything that needs software correction for physical layout idiocy) and I blame Apple for its prevalence. Apple could make an entirely worthless product and within 4 years everyone would have to copy it.
    - bschwindHN 1mo ago
      That's like, your opinion man. The trackpad is a fantastic input device. I use it exclusively when on a laptop, and on a desktop I'll use both a mouse and a trackpad.
      - card_zero 1mo ago
        Hmm, a novel style. What determines which you use at any given time? Do you just switch back and forth at random to keep things interesting?
        bschwindHN 1mo ago
        The mouse is better for precise pointing, and the trackpad is better for scrolling (especially horizontal), and multi-touch gestures.
      - dd8601fn 1mo ago
        Agreed… but really only for macs. That’s where it’s beautiful. I even use their larger external trackpad with the mini. But on work supplied machines and such I use a conventional mouse. It’s not even because everyone else's trackpads are fucking garbage (they are). It’s that systems that aren’t macs just weren’t built around using one. Some of the slightly-less-trashy bits of 3rd party software try to bridge the gap, but it’s not the same.
baybal2 1mo ago
[dead]
ezst 1mo ago
My ThinkPad's touchpad has been good enough for 10+ years (and I got a trackpoint!), to the extent I stopped caring altogether. Perhaps a MacBook Pro's is better, but however better it may be, that won't swing me towards Apple. "The best touchpad in the world" is some street creds I'm not interested in.
odiroot 1mo ago
It's the opposite feeling for me. Not sure about other brands but pretty much any ThinkPad I use, the touchpad just feels right. Whereas on Macbooks it's just off, at least ever since the first Retina generation (my first contact with it). Macbooks' touchpads are usually also way too big and, sadly, even Lenovo follows this bad trend in some of their models.
- deleted 1mo ago
  [deleted]
BoingBoomTschak 1mo ago
Don't agree here, I dislike my work M2 MBP's keyboards/trackpad. The keyboard is bad because I have mostly known non-chiclet keyboards on old Thinkpad/Latitude so nothing against Apple per se, all current laptops are simply crap on that point. But the trackpad, while quite smooth in tracking, can be infuriating when its Force Touch system has trouble registering clicks. Sure, it's better than clickpads, but compared to proper buttons? No thanks. I guess coming from x61s, x200s and the like would make anyone a bit snobbish concerning laptop input devices (the only laptop I kept is an e6440).
euroderf 1mo ago
In my decades on teh interwebz I've never read a good in-depth look at the Mac trackpad. It intrigues me always, how it pops back at your finger on a click, until one of those rare times that the machine locks up completely and then... the trackpad is... dead as a doornail. Intriguing.

>The Unibook’s keyboard is pretty good, and its trackpad is pretty bad. Just like 98% of non-Apple laptops. Amazing how after all these years nobody could replicate the feel of macbook's trackpads.

varun_ch 1mo ago

The new Framework Pro laptop is supposed to be pretty good. Anyone have any experience with it yet?

collabs 1mo ago
I have not tried it myself and I'm skeptical of reviewers on the topic of touchpad. I remember sitting next to someone who seemed to be using Photoshop in a MacBook professionally like literally making fine edits with a cursor more than ten years ago. While I'm sure our track pads have gotten better, I doubt we have reached the level of Apple's track pads. I don't know how much of an accolade I can give a USD 2k+ device for having almost the same trackpad experience as a USD 999 MacBook.
- NuclearPM 1mo ago
  You work for Framework?

stodor89 1mo ago

I'd say my Thinkpad X9's glass haptic touchpad is as good as my Macbook Pro's. Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen13 has a great optional haptic touchpad at almost no added cost, which makes the years of negligence even more insulting. "Yeah, we can do it. No, it's not expensive. But we had to choose what to copy-paste from Apple this time around, and a haptic touchpad was $2.93, whereas hating our customers was free!"

LoganDark 1mo ago

It's hard to replicate the R&D that went into Apple's trackpads. I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that most laptop companies do not actually engineer their hardware as much as cobble together existing hardware. Even among those that do engineer their hardware, they don't pay as close attention as Apple. (Also they might not engineer on a low enough level in the first place) There are some haptic trackpads popping up that are okay.

baybal2 1mo ago
[dead]

makeitdouble 1mo ago

> nobody You're saying there's 2% of non-Apple laptops with good trackpads. Apple laptops are below 10% share, so by your own account that 2% is nothing to sneeze at. Yes, there's a pretty decent number of good trackpads out there. If you really care, you'll find them, same way a few decades ago only people who really cared were buying macs.

Peanuts99 1mo ago

This is mostly a solved problem. My ThinkPad track pad is as good as any Mac.

auggierose 1mo ago
> mostly a solved problem > as good as any Mac Yeah, no. If you don't feel or care about the difference, good for you. The rest of us will have to use a mac.
- televisionsaval 1mo ago
  I think the whole trackpad idea is stupid and unusable (like anything that needs software correction for physical layout idiocy) and I blame Apple for its prevalence. Apple could make an entirely worthless product and within 4 years everyone would have to copy it.
  - bschwindHN 1mo ago
    That's like, your opinion man. The trackpad is a fantastic input device. I use it exclusively when on a laptop, and on a desktop I'll use both a mouse and a trackpad.
    - card_zero 1mo ago
      Hmm, a novel style. What determines which you use at any given time? Do you just switch back and forth at random to keep things interesting?
      - bschwindHN 1mo ago
        The mouse is better for precise pointing, and the trackpad is better for scrolling (especially horizontal), and multi-touch gestures.
    - dd8601fn 1mo ago
      Agreed… but really only for macs. That’s where it’s beautiful. I even use their larger external trackpad with the mini. But on work supplied machines and such I use a conventional mouse. It’s not even because everyone else's trackpads are fucking garbage (they are). It’s that systems that aren’t macs just weren’t built around using one. Some of the slightly-less-trashy bits of 3rd party software try to bridge the gap, but it’s not the same.

baybal2 1mo ago

[dead]

ezst 1mo ago

My ThinkPad's touchpad has been good enough for 10+ years (and I got a trackpoint!), to the extent I stopped caring altogether. Perhaps a MacBook Pro's is better, but however better it may be, that won't swing me towards Apple. "The best touchpad in the world" is some street creds I'm not interested in.

odiroot 1mo ago

It's the opposite feeling for me. Not sure about other brands but pretty much any ThinkPad I use, the touchpad just feels right. Whereas on Macbooks it's just off, at least ever since the first Retina generation (my first contact with it). Macbooks' touchpads are usually also way too big and, sadly, even Lenovo follows this bad trend in some of their models.

deleted 1mo ago
[deleted]

BoingBoomTschak 1mo ago

Don't agree here, I dislike my work M2 MBP's keyboards/trackpad. The keyboard is bad because I have mostly known non-chiclet keyboards on old Thinkpad/Latitude so nothing against Apple per se, all current laptops are simply crap on that point. But the trackpad, while quite smooth in tracking, can be infuriating when its Force Touch system has trouble registering clicks. Sure, it's better than clickpads, but compared to proper buttons? No thanks. I guess coming from x61s, x200s and the like would make anyone a bit snobbish concerning laptop input devices (the only laptop I kept is an e6440).

euroderf 1mo ago

In my decades on teh interwebz I've never read a good in-depth look at the Mac trackpad. It intrigues me always, how it pops back at your finger on a click, until one of those rare times that the machine locks up completely and then... the trackpad is... dead as a doornail. Intriguing.