Ok maybe I just don't understand these new buttonless touchpads

[Kushina]

Why would you remove the left and right click buttons on the trackpad? Why would you make it a trackable area, it makes for inaccurate clicks. It seems like every manufacturer is going this way these days so surely I'm not seeing the benefit to it or maybe I'm using it wrong and also the ***** keeps clicking in random places while I am typing. How do I use this thing....

 

[VirtualLarry]

Unsurprising cheap crap in the "race to the bottom" in PC laptops.

Thankfully, both my Dell N2830 and my Lenovo A6-6310 laptop have real trackpad buttons.

Edit: Seems like something that you should check for, before buying, if it's a serious issue for you?

I do also own some laptops, with the "clickable" trackpad, and the lower-right corner click is a right-click, but it generally takes me a few tries to get it right on those. Quite a PITA. I think that development is pretty gross.

 

[JeffMD]

The new trackpads are called clickpads, and they are the current bottom of the hole form of controllability that laptops have sunk too.

has nothing to do with how cheap they are to make, it has to do with looks and lines. The pc makers think they need to make the trackpad as invisible as possible.

My asus has one and I hate it with a vengeance. It comes down to having an unstable pointer when trying to right and left click. This makes playing games impossible. I wouild try and play WoW on it and with the arrow over a hot key I would press down on the click pads and boom..off my arrow goes into the great beyond.

 

[Commodus]

I don't think your issue is so much with buttonless trackpads as it is trackpads on most Windows laptops.

Apple's approach actually works pretty well -- I don't think I've ever had a missed click because I was trying to right-click (using a two-finger press). The problem is that many PC vendors are using off-the-shelf parts or software that doesn't work very well.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I hate them even more than I hate hipster doofuses that buy vinyl. I have a Surface Pro at work for testing touch stuff and the touchpad is very painful to use.

 

[JeffMD]

Commodus, no, trackpads don't register finger slides while you are trying to click the mouse button cause your finger isn't ON the pad like it is with a clickpads. Pressing down causes the mouse to move before the click registers, this means where you wanted the mouse to be when you clicked is no longer where it was.

 

[nerp]

Luckily, there are machines out there that have dedicated buttons still. And there's the good ole ThinkPad with the trackpoint.

 

[Kushina]

Lenovo's tend to be great, I got a swell deal on this acer which is why I decided to get it. Also I keep touching the touchpad while typing, it's really annoying but I found the utility which blocks the touchpad while I am typing but it still happens every now and then...

I agree with Jeff, its mostly for looks, looks stupid. MAC OS whatever they have these days, has software that makes it useful and noninvasive.

 

[Commodus]

Commodus, no, trackpads don't register finger slides while you are trying to click the mouse button cause your finger isn't ON the pad like it is with a clickpads. Pressing down causes the mouse to move before the click registers, this means where you wanted the mouse to be when you clicked is no longer where it was.

Think there's some miscommunication here -- a buttonless trackpad is a clickpad in my view. Anything where you have to press or tap on the regular tracking surface.

And my point still stands: I can't remember jumping the cursor on a MacBook when doing a two-finger press to right-click. Have you used a MacBook and experienced the contrary?

 

[giantpandaman2]

Why would you remove the left and right click buttons on the trackpad? Why would you make it a trackable area, it makes for inaccurate clicks. It seems like every manufacturer is going this way these days so surely I'm not seeing the benefit to it or maybe I'm using it wrong and also the ***** keeps clicking in random places while I am typing. How do I use this thing....

Less parts, meaning less cost and less to break. That said...not all clickpads are created equal. Even within a brand there are the cheap click pads at the bargain-basement computers and the much better top of the line click pads on the thinner than my finger computers.

Personally, I still prefer trackpoint on the Thinkpad. That said, I have no qualms with my Surface Book clickpad. I hate the ones on my students' Lenovo Yogas, however.

 

[MarkizSchnitzel]

My asus has one and I hate it with a vengeance. It comes down to having an unstable pointer when trying to right and left click. This makes playing games impossible. I wouild try and play WoW on it and with the arrow over a hot key I would press down on the click pads and boom..off my arrow goes into the great beyond.

Playing games with a trackpad? Why would you do that?

Yes, i know it's an old argument, done to death, but still seems to me that many people complain about this, without any regard to the elephant in the room.

 

[myocardia]

...

 

[jdf135]

Clickpads are atrocious. My son and wife have laptops with them and they are so frustrating. My Lenovo T420 is getting old but I LOVE the spectacular choice of clicking options (FIVE thumb buttons, a touchpad and a trackpoint). Can anyone recommend ANY new laptops without clickpads. My initial searches have shown that even Lenovo has largely surrendered to the psycho, pretty-design engineers.

 

[Muse]

Yeah, the issue seems to be that tapping the trackpad doesn't let you position the pointer over where you want the click to register. Thus, you have to have a means of registering a click with the pointer positioned. I have found no way of doing so with my cheapie RCA w101 V2 Windows 10 tablet/keyboard combos. Thus, I just bought a bluetooth mouse. That also helps when I have the keyboard attached -- I don't have to reach for the screen for mouse action.

My Thinkpads have no such problem.

 

[daxzy]

The touchpad is probably the most used part of the laptop, and yet it probably suffers the most from the PC race to the bottom. It is literally the one component that could make or break the usefulness of the laptop.

has nothing to do with how cheap they are to make, it has to do with looks and lines. The pc makers think they need to make the trackpad as invisible as possible.

No, its just a simple race to the bottom.

My XPS 13 9350's trackpad looks great and performs better than any notebook I've used (include MacBook Airs). Drop down to even the "high-end" Inspiron 7000 series, and it goes back to mediocrity. Drop down further to netbooks and cheapies from Asus/Acer it's a pile of crap in terms of responsiveness .

Clickpads are atrocious. My son and wife have laptops with them and they are so frustrating. My Lenovo T420 is getting old but I LOVE the spectacular choice of clicking options (FIVE thumb buttons, a touchpad and a trackpoint). Can anyone recommend ANY new laptops without clickpads. My initial searches have shown that even Lenovo has largely surrendered to the psycho, pretty-design engineers.

T430 is the last of those. But like I said above, you should try out some of the premium notebook's clickpads. My XPS 13 9350 is better than my T430s, but I do miss that tracker in the middle whatever its called.

 

[Muse]

Clickpads are atrocious. My son and wife have laptops with them and they are so frustrating. My Lenovo T420 is getting old but I LOVE the spectacular choice of clicking options (FIVE thumb buttons, a touchpad and a trackpoint). Can anyone recommend ANY new laptops without clickpads. My initial searches have shown that even Lenovo has largely surrendered to the psycho, pretty-design engineers.

I think all 3 of my Thinkpads have that and they are very usable without an external mouse, although I still use a mouse with them when convenient. I don't use the trackpoint, the touchpad feels so nice. I use the left/right upper click buttons all the time when not using a mouse. My cheapie tablet, OTOH, drives me nuts, but I'm new to it, just figuring out how to deal with it.

 

[ScottAD]

Bought the Acer E5-575G-53VG and it had the same pad. Painful. Took it with me on vacation to do school work and I bought a mouse while there and disabled the pad. Wiped and sent the laptop back when I got home.

So alas, the search continues for what I want.