Anyone use Touchpads?

[Medessec]

I'm pretty flexible between using a Touchpad, Trackpoint, and the good 'ol fashioned computer ball mouse. As well as that crazy stationary one my dad had with the big red ball in it that you shuffle around to move the cursor. I can use that, proficiently as well I might add.

But I feel like the future of touchpads on laptops is quite dim. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but on Windows 8 laptops, all I've seen are touchpads that are big, plastic slicks, or rubberized depressions in the casing. Much like the slicks that HP's been putting on their budget laptops the past few years. There's poor feeling and responsiveness to it, it's very frustrating to try and use to move the mouse quickly. On top of that, these Windows 8 laptops usually involve the Macbook touchpad quirk in that the bottom half of the touchpad piece itself is vaguely a clicker, or in the case of these laptops... two clickers. And it's still a part of the sensing touchpad, so if you left click, it's possible to move the cursor AS you click. And touchpads with horrible bus chips might not register the click you're attempting in favor of moving the cursor, because it detected that first. All this can get EXTREMELY annoying as you use the laptop.

My idea of a good touchpad is a 4-5" square touchpad, with some sort of texture(dimples, sandy-roughness, etc) for feedback, with the Synaptics hardware and control panel in Windows. Older Thinkpads with Touchpads usually fit this model. Even the T30 with the UltraNav option, from 2003, is perfectly fine. My $700 basic Toshiba from 2008 had this sort of touchpad. I haven't used too many more expensive Windows 8 machines, but all the ones I've used so far(a Core i3 Dell 15", a silver Core i7 Toshiba 17" with Intel HD, an ASUS AMD A8 APU, as well as a few others I've come across, they ALL have these horrid touchpads.

What do you think?

[Summilux]

As well as that crazy stationary one my dad had with the big red ball in it that you shuffle around to move the cursor.

Oh yeah, it's called a trackball IIRC.

But I feel like the future of touchpads on laptops is quite dim. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but on Windows 8 laptops, all I've seen are touchpads that are big, plastic slicks, or rubberized depressions in the casing. Much like the slicks that HP's been putting on their budget laptops the past few years. There's poor feeling and responsiveness to it, it's very frustrating to try and use to move the mouse quickly. On top of that, these Windows 8 laptops usually involve the Macbook touchpad quirk in that the bottom half of the touchpad piece itself is vaguely a clicker, or in the case of these laptops... two clickers. And it's still a part of the sensing touchpad, so if you left click, it's possible to move the cursor AS you click. And touchpads with horrible bus chips might not register the click you're attempting in favor of moving the cursor, because it detected that first. All this can get EXTREMELY annoying as you use the laptop.

Don't worry, the industry is moving onto touchscreens anyways
Even the upcoming X240 (not X240T, nope, the vanilla one) will have touchscreen as an option. I think Lenovo succeeded in beating Apple, on this one.

So yeah, it does look like a dim future for touchpads... yet, it seems that "slick" models are preferred to "dimpled" ones (remember the outcry when Lenovo introduced the dimples?), so at least most trackpad users are probably happy for the moment.

[Cigarguy]

My personal preference is mouse, touchpad and trackpoint in that order. Not a big fan of touch screen as I hate having to constantly clean the screen which is something I'm constantly doing on my tablet and smartphone.

[thatgothbehindyou]

Not to mention touch screens get dirty.

[Temetka]

This mouse?

http://images.sodahead.com/polls/001562 ... large.jpeg

I had one of those for years. Loved it.

For laptops I prefer Trackpoint, then touchpad, then mouse. As far as the touchpads are concerned, I prefer a large surface area and 2 separate buttons for right and left click action. Also, a backlit keyboard. I love those.

[ZaZ]

Not to mention touch screens get dirty.

Glare is a significant issue with them as well.

[Medessec]

I don't count touchscreens as a proper power-user form of input. If you can make it work, then that's fine. But using your finger to operate the cursor(which occupies an entire hand btw), even if the touchscreen is very good... just doesn't seem anywhere as good as a mouse/touchpad, or even a trackpoint for that matter. Plus there'd be some numerous issues with that... FPS games being one of them. I remember my friend trying to play the original Halo on my Thinkpad W700 with it's Digitizer only, he had to have sensitivity turned to the lowest setting, and his hand needed to be really steady.

I don't mind touchscreens in the slightest, I'd love for any laptop anywhere to have the option of a touchscreen. Because I think for media, some levels of navigation, and demonstrative purposes, a touchscreen device(especially a big one) is the coolest thing ever.

This mouse?

http://images.sodahead.com/polls/001562 ... large.jpeg

I recall vaguely my dad's had the left clicker to the left of the ball, so you use your middle and index finger to shuffle the ball, but yeah. That's pretty much it. That thing was cool.