Debate @Slav Power on the merits of trackpoints vs touchpads on laptops

[Slav Power]

This is the pinnacle of cursor input on laptops. If a laptop doesn't have it, it's worth jackshit.
-You can use it even if you're wearing gloves
-It won't lead to phantom inputs while typing just because you've laid your palms on the palmrest, and if you don't have sausage fingers then you won't move your mouse when you type G, H or B
-It's ergonomic, you have to barely move your hand from a typing position to use it and you only need to use the tip of your index finger to move the cursor instead of swiping around multiple times just to get from one edge of the screen to another
-With the three button layout scrolling is intuitive, just hold down the middle button and now the cursor movement is translated as horizontal/vertical scroll movement, so all the mouse use cases are covered within your thumb and index finger
-If you really want to, it's way better for first person camera controls in games than a touchpad. Basically like an analog stick in a controller, but more precise. IMO it should be a standard in gaming laptops

It's the next best option if you can't use a mouse with your laptop. If you prefer a touchpad over The Clit™, you're a nigger.

 

[Coolio55]

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This is the pinnacle of cursor input on laptops. If a laptop doesn't have it, it's worth jackshit.
-You can use it even if you're wearing gloves
-It won't lead to phantom inputs while typing just because you've laid your palms on the palmrest, and if you don't have sausage fingers then you won't move your mouse when you type G, H or B
-It's ergonomic, you have to barely move your hand from a typing position to use it and you only need to use the tip of your index finger to move the cursor instead of swiping around multiple times just to get from one edge of the screen to another
-With the three button layout scrolling is intuitive, just hold down the middle button and now the cursor movement is translated as horizontal/vertical scroll movement, so all the mouse use cases are covered within your thumb and index finger
-If you really want to, it's way better for first person camera controls in games than a touchpad. Basically like an analog stick in a controller, but more precise. IMO it should be a standard in gaming laptops

It's the next best option if you can't use a mouse with your laptop. If you prefer a touchpad over The Clit™, you're a nigger.

Dumb nigger. Just make trak-ball laptops again.

 

[analrapist]

Just make trak-ball laptops again.

My dad had this old monchrome 486/16 laptop that I used to love to play Civ1 on. This is such a vibe.

 

[DavidS877]

The last good laptop that Apple made.

 

[Ed Special]

Dumb nigger. Just make trak-ball laptops again.

Literally just get a Logitech M570, they're like $30 for a mouse that'll last you a decade

 

[DavidS877]

Literally just get a Logitech M570, they're like $30 for a mouse that'll last you a decade

I only get about 5 years out of them, either the bearings wear or they just die, but they're still cheap enough. I do miss the Microsoft Trackball though, using one now even though it's worn out after the last M570 died.

 

[Kiwi & Cow]

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This is the pinnacle of cursor input on laptops. If a laptop doesn't have it, it's worth jackshit.

No, the pinnacle of cursor input on laptops is the mouse.

-You can use it even if you're wearing gloves

Not if your fingers are too thick from wearing winter gloves and it's fucking imprecise due to a lack of feedback. You're better off not using your laptop outside where the cold is probably going to kill the battery anyways.

-It won't lead to phantom inputs while typing just because you've laid your palms on the palmrest, and if you don't have sausage fingers then you won't move your mouse when you type G, H or B

You're a low vitamin D zombie if you need to rest your hands on the keyboard, my hands are always 5 centimeters above the keyboard while typing, the only thing I ever rest is my elbow and not like 24/7.

-It's ergonomic, you have to barely move your hand from a typing position to use it and you only need to use the tip of your index finger to move the cursor instead of swiping around multiple times just to get from one edge of the screen to another

I've said this before, but I'll repeat it again: it's a piece of worthless shit that hurts my fingers when I use it. I'd rather use that old Macbook's ball abomination for an input device than this piece of shit anyday.

-With the three button layout scrolling is intuitive, just hold down the middle button and now the cursor movement is translated as horizontal/vertical scroll movement, so all the mouse use cases are covered within your thumb and index finger

Why would you do that instead of y'know use the mouse? Middle click is broken on most mice (or they break very fast, even gaming mice are not spared) anyways, I never use it and I'm not going to use it along this crap.

-If you really want to, it's way better for first person camera controls in games than a touchpad. Basically like an analog stick in a controller, but more precise. IMO it should be a standard in gaming laptops

Yet, it's finicky and frustrates me to no end on to top of hurting my fingers. Just use a mouse negro. It's the standard for gaming on PC.

It's the next best option if you can't use a mouse with your laptop. If you prefer a touchpad over The Clit™, you're a nigger.

The touchpad is infinitely better than this crap and I am the whitest aryan you've ever seen in your life brapzilian.

(Sorry for the shitty cursive I coudln't find a better pen to write on my skin)

Lenovo thinkads have shit build quality and the trackpads are unusable. That's the whole issue. Nothing comes close to macbooks. That's just a fact. No reason to get mad about it.

Then don't use them, use a mouse double nigger.

Have you actually ever owned a macbook, or are you just reposting smug tl;dv videos from youtube to feel better about your dell or asus or acer laptop? Macbooks are worth the price just for the trackpad alone. Every single non-macbook laptop I've ever used had a shitty trackpad. I don't care about phones, that's just your cope.

Please tell me you're joking. It's a huge piece of shit that overheats like crazy, fucking unusable.

Apple chips and laptop build quality are so far ahead of the rest, it's not even a competition. It would be nice to have a sane working OS to run on these computers.

The OS' the only thing nice abt Macs.

 

[Slav Power]

I am the whitest aryan you've ever seen in your life

I see the exact same skin tone every day when I wake up.

No, I'm not gonna bother taking a photo for you. I doxed my toes here twice already if you really want to see.

 

[teriyakiburns]

all of you fuckers using a mouse. If you have to take your hands off the keys to control your computer, you are a baby. CLI or die.

(I kid. Or do I?)

 

[Lard Shart]

I see the exact same skin tone every day when I wake up.

Who knew both of you wake up next to each other.

 

[Legalize Asbestos]

Sorry for the shitty cursive

Left-handed. Opinion discarded.

 

[Atlas Sneezed]

This is the pinnacle of cursor input on laptops. If a laptop doesn't have it, it's worth jackshit.

Oh yeah and next you're gonna tell me that analog sticks are the pinnacle of aiming in games

 

[Slav Power]

Oh yeah and next you're gonna tell me that analog sticks is the pinnacle of aiming in games

It's the next best option if you can't use a mouse with your laptop.

If you:
-can't use a mouse because of tight/uneven space
-can't be bothered taking out the mouse every time you use your laptop
Then TrackPoint > touchpad. The mouse was not in the comparison because it's an external peripheral, not a built-in one, and the whole point of a laptop is that you have everything built in. At this rate you might as well say that everything in a laptop is shit because you can hook it up to a Thunderbolt dock and have a full keyboard, mouse, monitors and an external GPU.

 

[analrapist]

I get that people love trackpoints, but man, trying to use them has always made my toes curl. I like them in principle, but in practice, they do not cooperate well with my autism.

 

[Don Yagon]

I get that people love trackpoints, but man, trying to use them has always made my toes curl. I like them in principle, but in practice, they do not cooperate well with my autism.

It just feels like controlling a cursor with an analog stick but a lot more jagged.

 

[Ed Special]

Trackpoints would be fine if they didn't all have the worst tips known to man. Even the New 3DS's much-aligned right stick (functionally the exact same thing) isn't as bad.

 

[Battlefield42]

Trackpoints would be fine if they didn't all have the worst tips known to man. Even the New 3DS's much-aligned right stick (functionally the exact same thing) isn't as bad.

HP one feels a lot better than the Thinkpad one.

 

[ADHD Mate]

HP one feels a lot better than the Thinkpad one.

They had been lacking middle button, which made them shit. And I don't think they include them now anyway.
All manufacturers were gimping trackpoints. Even Lenovo tried touchpad/button thing in **40 series which was atrocious.
I think thinkpads are the last goto laptops for people who like them, so there was quite noticeable backlash and they did revert it thankfully.

Still my X200 had better trackpoint than my X270. It had also 7row keyboard which I quite liked over modern 6 rows. Though I think modern keyboards are more pleasant to type on.
We have lost a lot due to apple-fication of consumer electronic design.

Also, I personally was using touchpads long before trying trackpoint. Never liked them, even the new which are supposed to be amazing are uncomfortable to me.
There is just something about having to move hand down from keyboard which makes it unergonomic. So I either have to keep moving laptop, have keyboard too far away or bend my wrist to use touchpad. Where as trackpoint feels just right.

 

[Atlas Sneezed]

Then TrackPoint > touchpad

My brother in onions, how can this be true. Mice and trackpads (GOOD track pads at least) are an absolute pointing device, meaning the motion translates 1:1 from your physical movement to the cursor movement (let's ignore the gay acceleration that occurs in poor implementations).

A trackpoint is an analog stick larping as a pointing device that is a size of a nipple that only does relative motions. Please explain how this is superior because the people who claim that mice > analog sticks are very eager to hear out how you're MORE precise

 

[Slav Power]

the motion translates 1:1 from your physical movement to the cursor movement

The mouse, the touchpad and the TrackPoint do the same, and all three are relative. They translate the movement of the device relative to the position of the cursor on the screen.
-the mouse moves the cursor relatively to how you move the mouse. You move it up, the cursor goes up.
-the touchpad moves the cursor relatively to how you swipe it. You swipe it up, the cursor goes up.
-the TrackPoint moves the cursor relatively to how you push it. You push it up, the cursor goes up.

You know what's an absolute input device? A graphics tablet, it maps out the screen space on it's surface, so if you move the pen to the top left edge, the cursor will move to the to left edge. Same with touch screens, the cursor goes exactly where you touch the screen. That's what it means to be "absolute".

By the way, all three aren't 1:1 unless you disable mouse acceleration in Windows, or in whichever DE that you use that decides it's still a good idea to enable it by default. I know I have an instinctive need to Win+R main.cpl whenever I touch a Windows machine I haven't used because of how atrocious the mouse acceleration is even when using the mouse. It's not the 1990's anymore, all mice are optical and have a proper DPI out of the factory. Stop fucking doing this shit. Jeetsoft and Troonix devs, both of you. It's time to stop.

And guess what: once it's off, the TrackPoint is very nice to use. Push on it lightly, it moves slowly. Push on it harder, it moves faster. You quickly train your muscle memory and you only use the pressing force of the tip of your index finger to fling the cursor from one edge of the screen to another instead of smidging around a touchpad like a monkey. Much less hand movement = much better ergonomics. Then your thumb rests on the three buttons that are profiled so that you know which one you're pressing without looking at it. Then once it's time to type, you have to barely move your hand since it's practically already in the writing position.

For a device that's meant to be portable this is a much better solution IMO. Touchpads are only better if you're unable to learn how to use the TrackPoint. I know I won't be getting a laptop if it doesn't have one.