Why nobody copies Macbook's touchpad?

[Working]

We see companies copying MacBooks style and (some) capping their ram at 16gb.

Yet nobody copies their touchpad and it's quality? Why is that? 

 

Edit: The issue here is not the driver. I'm talking about the hardware. The size and the feeling of the touchpad. That massive touchpad flushed to the body of laptop that your fingers simply glides on end to end. Asus made a screen touchpad and then a dual monitor laptop. Acer made a 10k laptop with it's own luggage system. Dell made the infinity display and fixed the "webcam issue"...you know the webcam issue...the webcam with a potato quality that basically only 1% of us ever freaking use...but still a small subpar touchpad. Why is nobody working on their touchpad? 

 

P.S. I'm not trying to rant here. I am genuinely curious why nobody, literally zero, windows based laptop companies have a touchpad (hardware) that is equal or better than apples. They clearly have the money for it

[themctipers]

at this point it's a drivers thing, which comes down to a windows thing, which comes down to manufacturers cannot

[Crunchy Dragon]

I would say it's highly subjective when it comes to the MacBook trackpad.

 

I'm personally not a big fan of it, so I wouldn't want everybody to copy it. But other people, like my dad for example, love the MacBook trackpad and probably would want it on another laptop. It varies from person to person.

[Drak3]

5 minutes ago, Working said:

Yet nobody copies their touchpad and it's quality? Why is that? 

Dell XPS and Surface products have track pads that are easily on par. Pretty sure quite a few other machines competing in the same space are on par.

[TheKDub]

7 minutes ago, themctipers said:

at this point it's a drivers thing, which comes down to a windows thing, which comes down to manufacturers cannot

I'm sure that drivers could easily be made to enable use of a much larger surface area touchpad. Companies aren't forced to all use one set of drivers, they can make different drivers for different hardware to allow it to work with the machine.

 

It's likely due to cost, quality issues, or manufacturers just not caring to try expanding it.

 

The Huawei Matebook X Pro has a quite large trackpad, far larger than I've seen on other laptops. They had some issues with the trackpad rattling/feeling loose though, and I'm not sure about how the trackpad itself handles.

[themctipers]

2 minutes ago, TheKDub said:

I'm sure that drivers could easily be made to enable use of a much larger surface area touchpad. Companies aren't forced to all use one set of drivers, they can make different drivers for different hardware to allow it to work with the machine.

 

It's likely due to cost, quality issues, or manufacturers just not caring to try expanding it.

 

The Huawei Matebook X Pro has a quite large trackpad, far larger than I've seen on other laptops. They had some issues with the trackpad rattling/feeling loose though, and I'm not sure about how the trackpad itself handles.

i was thinking about the feel of it in software and not the physical trackpad itself. I find that most trackpads nowadays are good enough in size/feel/surface quality, but they are just not the same as MBP in the way it feels

 

they aren't forced to use one set of drivers but the way the mouse interacts with windows is just a windows thing, I feel that it's a much different feel on macOS to use a mouse vs using the trackpad, something is just different 

[DrMacintosh]

It's not just something you can copy. Getting everything just right requires more thought than Microsoft or any PC OEM has ever put into one of their products. 

[SeraphicWings]

Because it comes down to both hardware and software (drivers) implemented on the touchpad

But I gotta give Windows a point for trying hard to better the touchpad experience: the Precision drivers on my Y530's tiny touchpad is pretty decent for everyday use

[Working]

Let's completely forget about the software. What about the size and clickiness of the trackpad alone. The way it feels and clicks? Why can't that be copied. Some are doing the 5.5" long but then they make it 2.5" heigh instead of their 3.5". Why?

 

 

 

Matebook looks cool but capping it at 16gb ram on Windows is insane. This is not apple OS in which it's a close system and everything is extremely optimised. 

[geo3]

All track pads, including apples, suck. It's just a dumb method of input. Give me a track ball or red nipple with discrete left and right buttons.

[Commodus]

8 hours ago, Working said:

Let's completely forget about the software. What about the size and clickiness of the trackpad alone. The way it feels and clicks? Why can't that be copied. Some are doing the 5.5" long but then they make it 2.5" heigh instead of their 3.5". Why?

 

 

 

Matebook looks cool but capping it at 16gb ram on Windows is insane. This is not apple OS in which it's a close system and everything is extremely optimised. 

There might be a patented aspect to the click, since modern MacBooks use "Force Touch" (basically, advanced haptic feedback) to make it feel like a click without moving the pad.  That's the advantage Apple has in custom-designing virtually every aspect of its computers, I imagine -- it can develop better solutions instead  of having to rely in part on outside companies.

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, geo3 said:

All track pads, including apples, suck. It's just a dumb method of input. Give me a track ball or red nipple with discrete left and right buttons.

Hey look, folks, we have one of those self-centered "my opinion is the only one on Earth that matters" types.  I personally despise trackballs and don't care much for Lenovo's pointers, but I'm not going to downplay someone for preferring either.  Lenovo's input method can be handy in a pinch, in fact.

[Working]

3 hours ago, Commodus said:

There might be a patented aspect to the click, since modern MacBooks use "Force Touch" (basically, advanced haptic feedback) to make it feel like a click without moving the pad.  That's the advantage Apple has in custom-designing virtually every aspect of its computers, I imagine -- it can develop better solutions instead  of having to rely in part on outside companies.

Yea that would make sense but then that leaves the question why not the normal clicking and the size of it. Especially the size of it.

 

P.S. has Linus done a video reviewing laptops with the best touchpad? If not and somehow someone reads this... please do. Idk why no tech review person makes a dedicated video about which windows laptop has the best touchpad since that's one of the biggest selling point for MacBooks

[Working]

16 hours ago, TheKDub said:

I'm sure that drivers could easily be made to enable use of a much larger surface area touchpad. Companies aren't forced to all use one set of drivers, they can make different drivers for different hardware to allow it to work with the machine.

 

It's likely due to cost, quality issues, or manufacturers just not caring to try expanding it.

 

The Huawei Matebook X Pro has a quite large trackpad, far larger than I've seen on other laptops. They had some issues with the trackpad rattling/feeling loose though, and I'm not sure about how the trackpad itself handles.

Idk if the drivers would be an issue for the size. Because extranal touchpads work with them and they are bigger. But when it comes to the cost and quality....let's say Dell XPS. They are trying to be the best alternative to the MacBook with pricing going pretty up there and yet still that shitty touchpad. They fixed the webcam but not the touchpad. 

 

A lot of these premium line guys still don't have good touchpads. Some have width but no height. HP, LG, Dell, Asus, ...

 

If one company makes a great touchpad I'm sure other companies would purchase them to use it. Just like RAM and CPU and other components.

 

1080p monitors and small touchpads....

[Inversion]

All trackpads are inferior to a full mouse but I will say that I wish other manufacturers would copy the size of the macbook track pads as the size of a lot of windows trackpads is frankly irritating when there's the better part of an inch above and below the trackpad

[Working]

17 hours ago, Inversion said:

All trackpads are inferior to a full mouse but I will say that I wish other manufacturers would copy the size of the macbook track pads as the size of a lot of windows trackpads is frankly irritating when there's the better part of an inch above and below the trackpad

exactly! I'm trying to find out why. Why is that? It's not like this touchpad thing is a new thing. They have the money for the R&D. Then why is nobody making one. Not one company. Literally zero. Why?

[Inversion]

3 hours ago, Working said:

exactly! I'm trying to find out why. Why is that? It's not like this touchpad thing is a new thing. They have the money for the R&D. Then why is nobody making one. Not one company. Literally zero. Why?

Beats me, it seems like a really good idea to increase the size, especially since the manufacturer could claim "Better productivity on the go with the largest trackpad on a windows laptop!" or a similar line. I really don't understand the refusal to do it.

[LukeLinusFanFic]

On 6/9/2019 at 10:50 AM, Working said:

Let's completely forget about the software. What about the size and clickiness of the trackpad alone. The way it feels and clicks? Why can't that be copied. Some are doing the 5.5" long but then they make it 2.5" heigh instead of their 3.5". Why?

 

 

 

Matebook looks cool but capping it at 16gb ram on Windows is insane. This is not apple OS in which it's a close system and everything is extremely optimised. 

It's harder to copy because you don't have right click on mac os, so it doesn't need to be integrated into the touchpad. Whatever you push, it's the same.

[Working]

6 hours ago, LukeLinusFanFic said:

It's harder to copy because you don't have right click on mac os, so it doesn't need to be integrated into the touchpad. Whatever you push, it's the same.

2 finger click is universal right click both on Mac and on Windows. 

[LukeLinusFanFic]

9 hours ago, Working said:

2 finger click is universal right click both on Mac and on Windows. 

But no one uses it on Windows. 

[SenKa]

Issue is Windows has literally 0 benefit from it. A few companies have near MBP level trackpads, but nobody cares. Windows lacks gesture support like macOS does.

 

So, why don't laptop makers use big trackpads? Why would they? Windows doesn't benefit from it 

[TheKDub]

7 minutes ago, SenpaiKaplan said:

Issue is Windows has literally 0 benefit from it. A few companies have near MBP level trackpads, but nobody cares. Windows lacks gesture support like macOS does.

 

So, why don't laptop makers use big trackpads? Why would they? Windows doesn't benefit from it 

While gesture support is complete trash on Windows (especially when compared to MacOS), having more usable touchpad space certainly would be more convenient, especially when having to drag something from one side of the screen to the other. Sure you can up the cursor speed for smaller touchpad , but that means smaller movements will be harder to control, and precision will suffer.

 

Current touchpad sizes are 'okay', however I would not be opposed to larger touchpads.

[Working]

16 hours ago, LukeLinusFanFic said:

But no one uses it on Windows. 

And what data says that? Literally everyone I know, every office, every firm, every person at a co-working space (except handful of guys in there 60s but they got employees that do everything for them) does 2 finger tap for right click. 

Come on bro just because you didn't know doesn't mean nobody out here knows

 

 

[Working]

13 hours ago, SenpaiKaplan said:

Issue is Windows has literally 0 benefit from it. A few companies have near MBP level trackpads, but nobody cares. Windows lacks gesture support like macOS does.

 

So, why don't laptop makers use big trackpads? Why would they? Windows doesn't benefit from it 

Let's assume windows driver is extremely horrible (it's not as good Mac but let's say for this example it's horrible). You as a laptop manufacturer would rather put a subpar hardware that users engage with everytime they use your product, they will build an association between how that product feels and your brand, and you would rather take that bad branding, the low quality association, to save money on a touchpad because the current (because we don't know what the next Windows update holds) touchpad drivers are bad?

 

These guys are using new type of metal, using oled, putting multiple screens on a laptop all to stand out and create a better branding. To create a product that feels and looks luxury and high quality. So bad driver excuse doesn't make sense. 

[Working]

13 hours ago, SenpaiKaplan said:

Issue is Windows has literally 0 benefit from it. A few companies have near MBP level trackpads, but nobody cares. Windows lacks gesture support like macOS does.

 

So, why don't laptop makers use big trackpads? Why would they? Windows doesn't benefit from it 

Also which gesture support is windows missing? I have it on my hp laptop. 2,3, and 4 finger swipes have been around for a bit on Windows. They just don't "feel" right because the touchpads were low quality so swiping on them was not as smooth. 

 

The touchpads have gotten way better and now they feel a bit more natural but the size of the touchpads are still very small. They all went for width and no height. Except for Dell that gave it a 3.1" height but only a 4.1" length...idk why not 5.5" but they did.