Test: Are Trackpoints Actually Great?

[zephyr255]

There are plenty of voices claiming "Trackpoints are great" or "Trackpoints are outdated and useless, and should be removed from modern laptops".

I have been using Trackpoint for two years, and find it better than trackpads after spending two months training myself to use it.

However, I have also heard of how great trackpads have become these days, such as those on Macbooks and the Sensel one on Thinkpad Titanium. That kinda made me curious about which one is better in modern days. Therefore, I want to create an "objective" test that produces quantitative results for a "scientific" comparison, which is based on statistics rather than "personal experiences". I hope you can participate in it and help me gather more data for the comparison.

 

So here's how to do the test, which should not take you longer than three minutes:

1. Go to https://mouseaccuracy.com/ and set it to Difficulty: Normal, Target Size: Medium, Duration: 30 Seconds, and change the rest settings if you want to, since they should not impact the test results.
2. Take the test three times (or more, if you want), and record the "Total Score" each time.
3. Calculate the average of your "Total Score"s, and post it here so that I can gather them. You can also include your setup for the test, just like I do, if you want.

And here's my result: I took the test five times on a Lenovo X395 (13.3" display, trackpoint speed set at maximum), and my average score is 260.

 

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Edit 2021 Oct.11th 2:21 PM (UTC):

Sorry, it seems like I forgot to clarify something...

No, you don't necessarily need a Trackpoint for the test. You can do it on a Trackpoint, trackpad or joystick or any other weird pointing device if you want. Just make sure to write down which device you used, a Trackpoint or something else, so that I can compare.

[da na]

I prefer the use of a trackpoint but sadly most modern laptops lack one so... 

[jaslion]

I never liked the trackpoint and always found them to be very in the way so just removed the nubs or replaced them with a low profile thingy and disabled the device.

 

With the work 7 year old hp envy 15 inch I get 134 average.

 

With my 2020 envy I get 211 average

 

With mx master I get 254

 

With my old g502 I get 178

 

Dell e6420 I get 153

 

I rounded em to whole numbers so basically it all depends on my comfort level with the device and I consider all of them very usable.

 

 

[NinJake]

Are people only supposed to attempt this if they use a trackpoint? The other thing that can very greatly affect the scores are the resolutions of each monitor relative to the screen size.(If trying this in a browser full screen, for instance you can resize the window much smaller to gain a huge advantage)

 

I currently use a mouse (mx master3) on a 27inch 1080p monitor and got an average of 302. No trackpoint to compare.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Laptops and Pre-Build Systems