> It takes a hour of research to know if the trackpad is not-awful

This, so much this! I run Asahi on M1 Air but wanted to upgrade to something with fuller Linux support. After trying Thinkpad T14s, trackpad quality has rosen to my attention, something I never thought about before. Turns out glass, haptic trackpads are still only available in probably about a dozen laptops on the market and it's not easy to actually know which ones are these!

▲

ZiiS 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

To me clear the Neo dose not have a glass, haptic trackpad.

▲

selectodude 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It’s glass but not haptic. Honestly the fact that they figured out how to make the entire pad clickable without haptics is pretty impressive.

▲

philistine 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Their trackpads were that way since the move to aluminium for the chassis until the release of the 2017 Macbook.

Apple had solved the issue around 2012 and still PC manufacturer refuse to spend on trackpad quality.

	▲	duskwuff an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The early aluminum MacBook systems used a hinged trackpad. The "click" was a physical button under the trackpad, and you couldn't click on the top of the trackpad (because the hinge was on that side). The MacBook Neo is a return to physical clicking, but they're using some sort of new mechanism which allows clicking anywhere.
	▲	dhosek an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		That’s because PC manufacturers compete on spec sheets and how much does the trackpad suck isn’t one of the numbers on the spec sheet so they don’t care.
	▲	Kirby64 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Not really, not exactly. The older “clicky” MacBook trackpads couldn’t quite be “clicked” anywhere. They were levered at the top of the trackpad, so if you tried to click on the very top edge then they wouldn’t really click. Anywhere else, it felt fine, but maybe the top inch didn’t feel good. Not really a problem in normal use cause most people don’t try to click on the very top edge, but perhaps this new trackpad fixes that (I haven’t tested one myself). The current gen haptic ones have the same exact click feeling no matter where you press, of course.

▲

teaearlgraycold 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I exclusively use the trackpoint on thinkpads, to the point that I disable the trackpads in the BIOS or disconnect them from the motherboard entirely.

	▲	cromka an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I used to use track points before moving on to Mac. After I tried moving back to Thinkpad I couldn't stomach the track point anymore , it's just too imprecise and I think it's because we use way higher resolutions nowadays with many more densely packed UI elements to click on.

▲

bigyabai 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You can buy a Magic Trackpad and pair it with your Thinkpad no problem. It's much more comfortable to use it side-by-side with your keyboard, most of the time I'm reaching for the Trackpoint if my hands are on home row.

▲

mikestew 3 hours ago | parent [-]

You can buy a Magic Trackpad and pair it with your Thinkpad no problem.

Yeah, that works great on the bus. It's one more thing to tote around to meetings, but hey, at least I didn't have to buy a MacBook!

Or I could just buy a Mac and not have to resort to hacks to get a decent trackpad.

▲

bigyabai 2 hours ago | parent [-]

If I use one of my Macs then I have to resort to hacks to get a decent OS. A crappy trackpad is ~10-20x less annoying than a hostile OEM, at least for my non-bus-based work.

In any case, my response was to cromka's comment and our shared dissatisfaction with Asahi.

	▲	cromka an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I never said I am dissatisfied! The the contrary, it's way better than my Thinkpad even with Linux. I just miss the fingerprint scanner..