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Re:The Asus MacBook Air, sort of by old-gregg on Thursday November 10, 2011 @03:00AM (#3219361)
> Why can't PC manufacturers get it right?

They do get it right. In fact I find Macs very limiting since they lack this: http://notebook.pconline.com.cn/testing/0504/other/we1net_ib...

A laptop without this is not worth buying. See? Who knew than another guy's opinion can be so different...

I can type and operate "mouse" without moving my palms from the typing position. I can do all three types of mouse clicks with my thumbs! Moreover, Thinkpad's touchpad provides the most direct feel when moving the cursor [more on this later]. Having the central "pin" for quick cursor jumps (while typing) is absolutely invaluable.

Now, about the directness and precision of the touchpad. It's all about drivers. Early white Macbooks had a terrible lag of cursor movement but Apple fixed it later in software. My Thinkpad had somewhat inadequate "cursor feel" under windows 7 which came with it, but under Ubuntu it has the most satisfying "mouse" money can buy, called Ultranav.

Lenovo gets it right.

Re:The Asus MacBook Air, sort of by X-Istence on Thursday November 10, 2011 @03:46AM (#3219457)
I've owned several laptops that only featured "the nipple" and I had one where it every so often would get stuck in a single position whereby it would always go off to the top left. This seemed to happen after having owned and used it for a year or so.

I have also owned several laptops, both Windows and Mac OS X based and my MBP's trackpad is far superior over any other trackpad I've used.

Re:The Asus MacBook Air, sort of by mrud on Thursday November 10, 2011 @04:13AM (#3219504)
The best feature of the trackpoint is scrolling. You can scroll with it by pressing the middle button and move the trackpoint around. I'm using this all the time and i like it more than two finger scrolling.
Re:The Asus MacBook Air, sort of by hmottestad on Thursday November 10, 2011 @05:47AM (#3219662)
Yep, you are not the only one. I've had a laptop with a nipple, and it started to move around all on it's own.

The same is true for my brothers old dell laptop and my dads not so old dell laptop.

Re:The Asus MacBook Air, sort of by ugh on Thursday November 10, 2011 @03:09AM (#3219388)
Lenovo has pretty good trackpads but they are tiny. The trackpoint is nice but not for everyone. If you want one you obviously have to buy a Lenovo laptop.

I’m not exactly sure, though, why you seem to be so outraged about someone else’s opinion.

Re:The Asus MacBook Air, sort of by mtrimpe on Thursday November 10, 2011 @03:56AM (#3219478)
I’m not exactly sure, though, why you seem to be so outraged about someone else’s opinion.

I think this is a dramatic exaggeration of his opinion to illustrate the existence of opposing perspectives.

Re:The Asus MacBook Air, sort of by niels on Thursday November 10, 2011 @03:55AM (#3219476)
I use the trackpoint exclusively, so I always buy a Lenovo without a touchpad. It's much better in my opinion, because you never have to move your hands away from the keyboard position.
Re:The Asus MacBook Air, sort of by nemoniac on Thursday November 10, 2011 @04:08AM (#3219491)
I couldn't agree more. The above pretty much expresses why I've been a serial Thinkpad user for years now.