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Microsoft to Require Precision Touchpads in Future Windows 10 Laptops

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Re: Microsoft to Require Precision Touchpads in Future Windows 10 Laptops

#11

Post by Arainach »

zarify wrote: post #3

I haven't tried the Surface Book, but you're lucky if you can even fit three or more fingers on the trackpads on the Surface Pro. Maybe MS could show some leadership there as well.

Are you looking at the original 2012 Surface Pro? The SP4 has a trackpad roughly as large as the Macbook Pro, as does the Surface Book.

Re: Microsoft to Require Precision Touchpads in Future Windows 10 Laptops

#12

Post by ClassyJacket »

Arainach wrote: post #11
zarify wrote: post #3

I haven't tried the Surface Book, but you're lucky if you can even fit three or more fingers on the trackpads on the Surface Pro. Maybe MS could show some leadership there as well.

Are you looking at the original 2012 Surface Pro? The SP4 has a trackpad roughly as large as the Macbook Pro, as does the Surface Book.

I don't believe that's correct. Look at a Surface Pro trackpad next to a MacBook Pro trackpad.

http://i.imgur.com/rynFtJQ.jpg

The MacBook Pro Trackpad is 206% of the size of the Surface Pro 4 trackpad. Literally double the size.

Re: Microsoft to Require Precision Touchpads in Future Windows 10 Laptops

#13

Post by chrismorgan »

magaman69 wrote: post #9

precision touchpads are useless if the software doesnt support it. the trackpad in the surface pro is not very smooth when scrolling in chrome.

In platform-specific matters like this (text rendering, input handling, &c.), Microsoft has always led the way in IE or now Edge, Mozilla following after a while (admittedly often years) in Firefox, and Chrome typically years later. Firefox and Edge handle precision touch very well; Chrome… well, it’s OK these days. But definitely not great.

I’m still waiting for Firefox or Chrome to actually implement the Pointer Events API properly. Edge does exactly what I expect, Firefox does almost everything as I expect, Chrome is simply terrible. And only Edge supports pressure sensitivity, so the Surface Pen only has full utility on Edge.

Re: Microsoft to Require Precision Touchpads in Future Windows 10 Laptops

#14

Post by innocentoldguy »

One of the biggest reasons I stopped using PCs, and started using Macs, was the quality of Apple's touchpads. I recently had to work with a new Dell, and was sad to see that things hadn't improved much during the last 10 years. Seriously, what manufacturer could possibly compare a Mac to their PC offering and find that crap acceptable? I hope this push by Microsoft will result in a more Mac-like touchpad experience for PC users.

Re: Microsoft to Require Precision Touchpads in Future Windows 10 Laptops

#15

Post by lathiat »

magaman69 wrote: post #9

precision touchpads are useless if the software doesnt support it. the trackpad in the surface pro is not very smooth when scrolling in chrome.

chrome does its own crazy smooth scrolling stuff, it has also been changing a lot in the last few release. YMMV.

Re: Microsoft to Require Precision Touchpads in Future Windows 10 Laptops

#16

Post by wluu »

Microsoft should release their own multi-touch touchpad with this tech and call it the Surface Touchpad or something along those lines. Basically their equivalent of the Apple Magic Trackpad. It's what I miss when I've got my Surface Book docked, having come from a MBP/Magic Trackpad setup.

Re: Microsoft to Require Precision Touchpads in Future Windows 10 Laptops

#17

Post by tinus_hn »

magaman69 wrote: post #9

precision touchpads are useless if the software doesnt support it. the trackpad in the surface pro is not very smooth when scrolling in chrome.

But there won't be support if they are just one of many different types of hardware people have. That is probably why Microsoft is mandating them.

Re: Microsoft to Require Precision Touchpads in Future Windows 10 Laptops

#18

Post by waiseristy »

Arainach wrote: post #11
zarify wrote: post #3

I haven't tried the Surface Book, but you're lucky if you can even fit three or more fingers on the trackpads on the Surface Pro. Maybe MS could show some leadership there as well.

Are you looking at the original 2012 Surface Pro? The SP4 has a trackpad roughly as large as the Macbook Pro, as does the Surface Book.

The SP4 touchpad pales in comparison to the MBP. Multitouch support is bush league, and the touchpad is hinged so you can only click on ~75% of it.

Re: Microsoft to Require Precision Touchpads in Future Windows 10 Laptops

#19

Post by Sephr »

innocentoldguy wrote: post #14

One of the biggest reasons I stopped using PCs, and started using Macs, was the quality of Apple's touchpads. I recently had to work with a new Dell, and was sad to see that things hadn't improved much during the last 10 years. Seriously, what manufacturer could possibly compare a Mac to their PC offering and find that crap acceptable? I hope this push by Microsoft will result in a more Mac-like touchpad experience f…

How "new" are we talking here? Dell's XPS line has had precision touchpads since the beginning of 2015.
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