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by amatecha 2457 days ago
That's funny, because I call the Late 2013 MBP the last best one :) Among other things, it was the last one to feature a physical trackpad click, as opposed to the fake "taptic engine" all-glass trackpad of the 2014 and newer which doesn't physically move when you click (similar to newer iPhones).
7 comments

To be honest, I actually prefer the fake click of the new trackpads. It feels very real, it's not at all comparable to the taptic feedback on the buttonless iPhones.

The fake click feels so real that people don't even realise it's a fake click if you don't tell them.

The mechanical trackpads only allowed clicking in the bottom half (since it was a hinge), and in my experience it was unreliable. After a few years, clicks started registering twice, or not at all, etc.

The fake click track pad allows clicking everywhere, it lets you configure activation force, and for me it has been working flawlessly every day for years.

My trackpad stopped clicking one morning and I was worried that maybe battery expansion was keeping it from being pressed down.

Then I finally remembered it was haptic feedback and a reboot fixed it. I had completely forgotten it was not a real click.

I can confirm this, as I am an owner of two 2018 Macbook Pros for 7 months and I did not even realize that the click was fake !
The haptic trackpad works beautifully imo, you can click anywhere, there is force click, the clicky sound can be turned on or off, the feedback can be adjusted. And to me it feels real.
I honestly thought I wouldn't like the fake clicking, but I ended up liking it after I used it for a day!
I can never sent to click and drag successfully with the new track pad. Plus it is needlessly big
Don't know where you got this idea. My mid-2014 MBP has a physical click, where the trackpad actually sinks when I press on it.
Ah right, it turns out I misunderstood the EveryMac page about the Mid-2014 [0], with the wording 'a "no button" glass "inertial" multi-touch trackpad'. Thought that was their wording for the non-moving trackpad! haha :) It's the 2015 that had the taptic engine trackpad first, I think.

[0] https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook...

Does it click when the power is off?
Yep! And I can see it physically depressing when applying pressure.
Oh, turns out I was one model off, the next model afterward ("Mid 2014"[0]) still had the physical trackpad click, while they introduced the taptic engine with the Early 2015 model[1]. I misunderstood the EveryMac description of the features!

[0] https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook...

[1] https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook...

My 2012 one jammed up one day and the glass actually shattered upon a click. Still works and somehow I'm not getting splinters, but that's definitely an inherent flaw in the physical keyboards as batteries expand over time.
I don't think this is accurate, the 2015 MBP I am using now has a physical click (pad has vertical travel).
Is it definitely 2015? Starting "Early 2015" they had the taptic trackpad https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook...