[jotm]

I don't get it, what's so much better about them? I prefer a separate keyboard and mouse, but the trackpad on my Zbook for example, and previously Elitebooks, felt and worked just fine.

Scrolling, zoom, clicking, what else do I need? :/

[emilecantin]

1- Apple puts much bigger trackpads on their machines. I've got a 2015 MBP that had a huge trackpad on it when it came out, now it looks tiny compared to the new ones. The Surface Pro's trackpad looks like it's about 2/3 the size of my MBP, and half the size of the latest MBPs.

2- The trackpads are flush with the body of the machine. I've often used PC trackpads where you were expected to scroll using the right side of the trackpad, but it was basically unusable because the plastic bezel was in the way.

3- The finger tracking is phenomenal. I don't know, it "just works", whereas PC trackpads would often lose track of my finger, forcing me to repeat the movement while pressing harder.

4- The multi-touch is great. 2-finger scrolling feels way more natural than using the side of the trackpad. No wonder it's been (often poorly) copied by basically everyone else.

I don't doubt that some PCs have very good trackpads, but Apple's has been consistently a pleasure to use on every Mac I've used, to the point that I don't bother carrying my mouse when I travel with my laptop.

[WalterGR]

Mac trackpads also have a much larger area that can be used for clicking. In my experience, Windows trackpads are unusable for clicking (the area doesn’t depress) in the back most (i.e. closest to the screen) 1/4 to 1/3 of the trackpad.

And this includes Microsoft hardware such as Surface Books. (To be clear, it’s a hardware issue, but one would think Microsoft would shell out for better trackpads on their flagship devices.)

[GordonS]

I personally prefer the physical buttons.

On my MBP, it really feels like I have to press with far too much force to get it to "click" (which isn't great given I suffer from nerve damage, but I felt the same about the trackpad even before that). By comparison, I just make a "purposeful", light tap on any other trackpad.

[emilecantin]

If you have a newer (2015+) MBP with Force Touch, that's actually configurable! Go in System Preferences -> Touchpad -> Point and click, you can choose between "Light", "Medium" and "Firm" clicks. You can also enable just touching to click.

Also, you can just use the bottom part of the trackpad exactly like you'd use a button, it ignores touches if you just rest your thumb on it. Works really well.

[GordonS]

I should have mentioned, but it's already on the light setting, and it still feels like I need to press it too hard. I recall asking my wife to try it (she'd never used a MB before), and she also found it unpleasant.

[GordonS]

Oh, and it had a useless touchbar instead of a useful row of F-keys and an Escape key.

Truely loathsome machine!

[asdff]

You can do everything with tapping. I rarely click on mine.

[kaoD]

Which year? I found 2016 MBPs awesome to click.

[GordonS]

It's a 13" MBP I bought from Apple in 2017.

The keyboard is utter garbage too - it would be comically bad if the dn thing hadn't cost so much :/

[iphone_elegance]

I still prefer the physical buttons, I've found mac trackpads inflame RSI

[jeroenhd]

I'm not saying whether or not Apple trackpads are better or worse than PC trackpads, but I don't think I've seen a laptop that doesn't support multi touch scrolling (horizontal and vertical, of course) in at least 5 years. Maybe in the low budget range? The side scrolling thing is there for the people who are used to it, but two finger drag has been standardised in any laptop I've seen.

My laptop has a Synaptics trackpad and while it doesn't have stuff like force touch, it's just as comfortable as using a mouse in many occasions.

[RandallBrown]

People like the Apple trackpads enough that Apple sells a separate trackpad to use on their desktop machines.

I haven't used a mouse regularly in like 7 years because I prefer the Apple trackpads to any mouse I use. (The one exception is video games)

[coldtea]

>felt and worked just fine.

It does, until you've used a Mac trackpad for a while and can compare...

[GordonS]

I use both MBP and other trackpad regularly, and respectfully disagree. I actually prefer non-Apple trackpads, and physical trackpad buttons.