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Does anyone find the rMB trackpad 'different'?

S

SSD-GUY

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 20, 2012
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Interstellar
Hi all

Been using my rMB for the past 6 or so weeks now, and had a quick question.

When comparing it to my rMBP, I find the trackpad on the 12" rMB to be a bit 'different'. It's like the cursor is heavier when moving it around the OS, whereas the rMBP flies around. Both trackpads have the same settings in system preferences.

If anyone has compared to another rMBP/MBA running el capitan, I would greatly appreciate your views.

Thanks
 
Dubadai said:
I have noticed this when I played around with it at the store. It was weird, sort of like a delay?
Click to expand...

Yeah that was my opinion too, it just felt a bit delayed at times, or the cursor felt heavy, like it didn't fly as freely around the OS when compared to my rMBP.
 
SSD-GUY said:
Yeah that was my opinion too, it just felt a bit delayed at times, or the cursor felt heavy, like it didn't fly as freely around the OS when compared to my rMBP.
Click to expand...
There must be more people that have felt this, because it was super obvious that there was something different.

Why could this be?
 
Dubadai said:
There must be more people that have felt this, because it was super obvious that there was something different.

Why could this be?
Click to expand...

No idea. I'm going to compare it to the ones in the store soon, and if they are all the same, then I'll sell the rMB a lot sooner then I was anticipating, maybe next month once I've seen the 'refresh' and if the reviews are good etc. Was hoping to keep this rMB till at least Christmas, but the trackpad is starting to annoy me.

Did you try quite a few rMBs? At different stores? Were they all the same?
 
SSD-GUY said:
No idea. I'm going to compare it to the ones in the store soon, and if they are all the same, then I'll sell the rMB a lot sooner then I was anticipating, maybe next month once I've seen the 'refresh' and if the reviews are good etc. Was hoping to keep this rMB till at least Christmas, but the trackpad is starting to annoy me.

Did you try quite a few rMBs? At different stores? Were they all the same?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have tried multiple ones at different stores, and they all feel the same. It's weird that no one seems to have pointed this out.
 
Dubadai said:
Yeah, I have tried multiple ones at different stores, and they all feel the same. It's weird that no one seems to have pointed this out.
Click to expand...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed this then. I will be visiting the store in a couple of days to try it out. Really sad as I'm used to the keyboard now too.
 
It's smoother than most other recent Apple trackpads, and on occasion I have a bit of trouble with it activating two finger back gestures in Safari, but I'm not entirely convinced that's the trackpad and not the browser or website. I think that I prefer the texture of say, my Magic Trackpad (old version) a bit better, but overall think the rMB trackpad is great. No issues at all with mouse tracking.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone.

If other rMB users could try this I would appreciate it. Load up system preferences, click on general. Now the 2 lines where it says "Use Dark menu bar..." and "Automatically hide the menu...", using the trackpad on the rMB, can you try to draw a number 8 that fits within those lines?

This is by no means a scientific or unbiased test, however using my rMBP, I can draw the number 8 quite well, but the rMB fails to do it and is a bit of a mess when doing small, precise movements like that.

This is where I feel the rMB is different, the small precise movements of say choosing between different options in a menu, or the gap between the buttons for closing an application (the red icon), or minimising or enlarging it (the yellow and red icons on most application windows.)
 
No one but Apple knows exactly who is Apple's target market, or intended user of this model.

I bought one as a secondary laptop and mostly because I'm an Apple enthusiast that uses laptops for work, as frequently as I use a Mac Pro for the resource intense work I do.

My MacBook did require a longer acclimation period than my MBP, which hardly required any adjustments on my part. The MB keyboard and trackpad are quite good, just different. I get lots of use out of my MB, I'm quite satisfied.
 
Think this is something you need to take to Apple. As I find the rMB`s trackpad to be as accurate, if not more so than my rMBP`s. The only exception is towards the end of a long scroll when sometimes the rMB is not quite as linear, equally unless placed back to back it would be impossible to sense this, even then it may be subliminal as the difference is minuscule. A protector on the trackpad surface my or may not effect sensitivity, a point worth considering...

Q-6
 
Thanks all, yes I will definitely be taking it up with Apple. But if you don't mind me asking, if anyone has attempted by unscientific test which I mentioned above, was the rMB trackpad on par with your other MacBooks?

Thanks
 
SSD-GUY said:
No idea. I'm going to compare it to the ones in the store soon, and if they are all the same, then I'll sell the rMB a lot sooner then I was anticipating, maybe next month once I've seen the 'refresh' and if the reviews are good etc. Was hoping to keep this rMB till at least Christmas, but the trackpad is starting to annoy me.

Did you try quite a few rMBs? At different stores? Were they all the same?
Click to expand...
I have not noticed this at all. If I didn't know any better, I wouldn't think it was any different from the previous design, except it adds the "hard" press gesture.
 
Oh, its just the CPU. The cursor is very slow. Took me one second to tell it was the machines lack of power. Very slow window dragging. Underpowered.
 
bnmcj1 said:
Oh, its just the CPU. The cursor is very slow. Took me one second to tell it was the machines lack of power. Very slow window dragging. Underpowered.
Click to expand...
The MacBook is quite capable of rendering windows.
 
Yes, I experience it too. It seems to occur even with a mouse and doesn't occur under Windows, so the trackpad itself isn't the issue.
 
Spent about 30 mins at the store today. I can confirm that it affects all the macbook's at the store.

However, more interestingly is that the same 'issue' is also documented on the rmbp' with force touch, but not on the latest MacBook Airs (and also not on my 2013 rmbp, as it doesn't have force touch), leading me to believe that the force touch trackpad is indeed, different.

When moving your finger slowly, the force touch trackpad cursors feel a lot heavier compared to the air, furthermore drawing a small number 8 on the 13 air was very accurate, whereas on the force touch trackpads it was less so.

I'm going to visit other stores and try other retina macbook's and force touch macbook pros before I come to a conclusion.

I guessed I have mixed emotions. I'm glad my macbook isn't the only one affected by this, however im also a bit concerned as if the force touch trackpad are indeed slightly less accurate then their normal predecessors, then I guess the rmbp redesign won't help as the trackpads are pretty much the same.
 
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