Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
is it worth upgrading to the overpriced Magic Trackpad 2?
- Thread starter Zellio
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The new one is a poor long term value. You are not only paying more for the unit to begin (like what almost double?), but also eventually that "integrated" battery will cost you more to replace. There is no end to which Apple will not go, to turn even simple accessories into a perpetual money sink, connected directly to their offshore bank accounts.
The "old" magic trackpad works great. Supposedly "smaller", but in like 4 years of use, I have not ever found any scenario in which I had ever wanted it bigger in the first place. I have stocked up on a couple while they are still available...
The "old" magic trackpad works great. Supposedly "smaller", but in like 4 years of use, I have not ever found any scenario in which I had ever wanted it bigger in the first place. I have stocked up on a couple while they are still available...
Last edited:
Do you use rechargeable batteries, what brand and model? Have you had to replace any yet?
No, you are wrong. Trying out a store demo for a few minutes is not always enough to evaluate if something is going to work for you or not. Moreover, there are times when you find out a product's shortcomings only by using it for a day or two. Then there are times when the store demo is just a "dummy," because a functioning demo isn't possible. Navigation systems are an example of this. I can go on and on.
Abuse is when you buy something with the intent to return it when you buy it. In that case it's not a "good faith" purchase.
But store return policies exist specifically so that the customer can buy something with the confidence they will not be stuck with a product they later find to not fit there needs. It is a marketing tool that encourages unplanned purchases.
I use the magic trackpad and would not go back to a mouse now. The gestures and accuracy are just essential to me.
However, the new trackpad is an insulting high price. It really is ridiculous, its double the price of the one I have. I just hope mine keeps working as paying that price would really leave a bad taste in the mouth.
Its the same story with their SSD upgrade price. Just insultingly high.
However, the new trackpad is an insulting high price. It really is ridiculous, its double the price of the one I have. I just hope mine keeps working as paying that price would really leave a bad taste in the mouth.
Its the same story with their SSD upgrade price. Just insultingly high.
How is returning an item you bought and hate raising prices? Are you telling me that you never bought anything and when you got home you figured out you didn't like it and returned it? I bought a drill once. I thought it was enough for my use, but it turned out it wasn't. I returned it. The drills didn't go up in price because I returned one.
Yeah, they did/will actually, but it was/will be after you checked.
"Apple tax" and "returns" are not mutually exclusive issues. The one is required to provide the other.
You also seem to have misunderstood my comments. I have no tolerance for misleading claims by an advertiser (e.g., Apple's USB 3 drive web pages), but you don't need a returns policy to have recourse agains unfair trading. Nor do I have a problem with returning due to unexpected issues that make a product unsuitable, or the wrong choice. Better to return it that bin it.
"Apple tax" and "returns" are not mutually exclusive issues. The one is required to provide the other.
You also seem to have misunderstood my comments. I have no tolerance for misleading claims by an advertiser (e.g., Apple's USB 3 drive web pages), but you don't need a returns policy to have recourse agains unfair trading. Nor do I have a problem with returning due to unexpected issues that make a product unsuitable, or the wrong choice. Better to return it that bin it.
Nope, I did not misunderstand you. I just don't think things happen the way you think they do. At least not on my side of the pond.
I got the new keyboard and magic mouse when they first came out... got tired of having to constantly charge and change batteries. the lighting cable recharge is worth it to me.
I did however resist the new trackpad for a LONG Time, because of the price regardless of the battery situation. But I finally had some disposable income and bought it 3 whole days ago. And while I used the original track pad maybe 3 times... since I go the new one, I haven't enough touched my Magic Mouse 2 since.... Is a night and day difference. And Im fully confident that by the time the battery in this thing won't hold a charge, OWC, or iFixIt will have replacement batteries and i personally have the tools and skills needed to open apple products to service these "non serviceable items. If anyone is on the fence, or up in the air, I would recommend the new track pad, even at $125+/- price tag, Every. Single. Day.
And this is coming from someone who's only really tolerated trackpads over actual mice in a laptop where the environment didn't allow me to have a separate mouse. I simply can't say enough good thing about it... and at the end of the day, we all paid how much money for our Macs? Honestly? What another $130 or so for an amazing input device? Even my windows only friend tried it out yesterday/this morning... and he loved it, and had wished he could have a similar track pad for his own use in windows. (and he's a hard care Gamer also)
The one thing I like about the keyboard, is the lightning cable charging.... because when its plugged in, not only is it charging the batteries in the keyboard, it simply acts as a wired keyboard. Cant do that with the 1st get, unless you have plenty of AA batteries laying around and a separate charger. With this version, your computer itself will charge it.
Sorry for the long post, but I had to add my $.02
I did however resist the new trackpad for a LONG Time, because of the price regardless of the battery situation. But I finally had some disposable income and bought it 3 whole days ago. And while I used the original track pad maybe 3 times... since I go the new one, I haven't enough touched my Magic Mouse 2 since.... Is a night and day difference. And Im fully confident that by the time the battery in this thing won't hold a charge, OWC, or iFixIt will have replacement batteries and i personally have the tools and skills needed to open apple products to service these "non serviceable items. If anyone is on the fence, or up in the air, I would recommend the new track pad, even at $125+/- price tag, Every. Single. Day.
And this is coming from someone who's only really tolerated trackpads over actual mice in a laptop where the environment didn't allow me to have a separate mouse. I simply can't say enough good thing about it... and at the end of the day, we all paid how much money for our Macs? Honestly? What another $130 or so for an amazing input device? Even my windows only friend tried it out yesterday/this morning... and he loved it, and had wished he could have a similar track pad for his own use in windows. (and he's a hard care Gamer also)
The one thing I like about the keyboard, is the lightning cable charging.... because when its plugged in, not only is it charging the batteries in the keyboard, it simply acts as a wired keyboard. Cant do that with the 1st get, unless you have plenty of AA batteries laying around and a separate charger. With this version, your computer itself will charge it.
Sorry for the long post, but I had to add my $.02
Look on Ebay, I got mine for a really good price from someone who bought a bulk shipment of Mac's that came with both the Keyboard2 and Trackpad2 and decided they didn't need them. Glad I did, the built in batteries alone are worth the upgrade to me.
the battery life in the new Magic Mouse is much much better than 1st iteration, and with lightning recharge ... this one is a no brainer. I haven't upgraded the keyboard, but I burn through batteries on that thing like crazy too, so that might be next on the docket for me. Like others, I don't use my trackpad 1 very much at all, sometimes, letting the battery die and not changing for months ... but seems like the revamp has made it useful so maybe it could be worth it ... mouse for me is best upgrade out there ...
Why did you guys bump a year old topic lol? I had long since gotten the magic mouse 2. It's not worth it at asking price, but I got it for around $80 on ebay. Which was still pushing it (Even though I admit it's very nice)
All you had to do was take a look at my signature...
All you had to do was take a look at my signature...
I got the Magic Keyboard 2 & Magic Mouse from eBay about a year ago at around $100 together. Today I got the Magic Trackpad 2 at Best Buy. Open Box at $104, plus the $25 off Visa Checkout and it let me use a 10% off coupon, so iPad like $71 with tax. I only think it's worth it, if you can find a deal on it. I would never pay full price.
I think the Magic Trackpad 2 feels amazing and is definitely worth the price. Not many other external trackpads on the market that can match it.
I picked one up a Magic Trackpad 2 today, which replaced my original Magic Trackpad (MTP1) which was starting to stick a bit. Its definitely an upgrade, here are the things I noticed that are improvements....
1) fingers seem to slide around easier than original trackpad (less drag)
2) activating the click action takes much less effort than MTP 1
3) feels much closer to the trackpad on my MBP 13", matching features, because of ForceClick and Haptic Feedback
4) instead of being square, its more rectangular / wider (closer match to MBP trackpad and screen ratios)
5) recharges vs needing batteries + includes the cable
6) thinner and flatter, more ergonomic
So, is it worth it? Depends on how much you pay attention to these nuances. But if you use your computer daily, several hours of day, and not quite happy with the MTP 1 for any reason above, its probably worth it.
1) fingers seem to slide around easier than original trackpad (less drag)
2) activating the click action takes much less effort than MTP 1
3) feels much closer to the trackpad on my MBP 13", matching features, because of ForceClick and Haptic Feedback
4) instead of being square, its more rectangular / wider (closer match to MBP trackpad and screen ratios)
5) recharges vs needing batteries + includes the cable
6) thinner and flatter, more ergonomic
So, is it worth it? Depends on how much you pay attention to these nuances. But if you use your computer daily, several hours of day, and not quite happy with the MTP 1 for any reason above, its probably worth it.
Last edited:
I know this is an old thread, 2 years? But I just got a used one on ebay for $100 (gray). I’m hoping it helps with the mouse falling off my keyboard stand and wrist pain. I don’t normally do trackpads but some people are liking this one.
I bought the original Magic Trackpad about 2 years ago and quickly returned it. Though massive, dragging long distances wasn't great. But the biggest issue was that it was at too sharp of an angle. I couldn't' rest my fingers on the table or mouse like I did with the Magic Mouse so you had to hover your fingers over it which quickly caused wrist fatigue. I couldn't stand it as a primary input device and couldn't' justify an $80 device just for swipes and zooms.
I've used the Magic Mouse for 5 years and am one of the few people who love it, but the new MT caught my eye because (1) it was huge, (2) had Force Touch and (3) was flatter. I picked one up at Christmas for the extended return policy as an experiment and fell in love with it. I don't really see why such a small angle shift should make a difference, but it did. I have no wrist issues when using it and it's massive surface means I have plenty of room for gestures and dragging. I've never when off the edge of the device even with dual monitors, but that may be partially related to my tracking speed. It's nicer than the Magic Mouse in the respect that I don't have to have space to move a device around. I was constantly running off my mouse pad (my magic mouse didn't "glide" well so I needed one) and i was constantly bumping it into things on my cluttered desk forcing me to lift up the mouse and move it. Plus, the mouse pad took up a lot of room and was always in the way. Not a huge deal, but a nuisance. My MacBook stays in clamshell mode for 80% of it's use so I missed out on some of the trackpads gestures. I used Better Touch Tool to turn the magic mouse into an amazing device, but i still didn't have the zoom function.
Well after trying it out for a few days I fell in love with it (and I've never really cared for trackpads in the past). The click on this device is much softer and consistent. I like the haptic feedback better than the physical click down of the old trackpads and Force Touch has been helpful for previewing links and quick look. I've now retired my Magic Mouse to special occasions when I'm working heavily with photos, intensely with spreadsheets, or doing something incredibly click-and-drag intensive that doesn't come up in ordinary use (uploading 60 files to my schools Canvas from a few dozen folders on my Mac). I've used my MM maybe 3 times this month. It sounds like a hassle to have a few occasions where you still want a mouse (at least, it did to me), but to be honest, it rarely comes up. I honestly can't believe how accustomed I've become to using it almost full time. There is an adjustment period and sometimes it still feels a little awkward (I mean I'm going on 2 months of trackpad use after 5 solid years of Magic Mouse), but I find it is much more fluid/pleasing to swipe between desktops and apps and invoke Mission Control on this massive touch surface than it was with my MM and BTT. What's funny is that my MacBook Pro doesn't have the Force Touch/Click trackpad and now I can't stand using it during that 20% of the time I'm at school and not in clamshell mode. The MacBook Pro trackpad feels so hard and limiting.
Sorry for the rant, but I was thinking of making a thread on this. It is pricy in my opinion, but worth the $129 for me. If it has caught your eye, I recommend picking one up and giving it a week. Also, I never liked "three finger drag" because I was used to three finger swipes in Lion and never changed it. It took and adjustment to move from "Double Tap without drag lock" to "Three finger drag" but I'm glad I did. It really is handy (though I wish I could set it as four-finger drag and three-finger swipe between spaces). I will also add that using three finger drag makes spreadsheet use almost as good as a mouse. In fact, not one of my 3 MM usages in this past month was for spreadsheets (and I work with a lot of spreadsheets). Once you adjust, the trackpad is an extremely efficient device, though I am glad that i have my MM in a drawer just in case.
EDIT: One other thing. The MT2 has a story of matte finish, so it doesn't get dirty as rapidly as my old Magic Mouse did, which required me wiping the surface free of smudge or grime a few times a week.
OK. After using the trackpad for an hour copying/pasting/dragging/selecting for delete, I’m in love. And it turns out I prefer natural scrolling. Go figure. This thing is worth every penny and more. I would even consider paying $14 a year to use it on a Windows machine.
1st off you come off like a smarmy <insert explative>, many people dont live in cities with Apple stores and thus demo units.
so way to be discriminatory based on location.
anyway, your wrong, while you are partially correct that in-store demo's are for that purpose, so is Apple's 14 day no questions asked return policy.
some companies only offer returns if defective in some way (or charge a restocking fee etc.)
the reason Apple and others don't is somewhere they have a balance sheet and determine they make more money with a 14 day no questions asked return policy because it convinces fence sitters like the OP.
otherwise they too would only allow returns if defective etc.
so that IS exactly what the return policy is for.
You may live in a city without an Apple store, but I live in a country without one, and there are still plenty of in-store demos around.
To answer your question, the return policy is a marketing ploy, just like a lifetime guarantee, which is designed to increase sales by removing doubt. It is very effective and has an extremely low take-up rate as most people still do their thinking before they buy and the product usually works as advertised. Some people, on the other hand, abuse it as a trial. That is not its purpose or how it is expressed. Even if it were, one would like to think that we are all doing our bit to help out by reducing costs, traffic congestion, carbon footprints, and the other effects on our fellow earthlings.