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M3 MBA 15" bad pinch to zoom works really bad
- Thread starter Torty
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I can confirm that pinch zoom is the worst on Mac, have used windows for very long time & pinch zoom was never an issue even on my budget laptop (1/3 the price of macbook) thats almost 7 years old.
I have M3 pro 14" 18GB 11 Core CPU with tap to click MacOS 14.6.1
I have M3 pro 14" 18GB 11 Core CPU with tap to click MacOS 14.6.1
I think I trained myself years ago to just stop using pinch/zoom on a MacBook trackpad because of inconsistent results.
That said, I just tried a few pinches on my M1 Air (macOS 14.6.1) and out of maybe 20 tries I only had it miss a couple times. I'm not sure why it failed when it did, but it does seem kind of touchy about exact timing and placement -- whereas that same gesture on an iPhone or iPad seems much more reliable even when done haphazardly.
That said, I just tried a few pinches on my M1 Air (macOS 14.6.1) and out of maybe 20 tries I only had it miss a couple times. I'm not sure why it failed when it did, but it does seem kind of touchy about exact timing and placement -- whereas that same gesture on an iPhone or iPad seems much more reliable even when done haphazardly.
M1 Pro MBP. Works consistently at any angle for me, as long as both fingers move. Once it starts zooming, you can continue zooming with a single finger moving, the other finger planted in place... you just can't start a zoom without moving both. I try my daughter's M3 Air when she's around to see if there's any difference.
I have 13" M1 Air, Sonoma 14.3. I have the same issue, pinch to zoom works occasionally. I don't remember having that issue with BigSur, I think something is broken with Sonoma. And I don't think it is hardware issue as all other gestures working fine.
Finally tried daughters M3 Air. OMG, it really doesn't work. Needs a wide swipe to even start to zoom, and it's choppy as hell. She claims her M1 Air was the same.
This has been a software bug since I think one of the updates half way through the Ventura cycle. For me it happens on every MacBook Air I have (three of them) plus my external Magic Trackpad. When I go to the Apple Store, it happens on every MacBook Air on display. It does NOT happen on the MacBook Pros on display at the store. But it does if I switch their display refresh to 60 Hz (which is the norm on MBA's, while on MBP's the "pro res" refresh is default). So it is tied to screen refresh rate. The one time I had the opportunity to downgrade a MBA to a version of macOS before that Ventura update, the bug went away, as expected. The bug makes pinch+zoom basically unusable. Ctrl+scroll is not a replacement--that zooms the entire screen, not just the content. I have left feedback for Apple countless times and no progress in the two years since the bug appeared. It's incredible because Mac's entire business model is based around one thing: natural usability. This bug is the worst ball drop I have ever seen from Apple, period. As soon as I have time I plan to downgrade to the version before that Ventura version, and I will NEVER update until the bug gets fixed.
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That's what died with Steve Jobs. Back in the day Apple would have fixed something because it was broken, not because enough people complained. There was a culture of simply wanting to build things well.