Weak trackpad on MBP 13 (2020)?

[RedTheReader]

As always, I want to start by saying that this thread isn’t written with the intent to critique or complain but just to find out whether or not my experience is normal.

I recently returned a 16” MacBook Pro due to it’s weight and picked up a 13” model instead. Right away, I noticed just how weak the haptic feedback on the trackpad was. I made sure it was set to “firm,” restarted the machine several times, tried it out in safe mode, and reset the SMC. Nothing changed.

I’m curious: is this normal? My old 2016 13” felt much more tactile, and I just got a 2020 MacBook Air in the house (not for me) that feels similar to how I remember that 2016.

A family member came up with the theory that Apple uses older designed components on lower tier machines, so the Air must be using the old 2016 13” trackpad while the Pro must be using a new refined design. I, uh, don’t really buy that! It’s just… weird to me that this model would change something, but I wanted more data before I go through the headache of doing something.

Thank you!

PS: I almost forgot to mention, this is the 10th Gen base model.

 

[PieTunes]

I’m not sure what to say other than offer my own anecdotal experience. My first MacBook was a 2015 Air so it doesn’t count but since then I’ve upgraded to the 2016, 2017, and now the 2020 Pro models and the FT trackpad has always felt the same to me. I set mine to firm, and in each case I’ve had my old and new ones side by side so I could compare and test and take pics etc. before boxing up the old one to resell. Never felt any difference with the trackpad, just the slight keyboard changes between the butterfly generations and of course the recent magic keyboard.

 

[RedTheReader]

I’m not sure what to say other than offer my own anecdotal experience.

That’s all I’m looking for!

Interesting to hear it’s the same. Looks like I may need to swap it out.

 

[AjTee]

This is my 6th MBP 13" 2020 (I returned 5 of them because of quality reasons). I have not noticed any issues with trackpad. Previously I had MBP 2017 non-TB and it looks pretty the same.

Exchange it! This is not normal thing.

 

[mikemillar]

Interestingly, the touchpads of both my 2019 Macbook Air and 2014 Macbook Pro have stated to behave a little oddly. The Macbook Pro has started to need a strong pressure to click and drag. The 2019 Macbook Air seems reluctant to left click sometimes. If I press a little harder it then opens up an information window instead of highlighting the text. In particular it has become difficult to drag and drop file in Finder. Frequently I download something, then try to drag it to another location. It highlights but won't move. If I click omn another file it will sometimes move withoput a problem and then, freqently, the previous file can be dragged. Rather weird. It only happened after installing Catalina and now there is no change with Big Sur.