Notebook review should comment about the brand of touchpad

I bought a Vostro 1310 and I liked the review, liked the price I got it for and liked it for the first day. But then...I found that it has an Alps touchpad. This thing is a disgrace compared to the synaptic one I had in my old laptop. This thing is a deal breaker on any computer - period. What the hell is dell thinking putting this piece of trash on one of their notebooks?

Terrible control with it, scrolling is like torture, and there are absolutely no additional features to make it pleasant to use the touchpad like tap zones and such. I would of preferred to have no touch pad at all to this thing.

Alright fine, I'm over reacting just a little, but there was no way to even know that I was going to get this piece of trash. I mean, why would I expect them to build a laptop with the worste touchpad available? Is there any hope in hell that I can call dell and try to get them to replace it with a real touchpad (synaptic)?

Thanks in advance

 

IMHO a touchpad is a commodity, not at all essential. I bought a bluetooth v470 wireless mouse for my xpsm 1530 before I even got my laptop, and couldn't be happier with it. A touchpad should be the least of your worries, and the best synaptic touchpad doesn't come close to any wireless mouse.

 

Yeah I agree. Other than that, chances are Dell's using different types of touchpads for their notebooks just like they're using screens from different brands (lg, samsung, etc). I don't think there's a way you can know that in advance. One person might get a vostro 1310 with a synaptic touchpad while the next one might get an alps one.

 

I just went and got a bluetooth mouse and problem solved ...although the latest bios did help somewhat..cheers...

 

I have a mouse for working at my desk. Working on my lap in the middle of a lecture or on my couch with a mouse is just a tad awkward, lol.

 

Uh, it's a notebook computer, and as such isn't always being used at a desk where it's convenient to use a mouse.

I agree with the original poster. The Alps touchpad on my M1530 is lousy compared to the Synaptics on my old M140. The ability to use a mouse doesn't excuse it any more than telling a guy with a lousy display to just use an external monitor.

 

I dont think its as pot luck as that for the touchpad?

I thought all M1530 are Alps and the M1330 are Synatics?


Alps aint very good, but maybe you should tweak the settings like sensitivity to make it more usable for you.

 

When notebooks are being manufacture is there any logic as to what brand of hardware one gets? Is it a coin flip? Does it depend on the mood of the lineworker? As far as I'm concerned, each model should have the same hardware, and since the XPS is supposed to be Dell's "Cadillac", each model should have the BEST hardware. It's not like we're talking about 2 types of touchpads or screens from different manufacturers that are comparable in performance - one sucks and one doesn't.

Please fill me in if there is something I'm missing, but it seems like a bunch of BS to me.

 

I would have opted out of getting a touchpad if I had the option.

I hate them. Mouse FTW.

 

Update: I installed the synaptic driver with this touchpad and it actually made the touchpad useable to move the curser with. The Alps driver was jumpy and not very precise. But the drawback is nothing else works including even scrolling with the thing. Scrolling long pages is pretty much impossible with Alps too, so I guess it's not too much different.

This shows to me that the hardware is fine, just alps need a passable driver for their damn touchpads. So what gives? Why would dell choose to put in a device with such poor driver support?

*sigh*

 

Interesting. When you say "nothing else worked", do you mean that you can basically move the curser around the screen and use the left/right buttons, but nothing else? Because that's all I want. I hate all the fancy functionality that they try to add to touchpads. I just want to point and click.

What synaptics driver did you use, and where did you get it?

 

Yeah, that's what it did.

I don't know what driver I installed. When I ran a Windows Update there was an optional update for the touchpad from symantic. I can't check any of the details about it right now but I checked off the box to include and install it and I was amazed at the difference in smoothness and precision.

When I get home I'll do some more investigating and maybe try to check the version or something.