Replacing the VAIO Z flip touchpad

There are many things I don't like about the VAIO Z flip touchpad. Some are common to all new Windows machines that use a monolithic touchpad; others are specific to the VAIO.

Most new Windows ultrabooks use a monolithic touchpad that make it difficult to use your thumb to click. If you rest your thumb on the bottom of the touchpad (ready to click) while you use your index finger to control the position of the cursor, the driver registers your gesture as a two-finger gesture. Using only your fingers to control the cursor is not as fast as using your thumb for the button. Apple does an amazing job with the MacBook touchpad by suspending movement input by the thumb when the index finger is controlling the cursor. Unfortunately Microsoft and/or Synaptics do not support this.

Dell, Lenovo, and HP ultrabook touchpads have smooth surfaces and low-force clicks. The VAIO touchpad has a more textured surface and clicks that require more force to actuate. As far as I understand, these were conscious design decisions by VAIO. Unfortunately this configuration leads to lower precision for click-and-drag operations either when using a thumb and finger (due to the two-finger gesture misinterpretation) or when using one finger with a sustained click while dragging.

...Finally! On to my question!:

Can I replace my VAIO touchpad with another smoother touchpad, like that of the Lenovo Yoga 910, or a touchpad with thumb buttons? Have you tried this? What do you think of my touchpad assessments?

 

Just be warned that touch pad operation is also dictated by the drivers. This can have a lot to do with how the two finger gestures are interpreted.

 

@zylstra it's doable on Thinkpads - but your Vaio Z Flip has touchpad integrated in palmrest-keyboard assembly, so unless there were / will be a few generations of these machines with different touchpads yet compatible palmrest-keyboard assembly, you're sadly out of luck and will have to tinker with drivers.

 

I've been putting a lot of thought into this because I really want to keep my new VAIO, probably because I've been a VAIO user for 10+ years.

Perhaps I could put a slick cover on the upper part of the touchpad and a non-conducting strip on the lower 20% or so. That way I could leave my thumb resting on the bottom part and at the same time have a more precise experience when drag-positioning. Do you have a recommendation for a good slick touchpad cover?

 

@zylstra very good idea, actually. Please share your experience once you're done. I sadly have nothing to recommend in terms of touchpad covers; to be perfectly honest, I have touchpad completely disabled on my main machine, and rely on trackpoint & touchscreen instead.