NC8430 - just received mine/touchpad question

Okay...I just received my NC8430. I'm not loading anything on it over the weekend. I just want to work with it and see how I feel; decide if it's a keeper or not. Looks fine but it ISN'T love at first touch for me. I know you "get used" to things after a while but I'm not so sure on this machine. Sigh. My old Sony keyboard had a much nicer feel to it.

The big question for me right now is the weird touch pad. Is anyone else bother by the raised edge on it? It stops the flow a lot. I use my touchpad all the time and I'm not sure I can fall in like with this oddity. And what is the middle button supposed to be for?

Verdict is still out for me but I will say that the WXGA screen is very nice and the machine is quite quiet. And no bloatware.

 

I think they have that lip because there is no dedicated touchpad on/off button, I don't find it a problem.

 

The raised edge does not bother me. The buttons was weird at first but you do get use to it.

 

It is different. Seems to me the choice they had was:

1) Flush Trackpad, 2-3 buttons, on/off button.
or
2) Lowered Trackpad, Point stick, 2 sets of 2-3 button, no on/off button.

All in all, I prefer having the dual pointers more than the on/off button.

 

Okay...time to show my ignorance. This is my 4th laptop and I have no idea what people mean by an on/off button on the touchpad. (Obviously not something I have missed since I didn't know about it.)

Also, you reminded me of another thing, I've never had three buttons on the pad. What's the middle one supposed to do?

Not adjusting well to the keyboard yet either. It feels crowded which is weird considering it is bigger than the old Sony. And the keys feel mushy. But don't take this as a review comment, this is most likely me trying to get used to a new machine. I don't adapt quickly, sigh.

 

Well it has some small functions, such as using it to scroll through documents/websites or to open a link as a new tab (in browsers that support tabbing). You could I suppose assign a shortcut to it. You never seen mice with 3 buttons? Pretty standard now

I now personally find using the pointing stick with the 3 buttons below it is great! Much more intuitive than the touchpad if you don't have a mouse

 

I like mine, it doesn't bother me at all

 

I've had mine for about 2 weeks now....

My only negative is the shape of the edge of the hand rest. The heels of my hands get a deep crease after extended typing. I find I need to type with my hands raisd abovr the hand rest or else the edge tends to hurt my hands.

Any one else notice that or am I the only "lazy" typer in the group?

Otherwise, this is an outstanding notebook. The build quality is certaunly far superior to the Dell 8600 abd the Thinkpads I have had in the past.