X220: worst touchpad I've ever used

After having been playing with this new laptop for days, I've found some flaws, such like:

loose frame of screen (around 2mm gap, probably due to 3x3 antenna wires);
loose battery
asymmetric 9 cell battery
throttling bug (mostly fixed by BIOS 1.19 but still occurred once during battery gauge reset)
poor cooling (can reach 97C by running Linpack with AVX support)

I can live with all of the above, however, I hate the touchpad very much! Before installing the UltraNav driver from Lenovo, it is totally unusable - the cursor flips around like crazy whenever I try to do a left-click. After installing the driver, it gets better, however the touchpad frequently mistakes my left-click and right-click! It randomly picks one of the following actions whenever I want to do any click:

left-click
double-click
left-click drag
right-click

This is a pain! Why doesn't the designer just put a pair of hard mouse buttons below the touchpad? I really should have bought the T420s despite the heavier weight.

Is there any cure for this, if I don't like using tapping?

 

Disable, use the Trackpoint only. I never missed my touchpad, and it's freaking hilarious watching people attempting to use my touchpad and being confused. Combined with my low viewing angle TN screen, it is a laptop no one would want to bother trying to "share" with me

 

Nooo... Trackpoint was something I used over 12 years ago when I had my first laptop, a Toshiba Satellite 2540S, with a green thing. Don't say I'm not familiar with it - I am indeed very familiar with it, but it is much less agile than touchpad!

 

I agree about using the trackpoint. It's one of the best things about Lenovo/IBM's laptops. The trackpad for the X220 is horrible and I really hope Lenovo redesigns it for their next X-series.

 

Cause then everyone complains the touchpad is too small. I'd agree having both is a pain and I wish Lenovo would have one of each, one set with just the trackpoint and another with the touchpad. I just disable the trackpad so it's not a big deal for me. With the trackpoint removed you could probably make a bigger better trackpad with real buttons.

Have you tried the Synaptic drivers from their site? I heard they work better.

As for the trackpoint, I used to be like you in that I didn't care for it. When I got my X200 I had no choice. Over time I've gotten better and now prefer it. I guess it's a matter of whether you want to put the time in to use it. I would venture the Lenovo stick is probably better than the Toshiba. Messing with the setting until you find what's right for you will help too.

 

try disabling the "Smart Check Functions" in the touchpad settings.

There are a bunch of options in the touchpad driver, maybe even too many.

 

My x220 had a loose frame too, and I sent it in for repairs. They fixed it.

 

It's certainly less agile but at the same time it's right there next to your fingers when you type! I agree it's not as good for say, web browsing but it's better for everything else.

 

Synaptics own driver from their website works way better. Try it.

 

I have tried the trackpoint for a while. Can't say it's any better than the one I used on Toshiba around 12 years ago.. :S

I have disabled everything there, but still get unwanted drags/right-clicks.

Sending a new laptop for repair, sigh...

Good point.. It might be convenient for typing on the keyboard after all.

 

Your memory is that good? If a while meant a couple weeks, that wasn't long enough for me. I'd say it took six months for me. The soft rim also require less force to move the pointer if that helps.

 

Just tried the driver from Synaptics. Now it doesn't confuse left-click and right-click! However if my left-click is "quick" enough, i.e. push down the left side of the touchpad and then release it quickly, it often ignores my click, as if I never pushed it down.

Glad to know that it is a driver issue - at least I could hope for a driver fix in the future.

 

Perhaps the old men will always see a trackpad as a competition for part of their brand, meaning the pointer thing, and they will always make compromises on the track-pad.

In this case, Apple gave them all the excuse they needed to downgrade the touchpad; if Apple does it, it must be okay, like the round mice.

Moving a entire touchpad to make a click is suboptimal as it has more mass than a mouse button, the tactile switch must be stronger to hold up the weight, and the debouncing routine in the driver must have more lag to allow the greater mass to settle.

Being reasonable, they should offer two different palmrests: one with a trackpad, and the other with a touchpoint.

 

OK it looks like I've found a cure for my problem. With the driver from Lenovo, enter the settings for "Clicking", set both "Two-finger Click" and "Three-finger Click" to "Primary Click" would do the trick. I'm now testing, and it looks like there is no more misfire.

Edit: it only resolved the left-right disorder. However sometimes I still get an unwanted double-click from a single-click.

 

I still suffer from unwanted double-clicks. I have tried to disable two-finger click and three-finger click, but it didn't help.

Edit: I have then tried again the driver from Synaptics. I don't suffer from unwanted double-clicks, but sometimes it misses my left-clicks, especially when my thumb presses the lower edge of the touchpad.