Apple Magic Trackpad Review: The Sports Car of Input Devices
Apple’s new Magic Trackpad is the essence of refined, modern computer input. Remember the 90’s when having to use the tiny trackpad on a laptop was like driving your grandmother’s 1960 VW bug? It was cool at first, but ultimately slow, inconvenient and just plain awkward. Well, the Magic Trackpad is like your rich girlfriend’s dad’s Maserati.
Pairing, Setup and Configuration
After a software update, install and restart, I powered up the Magic Trackpad and it paired with Bluetooth in a matter of seconds. There’s a small green light hidden under the upper right corner—just like Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard—to let you know it’s been powered on.
I launched System Preferences to peek at the settings. It was pretty much configured perfectly from the get-go, with all the normal one, two, three and four-finger gestures enabled by default. And so began my Magic experience.
Physical Design
Apple got this thing just right. It’s got the same smooth, baby’s bottom surface as the multitouch trackpad on the MacBook. It may even be a little smoother. It’s also enormous with over 80% more tracking surface than a MacBook trackpad (22 sq in vs. 12 sq in). In this case, bigger really is better: my finger rarely ever met a trackpad edge when spelunking around my desktop.
The industrial design, as most things Apple, is cool and sexy. It looks great next to its big cousin, the Bluetooth keyboard. Their depth and sides are identical, so identical, in fact, that I feel they should attach, nothing a little duct tape can’t resolve.
A Magical Experience?
There’s no doubt about it, the Magic Trackpad is definitely magical. The experience is oddly fluid. I feel that my cursor is gliding across my desktop, down webpages and through pages of photos. The normal multitouch gestures work as expected and I love the new three-finger window drag, although it requires the sacrifice of the three-finger swipe to navigate (it’s one or the other). And the addition of inertial scrolling to the desktop computer revolutionizes web browsing—long lists fly by at a rate of your choosing and stop on a dime.
As much as I love the fluidity, I have some gripes with comfort. Because the Magic Trackpad is elevated off the desk, your fingers/hand must constantly remain slightly suspended in the air. There’s nothing quite like cupping your hand around the smooth, supportive body of an ergonomic mouse. I also sometimes found precision navigation a bit challenging, most often when trying to position my cursor somewhere specific in a text field—something an iPhone-style magnifying glass could fix.
The feet on the bottom of the trackpad are what make it go click. While this design is cool, it takes a little more pressure than I care to provide. It also makes it impossible to use in your lap (or on any soft surface) unless you’re a tap-clicker.
Apple isn’t billing the Magic Trackpad as a replacement for the mouse and nor should it be. At $69, this is a pricey luxury addition to your desktop keyboard and mouse. The gestures are great, but small furry creatures fear not: the mouse is here to stay…for now.
scottsil | things that go whirrr 