I have one on the Dell laptop I'm using (which also has a touchpad). Once in a while I try to use it, but I find it almost impossible control with any kind of precision. Changing the sensitivity doesn't help much.
I first tried that device on the first Thinkpads that had it, back in the 90's or whenever it was. I have always had the same reaction to it.
How do you use it? Is this just a matter of getting used to it, and if it is, how long does it take?
The Dell ones are vastly inferior to the ThinkPad ones. While I do not know the ones in the 20, the last ten or so years I worked solely with TrackPoint first under Linux now under Windows 10. Under Windows 10, there's a Mouse tab in Control Panel, there's a sensitivity slider and I found it's best to have it just one notch below fastest. The default makes me feel I am wrestling with my laptop.
Same here. I had big hopes for Dell's nipple, but it's hardly usable and I tend to prefer the touchpad.
On my own Lenovo, I use the nipple exclusively, and touchpad is disabled completely. I had played Quake vs other human players with the nipple and won, and I find it vastly superior to any kind of touchpad.
I have no idea how not to use it. Right index finger (I'm right handed) moves it round, right thumb presses the keys.
I'm not a classic touch typist, but my fingers tend to be near the home row most of the time, having the pointing device one or two keys away, and the mouse buttons next to space, is a big benefit. Having to shift my left hand to the left, and right hand down 3", just to move the pointer, feels like a lot of effort.
I use point-to-focus (but not raise) a fair bit too, as moving the mouse is almost as easy as alt-tab, I use it a lot to switch between terminal windows.
> I have no idea how not to use it. Right index finger (I'm right handed) moves it round, right thumb presses the keys.
That's completely immaterial to the precision of it, which is why I'm unable to use it: I never managed to aim at something, I take ages to actually reach a button to click on it (either under- or over-shooting it unless I move the cursor extremely slowly) let alone select some characters in the middle of text.
I have that issue on neither trackpad nor mouse, and can use both reliably precisely.
Odd. I find the trackpoint more precise than any touchpad, Macs included. I've owned Macbooks for years yet am instantly happier, and faster, on the keyboard and trackpoint of the wife's T series.
I'd pay significantly more over already inflated Apple prices to have my MBP with a trackpoint and no touchpad.
Yeah odd it's as if different people have different sensibilities and my experience with trackpoints has no influence on yours and the other way around. How surprising.
> That's completely immaterial to the precision of it, which is why I'm unable to use it
To me that reads as though you are unable to use it because the device itself is imprecise. That some indeed do find it more precise would seem to exonerate the device. Personal preference, is a different can of worms. :)
I find it (on my 8 year old t410s) far more precise than any trackpad I've used, and more precise than the old ball-mouse and trackballs. I guess it's what you know.
I actually just used the touchpad on said laptop with my thumb, to move the arrow to the 'reply' button (I have an inbuilt distrust of tab on websites). And now I used the trackpoint to resize the text box to read my reply, again without thinking about it.
I suspect that when I'm in "doing" mode I use the trackpoint, when I'm in "consuming" mode I use the pad.
I agree and I have the same issue as you. I'm on a ThinkPad T480 running Ubuntu and I only use the trackpad. Whenever I use trackpoint (the nipple/stick/whatever) I'm constantly overshooting, so it doesn't matter whether I can get to it quickly or not from the home row, because I waste more time trying to position the cursor over the tab or button I'm trying to click than I do on the trackpad. Also, on the trackpad I don't have to physically click a button with my thumb, I just have to lightly tap.
Now maybe I could get better at the precision piece for trackpoint overtime, but if you use trackpoint you also lose the ability to do multi-touch (two finger) scrolling, which I think is a huge time saver, b/c you can scroll without having to find the scroll bar and/or moving your hand over to the arrow/page keys.
Macbook took a couple months of adjustment. But there is almost no use of muscle whatsoever when moving the mouse on a macbook. Thinkpads feel incredibly straining in comparison now. And scrolling on a macbook...completely effortless. There is nothing like it.
I'm using a Dell Latitude E7440 for years now with Linux, and scrolling is effortless. I'm really intrigued by what exactly the MBP scroll does better.
I love them when doing programming that requires my fingers to rarely leave the keyboard. It's nice to be able to nudge the mouse here or there occasionally without having the context switch of moving my fingers completely off the keyboard.
To me this was the big benefit of the pressure-sensitive MacBook trackpad —- since clicking is just pressing harder, you can use it with a thumb while your fingers are on the home row.
No. I prefer the Thinkpad nipple and sad they added a touchpad as it just gets in the way. I wish it was a BTO option to have the nipple only or touchpad only, or both.
The nipple on every other manufacturer I have tried isn't even usable. The nipple on the Thinkpad is god like. I used to hear of designers prefer it for Photoshop editing back in the days before Lenovo.
That said, I am using a MacBook Pro now with macOS and have been for years because I tend to spend way too much time tinkering to get things perfect.
For years, they were the only things I would use. I could never effectively use trackpads until I got my first MacBook which had the first one I actively liked rather than barely tolerated.
These days, I still have a Lenovo X200 for Linux and still use the pointer there although I'm generally happy with trackpads across the board. (Except on Windows apparently. I had to get a mouse for my 17" Alienware laptop because the trackpad still drove me crazy.)
If it works and you got used to it, it is so great on the integrated display. I got so used to not leaving the home row, I get annoyed when I have to use the arrow keys.
My X220 nipple unfortunately became a little unreliable. Needs calibration often (auto moving cursor) and sometimes one direction works better than others. It's annoying, especially since the touchpad is just unusable.
Any suggestions? Hardware or software issue? Would a new rubber nipple hood thingy help?
Its probably a hardware issue. I worked at IBM and they were very proud of that device that was invented there. They had a little glass display with the hardware broken out and prototypes.
It works with strain gauges[1]. Thats why you can control the speed of the pointer, not just the direction. When you get used to it, its quite effective.
You can pull the rubber nub off and try it, that shouldn't help but it might. If its sticking in a position that isn't "Neutral"
Oddly IBM made a mouse with that nub pointer thing. It worked so much better that any sort of wheel for pointing and scrolling, but I left it when I left IBM many many moons ago.
Same here, I'm much more productive with a track point and three buttons. I feel trapped buying Thinkpad (which have slowly become less and less robuste and well-designed) the same way some people in here say they feel trap buying Mac.
Having said that, this is the beauty of Linux, let people use what they like, being devices or window managers.
I am the same. I don't use touchpad at all on my Thinkpad. Give me a laptop without one but with better keyboard or at least speaker above it any day. Other than being quick to point to things nipple is amazing for scrolling. This is something Mac can't get close to, especially if you need to scroll a lot.
They are great, but the jumbo Macbook trackpads are better (I use both - my macbook's external keyboard is a Lenovo SK-8855). Also, be careful not to strain your fingers too much on the trackpoint. You could easily get carpal tunnel. My fingers start tingling after using the trackpoint for too long.
From what I've read, those don't have the same feel as the keyboards used in the laptops and are definitely unrelated hardware. Since the keyboards are one of the "switched/repaired in < 5min parts" of (older) thinkpads, I don't get why there isn't just a case with an USB converter available. I would pay way to much for an authentic external Thinkpad keyboard. Nothing I have encountered so far feels comparable.
