A Laptop’s Feel Is As Important As Its Looks
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
by Charles W. Moore
I find it interesting that a lot of attention is paid and discussion time alloted to the styling of laptop computers, and relatively little to their ergonomics and feel. For me, the equation is reversed, with tactile feel being of paramount importance and looks a distant secondary consideration. I’m not oblivious to the aesthetics of design, but in a tool that you use hands-on literally like a laptop computer, tactile satisfaction and comfort are key.
These observations have been brought into sharper focus for me recently by my having purchased a new unibody MacBook to serve as my number one production Mac, handing off one of my two hotrodded Pismo PowerBooks to my wife to replace her G3 iBook after its sudden death, and demotion of my 17-inch PowerBook G4 from its previous role of desktop substitute work platform to utility machine, while the remaining Pismo also serves tasking as a utility daily driver and also as my “road” laptop.
The 17-inch PowerBook, which did a superb job as a desktop production machine, hooked up to an external keyboard, several mice, and a bunch of other peripherals, is proving less satisfactory as a portable laptop. It’s not so much its size and weight, which I find manageable although not especially handy, but certain other issues that make it pale by comparison with the formidable Pismos and the old WallStreet PowerBook I used before that.
The 17 incher’s trackpad is, in a word, abominable. I prefer finger-tapping to button-clicking, but the G4 PowerBook’s trackpad is so clumsy and erratic in responding to tap gestures that it quickly sends me back to the button in desperation.
The 17-inch PowerBook’s keyboard is relatively more satisfactory, but no great shakes. I would rate it mediocre to the lower end of good compared with the black keyboard in the WallStreet and the bronze ones in the Lombard and Pismo. These G3 Series PowerBooks represent for me the high water mark in laptop computer keyboards for comfort and feel. I’ve never been able to decide conclusively which of them I like best. They’re different from each other, but both excellent.
Actually, the G3 Series PowerBooks are a prima facie example of what I’m talking about in this column about looks vs. feel. I’ve never been an especially smitten by their styling and dull charcoal livery, but they are certainly the most tactilely satisfactory and comfortable laptops I’ve ever used. Much better than the 17-inch PowerBook, and even more so compared with my G3 iBook with its “nervous” trackpad and poor excuse for a keyboard. I even like them better than the PowerBook 1400, which does deserve honorable mention for its very nice keyboard, but it loses marks for its lame trackpad. I was always quite fond of my PowerBook 5300 whose styling and compact size (about the same footprint as the 12-inch iBook) always appealed, but whose keyboard was at the lower end of mediocre and its trackpad no better than the 1400;s. By most criteria the WallStreet, Lombard, and Pismo PowerBooks are the runaway champions for feel and ergonomics - IMHO.
One reason of course is that their organic contours, which, as I mentioned, don’t really grab me aesthetically, are much more friendly on the hands than the more squared off and angular machines. I also find the feel of the Pismo’s polycarbonate palm rests and polystyrene key caps more comfortable and welcoming than the cold, hard, brushed aluminum surfaces of the 17” PowerBook and I like their heft and balance, although I’ll give the edge to smaller, lighter machines in that category, but the clincher for me is their excellent keyboard feel and trackpad responsiveness, which are both, as I said, the best of my laptop computing experience.
The keyboards especially stand out with a subtle, but just-right combination of light touch, the ideal amount of travel, positive response, and a silky — smooth Action. the proverbial fly-in-the-ointment with these laptops is their stiff and uncomfortable lozenge-shaped trackpad buttons, but as noted I prefer tapping anyway, so rarely resort to the button when using the Pismos or WallStreet.
On the other hand, it’s a good job that the G4 PowerBook has a half-decent trackpad button, because the trackpad is one of the most frustrating I’ve ever used. Another thing that annoys me about using the 17-incher on a Laptop Laidback stand while reclining on a bed or sofa, one of my favorite computing modes, is that the screen hinge clutches don’t have sufficient tension to positively hold the lid open, and it keeps flipping closed when the keyboard has the ideal amount of incline for comfort on the Laidback stand whenever you move more than gingerly or even gently bump the computer. This is just infuriating after it happens more or five times in a session. It’s always a pleasure to get back to the Pismo, whose lid stays securely open whatever the incline angle, along with its many other relative virtues.
And what of the unibody MacBook? Well, frankly, I haven’t used it enough in hands — on loan for a completely gelled opinion. It’s usually connected to a keyboard for production use. However, my initial impressions are that it’s pretty good in the ergonomics and feel context. I was particularly surprised and gratified by how much I took to the big, buttonless, glass trackpad, which is nicely responsive — maybe not quite as good as the Pismo trackpad, but not bad at all, and works well with tapping. At my workstation I use it with a selection of my favorite computer mice, so I haven’t really explored the potential of its MultiTouch gesture capabilities, but they seem a useful innovation, and the “buttonless” button function works a lot better and more intuitively than I had expected — definitely nicer than those stiff and recalcitrant buttons on the G3 PowerBooks.
As for the MacBook’s “chiclet” type keyboard, it’s not bad either, although not nearly as comfortable as the Pismo, Wall Street, or PowerBook 1400 keyboards, but at least as good and perhaps better than the G4 PowerBook ‘board.
As a final observation, I would rate the styling and design aesthetics of the unibody MacBook as an out-of-the-park home run, easily to my eyes the best-looking Mac laptop I’ve ever owned, and while the emphasis of this essay is on feel and comfort rather than looks, there is in fact substantial tactile and sensory satisfaction to be derived from running one’s hands over the precision panel fits, silky switchgear action, and substantial solidity of that enclosure carved from a single billet of aluminum.
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