What’s the Precision-enabled Touchpad in Windows Powered Laptops?

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In this Laptop Radar article, I’m gonna reveal much more about Windows precision touchpad and how it work differently from traditional touchpad.

Article Content:

  1. How non-precision touchpad works on Windows PC?
  2. What is the Windows Precision touchpad?
  3. Is Precision-touchpad better than Apple’s Magic touchpad?
  4. How Touchpad in Windows PCs works?

Before I go into the detail, you have to learn how non-precision touchpad works. And, why precision drivers came into existence.

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How non-precision touchpad works on Windows PC?

You will be surprised to know that the touchpad works at very weird way when compare to Apple Macbook. On the laptop, we perform several gestures activity like swiping, pinching, and many more on the touchpad.

So, the touchpad then first sends the data to Windows OS. Then, the data is handled by external PS/2 mouse – the traditional mouse. In other words, the data sent my touchpad is first converted to data of External PS/2 mouse and then interpreted by Windows OS. So, this way, the activities on the touchpad is identified.

So, this is quite long process. It takes a time. In addition to that, we all know that the Windows is driver-based OS. And, the drivers differ from manufacturer to manufacturer.

As a result, you get a late response compared to Apple Macbook’s touchpad. In Macbook, the data sent from touchpad is directly interpreted by OS, means, too fast. And, driver-based data are also not 100% accurate.

This is the same problem with all Windows-based PCs. As a result, Windows has announced a precision touchpad with the launch Windows.

What is a Precision Touchpad?

The Precision-enabled touchpad is launched to overcome the limitations of traditional trackpad.

With the launch of Windows, Microsoft has created a specification for a touchpad called a Precision Touchpad with Synaptics.

Synaptics is a touchpad manufacturing company. Unlike normal touchpad, the raw data sent by Precision touchpad is directly interpreted by OS. And, then Windows will be responsible to handle the gestures accurately.

So, in this way, Windows will understand the data more efficiently and effectively to produce better, and accurate output.

In other words, the data conversion process of external PS/2 mouse is eliminated in the precision-enabled touchpad.

Is Precision-touchpad better than Apple’s Magic touchpad?

No, to be frank. Apple Macbook supports wide gestures and respond very smoothly compared to precision one. It’s still at top on this planet when it comes to smoothness, accuracy of touchpad.

How Touchpad in Windows PCs works?

The touchpad on Windows PCs works a bit off-way. Unlike Apple’s Macbook Pro, all the Windows PCs found handling the instructions in a very different way. And, the touchpad on many cheaper Windows PCs found not even smooth some time due to the plastic material. When compared to the Macbook, it fails in terms of smoothness.

So, coming back, what happens when you actually do gesture activities like swiping, pinching, and many more on the touchpad.

When you perform an activity on it, it first sends the data to Windows OS.

Then, the data is handled by an external PS/2 mouse – the traditional mouse that we’re using nowadays even.

It means that the data first converted to the PS/2 mouse’s data and then interpreted by Windows OS to check whether it’s a swipe, pinch, or zoom gesture. And, after data interpretation, Windows responds to it by showing you the movement or action on the screen.

So, this long-process takes quite more time. In addition to that, Windows OS is a driver-based OS. And, the drivers were being manufactured by the device manufacturer. Hence, differs from device to device of a different manufacturer.

As a result, you see the actual response late. In addition to that, the driver-based interpretation can’t interpret the data accurately. Hence, you won’t find the touchpad accurate. Mostly, In my experience, While doing the gesture activities like zoom and rotate on Dell Inspiron 14 3542’s touchpad, I found they were handled mostly inaccurately.

This is the same problem with all Windows-based PCs. As a result, Windows has announced a precision touchpad when it has launched Windows 8.1.

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