Saturday, December 15, 2012

More info on the Gazelle Professional Touchpad

A few days ago I shared my unboxing and first impressions of the System76 Gazelle Professional. I will have a specs post coming out in a bit, but I had some requests for more information on the touchpad. Some said that they want an even closer shot, so I snapped this with my phone real quick. It's not as high res but it is good enough:



The touchpad has the same finish as the rest of the computer, a brushed aluminum finish but made out of durable plastic. There is a bar at the top of it to indicate where the touchpad ends and begins, however. At the bottom of the touchpad is one continuous bar for the left click and right click, as well as a “middle click”. There are no heat issues generated with the touchpad or felt though the touchpad.

By default the laptop uses two-finger scrolling, but you can easily turn scrolling off, or change the scrolling feature to side scrolling which uses the right and bottom parts of the touchpad to vertically and horizontally scroll, respectively.

If you choose to side scroll you'll have to get used to the no boundaries around the touchpad. I myself have a laptop that had physical indication of where the touchpad ends and begins. All you'll have to do is get used to where to put your finger to scroll, and then you'll be fine.

The sensitivity of the pointer in regards to the touchpad is great. You can move the mouse pointer all around the screen just navigating the touchpad once, without having to lift your finger and return it to either side to the touchpad to keep moving to where you are going. Mind you that it is not too sensitive so the mouse won't be jumping all over the screen by barely touching it. The sensitivity is just right. You can also change the sensitivity in the Ubuntu mouse/touchpad settings if you wish:


Changes in the settings are effective immediately.