It has been FAR too long since I last posted an article to my blog. We had a few family things come up last Fall around the time of my last posting and I simply didn’t have the time to sit down and write articles. Before long, even when I did have the time I simply fell out of the habit of writing. It is my hope that now that I’m getting back to it, I will continue to add articles on a far more regular basis. That being said, I’ll jump right into my review of the Apple Magic Trackpad.

The Magic Trackpad is by no means a new product, it has been on the market for 10 months now. I have read a plethora of reviews on the Magic Trackpad and often been intrigued by it, but I was fairly happy with my old Mighty Mouse so I never seriously looked at it. Over time I’ve grown tired of the clutter that USB cables adds to my desk, so I’ve taken to tidying things up a bit for a neater work space. The first two things that I decided had to go were my Apple USB Keyboard and my USB Mighty Mouse. I had an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard already, I just hadn’t gotten around to using it yet, so that part of the equation was already taken care of. Then came the decision of what mouse to use.

The first mouse that I tried was the Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse 5000. It was the lowest priced of the 3 mice that I was considering, and I’ve always been very pleased with Microsoft mice in the past, so I decided to give it a try. The mouse worked quite well, however it only had one side button so it wasn’t nearly as flexible as I’d hoped it would be. Also, it didn’t tend to “play” very well with my MacBook Pro. It seemed to take a long time to come out of sleep mode after it sat idle for a while, and usually I ended up just having to wake the system up with the keyboard and wait for the mouse to kick in. Given the lack of multiple buttons and the constant wait for the mouse to “wake up”, I decided to look at a different mouse, the Apple Magic Mouse.

The Magic Mouse was also a very nice mouse. It was larger than the Microsoft mouse which I very much liked. The Microsoft mouse was a bit on the small side for my taste, like most notebook specific mice. I was concerned with the ergonomics of the Magic Mouse as it has a very low profile, and while it took some getting used to, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared. After a full day’s use though it did get to be a bit cumbersome for me to use. The addition of multi-touch to the mouse more than made up for the slightly irregular shape. Out of the box the Magic Mouse supports gestures for clicking, double clicking, scrolling up/down and left/right, zooming, and swiping backwards and forwards (very useful for going back and forth when browsing the web). Already it was far more functional than the Microsoft mouse, however I’ve grown accustomed to the multi-touch functionality of an iPad as well as the trackpad on my MacBook Pro, so I had hoped for a bit more out of the Magic Mouse. On the recommendation of a co-worker, I tried out an application called MagicPrefs. MagicPrefs is a 3rd party add-on that allows you to setup just about any combination of clicking, swiping, and scrolling that you can think of. I immediately fell in love with the application and started to use it to setup all sorts of useful multi-touch gestures. The only problem was that the size of the mouse in comparison to a trackpad quickly became an issue. A four-finger swipe to bring up Expose is anything BUT simple on a standard sized mouse . I had mentioned this to a co-worker and he suggested I test out his Magic Trackpad, so I gave it a spin for half of a day. Within an hour or so, I decided that THIS was the mouse I’d been looking for. The following picture shows the size difference between the Apple Magic Mouse and the Apple Magic Trackpad:

The Apple Magic Trackpad was everything that I’d hoped for out of the Magic Mouse, but large enough to actually realize the benefits of a program like MagicPrefs. While the Magic Mouse comes out of the box with 5 different options for multi-touch gestures, the Magic Trackpad more than doubles that with 12 gestures out of the box. With it, you can easily point, click, double click, scroll, rotate images, zoom in and out, page forward and backward, change applications, activate Expose, etc. The surface of the Magic Trackpad has close to 80% more surface area than the trackpad on a MacBook Pro. This gives you plenty of space for some of the more advanced gestures that MagicPrefs supports. With my Magic Trackpad I can use a 3-button click to activate Spaces, a 5-button click to lock my workstation, a 4-finger swipe to activate Expose, etc. I have already gained far more functionality out of the Magic Trackpad coupled with MagicPrefs than I could imagine with any other mouse, and I have only activated TWO of the more than twenty configurable options that it supports. As I think of more shortcuts for things I do all the time on my computer, I would imagine that I’ll be activating many more of those features as well.

Ergonomically speaking the Magic Trackpad is quite comfortable as well. As is the case with a trackball style mouse, you aren’t constantly moving your arm and wrist around so at the end of a full work day you’re not starting to feel like you’re coming down with carpal tunnel syndrome.

As was the case with the Magic Mouse, the Magic Trackpad also wakes up a sleeping Mac instantly, no waiting like with the Microsoft mouse. I’m sure the fact that the computer and mouse are both made by the same manufacturer helps here, as I’m sure the Microsoft offering is probably a bit quicker to respond on a Windows computer.

Despite all of the wonderful things that I like about the Magic Trackpad, there are a few drawbacks to consider before going out and buying one. The price tag of $69.99 is quite a bit higher than most mice (The Microsoft mouse that I tested was $49.99). However, with all of the functionality that you get from it, to me it is worth the higher cost. Another drawback is the fact that it is a bit more fragile than most mice. While it is constructed of a roughly 1/8″ thick sheet of aluminum that is quite sturdy, the surface of it (like all Apple trackpads) is covered in glass. Normal usage isn’t about to break the surface, but I wouldn’t throw it into a laptop bag without some type of protection. For now, I have kept the original box and use it to carry the Magic Trackpad in my bag, but I’m looking into options for a carrying case for it so that it is easier to store for when I am on the go. The other drawback that I could see for the Magic Trackpad is that it would not be ideal for gaming. Most games rely heavily on the mouse for movement, and I think trying to maneuver through a game like World of Warcraft or Portal would be rather cumbersome. My MacBook Pro is pretty much strictly used for standard office type applications (web browsing, word processing, email, etc.) so for me this is not an issue, but if you are into gaming on your Mac then the Magic Trackpad isn’t for you.

All things considered I find the Magic Trackpad to be the most functional pointing device I’ve ever owned. Its full potential isn’t realized without the use of MagicPrefs, but when combined the two pack a pretty powerful punch that’s worth looking into if you’re in need of a new mouse.