I keep seeing the unevenness all the time. The notebook is sitting besides my PC both at home and at my workplace. Right on the desk. Can’t unsee the spacers. Each time I lay my hands on them the bad spacer moves and creates an uneven edge. Looks totally amateurish. =(
I’m not sure, the section that prevents the trackpad from being one unit left of the keyboard seems like it wouldn’t exist if the left “ear” on the keyboard wasn’t double wide, and at least on the RGB US Keyboard I have it doesn’t look like that’d be entirely necessary, it perhaps made PCB layouts easier or has some other electrical benefits, but IMO it doesn’t appear to be physically necessary.
There are definitely issues that come up with trying to have the trackpad 2 units to either side, but feels like 1 unit left wasn’t really something they had to block (granted, this is just on my sample size of my 1 keyboard and lacking any sort of insights onto the challenges they had in designing and manufacturing the keyboards).
Since I got mine now, I can say, that the spacers and also the touchpad are indeed a bit bent. I don’t have issues with hairs being captured in the gaps nor does it hurt in one way or another, but it really doesn’t look good. I’ll try bending the spacers and touchpad a bit, should be doable.
So I got my FW16 earlier today and I’ve been getting it setup. I have to say that for my spacers I don’t really notice them. The right side is slightly bothersome but the left looks mostly fine to me. I would like to see these refined a bit but honestly so far it really doesn’t bother me. We’ll see when I get some more time to use it and really look at it.
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After using mine for about a week I can say I would really like a single spacer that is double sized. I moved my touchpad all the way to the left to be right under my keyboard and my two single size spacers to the right under my numpad. I keep getting my arm hair caught in the tiny gap between the two spacers. I would happily buy a single piece double sized spacer to prevent that from happening.
Otherwise I am loving this laptop and I am happy I purchased it.
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It’s really not the far left or right. You’re just moving the trackpad 34mm left or right of center (subject to the limitations as mentioned by @Semptum). Would have been nice if it could move further.
I’m so glad to see the photos of slightly not quite flat trackpad plates, means it’s nothing i did or didn’t do, it’s just not flat.
Mine is the same as well. I suspect the metal is flat as cut, but then the gluing everything on the back of it causes stresses that make it curl fractionally.
I also have issues with this. I’ve had my laptop for a few weeks and wanted to give it time to settle in before I commented on this.
When it first arrived I was wearing long sleeves a lot of the time and the touchpad spacers didn’t cause any phyiscal problems. I’ve been wearing teeshirts the past week and it’s very uncomfortable.
I was getting poked/scraped by an unaligned spacer and it caught the little hairs on my arm. I tried to bend down the offending spacer and now instead of having one corner that is slightly raised, the whole thing is slightly curved to be “u” shaped with an upward ‘bow’ in the middle.
I still “see” it every time I open my laptop and feel unhappy at this very obvious flaw. It’s not bad enough to return but it is definitely (IMO) bad enough for alternatives/re-engineering down the road.
Since it doesn’t interfere with the function of the laptop I would be willing to pay for an alternative spacer down the road.
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I am honestly quite surprised that some in really a bad condition go through the quality check. It is not that difficult to notice and it could take like 30 seconds on each laptop to check whether the spacers/touchpad are okay or not.
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It is not the spacers that have the problem, it is the touchpad itself that is not flat.
Sorry, I misread it then. But same applies for the touchpad/any other easy-to-spot quality issue, as well.
I guess I’ve been lucky, since mine sit really nice and flush together. Can barely notice a ridge when running fingers over it
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these ones are really good
Same for me!
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I almost returned my Batch 4 because of the spacers sticking up at the edges. I probably won’t return it at this point, but they do remain the most irritating part of this thing.
A proper fix would go a long way, personally.
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My touchpad and spacers are definitely not perfect, but honestly not bothering me all that much besides cosmetics. That said, the touchpad has been less than ideal. I found in use that it would stick in the depressed condition and cause it to think I was dragging everything. I reseated the touchpad a few times trying to resolve it because it worked pretty freely when I had it out. Eventually I seem to have gotten it in the exact right spot that it’s been consistently working for a bunch of hours so far. I only received it yesterday (batch 14), so not a lot of track record yet 
I’ll add to the Feedback - Batch 14 - 2 Units
The lines between the spacers and the pieces aren’t something I see as an issue. Unless you want the look of a MacBook or a Surface where it’s all one piece, you are going to have lines. And let’s be real…no one buying one of these is looking for an Apple or Microsoft product.
The inconsistent height of each spacer/element is where I think there is room for improvement. I won’t include pictures because other people have. On both of my units the top corners of the touch pad or the spacer are raised above the piece next to it. It appears as though it’s a bit bent when it’s probably just the slightest variation in shape and most likely within tolerances. I can imagine over time I’ll find things catching on it if I leave it that way.
I can see a few options where they offer different setups across the bottom like 1 full piece. That solution isn’t quite what I would suggest. Another option I think would help would be to add a small aluminum guide/channel on the underside of each piece that would pull the sections level with each other. This would sort of “lock” each section to the one next to it. Ideally that outside frame of the laptop would have the same locking channel to help keep the modules on the same plane as the frame on the outside too. There seems to be enough “play” in how the spacers and touchpad sit where you could interlock them and not compromise the ability for these to still slide in and out.
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The spacers themselves are perfectly flat, so the problem must be elsewhere.
I’ve got the impression that the problem might be related to the midplate flexing a little bit. If I remove the spacers (mine are both to the right of the touchpad), the area above screw 5 can be depressed half a millimeter or so. And that’s the area where the spacers are elevated. They are interlocked with the midplate already, so fixing/stiffening the midplate better beneath the numpad magnets might solve the problem.