I would agree having buttons on a touchpad is important, though I prefer them on the bottom instead of top as top is less useful without a trackpoint. I guess best would be if it can be flippable than people can have it on top or bottom wherever they wish.
Unfortunately the trend is making touchpads as unusable as possible, thus we all get those flat ones without buttons 
Another vote for this, the whole Laptop manufacturing community has gone insane, bring back real touchpad buttons.
It’s been a year since I complained in this thread and JUST now found out I can still right-click or drag-and-drop with these special taps. You can even use two fingers to scroll, but I already knew that one somehow.
I can now put up with this touchpad more easily, but I wish there was a paper insert in the box or some other communication about these click-less gestures. Going from using a DIY desktop build for years to this laptop has left out a lot of people from learning about these gestures in recent years, as opposed to existing laptop users or anyone coming from a Macbook. This results in the huge amount of complaints asking why there are no physical buttons.
I still agree with this sentiment though, Framework should offer a touchpad with physical buttons at some point in the future. It’s my only remaining gripe of an otherwise flawless laptop
The thing is, if everyone just uses the gestures, why have the clicks at all? They are plain useless. I can do gestures on any touchpad, but sometimes I want a button too. A double-tap (for right click) requires you to take your fingers off the pad. Sometimes that’s not possible with what you’re trying to do, and the alternative is a button that moves as you press it. The design is just lazy and there are no legitimate redeeming factors for it.
I never remember the gestures, or can’t get them right.
That’s what clicks are made for. I would appreciate actual buttons below the touchpad, though.
Both windows and linux can be configured to use a three finger click, or a three finger tap for middle click, and three finger drag can be accomplished using the same tap-then-drag functionality that is available for normal 1 and 2 finger clicks. I’ve had pretty consistently good experiences with the accuracy of the three finger taps on both Windows 11 and Gnome with the framework 13, and I use middle click pretty frequently (especially under linux).
I haven’t daily driven a laptop with three physical buttons for years now, but I find that my muscle memory for 1, 2, or 3 finger taps for left right and middle click allows me to work almost as well as with a mouse, though they do fall apart if you need to press multiple buttons simultaneously, for example when playing a game.
There have been some official responses (e.g. from @nrp) to the effect that touchpads with physical mouse buttons were under consideration. Have there been any developments on that front? Either officially, or via community-developed solutions?
Eagerly interested in a ThinkPad-style touchpad with three physical buttons.
Just found out from another Framework user who used my touchpad that it’s apparently broken this whole time. I was confused at first since I thought the crappy movement/clicking responsiveness was normal, until I ordered a replacement pad this week and installed it. Clicking works perfectly now. Dragging my finger to move my cursor works even better too. I’ve owned this laptop for two years and never knew my mouse was broken until now.
Wish there were physical buttons so I could immediately know if my input was broken or not instead of not knowing it was for years, jesus christ!! I still love Framework to death though
I miss these in almost every instance they’ve been replaced. Cars, mobile devices, appliances, household hardware, the list goes on.
I’m looking at buying another laptop soon and I love the Framework concept but a lack of physical buttons is a big issue for me. I was looking at the touchpad module and wondering if it would be possible to use a touchpad with buttons from say a recent Thinkpad. If the replacement is smaller than the original it should be possible to use a 3D printer to make an adapter. Cabling would be a concern of course.
Looked into this a bit more and the trackpad on my Lenovo X13 is the exact same size as that listed for the Framework 13 and adapting the mounting looks feasible. Unfortunately the cabling is totally different though and probably not doable.
The trend of getting rid of physical buttons reminds me of the lemming like way laptop manufacturers went to 16:9 screens. It was clearly a worse solution for many applications and it took them years to move back towards taller screens.
You can’t simply replace the Framework touchpad with another model. Not only would this be a crazy DIY hack, the power button/fingerprint sensor and the keyboard are also connected through the touchpad circuit. There is no room for leaving the original circuit in place and adding another one on top.
Yup. That’s why I said it didn’t look doable even if physically mounting it was.
I’ve been looking at Framework for a few years, & the sole reason I haven’t moved over from my aging Latitude 5490 is because I can’t stand the user experience of not having physical touchpad buttons. The moment this becomes available, I’ll buy a Framework.
(I already have a second, newer/faster laptop, and have spent many hours trying to “just get used to” capacitive clicks. The experience of navigating with the physical buttons is just so much smoother that I still find myself more effective on the old laptop, despite its far inferior performance.)
Please, Framework (or someone in the community who is able) - make this the only modern laptop people can go if we prefer real physical buttons!
Even workstation laptops have ditched physical touchpad buttons. As far as I know, ZBook Fury 16 is the only option right now, but it is quite expensive and heavy. Lenovos have buttons at the top of touchpad, but those are primarily for TrackPoint use.
I dislike touchpads as well in general, but I will add the slide click think almost cost me money last night. I was surfing on e-bay, went for the add to watchlist button instead it clicked on the buy now button before i made it to the watchlist button. I didn’t click the trackpad it just decided i meant to click. Fortunately there is a second screen you have to click a second buy button to actually buy or i would have purchased something i didn’t wish to purchase.
I usually use a Microsoft Arc mouse that the palmrest folds flat for sticking it in a bag and it turns it off when flat as well. That works well for a small portable bluetooth mouse that isn’t bulky to avoid needing to use the trackpad at all. But I was sitting in the recliner so the mouse doesn’t work well there…
I would be a fan of a trackpad with actual buttons. I hate the pad clicking on things i didn’t click on.
I know this is an older thread, but +1 to most of the sentiments here. If Framework releases a touchpad module with physical buttons below the trackpad I’ll be first in line to get one. I use the trackpad for gaming occasionally, so I’ve disabled all of the touch to click functions in windows. Pressing down on the trackpad to click works… but being able to feel with your finger whether you’re about to left click or right click makes so much of a difference. I bought my previous laptop before the FW16 because it had physical mouse buttons.
Just reviving an old thread with my little story. Back when I was a teenager, I usually had lowest tier of laptops, but they all had physical buttons on touchpads. These buttons were usually flimsy, moving around, sounded cheap and obnoxious with the feel that it broke every time I clicked. But I used that extensively. Even at my desk, I never had a mouse because I never needed it and even laughed at people who would bring mouse everywhere with the laptop.
Then I bought Dell XPS 15. Massive, very recommended, smooth, premium-feeling, beautiful touchpad. I hate it. Tap-to-click is too slow and awkward, while physical click is just too inaccurate. My previous 200-300€ laptops had something that I preferred much better.
Recently picked up my mom’s Dell Latitude, I didn’t need to even accustom to it. It was natural and realized that I definitely need to go back to touchpads with buttons.
Now I’m looking for 13" laptop, none of them have it. But since these are replaceable here and the original is already quite large (larger than XPS 13, one of the considerations), part of it can absolutely be sacrificed for thin buttons and the do not even need to be pressed that much deeper (if any) than what the trackpad is already going down (if it is going down, heck, it could even be a haptic, touch-insensitive area of the touchpad), so depth should not be an issue.
At least one button would be incredible to have (right-button is more awkward to press than two-finger-tap, so it would not be that necessary).
It would be like from sci-fi if it was possible to rotate it, as I see some people would prefer the buttons at the top.
One more vote for this. I emailed support about this some time ago before I saw this discussion. I have short stubby fingers and have never got on with gestures and precise use of a touch surface. I want buttons for all the reasons listed above. Right now, I’m stuck with Lenovo for touchpads I can happily use. I would love other options, and everything else about Framework makes me wish it could be one of theirs.
I use them as my mouse buttons even without the TrackPoint. I like to have them easily accessible to my thimbs as I type.