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.
2 Likes
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.
1 Like
I use them as my mouse buttons even without the TrackPoint. I like to have them easily accessible to my thimbs as I type.
For what it’s worth, I have had a partial solution on my FW13 since I got it - and it’s come in handy since it became one of my daily drivers with the Ryzen board upgrade.
I have a strip of VHB tape applied to the bottom of the touchpad’s bottom-left lower half, where a click button should go. VHB tape is double-sided adhesive, and the top backing doesn’t make a good finger surface - but matte Scotch tape does. I peeled off the backing and applied a precision-cut strip of matte Scotch tape (like the kind often found at an office desk, for patching torn paper) to it. It makes a comfortable resting spot for a thumb, and the nature of VHB tape prevents it from being detected as a tap, and pressing the tape-pad acts as a precise left-click without drift.
Leaving the right half exposed allows it to be detected as a right-click. The pad area serves as a null zone for my thumb to rest, as I idle my thumb on it while reading something, for example. It works adequately enough. It’s been on my laptop since I got it, and it hasn’t degraded in the slightest, with untold thousands of clicks.
I still continue to wish for a proper touchpad without a click behind the pad, and with 2 (preferably 3!) real buttons. I daily-drive a MacBook Air, and its haptic click is the most precise clickpad in existence - but it still feels like interaction friction.
The barrier to entry for an individual to source/create a touchpad is too high, I think, for an aftermarket option. Maybe that same barrier to entry is what’s holding up a new touchpad option. But also, maybe now that Framework has leveled out and got the new model out, … maybe they can work on this? I can dream, right?
(edit: I realized after posting that I already posted this early in the thread 
BUT HEY, it could use a refresh with many more folks posting their desire/trouble with the touchpad 2+ years later 
)
1 Like
I am shopping for a new laptop and everything about the Framework is amazing EXCEPT the lack of physical touchpad buttons. I had a chance to play with my friend’s Framework and immediately hated the feel of the touchpad, for the same reason I hate the feel of a Macbook’s touchpad. Please give us the option of having physical buttons - after all, isn’t that the goal of Framework, to give users options?
This is the honestly the only thing keeping me from buying a Framework.
Same here. Getting ready to order a new laptop and as much as I like everything else it won’t be a Framework due to the lack of physical touchpad buttons. Lenovo keeps taking away things users actually want but at least they still have these so once again they’ll get my business.