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Macbook Air 15 inch - Trackpad texture
- Thread starter arnolds1
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What's your date of manufacture? Refer to this post to find out: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-air-15-inch-trackpad-texture.2395464/post-32374765
How about yours - do I recall right you bought one and it has a coarse trackpad?
I returned mine. I’m going to order another one soon.
Weird. I have a M2 15 air; I suppose the trackpad is slightly more ‘textured’ than my old air….but on the other hand, it seems more accurate. Using Linear mouse and adjusting tracking speed; it’s perfect. Maybe just use it for a week or two; you’ll get used to it. 
This is the same for me. Midnight, May 5 and smooth as can be.
And thank you to @CloudsNeverDie for the terminal code to check out the info.
Glad to seem some input coming in here. Would love more people to chime in with data.
Yes, thank you everyone for your input so far! I'd summarize by saying it seems like only batches before May 2023 were affected by this, and some manufacturing change was made around that time which resolved the issue.
Is this working correctly for you? There's an open issue on LinearMouse's GitHub where it doesn't recognize the trackpad on the Air 15: https://github.com/linearmouse/linearmouse/issues/270
I was just at the Apple Store and tried 5 MacBook Air 15in and found them to all have coarse trackpads. I checked them all and they were made in March. Couldn’t find one made in May to test whether the trackpad texture was fixed.
Nice work. All the ones I've checked in stores have coarse trackpads too. I guess the display units haven't been refreshed since launch.
Was at a Bestbuy. Checked and trackpad was coarse. Date was in May. Not so sure this is a date thing now.
Just received a new one, my third one now, hoping to get a good unit. Cores folder date is May 5. Trackpad is coarse and sticky like treacle, first thing I noticed. Checked under microscope and sure enough, it's the coarser texture.
F this. Ordered a Framework 13 7840U.
That’s crazy! I have no idea why more people aren’t noticing this.
Got a new 15in base MBA in today. Will let you know how it turns out. If this isn’t normal I think I give up.
Yeah it's surprising. I'd guess at least half of the buyers of Midnight MBA 15"s have the coarse version. I guess most just don't notice, don't have anything to compare it against, or aren't active on this forum.
To me it feels similar to dragging a pencil across paper, with a feeling of friction and drag, a white noise-like sensation like chalk on a blackboard, and occasionally sticking completely especially when your finger isn't completely dry - quite a contrast to the normal smooth glass feeling Apple's trackpads have offered.
Really hits home how being part of Apple's ecosystem forces you to use their hardware, which is reasonable and not an issue as long as their hardware is actually of good quality. Don't get me wrong, everything else about these machines is good, but the trackpad situation (and keyboard) really let them down this year. When it comes to keyboards, that's true for most years since 2015 I guess, though the 2021 and 2022 keyboards seemed fine. I'm not a big fan of the limited USB-C ports either, especially given all the space inside the case on the right hand side where they could have squeezed one. I can live with the notch but do find it annoying, and the lack of Wifi 6E is just mildly irritating...
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What is the 'keyboard' situation for this year, out of curiosity?
im aware of the butterfly keyboard fiasco but didn't realize there's still something going on
The keyboards I tried in the stores all have a nice light feeling, but they changed something in manufacturing this year (or have multiple suppliers) and the ones on the machines I bought are way too stiff. The actuation force went up from something like 55g to 70g, which takes the MacBook keyboards from the lightest on the market to the stiffest (yes, I measured it).
I had a 2023 14" MBP earlier this year where the keyboard was so stiff I was constantly missing keystrokes on important keys like A and E, and the arrow keys only worked if pressed exactly in the middle and if you pressed them on the left or right thirds they wouldn't register at all no matter how hard you pressed.
Then out of three 15" MBA's I've had so far this year, one had a good and light keyboard, like the demo units in the store, while the other two (including the one I'm typing on right now) are also very stiff and make my fingers tired and sore quickly.
Then also if you look at the backlight from the normal viewing angle, you can see it under some keys and not others, because the keys are not at consistent angles. It's a tiny detail but makes the machines look sloppy and low quality.
So it seems like the manufacturing consistency and quality control for the keyboards has also got worse - it's not just the trackpads.
ive always felt there's a bit of lottery on keyboard feel, even from long ago. but thanks for the explanation
Yep, could be. I haven't bought a laptop since my late-2013 retina MBP - back then the keyboards were fantastic and consistent from machine to machine. I skipped a decade of upgrades due to the touch bar and butterfly keyboards. Seems like they got worse since the drive to make them as thin as possible? They didn't used to be broken.
Wow I'm impressed you tested the actuation force.
I got a new 15" Midnight base model last night and the trackpad is NOT coarse, but the keyboard feels loose and really not enjoyable to type on. I keep making mistakes when I'm typing on it. The prior 15" Silver base model I had had an amazing feeling keyboard, but the trackpad was coarse. WHAT IS GOING ON APPLE?!
The other ones were too tight, this is too loose?
So there are arguably three different kinds of keyboard builds you've come across (one that is right in the middle not too loose or tight)? Geez!
which of the extremes is better to your fingers?