AppleMagic Trackpad - White Multi-Touch Surface ​​​​​​​

If you own a Mac, the Apple Magic Trackpad truly feels like a natural extension of your system. The multi-touch surface is incredibly responsive, and the gestures are smooth and intuitive — making navigation, switching between apps, and managing multitasking an absolute breeze.I primarily use mine while working from home, and it’s been a game-changer for productivity. The wireless connection is flawless, the battery life is excellent, and it charges quickly with the included USB-C to Lightning cable. I also love the larger surface area compared to a MacBook’s built-in trackpad — it gives me plenty of space without feeling bulky.The black finish looks modern and professional, and pairs nicely with other Apple accessories. It’s also much more ergonomic for long work sessions than using a traditional mouse, especially if you’re already used to Mac gestures.It’s not cheap, but worth every dollar for the quality, design, and integration with macOS. If you’re a Mac user — especially someone working remotely or doing creative work — this is an upgrade that genuinely improves the experience.

I love the trackpad on my MacBook, but I wanted something to use for when I’ve got my MacBook docked. I have a Logitech MX Master 3 mouse, but there’s just something about being able to use gestures. Easy to connect and set up. You just plug it into your Mac and it sets up in seconds. Then you can use it unplugged and wirelessly. It’s super slim and it feels like the angle is just right. The haptic feedback on “clicks” is satisfying. It also supports Force Touch for deeper contextual clicks. It works exactly like it expect it to for Apple hardware, and I expect it’ll last several years.

I didn’t think I needed the Apple Magic Trackpad until I tried it. I’ve used Logitech MX Master mice for years, but after long work sessions, I started feeling nagging pain in my right hand and wrist. Since I’m comfortable using my left hand (bball hooper things, if you know you know), I wanted something I could use on either side. The trackpad solves that completely. I can switch hands without losing efficiency. Some gestures are actually faster than a mouse, like zooming, scrolling, dragging windows, and more. Smooth, responsive, and surprisingly useful.

I don't own a Mac. I've read this can be used on a Windows PC. It works great with 3rd party drivers from Magic Utilities. All of the gestures are active and very useful. I've tried the "free" options and none of them worked. So far, the Magic Trekpad 2 is very productive.

The magic trackpad works out of the box on linux. Specifically, it works on the distribution release I use, ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS. I tried two other trackpads with usb receivers, logitech and perixx. The logitech was very flaky, but I bought it used, and it may have been defective to begin with, or damaged by its previous owner. I also don't think logitech makes it any more. The perixx was a reasonable deal given the price, but it required a touch that was a bit heavy and did not always pick up movement or taps. The magic trackpad, although not perfect, has a smoother surface, takes a lighter touch, and is more responsive and consistent in its behavior. The battery in my case lasts one to two months before I have to recharge — YMMV. The trackpad behaves the same way as the builtin touchpad on my laptop, supporting single, double, and two-finger taps, and it allows me to drag objects around the screen. There is a third party driver on github which enables three-finger gestures. I don't remember the name.I'll make some recommendations regarding the trackpad setup on ubuntu, using a combination of gui and terminal utilities. If you only want to use a gui interface or are not interested in a slightly off-label configuration, or if you don't use ubuntu or any of its derivative distributions (or maybe if you don't use apt or a gnome desktop), you can disregard the rest of the review.Configuration and usage recommendations for ubuntu:The open source bluetooth driver package included with debian and debian-based linuces, such as ubuntu, is called "bluez". Ubuntu LTS (long-term support) ships with bluez 5.64, in spite of the fact that stable debian (version 12, code-name "Bookworm") ships with 5.66. I'd recommend an upgrade to the later version.The easiest way to pair a new device is to use the settings/bluetooth page in the (gnome) gui desktop. Once paired, the system retains the definition, but the connection is lost during a reboot or suspend. If you are using bluez 5.66 or above, you can force a reconnection just by pressing down on the trackpad to produce a click (just tapping won't do it). The click inserts a bluetooth icon in the panel at the top the screen. After a few seconds, the pointer responds to additional trackpad events. Click-to-reconnect works both before and after login. Pointer movement and clicks work on the login page; taps are post-login only.If you are using bluez version 5.64, you will have to explicitly reconnect after logging in. In my opinion, the easiest option is to reconnect with a shell script. Obtain the trackpad's mac address by clicking on the "magic trackpad" link in the settings/bluetooth device listing, or by executing "bluetoothctl devices" in a terminal window. (I'll use A1:B2:C3:D4:E5:F6 as a sample address — obviously, you should substitute your own.) Create a shell script with the single line,bluetoothctl connect A1:B2:C3:D4:E5:F6and move or copy it to a directory in the path. For the script file name, use something short and suggestive, like "tpad". Then, whenever you reboot, or wake up from suspension, open a terminal window with the keyboard shortcut,ctrl+alt+t[control, alt, and the letter T], then type "tpad", and press return.If for some reason you want to disconnect and stay live, create a script containing the line,bluetoothctl disconnect A1:B2:C3:D4:E5:F6The simplest way of manually upgrading to bluez 5.66 is to search online for the package's file name, download, and install locally. If you're using an intel or amd PC with a 64-bit OS (and you probably are), the name isbluez_5.66-1_amd64.debIf you have a different architecture, search fordebian packages stable adminand follow the link. ("admin" refers to the administrative utilities page.) Find "bluez (5.66-1)" on the admin page and click on the link. Go to the bottom of the package page and select the architecture of your choice.After the download, in a terminal window, change to the download directory and install the package withsudo apt install ./bluez_5.66-1_amd64.debNormal apt upgrades will not replace 5.66 until a later version is added to the repository. To see what you have on your system, executedpkg -l bluez

Mechanically this is a great trackpad, I would give it 5 stars if it weren't for one glaring issue...the support software is sorely lacking. There are a lot of settings people often want to customize like a higher degree of touch/tap sensitivity, finger and swipe functions, touch zones, etc, that the Mac system software just isn't equipped to handle, there's very limited options for all of that. The good news is there are 3rd party apps that you can buy that will give you all the extra customization ability, so the hardware itself is more than capable of a much higher level of function, Apple just doesn't provide it, so you have to pay extra for it. Once you get over that hurdle, it works as well as I could hope for.