
Asus replaced the touchpad on its new ZenBook Pro with a 5.5-inch touchscreen - lando2319
https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/6/5/17424770/asus-zenbook-pro-screenpad-specs-release-date-price-computex-2018
======
djsumdog
Dave 2D had a great video review on this product.

What makes this totally different from the touch bar is with the touch bar,
you have to wait for developers to add support in their products (or as a dev,
write your own tooling). Apple has the muscle to simply make everyone support
their crappy bar.

The ZenBook screen is usable right away by anybody. You can just drag any
window there. It can be your Steam chat while playing a game, it can be a
browser with a Twitch stream or soccer game running in the background while
your program, it can be your color pallet for Resolve while editing video ...

It can be used for a lot of things the end user can take advantage of
immediately without waiting for a developer to make explicit use of it.

I wonder if it will work on Linux.

~~~
ajross
> I wonder if it will work on Linux.

If it's on one of the built-in Intel graphics outputs, then it will likely
work out of the box (though of course none of the desktops will understand
where it's supposed to be and probably put it in the wrong place, etc...).

If it's some crazy piece of hardware Asus found, then maybe never.

~~~
reitanqild
> (though of course none of the desktops will understand where it's supposed
> to be and probably put it in the wrong place, etc...).

Changing display layout on modern Linux desktops is really really simple IMO.

You just open display settings and drag them into the layout you want.

~~~
friesen
or

xrandr --output $touchpadscreen --below $builtinscreen

------
jeswin
I think this is a wonderful idea, given that touchscreen responsiveness and
power optimization have been a focus of research over the last decade. At
worst it's a touch pad, at best it's so much more. Of course a lot depends on
how software developers will embrace it - and I hope Linux users get some
love. (I wish Asus and reviewers will stay away from gimmicks like watching
movies on it.)

In any case, far better than removing a set of useful keys from the top of a
physical keyboard.

Add: this also enables new types of casual games, similar to Wordament, Angry
Birds etc. Oh, and better smudge tools on Photoshop.

~~~
ljm
I'm actually surprised it hasn't been tried before. It sounds super cool but I
wonder if it's still a bit of a gimmick (and you end up just using it in touch
pad mode all the time).

It still has the problem where you have to take your eyes off your screen in
order to interact with it, so I imagine there'd be some effort involved in
getting used to actually looking at the touch pad while you poke at it. That
said, if there are good app integrations that are intuitive and turn the thing
into more than a pointing device (and not just a Spotify controller or some
such), then I'm interested to see what those could be.

It'd be quite nice, for example, if it allowed notifications to pop up on a
part of the touchpad instead of obscuring what you're working on, allowing you
to tap that part of the touchpad to open it up instead of moving the pointer
to the corner of the screen.

~~~
Deinos
Razer something similar about 5 years ago.[1] I personally really like the
idea. Feels more functional than a bar and should be easily dropped into "dumb
touchpad" functionality if the user wants to save battery life or just doesn't
need it. Would be nice to see this migrate across the entire laptop pc
segment.

[1][https://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-
pc...](https://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-
and-netbooks/razer-blade-pro-1094451/review/3)

------
avcdsuia
I think Asus's Project Precog[0] deserves more interests than this. We
programmers always complain about display size , ratio and amount. Using this
dual screen laptop vertically with your beloved external keyboard could be
sublime. It's like having two Surface Pro tablets right in front of you, or a
dual screens desktop setup that fits in a backpack. As long as my way to
interpret this product works, I don't care whatever Asus comes up with to make
it feels like a normal laptop.

[0]: [https://www.asus.com/Project-Precog/](https://www.asus.com/Project-
Precog/)

~~~
ipython
Looks awesome... but what does that have to do with AI? I guess “optimized for
blockchain” was already taken?

~~~
RickS
It seems that by AI they mean "non keyboard input", and not... any of the
other wildly more practical uses of that term.

> Project Precog is designed to provide a smooth and intuitive experience for
> industry-leading AI technologies. With support for the Windows Cortana and
> Amazon Alexa voice services, the dual-screen design lets you keep your main
> tasks in full view while Cortana and Alexa process other tasks on the second
> screen

Definitely feels like a weird marketing gimmick atop an already strong looking
product offering.

------
meuk
Maybe I'm a bit conservative and/or sour, but I think this is a bad idea for
two reasons.

1\. It will require a lot of developer effort and testing on this specific
device. I regard this as a move in the bad direction: Computer interfaces
should be more unified, not less.

2\. You're giving the touchpad two functions which are not compatible (and the
second function is not necessary: we already have a screen!). If you're
happily clicking your way through stuff and some menu suddenly shows up, you
will click a bunch of random stuff.

~~~
sheerun
You can just display what's on main screen and have nice touch support without
having your fingerprints visible on screen and wiggling laptop.

~~~
meuk
That could work well! Although it's not really what the article suggests.

If you have Spotify on your touchpad like in the picture in the article, that
means that you can't use your touchpad - I imagine it would be bloody
annoying.

~~~
alkonaut
There has to be some kind of quick switch to toggle between direct input to
the small screen, and using it as a touchpad. E.g drag in from outside the
edge of the small screen to begin using it as a touchpad. Drag from the inside
and out off the screen to switch to direct touch.

For obvious reasons it can’t be both a touchpad and a touch screen at the same
time.

------
analog31
When I was looking for an inexpensive touch pad for a product idea, it
appeared that small touch screens were only marginally more expensive -- and
worked better -- than available off-the-shelf touch pads. That was without
even lighting the display up. But of course the temptation to use the display
for _something_ would have been irresistible.

~~~
walrus01
My theory is that economies of scale for 5.5 inch 1080p touchscreens in
mainland Chinese manufacturing make it a lot cheaper now. That is just about
the most common screen size and not the higher than 1080 resolution found on
high end phones.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
The LCDs are probably not made in mainland China though, and ASUS is still
Taiwanese.

~~~
walrus01
ASUS is Taiwanese but as with most Taiwanese oem and odm these days, does the
bulk of its manufacturing in the mainland. Same for others like msi, tyan,
supermicro, quanta, hon hai precision industry (foxconn), etc.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
It does the bulk of its assembly in mainland China, assembly != production
obviously, which is why, for example, most of an iPhone isn’t made in China
even if it is assembled there.

Components not made in China are actually more expensive to source there
outside of SEZs.

------
b212
I'm never ever going to buy another ZenBook again.

I got one for my girlfriend and another one for my dad, around the same time
one of my dev friends also decided to move to ZenBook from rMBP.

Compared to Macbooks it looks, feels and works cheap (the trackpad, d'oh), but
that's not the major issue as almost everything is that way excepting
Surafaces/XPSes.

But the real issue here is this: hinges. They're horrible. They break every 2
to 9 months. Their quality is also very easy to test - just open any ZenBook
in shop and wobble it. Macbook's screen is as solid as rock, won't move an
ich, while ZenBooks one - well, it wobbles. Almost unusable on the bus for
example, your screen will shake as hell on even smallest bump or corner. And
then the hinges will break and Asus will replace them for you. And the new
ones will last a year, if you're lucky. Then it happens again and again and
all of sudden you're out of warranty and at this point, after replacing hinges
for a few times, you're told that they'd gladly replace them for you - and it
costs only around $400, while you paid for your ZenBoook $1000, two years ago.
%#$# them.

And I wasn't unlucky, this is considered normal for Asus:

[http://www.breadcrumbsguide.com/asus-zenbook-
review/](http://www.breadcrumbsguide.com/asus-zenbook-review/)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAP-
NwyE4H4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAP-NwyE4H4)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ju1aCd4iOo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ju1aCd4iOo)

etc.

Terrible, terrible build quality and no respect for consumers, don't even go
near them.

~~~
utbabya
I moved to macbook when my ASUS laptop's hinges broke about 4 years ago
because it's ~50% of the cost to fix it. The macbook's capacitor died earlier
this year (funny enough it doesn't complete kill it, just makes it run
extremely slow, without EE background it gave me a hard time to figure this
out), I went to back to PC because it cost ~80% of the cost to fix it, and,
touchbar.

But you're right, it's been so many years and ASUS still haven't figured out
hinges that don't break? Don't think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.

~~~
christophilus
What do you mean by really slow? My old MacBook is also running slowly, and I
hadn't thought of the capacitor as being a possible culprit.

~~~
utbabya
Exactly, there're many reasons for it to run slow. If yours is still usable
it's unlikely, mine takes minutes to boot up, and it shuts itself down.

It's been a while and I got rid of it but IIRC it still provided power but was
under watt, you can confirm by comparing the normal level for you model.

BTW once you've confirmed you can pretty much dump it, won't be easy to find
fix other than getting a replacement motherboard, which is pretty much
everything.

------
_hardwaregeek
I was walking through a computer store recently and I couldn't help but notice
how tacky all the computers looked. The Touch Bar may be frivolous, pretty
useless and a waste of money, but it blends into the design of the laptop and
most importantly, is subtle. Now, Asus could certainly prove me wrong and
implement some beautiful, understated software for the touchpad, but judging
by the demo photos, that isn't the case. Not to mention, how does it perform
as a touchpad? Will I have to avoid hitting some corner for fear that it will
open a new app? At least the Touch Bar took away features that most consumers
(i.e. non professional computer users) won't miss.

~~~
mgiannopoulos
I’ve been trying to find a cheaper MBP replacement after 10 years with 3 MBP.
Everything else is ugly. Some decent choices end up at the or worse price
point as Apple.

~~~
mrep
Which model are you currently on because my top of the line 2013 15 inch MBP
is still running like a champ.

If you are willing to try out windows, the surface pros are actually pretty
sweat. I got one for my gf for grad school and will probably get one for
myself if my MBP ever dies.

~~~
mgiannopoulos
Retina 2012 MBP but the battery is practically dead and the monitor seems to
be not bright as it used to be. I wouldn’t mind a CPU/RAM upgrade.

~~~
mrep
Don't know if you'll get much of a cpu upgrade these days but ram definitely
helps. I got mine with 16GB of ram to be future proof since I saw that ram
tends to be a major cause for slowdowns as developers constantly eat up more
as computers get better. This seems especially brilliant in hindsight
considering top of the lines are still at 16GB.

------
tambourine_man
>Unlike Apple’s limited and unhelpful MacBook Pro Touch Bar…

I’m not big fan of the touch bar either, but to state an opinion as fact is
just bad journalism.

~~~
Larrikin
The most stressful thing about starting my next job is that I've got to choose
a new laptop only for work. I've only used a Mac for years and this is the
first time I've ever considered switching because there are no computers they
make that I actually want.

Apple has really dropped the ball on their entire line and the touchbar
eliminating a lot of useful keys is a pretty bad idea compared to replacing
the touchpad.

~~~
whymauri
I've gotten used to using the touch bar for function keys and [esc] after only
a week or so. It's fairly customizable, which surprised me. I don't think it's
that bad, but then again I am not paying for it (company hardware).

~~~
bluedino
Put a new Mac side by side with a touchbar Mac and try doing anything using
the function keys on both. The lack of physical buttons makes it atrocious on
the touchbar model.

------
npunt
The Zenbook is a decent looking computer, and this completely cheapens the
look of it. The trackpad display is trash - it's a low-contrast LCD with bad
backlight bleed and aggressive matte finish... something out of the parts bin
of cheap phones and old car infotainment systems. When compared to the higher
quality main display it looks totally out of place.

If they fixed that, there'd still be the issue of usability & utility. This
doesn't seem like a complementary feature, it seems like two separate devices
bolted together that require heavy context shifting (e.g. if the music card is
up, you can't just use the trackpad to access something else on your
computer). As implemented it seems like yet another electronics company
gimmick like 3d TVs - made because its easy to build, not because the feature
offers enough utility to justify its complexity.

That said, I hold out hope for a lay-flat dual-display clamshell with proper
haptics and that re-thinks the entire input UI around that paradigm.

~~~
alluro2
[https://www.asus.com/Project-Precog/](https://www.asus.com/Project-Precog/)

------
ferongr
If my experience with Asus Android devices and routers is anything to go by,
the feature will be a minimum viable gimmick with lots of bugs that will be
abandoned down the line.

------
Crontab
Speaking as someone who is slowly having more and more issue with glare, that
last thing I want to a second light source on my laptop, but I can see where
some people might like this.

------
pmontra
We'll see if the touchscreen gets any traction. I'd like to point out that
this is perhaps the only non Mac laptop that has a 15" screen and doesn't have
a number pad. The keyboard is aligned with the center of the screen and the
space bar is almost there too. Joy!

I could buy this laptop only for that, even if with Linux I'll probably have
to wait the next laptop before the touchscreen is of any use. But no, the RAM
is capped at 16 GB and I'm using 32 GB on my HP laptop (several projects for
several customers, each one with a different language and environment.)

However my 15" laptop has a useless (for me) number pad with the result that I
have to shift it half to the right to be able to keep my hands in front of me
and not skewed to the left, which would probably do nasty things to all my
upper body. This is the norm for all 15" laptops and I wonder if their
designers stopped at the cover page of Norman's "The Design of Everyday
Things", with the famous teapot for masochists, and deluded themselves into
believing that this is the right way to build stuff.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-
Norman/...](https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-
Norman/dp/1452654123)

~~~
lloeki
> The keyboard is aligned with the center of the screen and the space bar is
> almost there too. Joy!

Oh the keypad hell, it's been such a RSI inducer on my back for years. What
nonsense is this to put a keypad on the right side of keyboards which results,
being right handed, in either the mouse being too far right or the keyboard
being off center.

~~~
Tijdreiziger
A good design centers the touchpad on the alphanumeric part of the keyboard,
example:
[http://xahlee.info/kbd/i/Dell_Inspiron_laptop_keyboard_2014-...](http://xahlee.info/kbd/i/Dell_Inspiron_laptop_keyboard_2014-02-07-2.jpg)

~~~
pmontra
This is all laptops do, included mine, so we can shift the laptop to the
right. IMHO a better design would ditch the number pad and sell a
USB/Bluetooth one to who wants it.

------
gumby
I'm glad someone is experimenting with new interfaces, but for me this is kind
of a gimmick, like the MacBook touchbar or the big touch-sensitive screens in
cars. Any interface that requires looking at it will slow me down/distract me.
There's huge value in the keyboard keys all being in the same place and in not
shifting your gaze in order to move the mouse pointer.

~~~
some_account
I don't see the value in this myself either but nice with experiments I guess.
I've never used my laptop and wished for a small screen in the touchpad. But
for some tech, you have to try it to understand.

------
kensai
They beat Apple to the punch! :) Seriously, I think it's a positive evolution.
I wish they had the same laptop at 13" though.

------
peterburkimsher
This is really good for users of international keyboards like me! When I need
to type Chinese or Korean then it's much easier on my phone than my laptop,
because my laptop lacks the engravings.

------
hliyan
This is really going to distract touch typists due to peripheral vision. If
they really want to do something revolutionary, they should try replacing the
entire keyboard with a touch screen with haptic feedback (like the MacBook
touchpad). Force touch when the keyboard is displayed will act as a keypress.
Soft touch will control the mouse pointer.

~~~
WiseWeasel
Something like this maybe: [https://tanvas.co/](https://tanvas.co/)

CES 2017 coverage by Engadget:
[https://youtu.be/LrbJWiAc6JI](https://youtu.be/LrbJWiAc6JI)

------
asafira
I happen to have just watched this video that reviews the device:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5wGGp88nBs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5wGGp88nBs)

Around the 5:50 mark: "Obviously you could watch movies and stuff on this [the
touchpad screen]."

Who writes this stuff.

------
systems
that is very confusing

i am sure the next step, someone will replace the physical keyboard, with full
size touch screen and software keyboard

and future laptops will come with two screens and no keyboard ... and they
will be like tablets with double screen,

and then someone will sell a physical keyboard accessory to the two screen
laptop

and .. it will be very confusing

~~~
Nightshaxx
Lenovo already did it I'm pretty sure.

~~~
ant6n
yes, and without haptic feedback, it's terrible to type on.

------
kjeetgill
The biggest question I have is if the input resolution and latency are better
than a traditional touch pad. The additional display will never be useful
enough to overcome a mediocre touch pad experience.

It seems to support acting as a second display so I'm feeling optimistic about
Linux.

------
codedokode
A screen in a touchpad can be useful because it can help users to understand
how to use different features like side scrolling or drag-and-drop. Also it
can be used to display some useless information, like time, current keyboard
layout or CPU load.

Putting buttons on a touchpad is not the best idea because they would
interfere with its normal usage.

And by the way, why nobody makes separate keys for layout switching? It is
very inconvenient to have a single key to switch layouts (like Win + Space
that is the default for Gnome). It would be much better to have separate
physical keys for each language so I can start typing with one of them and
never type in the wrong layout.

Seriously, why didn't anyone invented it yet?

~~~
mbel
> Seriously, why didn't anyone invented it yet?

Perhaps the user demand is not so big or even noticeable? It starts to make
sense when you type in more than two languages regularly. I would argue that
there are only couple of percents of bilingual users and people using three
and more languages are even less common.

~~~
codedokode
But laptops often have useless keys like Caps Lock or even Scroll Lock (who
uses that?) or Pause that doesn't pause anything. Replacing them with language
switch keys makes more sense.

You have to switch to Latin to type things like emails, URLs, foreign band
names etc. And if you are writing a code then you have to switch constantly to
type comments and messages in your naive language. So inconvenient.

Bilingual users are not that rare, at least at school most people in my
country study some foreign language. Of course it doesn't mean they are going
to use it after graduation, but anyway.

------
_emacsomancer_
I'll be happy when Lenovo releases another ThinkPad which has NO trackpad, and
only the TrackPoint.

~~~
keyle
It probably wouldn't sell enough numbers and would be a financial disaster.

As an option, that'd be nice. But that'd probably require re-engineering the
inside shell...

~~~
_emacsomancer_
Until much more recently than I care to admit I'd never experienced an
TrackPoint, and was (consequently) of the opinion that laptops were nearly
unusable without a table and external mouse. TrackPoints make laptops actually
usable (for me, at least).

~~~
keyle
yeah I had an old thinkpad that had one (pre-lenovo). Once I got used to it,
it was the best pointing device by far. But anyone trying to use it on my
laptop would instantly go 'nah-ah'.

~~~
_emacsomancer_
I have an older X200 which does lack a trackpad. I'm currently using a X230
which does have a trackpad, but I ended up physically disabling it (and the
finger-print reader) simply by unplugging them, so when the Microsoft-powered
'teaching interface' in my own class failed (well, actually lots of times, but
memorably – in two different semesters – when the students were giving
presentations) I had to put my own machine in service as the 'projector
driver', almost of the students were flummoxed by the TrackPoint (since the
TrackPad obviously won't work, being unplugged), despite being business
students who (I thought) should be familiar with ThinkPad and their
TrackPoints.

------
petecox
This could be useful for app development. A 1080 landscape device on the
keyboard, mirrored at 4X on screen.

(Although the digits used are different. When in landscape, my fingers cradle
a phone at a 45-60 degree angle with both thumbs used for input. On a
horizontal touchpad the index finger(s) are doing much of the input)

------
AdmiralAsshat
Off-topic: I had to whitelist javascript on the AMP page to get it to load
properly, where it promptly pulled down nine JS scripts:

[https://imgur.com/SkQgMOU](https://imgur.com/SkQgMOU)

Wasn't the whole point of AMP to stop this crap?

~~~
d4l3k
Loading multiple scripts from one site isn't actually a performance issue.
With HTTP2 there's almost no overhead since they all get multiplexed as
streams over the same connection. With server push you also don't even have to
have to wait for multiple round trips.

[https://medium.com/@asyncmax/the-right-way-to-bundle-your-
as...](https://medium.com/@asyncmax/the-right-way-to-bundle-your-assets-for-
faster-sites-over-http-2-437c37efe3ff)

AMP is more focused on UI responsiveness with things like having a fixed
content layout so the page doesn't jump around when things load, as well as
loading things asynchronously in the background so first paint is faster.
Splitting up the JS so only the first paint JS loads immediately and then
progressively upgrade the page is actually a good thing. It makes it
immediately usable for slow connections.

[https://www.ampproject.org/docs/fundamentals/spec#performanc...](https://www.ampproject.org/docs/fundamentals/spec#performance)

------
yeukhon
I thought I would hate the TouchBar. But after two days of using it, I like
it. I have been using Pro version for about 3 months and I still love the
TouchBar.

I don’t know how to explain this, but I just no longer feels the need to press
an esc key, and no more tapping for adjusting volume/brightness. I can also
adjust font size or color in Words using the touchbar. My I can choose an
emjoi in hipchat client using touchbar application. It feels great.

This, I don’t know, really weird. I might have to try it, but I doubt I will
like it at all. The whole purpose seems like a secondry screen to me.
Constantly having to look down instead of looking at the bigger screen so you
can control is so backward to me.

~~~
yedpodtrzitko
> Constantly having to look down instead of looking at the bigger screen so
> you can control is so backward to me

...unlike doing the same thing with TouchBar (?)

~~~
bwbw223
The touchbar isn’t underneath your hands/wrists while using your laptop
though.

------
marcelluspye
Didn't razer do this some time ago?

I think this kind of thing is pretty cool, but ultimately, a touchpad below my
keyboard is akin to the ones on the dashboard of many modern cars (though a
lot less dangerous) in that I don't want to look there.

~~~
Nightshaxx
They had a prototype of one where the Razer phone acctually got put in the
laptop and was used as a touch pad.

Also I think there was a gaming computer with a screen for a numpad.

------
rjplatte
This would be cool /if/ it added more functionality. For example—a digitizer,
Force Touch, or both. I love my MbP Trackpad, but a digitizer would absolutely
slay, especially combined with some sort of display.

~~~
asafira
Do others here use the "hard push" functionality of their trackpad?

I honestly forget that's a thing most of the time.

~~~
saagarjha
I use it constantly to preview links and look things up.

------
theshadowknows
How long until there’s a system dashboard running on that thing. That’d be
really cool spot for it on a laptop. Especially if the touchpad works as usual
and you can just glance at it for system updates.

------
itomato
Toshiba produced a model ca. 2002 with a display in the trackpad. That the
idea of an additional display in that form factor hasn't caught on says a lot
about the usefulness of the feature in general.

It's tough to imagine the end-user utility will outweigh the engineering
challenges to make this viable longterm.

[https://support.toshiba.com/support/viewContentDetail?conten...](https://support.toshiba.com/support/viewContentDetail?contentId=384180)

~~~
monocasa
> That the idea of an additional display in that form factor hasn't caught on
> says a lot about the usefulness of the feature in general.

Or maybe it says more about the economics. Screens have gotten cheaper since
then.

------
jaxondu
Razer has a prototype where the touchpad is an empty slot where you can insert
your smartphone into, and use the smartphone screen as touchpad.

------
Negative1
It's another Window tethered to your trackpad. Probably my cynical side
talking but I don't see how this will save me much time from using Spotlight,
Alfred or Launchy. And yes, I have a touchbar and feel much the same towards
it.

On the flip side, having all keys as little oleds that can be remapped to
anything I want is something I would likely use constantly.

------
saagarjha
Not sure about this design, since it introduces modality where there
previously was none. Obviously I haven't used this, so I can't comment on it
that way, but I fear people accidentally tapping on things in the trackpad
when it's in "touchscreen" mode when they really meant to move their cursor
around.

~~~
KozmoNau7
That's exactly my concern as well. With current laptops, the touchpad is
always the touchpad. When you touch it, the cursor moves, end of story.

I don't want to look down to make sure I'm not opening menus or whatever.

On the other hand, I can see a use for modal controls. Sliders, knobs and so
on.

But then I would also like a dedicated pointing device as well, like a
trackpoint.

------
cheaprentalyeti
This reminds me, out of curiosity, does anyone know of any "Turn your phone
into a bluetooth touchpad" apps that actually work and don't need you to be
running special software on your laptop? I want to be able to use my phone or
tablet as a touchpad.

------
tiny-dancer
How realistic is it that the screenpad will actually be a "drop in" real phone
one day?

~~~
itomato
I think it's more realistic to think there would be an app to let your phone
act like Apple's Magic Trackpad without needing to house it in the laptop
chassis.

------
nerdwaller
The big difference between the ASUS usage (which I wouldn’t consider buying)
and the Apple TouchBar (one I don’t love, but can understand for non-pro
users) is that the TouchBar is intended to _not be an extension to the
display_ [0]. The trackpad as a complimentary display seems pretty gimmicky -
at least while the market share for the maker is so limited. Of course some
level of that is up to the implementation of the various apps (but since it’s
not 1st party to the OS, I expect usage issues).

I’d expect a standard user (and even myself) to be highly confused about if
they can use the area as a trackpad or if they need to toggle some mode.

> Use the Touch Bar as an extension of the keyboard and trackpad, not as a
> display.

[0]: [https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-
guideline...](https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-
guidelines/macos/touch-bar/touch-bar-overview/)

~~~
jeswin
The examples they've currently demonstrated are useless, and that's probably
because ASUS alone cannot bring software partners on board. Real use cases
will arrive when Windows adds support for touchscreen pads, which I think they
should do. Once software support is available, ASUS's implementation can be
used by "pro-users" in novel ways; especially in content creation apps.

Apple's bar is one dimensional, which limits what it can be used for. I
wouldn't trade that for physical keys I press every day.

------
chiefalchemist
I think I'd rather keep a standard touchpad and instead be able to add a small
tablet-sized second (or third) monitor. A screen for small things I need to
see - especially when I'm working somewhere without my usual at-my-desk setup.

------
booleandilemma
A lot of naysayers on this thread but I just wanted to say I think it’s a
cool, innovative feature. It’s like having a second monitor without having a
second monitor.

Apple is probably bummed they didn’t release it first.

------
nielsbot
For this to provide a great user experience Asus will need a really high level
of software + hardware integration.. (Think Apple or Nintendo) Without that
this is just a gimmick.

------
bitwize
Well, it beats replacing the _keyboard_ with a touchscreen (something which I
believed Asus did once, years ago).

EDIT: I'm thinking of the Acer Iconia 6120, not an Asus product.

------
zitterbewegung
This looks like an interesting feature. I wonder though if you would get some
neck strain since you are looking downwards at the track pad for a long amount
of time.

------
onyva
Why? As far as visuals go, the Touch Bar (which dislike) is at least in line
of sight and you hands are not over it all the time.

Regardless, why not just improve on using one's phone the way you can already
with some 3rd party apps... since almost the first day touch screen phones
were available? It can at least be positioned anywhere that works for you.

You'd also save the world a cycle of e-waste for the sake of “we too” 2nd hand
innovation.

Imagine Microsoft would have actually worked with them to salvage and re-
purpose the millions of Windows phones (now in dumpsters and land fills), as
detachable touch pads.

------
notadoc
Probably slightly more useful than a Touch Bar, but still it's another over
engineered solution looking for a non-existent problem.

------
tudorw
I generally touch type, so not sure why I'd want to look down to do things. I
like the matte finish on the screen though.

------
yani
This is exactly what Apple should have done.

------
jmartrican
Just as a second monitor its a killer app. The ability to drag windows into it
seems like a big deal.

------
ape4
This is neat. But it needs some purpose. Maybe some indy developer will invent
a good use for it!

------
garganzol
It is just a gimmick. There is a display for that, no need to mess with touch
screen (or touch bar).

------
frogpelt
Amazon should sell a laptop like this and play ads on the touchpad.

The Amazon Fire Laptop with Special Offers.

------
geoalchimista
Seems quite functional and elegant. Everything that touchbar is not. In
retrospect, I think Apple's gonna regret the touchbar design. (But I do have
doubts on this touchscreen design like how frictionless it is for a user to
switch back and forth between its touchpad and touchscreen functionalities.)

~~~
saagarjha
> Seems quite functional and elegant. Everything that touchbar is not.

How so?

~~~
jayd16
Enough space to actually have some good UX, tool tips etc. This is adding
features to the touch pad instead of replacing function keys and losing
physical key response.

------
slim
Killer app for this is full screen Nintendo ds emulator (any desmume dev
here?)

------
linkmotif
This is the logical next step and I’m all for it except it would be great if
PC manufacturers first made their trackpads at least as good as Apple’s before
they move on to whole new technologies.

------
sorokod
I am genuinely puzzled - what problem does this solve?

~~~
Jerry2
It solves marketing dept's "laptops aren't selling, we need a new gimmick"
problem.

------
Elect2
They are making laptop more difficult to use.

------
actionowl
Why has it taken so long for this to happen?

------
dsego
So you PC/windows guys, wasn't having a touchscreen on your laptop the be-all
and end-all? Didn't work out? Wasn't gimmicky enough?

~~~
Intermernet
I've been using touch screen laptops for so long now that when I use a mac I
instinctively touch the screen to do certain things (usually scrolling) and am
surprised / disappointed when nothing happens.

I'm really surprised that Apple haven't combined the mac and the ipad yet.

------
robbrown451
The killer app for this is a touchscreen keypad, for the new generation of
technology users that type better on one of those than on an actual keyboard.

------
quantumofmalice
This makes far more sense than apples touch bar, especially if it was modal
with a few different keys that brought up different screens.

~~~
agumonkey
Only advantage for apple is the location. Less visual context switching.

~~~
curun1r
It depends...for some tasks, it's less context switching. For example, Apple's
Preview app has a feature where you can add a signature to a document. You can
scan your signature, but you can also enter it on the touchpad. But the latter
is very difficult because you can either look at your finger or the screen,
but not both. Having this kind of screen would solve that problem.

------
jlebrech
when apple puts a touchpad along the top it's genius, when asus puts it at the
bottom it's "dubious"

~~~
saagarjha
That's because the bottom isn't generally a great place to put a screen if you
want it to be visible and usable. It's where your palms are, not your fingers,
and generally it'll be at least partially covered by your hands.

------
lgleason
At first I thought this was an Onion article...

------
aorth
Gimmick. Horrible.

------
mamon
This is the MacBook Pro's touchbar done right :)

------
Operyl
OK, I skimmed but didn't see: what if I rest my palms on my trackpad? I don't
want random actions taking place because of this.

~~~
naikrovek
It's a trackpad. What do you think it will do if you touch it accidentally?
It's gonna fuck your shit up so bad that you can't undo it, just like a real
trackpad would.

~~~
Operyl
Not true at all. macOS has some rather intelligent tracking if it’s a palm
touching, or a finger for example. Alternatively, there’s also completely
turning off tap to click.

But that’s for taps, not for a full scale UI on my trackpad with dragging
sliders etc.

~~~
naikrovek
Mac touchpads are better, but they still suck.

The entire notion of the trackpad is flawed. They are awful, and no one cares.
People just use them so much that they get used to them and they don't notice
how anymore.

