This is absolutely the worst trackpad I've ever used.
I just got a brand new W540 in the mail and I'm extremely dissapointed and seriously considering returning it. Unlike others, I don't care so much about the physical buttons, but that's not even the problem.
First off... The trackpad drivers are using some kind of crazy method in the code for scrolling... WHY? I bought lightroom with this laptop and scroll doesn't even work in the program! I can't scroll my catalog and I can't use scroll to adjust brush sizes.
The keyboard problem is Lightroom related, too. When I have an adjustment brush selected, there is a modifier key - hold space bar to change from the adjustment brush to a click-to-zoom function. This simply does not work at all. The cursor changes to indicate that Lightroom has registered the key press, but the mouse button press does nothing - no zoom function activated. I have to switch out of my tool, then zoom, then switch back to my tool. This slows my workflow down immensely!
Lenovo sold me the software, but they couldn't even make their drivers work with it. I feel insulted.
In other applications, especially in windows that have multiple scrollable content items, like facebook, or web forms with dropdown boxes, the scroll has a tendency to either not work at all, or get stuck on a particular item, despite clicking away from it. It's really frustrating to be attempting to fill out a form and when trying to scroll down through the form, it instead refuses to do anything except scroll through the options of a drop-down menu. I have very mixed results with scrolling sections of javascript pop-up windows, as well. It likes to scroll the window behind the pop-up, instead of the actual item that is in focus, do nothing at all, or even worse, erratic glitchy behavior because it can't seem to decide what it wants to do.
The clicks are painfully implemented as well. The physical click of the trackpad has such a long travel that when I click, the cursor has a tendency to jump (and often quite far!) because the trackpad is detecting motion as my finger rolls just slightly while the pad moves.
The other terrible thing about the clicks is the designated button zone. Why give me the option to enable two-finger anywhere-click for right mouse button, but not SHUT OFF the designated click zone!? I'm frequently making accidental right-clicks because I'm a lefty, and my hand tends to drift to the right side of the touch pad, since it's off center. This is incredibly annoying!
The problem that is really driving me crazy, though, on a fairly regular basis there is an apparently intermittant problem where, in the middle of moving the cursor with the trackpad, it will suddenly freeze movement and then start jittering - despite the fact that I have 16gb of ram and a Core i7 processor and all I've got running is a single application (in otherwords, the system is not bogged down).
To top it all off - EVERY SINGLE one of these problems goes away when I attach a USB mouse! Even lightroom functions normally - so it's CLEARLY the fault of the drivers! And yes, I did try uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, to no avail.
Lenovo - why are you trying to reinvent the wheel? Use standard system calls instead of what ever BS you've got going on and make this crap work properly!
So, despite the fact that this machine is blazingly fast and has an incredibly beautiful screen, I feel like I must return it because the touch pad is the thing inhibiting my workflow. Give me a break! Did you guys even test this thing before you started shipping them with machines?
Moderator Note; subject edited; post merged in. Was; Brand new W540 - Trackpad is terrible... I might have to return it.