> The ability to perform multitouch gestures on my desktop Mac is welcome. The less precise nature of using a trackpad instead of a mouse is not so fun sometimes—it’s tolerable, but annoying. Apple’s design is, of course, sleek and well-done, so at least the device is large enough to be useable without being *too* large. At least half of my childhood complaints about a trackpad on a desktop were addressed with the Magic Trackpad, though the addition of multitouch gestures do push it over into favorable territory for me.
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> The only other issue is price: for $70, is it worth replacing your mouse over? For many users, the answer is no, and it’s hard to argue. After all, you probably already have an input device that you like, and it’s likely more precise than the Magic Trackpad. Nobody *needs* to spend $70 on this, and to be totally honest, if I was buying it for myself, I probably wouldn’t either. I like it, but I like having $70 more. (I would happily accept one as a gift, though.)
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> If you have $70 burning a hole in your pocket, you love Apple’s aesthetic designs, and you can’t live without multitouch gestures on your Mac desktop, however, it could be a nice thing to have—kind of like the treadmill in your living room that is destined for a life as a clothes hanger, or the ivory dog in your foyer.
via [arstechnica.com](http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2010/07/magic-trackpad.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss)
Wow. So the reviewer starts the review by clearly stating that she doesn’t like trackpads, but then makes no attempt to compensate for that bias in her review. Do you think it would have been better for Ars to find someone who DOESN’T hate all trackpads to review a new trackpad?
The question this review needs to answer is not “does this particular person find a trackpad to be a better pointing device than a mouse?” That’s a personal decision, and an opinion about which I don’t particularly care. The question should be “Does this new Magic Trackpad work as well or better than other trackpads, and is it a good purchase for people who like trackpads?” Ms. Cheng sort of alludes to that in her conclusion, but I’m left with little or no definitive answer to that question.
It is possible for someone who doesn’t like a particular kind of device to review a device in that category objectively. That doesn’t seem to have happened here, though.
Imagine a movie reviewer starting out a review of a horror film by saying “I really don’t like Horror movies.” And then going on and on for several paragraphs about how Westerns and Dramas are so much better. “And yeah, I guess if you like horror movies, this one is fine, but I don’t like that kind of thing.” Would you consider that a valuable review? Would you walk away with any sense of whether or not YOU, a fan of horror films, were likely to enjoy this one?
