TOUCHPAD mouse is too slow

It seems to me that the "Alps" touchpads on the newer Inspirons (my I6000 for instance) are not as responsive as the Synaptics ones on the older Inspirons (my old I8000). I have found that setting the "Touch Sensitivity" helps somewhat (on the newer models with the Alps touchpads: Control Panel -> Mouse -> Touchpad -> Touch Sensitivity).

It could also be that the new touchpad hasn't been "worn in" and still gives a lot of tactile resistance compared to my baby smooth overused old I8000 touchpad (which I loved).

The general quality of Dell laptops has deteriorated a bit IMHO. The touchpad is a symptom of that. I was a bit surprised to find that I miss other little tiny "nice-to-haves" on my new I6000 compared to my old I8000. No, built-in microphone, no infrared, no real docking station APR (no, the Kensington dock is not a real docking station)... and it's a tad thick compared to other comparable laptops.

Don't get me wrong... it's still a great machine... but, when I see some of the laptops on the market like the Gateways, which are thinner and with little nice-to-haves like 4-1 built-in card readers as oppossed to the single SD Card slot on the I6000 (which can't even read the SD variant MMC cards) I feel a bit envious and wonder if I made the wrong choice by staying with Dell.