Keyboards? Real men don't need no steenken keyboards now? ??

[hellosailor]

Yes, I'm abusing a quote from a Bogart movie.

I have a T61P which broke the left hinge and prompted me to look for a new laptop. I'm not a wicked fast typist, at a sometimes 30wpm I'm barely half of what a really competent typist starts at. But I'm spoiled, by the keyboard on my T61P, and a NorthGate OmniKey on the desktop, and similar "real" keyboards.

So I go out to the store to look at w530s and I see...all the new Lenovos seem to have the same new flatter chiclet type keyboard? Where the keys only depress about half as far as my old ones do? Is this an acquired taste, that I'll come to love if I use it long enough? Or just something being forced down my throat?

And not only Lenovo, but everyone else is using chiclets now? What, no one TYPES any more?

Are there any new higher-spec machines that use a real keyboard, with a touchpointer in the middle (ah, yes, picky!) to be found? I was told that HP's ProBook and Elitebook (higher price business series) wre similar to my T61p style, but apparently they've gone to the "universal chiclet company" keyboard now as well.

Really? First they took away serial ports and IR, then they took away line inputs, fax/modem ports, and now...no more keyboards?


I'm looking for an i5 or preferably i7 machine with a high resolution screen (like my 1900x1200-ish one) that is built solid. Surely, someone still makes one with a real keyboard?

[Ibthink]

Try the new keyboard and see if you like it. If you don´t like it, then you should buy a W520, that would be my recommendation.

[hellosailor]

While the W520's can still be chased down from some stores, they are out of production already too.

Standing up in a store and banging keys for ten minutes won't tell me how the new style keyboard will feel after a couple of hours of using it, so "trying" it is not very meaningful. All that I can tell from HAVING TRIED IT is that the action is very different and if it really was an improvement--I suspect I'd have heard people demanding them, and desktops shipping with them.

It looks like this is just "well, this is about the best we can do when our goal is a thin computer" and if you remember the DEC Armada with the keyboard that actually "collapsed" to make the computer thinner, there might be some reason to go this way. If you are a mass marketer, concerned with folks who don't really type much, but want "pretty pretty shiny shiny" thinbooks.

Dunno. It just doesn't work the way my fingers have long known good keyboards to work, and a lot of top-name keyboard makers who could have offered this as a better way to type, did not. So call me a fossil, I don't really believe this is an improvement--for typing.

[RealBlackStuff]

Maybe time to look into a Frankenpad T601FL?
-15" T60 case
-T61 motherboard
-up to 8GB RAM
-the famous NMB keyboard
-IPS UXGA screen with LED-backlight?
See my signature

[hellosailor]

Frankenpad: I'm not that brave. I've taken enough arrowheads in the spine, I'm now a retired pioneer. I want to read a clear and detailed FAQ, as opposed to the incomplete and often inaccurate rubbish I see for rooting phones and the like. Frankenpad got any docs up?

OTOH I spent some time with a couple of new machines with "tile" keyboards today, and frankly? They'd feel just fine if I rubbed some novacaine on my fingers. That's a sad excuse for a recreational drug.<G>

Spoke to some other folks who say they got used to them, but no one seemed really enthusiastic about them. So...maybe I troll around to see who has leftovers from retail sources, where they have warranties.

--Red

[RealBlackStuff]

I'll "take those arrowheads for you", if you let me build your Frankenpad.
I have all the ingredients for that Frankie, including a brand spanking new NMB keyboard!
PM me if interested.

[sysiphus]

Frankenpad: I'm not that brave. I've taken enough arrowheads in the spine, I'm now a retired pioneer. I want to read a clear and detailed FAQ, as opposed to the incomplete and often inaccurate rubbish I see for rooting phones and the like. Frankenpad got any docs up?

OTOH I spent some time with a couple of new machines with "tile" keyboards today, and frankly? They'd feel just fine if I rubbed some novacaine on my fingers. That's a sad excuse for a recreational drug.<G>

Spoke to some other folks who say they got used to them, but no one seemed really enthusiastic about them. So...maybe I troll around to see who has leftovers from retail sources, where they have warranties.

--Red

Last I checked, CDW still had some W520s with decent configs/prices. Not a bad way to go, and Sandy Bridge tech is fast enough to last you a long time...

[hellosailor]

Yes, that's one option. And unlike the Lenono Outlet, CDW are glad to sell extended and upgraded and 3 year warranties.<G>

I wonder if prices go down tomorrow, when the machines are all a year older?<G>