Android tablet / iPad plus ThinkPad keyboard?

[feklee]

With Lenovo not offering any compact laptops with bright (>= 400 nits), hires (>= 900px vertical), and high quality (IPS) screens, I am considering pairing an Android tablet or even an iPad with a ThinkPad keyboard.

Any experience with such a setup? Suggestions?

I want to use this setup mostly for typing (text editing, programming) and also for some graphics stuff. If I need lots of computing resources, then I boot up a fast remote computer and access it e.g. via RDP. For my work I depend on the Internet anyhow, and in all locations I recently traveled to, access is cheap and abundant.

By the way, the Chromebook Pixel looks awesome, except that it doesn't have a TrackPoint: I like to rest my hands on the keyboard, and I even use TouchCursor in order to never leave the home row. The upcoming ThinkPad Helix, on the other hand, looks like a toy with its 16:9 display and huge bezel, and it's going to be extremely expensive.

[Summilux]

Wouldn't a Windows 8 & Intel-based tablet more apt to manage your keyboard and trackpoint? Plus, it would be able to run Windows programmes.

Apart from that, I said to myself that if one day I could no longer use my x220, I'd just buy a Yoga (or equivalent) and hook a USB Thinkpad keyboard onto it. Again because Android - for the moment? - is just a toy unable to run productive softwares.

[loyukfai]

The original ThinkPad Tablet has a full-size USB port, it probably supports keyboards... If so, then you can pick-up a USB UltraNav module.

My guess is that most, if not all, other Android tablets should also support one, but you need to find an adapter since very few has a full-size USB port.

For the iPad, found this via Googling: http://www.theipadguide.com/faq/can-i-u ... board-ipad

Cheers.

[feklee]

Thanks, very helpful, loyukfai!

[feklee]

Wouldn't a Windows 8 & Intel-based tablet more apt to manage your keyboard and trackpoint?

Possibly. An ASUS VivoTab with that 600 nits screen could be interesting, if the screen had higher resolution.

Not only do I want to be able to configure the TrackPoint, but also TouchCursor is important to me because I don't like moving my hands away from the home row. Another solution may of course be to hack an Android device, maybe even install a full fledged Linux on it.

Again because Android - for the moment? - is just a toy unable to run productive softwares.

That's subjective, and depends on what one needs. For most of my work, a web browser is all that I need, and I hope in the future this will be true for all of my work.

[DRobinson]

This may be a bit off topic, but something I have looked at for my non-thinkpad tinkering.

http://technabob.com/blog/2010/06/10/ib ... ipad-dock/

Maybe an old x31 or other smaller thinkpad could be modded in a similar way to house a new tablet.

[feklee]

Maybe an old x31 or other smaller thinkpad could be modded in a similar way to house a new tablet.

An old X41 is on the way to me. But I'm primarily interested in the keyboard and the TrackPoint. That's the first challenge. I am thinking about hooking it up with an Arduino.

[YW-Slayer]

My needs are a bunch of portrait mode, very PDF-friendly (viewing and annotating) computers/tablets.

I have bought a Helix and have tested that with the older USB Thinkpad external keyboard. It works great for putting the tablet in portrait mode and using the pen as and when required (with it in the dock the tablet won't go into portrait mode).

I have an ipad air 4G/64GB. I plan to pair this with the Thinkpad compact bluetooth keyboard (ordered and hopefully arriving soon). This way I can view/switch between documents quickly on any device, as well as make annotations.

I also have a Nexus 10 but after careful consideration and lots of testing, Repligo (best PDF reader for my needs I've found on Android) on it can't match PDF Expert Pro (best one I've found for my needs on ios) on the Air. With it, the Air is almost as fast as my Helix and my W520.

[ThinkRob]

The upcoming ThinkPad Helix, on the other hand, looks like a toy with its 16:9 display and huge bezel, and it's going to be extremely expensive.

Yeah, it's pricey, but after playing with a demo unit...

Well... it's nice. Really nice. They got the clickpad right (unlike the garbage implementation on the T431s/T440(s)) and I don't miss the dedicated TrackPoint buttons at all. They keyboard is a chiclet one, but as Lenovo's demonstrated multiple times they can produce a chiclet keyboard with a good feel. The layout takes getting used to, although how big of a problem that is will depend on the user.

The hinge/docking mechanics are very, very well executed. I'm impressed, especially considering how poor that design was on the original ThinkPad Tablet.

It comes with Windows 8, but thankfully that can be fixed.