What has Lenovo Done to the TP Keyboard, and WHY!!??

[Nigellus]

I really hope there are some Lenovo lurkers here, because I'd like to point out that the classic ThinkPad keyboard was so well liked that IBM produced the UltraNav USB keyboard with the goal of allowing people to have the ThinkPad typing experience on any computer.

[Summilux]

I really hope there are some Lenovo lurkers here, because I'd like to point out that the classic ThinkPad keyboard was so well liked that IBM produced the UltraNav USB keyboard with the goal of allowing people to have the ThinkPad typing experience on any computer.

Oh, rest assured, Lenovo knows! That's why they released an UltraNav USB chiclets keyboard

[micrex22]

You really are late to the party in this aspect: This change was made more than 1.5 years ago with the Tx30 models.

The main problem many people have who complain with the new keyboard is the layout, not the keys themselfs. The keypresses feel very much like the old keyboard, the travel is nearly identical, the mechanisms are the same. Lenovo made this change in reaction to the success of the ThinkPad X1, which was released in 2011 (as the first Classic model with the new keyboard style). There were many positive reactions to the new keyboard, so they decided to bring the dsame style to all models.

The CapsLock key will be removed with the next new ThinkPad design in 2015 I think. The new X1 Carbon, which will be relased pretty soon, won´t have this key anymore.

I have not seen a single newer ThinkPad with the chiclet keyboard having NMB switches; and the key travel seems to be less than it is on the classic keyboards (for starters the keys are a lot more shallow; and the lowered trackpoint is disorienting for me somewhat). This seems to also be inflected in the retrothinkpad surveys.
As far as I'm concerned, the mechanisms (or "technology" as lenovo calls it) are not the same if they're not the same :p

I can do an extended comparison / analysis between a good IBM NMB and a lenovo chiclet if it's of interest.

I really hope there are some Lenovo lurkers here, because I'd like to point out that the classic ThinkPad keyboard was so well liked that IBM produced the UltraNav USB keyboard with the goal of allowing people to have the ThinkPad typing experience on any computer.

IBM strangely has been making their classic UltraNavs as late as 2014 (seems like something they'd do actually):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-SK-8845-IBM ... 27fc7d252e
(see third photo with mfg date of 2014)

At any rate, I'm entirely for the proper IBM layout with the integrated numpad and none of the silliness with the large esc and delete key, AND with a functional caps lock key since it is important for myself as well...

So I suppose this whole "thinkpad" problem could be summed up as: lenovo is not IBM. In which case a good T43 and T601 are the way to go for modern computing.