ThinkPad Compact Bluetooth Keyboard with TrackPoint(Pic)

[ZaZ]

I bought a ThinkPad Compact Bluetooth Keyboard with TrackPoint to use with my Dell XPS 18 desktop/laptop/tablet. I'm returning the Dell, but the keyboard is a keeper.

Actually, I bought the keyboard when it was first released. I nabbed a bluetooth dongle via eBay to use with it. The first time around I had issues with it, like when I took my finger off the stick, the cursor kept going. This time I put the dongle in the front of the PC and doing so solved the problem. When it was in the back, it was only an extra foot farther away, but perhaps something with the TV or speaks caused the trackpoint effect.

The keyboard is terrific. It's light at a pound. I can barely feel it when it's in my lap. The old IOgear keyboard I had before was three pounds, so the new one seems feather light by comparison. It's compact too. It seems really trimmed down the keyboard to the minimal size with no excess. It feels very sold, no flex anywhere. The keyboard offers a pleasant typing experience. As mentioned it's firm with no bounce. It has just the right amount of depth where your finger starts to come up as you hit the bottom of the keystroke. A backlit keyboard would just be icing on the cake, but having used ThinkPad keyboards for years, I can type without looking at the keyboard. It even accepts my prefer soft rim cap.

A few downsides would be it's expensive at $80 a pop. I'm going to pick up another for my other HTPC, but I'm not sure I'm ready to give up the mouse on my main desktop. It takes about 10 seconds for the bluetooth to establish the connection. The keyboard has a rechargeable battery via USB, which means if it ever runs out on you, you'll have no keyboard until it's charged, though it should last a month on charge according to Lenovo's web site.

[loyukfai]

Thought about it as well, but in the end picked up a Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000, based on good experiences with MS stuffs before, especially one of the curvy keyboards, the Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 (IIRC), which I used to pounced out long emails one after another in a previous job.

Also an important factor was that, on Taobao (Chinese online marketplace) there are 6000 in bulk pack costing <25USD excluding shipping.

Have a wired IBM ThinkPad style keyboard (with UltraNav) that has TrackPoint issues as well, easy to go one side way but near impossible to go the other. Guess fixing it would be too much work so I just leave it as-is.

Cheers.



P.S. The Sculpt Mobile Keyboard has, AFAIK, an identical mechanical design, but its function keys are defaulted to some fancy functions so that's a no for me.