Thinkpads Forum

For those curious how a CS09 7 row looks with the single-year **30 trackpoint buttons, which are beveled matching the **30 palmrest, this photoset is for you. To do this requires the donor 6 row and the transplanted 7 row to be of the same manufacturer: Chicony, popularly regarded as the least desirable of the 7 row manufacturers, but I'm partial to them.

Chicony 7 row FRU: 45N2141
Chicony 6 row FRU: 04X1201

Unit shown above is a T530 (coincidentally, that I am also doing a QHD mod on). In theory T530 could accept a *520 or *510 palmrest, which would resolve the aesthetic mismatch. X230 and T430s can also use X220 or T420s palmrests, respectively. I believe the only units that cannot use an older palmrest are the T430, L530, and L430, so if a matching aesthetic matters to you, and you are a owner of one of these machines, congratulations, even though I doubt anyone else really cares about this.

Thanks for sharing. Looks nice (although the difference is too subtle for most to care, as you remarked).

How does it feel? I kinda like the raised trackpoint buttons of the CS09 7-row.

Whereas the CS09 buttons cup and guide the fingers, and all prior buttons had some ergonomic curving in the shaping, these buttons with their planar surfaces have no ergonomic effects. They're not unpleasant, they click nicely enough as any other Chicony, but they're a downgrade. As with the removal of the palmrest effects (cups under arrow keys, curvature at keyboard edge), CS12 is the start of prioritizing form over function.

Even 25th Anniversary T470 brought back curvature to the Trackpoint buttons.

That said, I actually like the styling so I'll keep the CS12 buttons on this keyboard.


A fun fact about this T530 I'm working on is the right hand side of the laptop was exposed to some sort of extreme heat condition which burned off much of the black case paint and melted some of the keys, including the power button. But I was able to swap the keyboard to test the machine still works. It's a real life example of those survival story commercials.