More Thoughts on Keyboard Covers (T510)

[lparsons]

I mentioned a while ago that I was looking for a keyboard skin for my T510. In particular I wanted this to preserve the keyboard finish as I have very oily skin that eats the keyboard finish away quickly. In a different thread I mentioned that the left shift key on my keyboard was working intermittently; these two matter come together in a moment.

The skin I ordered came from Amazon. I ordered there because it was cheaper than lenovo directly, but quicker shipping than the even less expensive options on ebay. The first thing I noticed is that clear skins are not really truly clear; you can definitely see it. The second thing I noticed was that it didn't sit perfectly, sometimes it would rise above the keyboard and I'd have to push it back down if it was doing a lot of typing and mousing. Although probably the biggest problem with it was that I had to push the trackpoint about 20 times harder for the same amount of mouse movement as I would without the skin. This is a big problem for me with some of the work I do on my laptop.

Shortly thereafter I received a new keyboard from Lenovo under warranty for the shift key issue. I didn't get around to installing it right away, because I was busy with other stuff. Then of course I realized they would want to bill me for it if I didn't get the original one back to them fairly quickly, so I swapped the keyboard out yesterday and sent the original back to Vestal, NY.

I noticed when I had the replacement keyboard in that the skin fit a lot better. You can still tell it's there but it fits much much tighter. I guess the finish somehow helps hold it in place?

However the trackpoint issue was still getting to me. One of the main reasons why I buy thinkpads is because I can't stand touchpads. Today I took a very small, very sharp blade to the part of the skin that covers the trackpoint, and carefully cut out that part so I am moving the trackpoint directly rather than through a piece of silicone. That made a huge difference.

Now I have a nicely protected keyboard, and a trackpoint that works like it should.

So the morals of the story:
If you are thinking about getting a keyboard skin, get it while your keyboard is still new, or it might not fit well.
The clear skins aren't perfectly clear, and are easily visible on the black thinkpad!

Open questions I don't have answers to:
Are the lenovo ones better?
Are the black ones (I've seen black ones only on ebay) the correct black to hide well? And what do their letters look like?