Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

My dad is looking for a laptop that is a good balance between portable yet powerful. I.e. small enough to use on a train, plane or in an airport, yet be able to do handle workloads like virtualization and databases.

I've heard a lot about the x230. It seems perfect for him. However, I've heard really bad things about the trackpad. I know there is a trackpoint, but I can't imagine my dad using that.

What I would like to know is has it been fixed / is it fixable?

How much of a deal-breaker is it when it comes to this laptop?

What are alternatives are there to the x230 that have good trackpads in terms of portability and power.


Thanks,

Richard

The trackpad is serviceable, but expect Apple like fluidity. I though the X230 was better than the X220. They must have worked on the drivers in the meantime. If you can try one, which will be difficult unless you know someone with one, that might be the best route to seeing if you like it. It's hard to say whether it's a deal breaker since we just met and it's really a personal preference. I use the stick so it's not an issue for me.

How much power do you need? If it's just for Office and Internet, an ULV CPU should be fine. In that case, the X1 Carbon might be worth a look. It's got a large trackpad, it's light and a decent screen unlike the other 14" ThinkPads.

i still have problem using mine.. i think its learning curve. Would be nice if there is a video on how to use it properly

The X230 touchpad is not that bad for tracking movement, it's the button press that's troublesome. Unlike Apple's touchpad where you can keep a finger on the "button area" and continue to use the pad, the X230 touchpad doesn't have such a "button area", you either have to use one finger for movement and tap to click, or press outside the movement area to click. My X230's touchpad also clicks differently, the left side is slightly harder to click.

I really hated the flush touchpad at first, Lenovo reps used to talk about how the touchpad and keyboard on ThinkPads are designed so they don't bump against your hands or fingers and don't activate unnecessarily. But it's okay once I disabled all the multitouch controls which are unusable with the tiny touchpad anyway, and fiddled with the palmcheck and starting zone settings. I would've disabled the touchpad completely, but sometimes other people want to use my computer...

First, you should know that this forum's administrators created a separate area for the X230 series away from the regular ThinkPads. I think this was a stupid choice, because it took me months to find out about it, but you will find more X230/X230T info there than here.

Second, Ultranav is a matter of personal preference. I used a TrackPoint from 1995 to December, 2003. When I got my first ThinkPad with an Ultranav Pad, an R50p, I fell in love with it immediately.

I have an X230T, an X201t, a T61p, a W700, and a T520i all in regular use. These are all running either Windows 7 Professional x64 or Windows 7 RP x 64. I use the UltraNav pad on all. The one on the X230T is fine.

You have to use the UltraNav software under the Mouse in Control Panel to adjust the UltraNav Pad to your preferences.

Barry in Sheridan, WY.

I tried adjusting the ultranav and it still "slips" when I do the click on the x220/x230/x230t. It seems that when Im going for the click, the cursor moves just a little, like it slips off what I want to click.

Again, maybe if there's a video on how to use it properly, I would have better luck

I still like the x201 trackpad over the x220/230/230t.

I don't have that on my X230T. Maybe it is a hardware defect.

Before buying the x220, my primary concern was the smaller wrist rest area.
However, I was able to get used to it immediately.

I haven't been able to get used to the touchpad. I still prefer using the T42 which had buttons in front. I'm trying to get used to just using the buttons above the clickpad, but it's awkward. I used those top button infrequently on the T42.

Like rsutoratosu, if I try to use the ultranav nub to select something, it always moves off target when my finger taps it.

The clickpad is even worse, I must have the settings wrong because it often locks and then scrolls the entire screen instead of achieving what I want which is just moving the pointer around.

One thing i notice on the click pad, if I move the cursor up towards the top of the click pad, and I need to do "click" to select, the top is a lot harder to press down than the bottom of the pad.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I didn't realize there was a dedicated x230 subforum. Will posrt there.