Typing this from the X230, Muahahaha..........(Pic)

[Proteus]

True, but they bypassed the MBA drones that seem to run so much of the industry now, and forced the market into higher quality levels and price points. Technology, features and quality are supposed to go up over time, not down. My first thinkspads were sometimes over $4k, but I paid, because the quality and features were there. If I buy a top of line "workstation" replacement, I expect it to have no compromise. Yeah, a QXGA IPS screen may cost a few hundred more...so what? As Apple has shown, people will gladly pay for quality and engineering. Make a W530, with a 15" QXGA IPS touch screen, charge me $3k, and I'll buy it now!

Hell, no. The last thing I want to see in my lifetime is the fruit company homogenizing an entire market AGAIN. It has already done that to the smartphone market: good luck finding a decent smartphone with a numeric keyboard, because there is NONE! Apple killed them! That company killed AN ENTIRE MARKET SEGMENT! If that company manages to do the same thing again in the personal computer market I'm going to bomb their headquarters.

[erik]

So back to square 1 - someone will have to rip the keyboard interpretation code from the old BIOS and put into a new BIOS to make the X230 work with the X220 keyboard.

exactly.

carry on.

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

Hell, no. The last thing I want to see in my lifetime is the fruit company homogenizing an entire market AGAIN. It has already done that to the smartphone market: good luck finding a decent smartphone with a numeric keyboard, because there is NONE! Apple killed them! That company killed AN ENTIRE MARKET SEGMENT! If that company manages to do the same thing again in the personal computer market I'm going to [...]

Yep, and they are all too big.

My 2009 (?) Xperia X1 has 800x480 on 3" and a small metal bezel around that. Below the screen (vertical orientation) there are physical keys. Good luck to find anything as useful as that in the same dimensions. It's all-out these huge flat slices of plastic.

Physical, proper, qwerty keyboards on smart phones seem to be gone in general. In the US there are still some available, here in Europe absolutely none

[cjmorisson]

The X230 review unit finally arrived today.

Looks perfectly nice. any feedback on the keyboard and performance? considering its cost, performance should be nice.


<list of spam links removed>

[ZaZ]

You can read the review here.

[skinnie]

any news on the bios mod?
I quite like the "new keyboard", but I tried the old one and the layout is much better.

[modrih]

Maby now is any change?

So when i buy keyboard from T420 and install on T430 keyboard is working, but when I typing on keyboard some of the keys will be changed? And i can use mapping software?

Is the keyboard connector is the same? (T420 and T430)?

sorry for my english.

[hmh]

Some facts:

1. The "keyboard controller" (KBC) in ThinkPads is the ACPI EC (embedded controller), which used to be a Renesas H8S family ACPI micro-controller. Someone should open up a recent thinkpad and report back if they're still Renesas chips.

2. The EC translates the keyboard matrix to KBC scan code events and/or ACPI events.

3. Patching the EC control program to change the low-level keymap can be either trivial or nearly impossible, depending on whether it is just a change on a data table, or requires binary-patching EC code.

4. It is highly unlikely that an unofficial binary patch could support both keyboards, although it would be trivial for lenovo to actually support two keymaps and switch them from EFI/BIOS [if the EC cannot detect the keyboard type]. So, you'll have to flash back the original EC control program if you have to return to the original keyboard.

It will also void your warranty.