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First off, the screen is absolutely beautiful, 1920x1080 resolution and IPS technology. At 12.5 inches this makes for a very crisp display and combined with the vibrant colors and great viewing angles, I feel like this is the type of screen we've been waiting for Lenovo to provide since the T60.
The keyboard felt the same as the backlit chiclet style I had on my T430s and while I do prefer the classic keyboard (T420/T520 and back), I don't necessarily mind this one as it's leaps and bounds better than other chiclet style keyboards I've used. I got used to it on the T430s, that's not to say that some people won't find it terrible, I know how opinionated we ThinkPad faithful are. I tested out the "Lift 'n Lock" feature when you transition into tablet mode and I found it to be very cool. One of the things that turned me off from the idea of the "Yoga" style notebook is the fact that you could feel the keys on the bottom in tablet mode regardless if they're disabled or not. This completely prevents that issue from occuring.
This was the first time I came in contact with the new clickpad ultranav setup, mixed feelings here. I tend to be nostalgic and love the physical buttons of my older T series pads, that being said I felt like it was well implemented and it's kind of the same situation as the keyboard, it is different but that doesn't necessarily make it terrible. They clearly put a lot of thought into this, it didn't take me very long to nail the middle button scrolling and after using it, it feels like they adaquately differentiated the 3 click areas representing the former buttons. I never use the touchpad but the fact that it's so huge didn't seem to bother me, the trackpoint functioned the same as any other ThinkPad.
Now is where things start to head downhill and (in my opinion) it's a problem with all of the new ThinkPads unfortunately. The design team at Lenovo created an incredibly sharp looking laptop, however it does not look like a ThinkPad at all. Some people might not care much but if I wanted to buy an Elitebook from HP, I would have done so. The ThinkPad brand is losing it's identity and it's sad, the least they could do is introduce a ThinkPad "classic" or "legacy" model that brings back the classic keyboard, LED status indicators, black ABS plastic case and physical ultranav buttons. We'll never see it again but a 4:3 screen would be nice too
Last but not least, this is where it gets downright ugly. The build quality of this notebook felt terrible. There was flex present absolutely everywhere, especially the screen. While it may be polished on the outside, the overall feel I got from it was that it will fall apart before my 9 year old T43p does.
Overall I found this to be an impressive laptop in a sea of touchscreen computers but I do not consider this a ThinkPad. Lenovo has gotten to the point where they will slap "ThinkPad" stickers and a trackpoint on anything and unfortunately it will sell like hotcakes. The only way I would consider buying one is if I was in the market for an IdeaPad as this might as well be one but includes my beloved trackpoint. Flame me if you want for this post but I believe in the idea of "if it's not broken, don't fix it" and Lenovo clearly has other plans.
& cockatoos