Thinkpad W550s and W541 is released.

[Ole]

https://www.thinkworkstations.com/produ ... pad-w550s/
https://www.thinkworkstations.com/wp-co ... heet-1.pdf

I am glad they went back to a working trackpoint system. I would trade that numpad for a F-row and a Home/End in normal positions anyday. Also, 16:9: -_______________________-

[brchan]

Lenovo actually listened to its customers for once! Now if only they will bring back the standard keyboard, or at least a 7 row chiclet keyboard...

[jdrou]

Wonder if we can retrofit new touchpad/buttons/keyboard to existing systems. It's the one thing I don't like about my T440p.

[Saucey]

We did it guys!!!

[FryPpy]

or at least a 7 row chiclet keyboard...

To make things successful - make them awful and then move 1 step back....
They understand us and even make... 2 options for keyboards - but both is not totally brilliant

[Puppy]

FHD resolution - TN crap only again (even Acer does it right)
3k (IPS) max resolution only ? Fail again. It is too low to get non-blurry text. 3840 x 2160 would be better because with 200% size you get non-blurry FHD resolution.

Hopeless

[Norway Pad]

Still not great, but an improvement.

[Puppy]

Still not great, but an improvement.

If rollback to previous W530 design can be called improvement ... Still no LED status indicators.

[600X]

The high battery capacity of the W550s is very intriguing, you can achieve 116Wh now, no slice battery needed. Now just switch to 3:2 and I'm almost sold.

[ThinkRob]

Lenovo actually listened to its customers for once! Now if only they will bring back the standard keyboard, or at least a 7 row chiclet keyboard...

Lenovo solicits and receives a ton of customer and prospective customer feedback.

It's just that getting feedback from the web peanut gallery isn't their primary focus. For things like this where the users they got feedback from *and* the noisy enthusiasts both care about something, well... they change.

[Puppy]

BTW did you know that X1 Carbon non-english keyboard layouts (Czech) have the Esc key between right Alt and Ctrl keys ? I hope this will be resolved in 2015 models.

[Ibthink]

The 2014 X1 Carbon layout is different in many countries - look at it in Japan (Home/End keys):
http://thehikaku.net/pc/lenovo/image/14 ... bon/ak.jpg
I don´t think the Adaptive keyboard is very popular at all...

[Adda]

Hmm, still needs a proper keyboard, no numpad (offcenter keyboards are annoying) and indicator LED's.
The trackpoint is still not elevated above the keys, and they could have made it taller by not having the display fold down behind the chassis.
I wonder if it'll overheat, the W550s only comes with dual core CPU's, it might not (probably will though), the GPU seems to be a low end part (K620).
The W541 will almost certainly overheat, at least some configs will.

[brchan]

The trackpoint is still not elevated above the keys, and they could have made it taller by not having the display fold down behind the chassis.

An elevated trackpoint above the keys would create marks on the screen. It is probably better for it to be slightly lower, or at the height of other keys. Having an elevated trackpoint would need a pretty clamshell design like the T2x series and older, which seemed to provide enough clearance.

[Adda]

An elevated trackpoint above the keys would create marks on the screen. It is probably better for it to be slightly lower, or at the height of other keys. Having an elevated trackpoint would need a pretty clamshell design like the T2x series and older, which seemed to provide enough clearance.

The elevated trackpoint is no problem on my W510, it's not a clamshell design.

From a usablility perspective, the elevated trackpoint has all the advantages.
The only advantage to lowered trackpoint is that you can shave off a few millimeters of thickness with no benefit.

[dr_st]

Well, an elevated trackpoint cap does touch the screen on many models, especially if you use the soft rim cap. And it will leave marks, and those marks will become permanent eventually. However, they are very minor. Overall, the usability advantages, to me, outweigh the small cost.

Large 15" models seem to be far less prone to this, though, probably because the screen sits farther from the base, as the base and the lid are thicker.