T500 Keyboard Flex

T400/410/420 and T500/510/520 series specific matters only
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Param
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T500 Keyboard Flex

#1 Post by Param » Sun Nov 08, 2009 9:44 pm

I have planned to buy a T500 with the following confguration

Lenovo ThinkPad T500 2242CTO, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8600, 2.40GHz, 15.4" WXGA w/ Backlight, 4GB RAM, 160GB, DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA), Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD with vPro, 802.11 a/b/g/N, 7 in 1 Media Card Reader, Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit, 6 Cell Battery

Want to know whether the keyboard flex reported in T500/400 are still present? Or Is it solved in latest T500s?

When T500/400s where launched there were more issues related to Keyboard Flex!

I already own a T61, want to know if T500s are reliable like T61s?

Thanks
Param

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Colonel O'Neill
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Re: T500 Keyboard Flex

#2 Post by Colonel O'Neill » Sun Nov 08, 2009 9:57 pm

To me my T400's keyboard feels pretty much the same as my T60, although quite conversely, I think the T60's keyboard is louder.

I saw some of the flex videos on Youtube, and report no such thing on my T400.
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chickendumpling
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Re: T500 Keyboard Flex

#3 Post by chickendumpling » Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:38 pm

Keyboard is fine - solid. I just went through 2 T500. First, little sloppy in assembly and fit, slow delivery, and failed to deliver on OS upgrade. Second was better, but not free from bow/warp in the LCD lid - fast shipping. The inner molding is not quite square to the LCD screen - but I opted for the camera. Other than that ... to early to tell. I had a T61 - nothing wrong with it. I just made the mistake of visiting Lenovo and saw the dual graphics option. Overall, appears to be close to T61 ... I'd still take a T series thinkpad over anything else :)

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Re: T500 Keyboard Flex

#4 Post by JaneL » Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:27 pm

chickendumpling wrote:but not free from bow/warp in the LCD lid - fast shipping.
If it were, it would be a defect. See http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=19
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chickendumpling
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Re: T500 Keyboard Flex

#5 Post by chickendumpling » Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:14 am

JaneL wrote:
If it were, it would be a defect. See http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=19
I'm not buying all of that... It varied so much from 1 to the 2nd T500. Then, I compared to my T61 which had nice straight lines - no gap on the left right sides when closed. Lenovo should move to a sphere for overall design then.

Be as it may, this is something Lenovo could have internalized - just like the role cage (its not out in the open). Good cosmetics and straight lines - looks odd seeing a LCD lid looking like its going to spring like a mouse trap or a piece of warped plywood. I was glad to see things appearing (to me) more normal in the second. Maybe quality control sat on the lid before sending :wink: Or, do I have a defective unit now :eek:

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Re: T500 Keyboard Flex

#6 Post by pipspeak » Tue Nov 10, 2009 5:56 pm

My T400 is a couple months old and appeared to have the "improved" keyboard. AFAIK the keyboard in these "fixed" units is the same but supposedly some additional support was provided in areas underneath. Mine did seem to have the additional support, but they might as well have used string cheese for all the good it did -- the keyboard still flexed like crazy in the top left section. I ended up buying a new T61 keyboard for $30 shipped off ebay and it fixed the issue.
570 --> T20 --> T40 --> T43 --> T61 (4:3) --> T400 -->T420 --> T440p + X240

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