Chiclet keyboard- why??????????

I have no problem with the concept of the chiclet keyboard- but why on earth have they reduced the "depth" of the keys? It feels like I am pressing buttons on a calculator.

My x201 is a delight to type on- the x230 isn't as nice. I don't get why they needed to change something which had no problem?? I dont mind the idea of trying to space the keys out a little more, but what was the point in reducing the key depth!?

I really hope sort this out- but considering theyve carried it through to the x240 I highly doubt it.....

 

You could always "dowgrade" to X220...

 

Well, it's improvement by degradation in progress.

- Our laptops are big. Fix it now!
- Let's make the screens wider, then with the same screen diagonal, it will be physically smaller, and we can claim "lightest 15.6" laptop ever", '12" laptop with a full keyboard' etc.
- Yeah, but we already went from 4:3 to 16:10 and now 16:9. Can't go below that now, consumers see 16:7 and larger as a gimmick. Sony, Toshiba, have all tried, and it's not good enough even for browsing. Microsoft is really trying to help with popularizing horizontal scrolling in Windows 8 Metro but it will take a few years before can really go much wider than 16:9.
- OK then, so we can't reduce the largest dimensions at all?
- We can, by reducing bezels and overall doing some innovation, but an average laptop will be $0.20 more expensive
- Hmm, OK, number crunchers and stockholders won't like that. What else can we do?
- Well, there is still height when closed. Totally pointless and nobody cares since the days laptops had plasma screens and were >10 cm high (like that IBM PS/2 P70), but Apple is helping and promoting that low height is the best thing since sliced bread.
- OK then, let's shave a few millimeters of height.
- Well, the components are already well packed. But reducing key travel will definitely help with 1-2 millimeters of height.
- Does not it affect the keyboard feel and typing experience?
- Yeah, but who cares. After typing on iPad screen, any keyboard travel is better than that. The dinousaurs who remember type M keyboards will soon die from old age anyway.
- Woohoo. "Out laptops are now more compact than ever, instead of 29 mm high, they are now 27mm high!!!".
- Hmm, can't see any difference. Perhaps we should supply a digital caliper with each laptop sold, so consumers can do the measurement and actually see the benefit?
- Can we throw away some storage options, memory slots, and other pointless stuff? Put ULV CPUs perhaps, to save on cooling, performance be damned? Don't people just want laptops that are more alike to iPads with keyboard?
- Yeah, in the next generation we'll certainly do that.

 

Best thing we can do now is buy the chunky T440p or T540p which should have decent key travel given their thickness.

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the key travel of the new chiclet keys. In fact, many users tend to say that the typing feel is better than before. In the end, this is a subjective thing after all...

They have the same keyboards as the T440s (T540p with numpad).

 

Honestly, I couldn't really tell any difference between the key travel on my W520 and a review-unit W530. Distance between keys was also pretty much the same.

My only problem with the new keyboards is that some keys were re-located to stupid places (prime example, Print Screen is now near the arrow keys instead of the top-right) and the lack of some *very* important keys imo (forward/back keys).

 

I've nothing really against chiclet keyboard's, as they can actually be fine to use. I do however have a thing against Function Key's primary functions being switched with that of volume, screen brightness, etc, etc, etc. However I guess if I use the FnLock I could get round that issue somewhat.
However it lead's to my biggest issue with Lenovo's new keyboards, after seeing the close up of the X240 keyboard on lenovo's website I can see that the Fn key has been placed in the bottom left where the left control key should be. What reason is there to switch around the order of the Ctrl and Fn Keys. Moving the Ctrl key inward just makes using Ctrl based keyboard shortcuts that much more difficult/awkward than it needs to be.

 

That was *always* the setup on ThinkPads. IBM had placed the Fn key at the lower left corner at the very dawn of mobile computing. You can swap these two keys in BIOS on newer models.

 

I have my x201 next to me and I can honestly say the travel is about twice what the x230's is.......

 

They're the same travel. It's the same mechanism underneath. Only models like the x1c is the travel shorter

 

Is it possible there is more resistance in the travel?

 

I dont see all the useless hate about the chicklet (precision/accutype) keyboard. I used to hate it at first, but after actually using it, i find it better than the old one.

I even can say typing on my Y410p and my friends E351 is much better than typing on a L420.

What bothers me is numpads in 15 inchers.

 

What "old one" specifically are you comparing it to? 600 series, T2x, T4x, T6x, T410/420, A3x?

Inquiring minds would love to know...

 

L420/T420

(Nothing compares to the Model M, that will always be #1)

 

I think the hate is mostly directed at the layout changes and not the change to chicklet keys. No matter what the keys themselves are like, the Delete key does NOT belong in the upper right corner where PgUp had been since the days of green screen dumb terminals.

 

THIS.

To be fair, my fingers report that the new ThinkPad keys are outstanding amongst the so-called chiclet keys.

 

Its not the layout I dislike- its the fact when I am typing it feels like I am using one of those massive $10 office calculators!

 

Somehow, my fingers don't seem to report that kind of feeling.

It's different from the old ThinkPad keyboards, but it does not feel cheap.

 

OK those are two entirely different keyboards... L420 has a 6-row layout and the T420 has a 7-row one...

I never considered L or SL series to be *real* ThinkPads.

We own several T410 machines which share the keyboard with T420 (amongst other models) and while not my favourite by any means, I find nothing wrong with them...