Has the keyboard flex been fixed in the T500 and T400?

I know they added some strength to the T400 keyboard but I was wondering if they have done the same to the T500?

 

According to Lenovo, YES. Some people who have received the new supports still claim there is flex. I however believe they either got systems that were manufactured prior to the new supports or it is in their head. Look at Kevin's new T400 review, seems to me they solved the flex.

 

Ya this question keeps coming up. Lenovo added supports under it so they did address the issue from their standpoint as Stealth said.

 

What about the T500? It seems to me the T500 was worse in the first place?

Also StealthTH, how do you like your T400? Considering getting one of those or a T500...

 

The T500 probably has more "empty space" and thus more room to flex. However, support struts were also added, so the flex issue should be resolved as well.

 

I believe the T500 was fixed as well, can't imagine why they would fix the T400 and not the T500. There just isn't a review of the updated T500.

As for my T400, I love it. As for which you should get, it entirely depends on your usage. I take mine to college and don't really play any games on it so I opted for the 14.1" screen. If it were going to be my main computer where I would play games too, I'd get the T500 for that extra GPU horsepower. Thankfully I have a gaming rig to take care of that for me. Either way, your gonna love Thinkpads.

 

I received a T500 at the end of March, the flex was bad on the keyboard. Support sent me a T61 keyboard, which had the solid metal support, and it was wonderful. Unfortunately on the Thinkpad series, the phrase "your mileage may vary" is quite true. There are 3 different manufactures of keyboard, each has different characteristics.

 

But you had the original design right? Not the one with additional bracing on the chassis.

 

At the end of March, my wife and I received a T400 and T500 with the additional bracing on the chassis. My T400 came with the keyboard that had all the cutouts in the backing; this is the keyboard that drew so much negative feedback. My wife's T500 came with the alternate T61 keyboard. I have had several people compare the keyboards, and every single person agreed that the T61 keyboard is much better and gives the user reassuring feedback.

 

I guess it depends when and where you bought your thinkpad. But I bought mine last week april 24th, I think. It is a T400, 2765-31G, which came with a (FRU) 42T4049 keyboard. I live in Bergen, Norway, and ordered from this shop; www.multicom.no. Now, after reading about the keyboard issue I decided yesterday to order a T60 keyboard, norwegian, FRU: 42T3158. I ordered at 3:15 pm yesterday, and I received it today around 11:30 AM... Fastest delivery I ever heard of .

Anyway, here's some pictures of the new and old keyboard (taken with cell phone, so theyre not too good):




The one on top is the T400, the one under is T60, which I am writing this post with




T400 closeup with FRU nr




T60 closeup

So, basically they just made a lot of holes in the new one, I guess to make the pc run more cool and lose some weight also.. I'm not really sure that it was worth the money (750 kr freight included = 100$, 70£), but it is definately better and with less flex of course.. Still, it's probably a bit heavier and maybe the pc wont run as cool. So, overall I'm not gonna recommend it for everyone to buy a T60-keyboard, but it's worth it if the typing experience is really important for you and you think its worth the bucks (maybe cheaper in US or other places Idk)..

Hope this helps others who wonder about the laptop, I read a lot on forums before I decided myself

 

$100 seems a bit excessive for the keyboard. I got a brand new ALPS t60 keyboard from ebay for $30 shipped. The thing was completely new, with lenovo's seal still intact on the shipping box. I got it to replace the NMB t60 keyboard that my t400 came with to begin with. I could not stand the key action on NMB model, the keys were too tight and required way too much effort to depress, resulting in a ton of typos. ALPS one has way better key action. I have since got rid of that t400, becuase i wanted another one with beefier CPU, and ordered myself a new one from Lenovo, i did however keep the ALPS keyboard. I will report how it compares to new keyboard the t400s are shipping with when i receive my new computer.

 

Looking forward to read your comparison of your ALPS vs the default t400. Damn I shoulda done some more research before I went with the NMB

PS! Keep in mind nearly half the cost (maybe 40$) for the keyboard I ordered was shipping payment.. And I wanted the norwegian model, which is not easy to get, so e-bay was no option. Also, prices/salaries are higher in general in Norway. So I don't think IBM's prices are that bad rly..