keyboards, keyboards, keyboards

Erik?

Erik?

I'm still trying to hook up my TRS-80 keyboard to my T61. Erik?

 

I have a thinkpad i1454 for 13 yrs and another (E420) for 2 yrs. Funny thing is that I didn't realize their keyboards are different until about two weeks ago when someone on this forum pointed out differences.

IMHO the difference between the old and new keyboards has been blown out of proportion.

 

There is a very big difference between the edge keyboards and the keyboard on the X1. They look very similar, but they feel very different. Being a former X1 and X220 tablet owner, my personal preference favors the X1's keyboard.

 

It really depends on whether you use keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+Shift+Home, Ctrl+Break etc, hundreds of times daily, and w/o looking at the keyboard.

Most users just doing the usual typing don't see a big difference. But having to press Fn+Ctrl+B instead of Ctrl+Break is quite annoying, especially if the Thinkpad keyboard is not the only keyboard you need to use.

One of the great attributes of "proper" Thinkpads for many years was the lack of unnecessary experiments with keyboard layout. With the previous update, that brought the oversized Esc and Delete keys, it was different, but arguably for the better. Now it's just degradation w/o any benefit Hopefully, Lenovo will not proceed down this slippery path, and will at least keep separate Home/End/PgUp/PgDn in the next T/W/Xx40 models, and not replace them with Fn+Arrows, as many vendors do.

 

One other thing. I have been assuming all along that Lenovo is using the "Stradivarius" keyboard they designed for the X1. If they aren't, and are using a cheaper and lower quality keyboard, then I take back what I said.

My assumption Lenovo is using a high quality keyboard across all lines could be totally false.

 

As the wise guys always say, you oughta try it with yer old fat fingers.

 

I'll wait for the early adopters to assess that. My crusty fat fingers have plenty of award winning keyboards to use right now.

Most likely I won't enter this era until I see my discount on the X1 Carbon.

 

getting an X220 keyboard to fit an X230 won't be the challenge.   BIOSes contain keyboard maps for specific layouts and a 7-row keyboard won't map correctly on a 6-row BIOS.   all this speculation around keyboard swapping is irrelevant without a different (or modded) BIOS.

that's all i can say for now.™

 

I've used multiple Edge keyboards, while they are okay, I want the traditional styled keyboard. Helps to read my post. And I actually don't even like the newer FRU keyboards on the X220 and the T410s that I owned for a short period.

 

Oh, I read it. I thought it was one of the most negative posts on the keyboard issue in this forum. Here is the full post for reference purposes:

You are of course entitled to your opinion, everyone has one. But I was surprised to read something like this written by a forum mod.

I hope Lenovo really knows what they are doing because it is sure causing a lot of negative energy. I am not going to comment further until I actually have my eval units and have a chance to actually use them for a week or two.