Aftermarket Installation of Pointing Stick?

Hi, I have mostly owned desktops but have played games and used the internet on my friends laptops from time to time and now its time to buy my first laptop in over a decade. Touchpads generally leave me stumbling around the screen like a toddler after a few glasses of wine. Is there any chance that I can mod one into the laptop or install a replacement keyboard has one?

Lenovo's are appealing but I'd like to be able to explore other options like customizing one from a place like xoticpc or building one from barebones. I'll probably keep a mouse with me but flat surface peripherals don't really cut it in cramped quarters, cars or airplanes.

On a side note, does anyone remember these from the 90's? Aside from the thumb arthritis I loved that thing.

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...tech&lp=12&type=product&cp=1&id=1051384258568

 

Unfortunately, you can't add TrackPoint to a keyboard that doesn't already have one. However, there are other options besides Lenovo. For example, Dell Latitude, HP Business Series NC####, and certain Fujitsu/Toshiba laptops.

 

Yeah, I already have one for my desktop. It would be a pain to use without something flat to set it on though. The toshiba trackball was nice becaues it was mounted off to the side of the keyboard and was detachable.

 

I have never heard of it being possible to mod a keyboard with trackpoint in a laptop what doesn't have it by default.

And if it could, you could be easy looking at a $100 mod, what will make it not worth it comparing it with a ThinkPad which has it by default or some of the Latitude's.

If a laptop doesn't feature a trackpoint then it's meant for noobs, for those crazy people who are too lazy to use a trackpoint for 10 minutes to find out that it works at least a 20 times better then that ugly touchpad.

Disclaimer; Please don't be offended, this is just my observation, especially because A-pple's (no way with that add link in my post) are also for basic users and don't feature a trackpoint either

But hey; it's just like the monitor market; the consumer doesn't know what he is missing when buying a TN panel monitor, so other, slightly more expensive, ten times better panels like IPS are becoming rare and very expensive since there is too litlle demand. So please, buy directly a ThinkPad with trackpoint, show the others that they aren't worth your business when they don't feature a trackpoint by default . You won't regret it; a ThinkPad is worth every dollar, and keeps going years and years after most other laptops would have died. For example; in our church we still use a ThinkPad T22 to project text on a screen with a beamer. It's being abused every week, and it's still working.

And that's even without mentioning the superior keyboard of the ThinkPads. I haven't seen any better notebook keyboard in my whole life then that of ThinkPad's. Why looking with big eyes for an additional 20 GB's of HDD or 100 MHz more CPU speed when that competitor's laptop has a keyboard made of crap, handpicked from the sewer.. If there is something you are using directly when you are on the move with your laptop it is;

the keyboard
the trackpoint
the screen
(not in a certain order)