T500 keyboard flex is real

Wow, been typing on this for a while and man is there quite some flex. Annoying me now. So much that you actually here it. Near the right edge not as bad. But near the left and middle, it is bad. Hollow sounding. You can see the other keys moving.

If you're a light typer, then you "should" be fine. But if you even remotely type heavy, this keyboard will drive you nuts.

I only need the keyboard when I'm on the road, so I'll have to see if I can get use to this junk keyboard. Does the T61 really fit and is a direct swap?

The review warned us. Lenovo hasn't changed anything since the review. You've been warned again.

 

if t400 is still my choice next year im gonna buy a t61 14.1" keyboard and swap since i plan to be on it frequently

 

This has not been my experience with my T400. The keyboard is extremely solid and the keys have a very nice tactile feel to them. I'd even say it's the second best keyboard I've ever typed on... (the best, of course, is my Kinesis Contoured Keyboard on my desktop).

Perhaps it's a defect in certain keyboards? Either that, or I'm not noticing it.

 

Wow, are you serious?? I'm suprised nobody has mentioned that the new Thinkpad T series' keyboards have flex! Thanks for the heads up

 

From the 3 or 4 T400s that I have typed on, the flex is almost non existent. You really have to type like a maniac and pound the keys down to notice it. If you are experiencing major flex, then it might be a defect or you are pressing way too HARD!

 

Maybe it is defective then. Maybe there is a difference between T400 and T500 keyboards.

Pushing slowly but firmly on the right side of the keyboard (ENTER), the keyboard barely moves. That side is fine. Doing the same over the S and D keys, you see the keyboard can move alot. Slowing putting just enough pressure on the keys to get them to depress, the right side doesn't move. The left side still does move just a bit. So basically when you're typing, the left side isn't resting on anything (could it be defective and bowed up a little?) and it flexes just enough, hits whatever is behind it and makes a hollow sounding noise.

A very light typer will be fine. Anything beyond light, and the left side both flexes and makes an extra noise.

 

For my T400, you have to push HARD to get even the slightest dip on the left and there is no flex in the center and on the right side of the keyboard.

 

Have to push hard on my t400 keyboard as well to actually get any flex out of it. Might as well mention the card reader has flex over it too, if you push really hard in that area, don't notice it otherwise...

 

Make a video!

 

Can I be director?

 

You can be Disgruntled Lenovo User #8.

 

too be honest i dont really think that this is correct. unless you actually take your finger and press down really hard on the left side of the keyboard, you wont feel a thing.

the flex is almost non-existent. and besides, its not like the flex is pushing down other keys while you type. maybe if you have really FAT fingers then the flex might come into play. other than that i think its a really nice keyboard.

 

I completely disagree. I'm not pressing "really" hard. I put just enough pressure to get the key to depress and then I keep applying just enough pressure if I see the keyboard flexing and when it all stops moving, I stop. It doesn't take much pressure to get the left side of the keyboard to move.

Correct, the flex is not pushing down the other keys. But by typing/pushing the one key that is attached to the keyboard backing that flexes, all the other keys move in turn. So technically they're getting pulled down since the keyboard (at least on the left side) is too thin and doesn't seem to be resting on anything solid.

The flex itself wouldn't bother me that much except that when I type and I'm using the left side of the keyboard, there's an extra hollow like sound, most likely the keyboard backing while flexing is either making it's own noise or hitting whatever is behind it.

 

My T400 has no flex whatsoever...maybe if I start typing with a brick...

 

This is Lenovo's response on the issue.

It seems they put some holes in the backplate to reduce weight and/or cost. My x200 uses the same keyboard as the t400/500 and has no flex. However this may be in part due to the smaller/firmer chasis of the x200. If the keyboard bothers you (either flex or weird feedback), you can buy a keyboard for a T61 and pop it in quite easily.

 

Well, i took a video that shows the flex but it's 2mb and I don't see where I can upload a video here. The video will show I'm not using a brick or pounding the keyboard. The keyboard sucks worst than any other keyboard I've ever used before (or it's defective).

Reading that article, my thinking is that the left side is not supported at all.

 

Upload it to youtube and post the link in the thread.

By the way, in my T400 flex was minimal on my keyboard. Since I had a T60 keyboard on hand from the 'nightmares' that people had with theirs (recieved before I got my laptop) I plopped it in. The minimal flex that I did have is now completely gone.

Something that I would like to mention about the new keyboard that others don't it not only does the metal have holes in it, but it appears to be thinner and perhaps made of a different material. When you hold the new keyboards in hand, it is very easy to physically bend the keyboard. The board can probably bend approximately 7-10 degrees with minimal effort. In contrast, the T60 keyboard doesn't bend at all.

 

I've uploaded a video to YouTube showing the flex.

 

Well, I can confirm that mine doesn't do that. If I press on it significantly harder than I normally do to type, then I can have it flex just a little bit, but that's with pressure that my keyboard would never go through with my normal usage.

It could be a defect with certain units or it could be chassis issue (other T500 could chime in, specifically whether or not theirs do this).

Quick edit: Actually, when I look at the video again, it almost looks like you're pressing with a bit excess pressure compared to my style. It's possible that the flex issue is on a per-user basis based on their typing-pressure preference.

 

WOW! That is flexing! I can agree with Zshazz that my T400 does not do that. I can't make it flex like that if I tried! I can honestly say that my keyboard does not flex.

More testing i needed, we need to see if multiple keyboards are being used, what part numbers they are, whether or not the T400 PN is the same as the T500 PN and so on.

I will volunteer to post the PN on my T400 keyboard since I cannot exhibit any flex whatsoever.

 

I'm not pressing that hard. I'm pressing just enough to get the key to depress. And it's not an issue of pressure. Even if I press harder than needed, the keyboard doesn't move anymore after that. Just the force to depress the key flexes the keyboard. It just flexes. The difference in pressure is more about the extra sound it will make.

 

What is really sad about this thread...........

Thinkpad/Keyboard Flex

Very much an OXYMORON.

What is Lenovo thinking????

 

Apparently a lot of users are experiencing flex (especially when compared to the older T series). Since not all users have it, maybe it's the type of keyboard they shipped with? What type do you have?

 

That's a good video. It looks like there really is a some flex on your keyboard. Now we need someone who claims his T400/T500 has no flex to make a similar video. And then we'll know whether people just have different perceptions of what "flex" is, or some units really do have more of it than others.

 

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4565

The tester explains the keyboard differences in pretty good detail.

From the review posted above -

"To my great surprise, I found Lenovo had completely redesigned the keyboard, with weight savings as the primary goal. The old design has a much stronger back-plate, which is removed on the new revision. This cuts weight by 25 percent (6oz to 4.5oz) from the old model, but at the huge disadvantage of tarnishing the long-standing ThinkPad keyboard reputation. For now I am leaning towards weight savings, instead of cost savings as the main redesign reason, but I still don't like it. Anyone who knows the ThinkPad name knows at least two things; boring business notebook and great keyboard. If you take away the keyboard and make other weight reducing or durability reducing changes to the notebook design, you will no doubt alienate many of your followers. I really hope Lenovo takes notice at this, cause I would take a brick glued to the bottom of the case before over a keyboard change such as this."

Hope this helps.

Maybe if we all complain to Lenovo they could mail out this panel to those of us who find it a necessity. I think it's hilarious that they meddled with the one thing that the Thinkpads were famous for...

 

I got my W500 two days ago but was really disappointed by the keyboard. Inspired by the fix using adhesive foam I fixed my keyboard using silicon. Pictures and more details can be found here: www-avanux-de/space/Linux/ThinkpadW500 (replace the hyphen with period).

Besides the keyboard I love the W500

Axel

 

That's a heck of a lot more flex than my Asus in Sig....got to be defective methinks...but how?

 

Did anyone open up their Thinkpad and pull out their keyboard? The flimsy palmrest and uneven keyboards in the past were partly caused by poor QC in routing cables. I'd check to see that there isn't something stuck under there.