The 7-Layer Keyboard - An End of an Era?

No, it's not. Producing any type of display is an extremely costly investment, with a massive startup cost. No company would ever produce such a display (anything out of ordinary, high res, IPS, 4:3/16:10, etc.) without a guarantee that large amounts of them could be sold. Apple can promise such a thing - there products consistently generate huge amounts of hype and sell very well. Lenovo can only dream of such success with such a niche product.

Even if Lenovo wanted to (and I'm sure they do, considering how controversial the transition to 16:9 was) they would not be able to garner such screens, unless they were already being mass produced and some other company doesn't have exclusive rights to them. Offering an optional screen upgrade on most of their laptops doesn't really come with any glaring downsides, and I'm sure Lenovo would do it if they could. More than likely though, it's largely out of their control.

 

Not a lot of people seem particularly enthusiastic about this, but I love the over-sized escape key on my T410. As a VIM (and thus pentadactyl) user, I hit the escape key quite frequently. With the over-sized key, I never miss. On my x40 and r50p I miss from time to time.

Anyway, I've used my girlfriend's macbook keyboard and it's not awful, but I much prefer the traditional keyboard on my T410. Aesthetically I GREATLY prefer the traditional keyboard, but this of course was not the question (though when making a decision I cannot ignore this).

Thanks,
Ryan

 

Uh huh... While that has some truth to it, it doesn't explain why other companies such as HP for example still offer 16:10 screens on low-selling laptops (ie. HP EliteBook 2760p). My point is yes, it is much more difficult to get 16:10 screens, but it's not impossible...yet. Lenovo can offer it, but they just choose not to. Talk to me next year, and I'll completely agree though. The industry is changing.

@measure, IMHO, looks have to do with a lot of a product's success, so you shouldn't feel bad about announcing a subjective opinion.

 

Interesting video. So is the X1's keyboard the same as the Edge's? I'm not talking about the backlight, but the depth of key presses and measurements of the keys themselves.

If they're the same I'm wondering why they didn't "advertise" this earlier with the Edge (which would make me believe it's just X1 marketing hype). If not the same, then I'll have to test the X1's keyboard out for myself.

 

The problem with chicklet for me is when using excel. I use f2 and f4 alot. with chicklet (I use e220s) it is harder when have to press Fn+Fx, even when you turn on the Fn lock, the LED keep coming on/off as it is located on the spacebar.

Is there any way to turn on the Fn lock and re-map the LED on/off button? or do you have better solution?

Thanks

 

Wasnt there an option to switch it in BIOS? At least I think I saw it on Edge 15.

 

In that video.. I sounds almost exactly like that Coldplay Song "Clocks" haha

 

Personally, I can type at 120 WPM on a normal desktop keyboard, 130 WPM with a mechanical keyboard, 115 ~ 120 WPM on my W520, and like 105 ~ 110 WPM on practically any other keyboard. However, I have to say that while my typing speed is not much if any lower with the chiclet keyboards, something about them feels extremely wrong. If I were to venture a guess, it's probably because the chiclet keyboards have very short throw on them, and I bottom out on the keys far quicker than I'm expecting to (and I'm not a heavy typist by any means).

 

The Thinkpad chiclets have very similar action to the traditional keyboard. I'm pretty sure that all the keyboards except the X1#0e keyboards have the same 2.5mm stroke as traditional ones.

Try typing on one, its really pretty good. The feel of the keys isn't really a problem, its the fact that its missing keys that I use that I don't like.

 

I had an Aluminum PowerBook G4 as my first notebook, the keyboard was just as comfortable as my Thinkpad T61 and my accuracy/speed remained fast. If Lenovo changes the Thinkpad T/W series keyboard, I maybe forced to look elsewhere or use an external keyboard(ex: Dell Quiet Key from 1997, Apple Pro Keyboard 2002 or Sun Type 7 keyboard). I dislike the amount of gap between keys in chiclet keyboards that some PC makers have tried. Also I use the f-keys often(I hate holding FN+F-key on my MBP).

Typing on my 13" MacBook Pro(or any new Apple Desktop with the mid-2007+ era desktop chiclet keyboard) slows my typing without a keyboard skin and I've managed to knock out a few keys with my fingernail. When you can't feel the center of a key, you slip or tap between keys... if a little indent could be done, that would be helpful.

The worst notebook I had to type on(setup for my dad) is a HP Pavillion DM4. Not only is it a poor chiclet keyboard, some areas of the keyboard are less sensitive/more sensitive to presses and typos are common. My mums' ugly basic HP G6 has a better keyboard, which I found very surprising

 

I think that's the main benefit of Lenovo's island keyboard implementation: the keys are arched in the same way as the keys of a traditional keyboard, so the feel is very similar.

Personally, I'm with Pseudorandom: I don't mind if Lenovo uses island keys across the board, but I definitely want/need the 7-row layout. If it's an island-7-row keyboard, that works for me!

 

The Lenovo chicklet isn't half bad, at least it has decent feedback unlike the Macbook Pro keyboards. I'm kinda impartial to the new styled ThinkPad keyboards to the Edge keyboards now, but I definitely prefer _60/61 era keyboards over new ThinkPad ones.

 

I just noticed there's no page forward/back buttons because the page up/down buttons replaced them because of the lack of 7 rows. That alone would more than enough to keep me from buying a Thinkpad with that keyboard (unless you can remap that functionality to other keys in firefox). Those two buttons along with the middle trackpoint button are incredibly useful when browsing.

How is noise with the X1 keyboard? Standard TP keyboard keyboards are great to type on, but I feel bad when typing in libraries because of how incredibly noisy it is.

 

Agreed, another important reason why I like the 7-row layout.

There's a good amount of feedback from my X120e keyboard, but it's not as loud as my T500's (NMB) keyboard. I don't think I'd feel bad typing on either in the library, though. My das Keyboard on the other hand...

 

Not sure if you can remap them in FireFox, but you can remap any key in Windows. I personally have my back/forward remapped to home/end, and my home/end remapped to back/forward.

If Lenovo switches all Thinkpads to the chiclet 6 row, what are our other options? As far as I know, there aren't any other laptops out there with 7 row keyboards anymore.

 

I have tried, and I have to say that the Lenovo chiclets are by best the best chiclet keyboards I've ever used. However, something still doesn't feel quite right in my opinion when I'm typing on one.