ThinkPad RF Kill Switch - New Design?

What do you think of your ThinkPad's RF Kill Switch?

IMO, the switch suffers from these problems:

1. It's hard to find.
2. Hard to tell if it's on or off.
3. Hard to tell which way to slide it to turn it on or off.

What if the switch were redesigned so that instead of sliding it left/right, it instead worked like the button of a ball-point pen? Press it in, RF is enabled. Press it again and it pops out, and RF is disabled. In the disabled position, the switch sticks out slightly past the front of the notebook. The switch is colored red, so it's clearly visible when RF is disabled. When pushed in to enable RF, the switch is nearly flush with the notebook's front, not visible from the top. The switch is located in the same place as the current one, so that it's accessible when the screen is closed, and even when the laptop is in a sleeve/bag.

Does the above switch (or another design) appeal to you, or should I just stop obsessing?

 

Thinking back to how many times I hit the popout button on PC card slots by mistake, no, that idea doesn't appeal to me at all.

 

I like the switch the way it is. If the design changed to a push button type of scheme, I can see many accidental pushes. And the problems you mentioned aren't a big deal to me. I know where it's located, just like I know where the power button is. And switch to the right = on. I do think that it could be less stiff, however.

 

JMHO, but I'm fine with the existing switch on my T400.

1. The manual told me where it was and I've not forgotten.
2. WiFi & BT indicator lights at bottom of the display bezel tells me if it's on or off.
3. I've not needed to remember which way it goes, since it only moves in one direction. If it's On, it only moves toward Off and vice versa.

​

 

1: once you know where it is, it's easy to find again.   it's not like the switch moves locations on the system in the middle of the night when you're asleep.

i will say that a standard location for the switch would be nice, but unfortunately its location is determined by available space on both the planar and the chassis.   no ports or switches are in a standard location on any laptop, even within the same brand.   lenovo tries to keep certain things in the same spots though such as the cardbus/expresscard port on the left, lid release latch on the front, power socket on the back or toward the rear of the side, etc.

2: it's marked with bright green ink to show that wireless is currently enabled.   if all you see is black, it's off.

3: see #2.

i say leave the design as-is.

+1, especially when thinking about the compactflash eject buttons on the X30/31/32 and s30 that would always wind up popped out at any given point in the day.

 

I agree that the current design suffers from all of these, but I’d feel your proposed “solution” is worse.

Agree—completely.

 

Agree 100%. I happen to quite like the location, design, and usability of the Radio On/off switch on my x200 Tablet. It's easy to find, easy to adjust (yet hard to adjust by accident), and has solid visual cues.

 

Heh. That's 6 well-considered opinions in favor of the current RF Kill Switch design, and none in favor of a re-design.

Jane, thanks for pointing out the PC Card buttons right around the corner from the RF kill switch, their action is exactly what I was thinking of. Don't know why I went reaching for the ball-point pen clicker analogy.

I'd just started playing with an R500 when I began wishing for a different RF kill switch design. The pictures here show why: unlike the T500 (and I think all other ThinkPads), the switch on the R500 is quite hidden when using the laptop in the usual position. So perhaps what I'd really like is a redesign of the R500's "nose", rather than of the RF kill switch.

Thanks!
-Frank

 

BinkNR is in favor of a re-design.   he simply didn't like the idea of a click button.

keep in mind that notebooks take various 'hits' while in use, especially if sitting on one's lap.   anytime you consider a push button or switch on the outside, you have to think about what would happen if you were to stand the system up sideways against something soft (your leg, a chair, a pillow, sitting in a bag, etc.) and if this action could potentially depress the switch.

notebook power switches were moved from the exterior to the interior for the same reason.   these days it's impossible to buy a notebook that you can turn on without first opening the lid to locate the button.

the four main types of switches to consider here are as follows:
1: toggle (either click in / click out or toggle back and forth)
2: momentary (push and release back to original position)
3: rotary (rotates slightly to the left or right, much like on a DSLR)
4: slide (clicks left and right or up and down in the same plane)

for something like this, i think #1 and 2 are automatically out.   they risk being inadvertently depressed.   #3 would be a candidate except it takes up a lot of room for its function.   that really only leaves #4, which is what we already have.

now, that's not to say the current solution can't be improved.   all i'm saying is that the type of switch is probably the most ideal for this application.

one of my thoughts a long time ago was to move it to the BIOS for control at boot and use the Fn+F5 hotkey utility to control it while a system is running.   the problem with that is in accessing it while a system was asleep or if you missed the BIOS prompt to kill wireless before POST.   it was a good idea in theory but unfortunately less practical than having a physical switch.

 

The switch on some T, W and R series seems to be so hard to use initially, and it would only slide easily when you use it for a While.

But the X series i.e. X60 have a lot better switch, as you don't need to exert a huge effort or break a finger nail just trying to slide these switches.

HP use a very large slide button on the side, which takes up alot of space.

 

I say keep it.

The touch sensitive on/off sucks on my 8710W.

The function key combo is already there to cycle one or the other and may be fine, but if it requires software to make it work properly, meh.

The loose sliding switch on my wife's DV9500 has found its way into the off position a few too many times.

Push button on/off like on my DV8200, or my mom's MSI CR600 is fine, but I don't like how my mom's requires the button be pressed 4 times (Off, WiFi, Bluetooth, Wifi & Bluetooth) to cycle.

No, I have to go with the T series being damned near perfect. It's out of the way, it's too stiff to accidentally get turned off.

 

I agree, I like the switch just the way it is.

 

To the OP, do you really use this manual switch a lot? I view it as kind of an emergency switch. Day-to-day I control my antennas through windows or ThinkVantage. I would only use this switch if I had some sort of catastrophic virus alert.

I like the design as it is.

 

No, the RF Kill Switch is not something I use every day. I agree that within Windows, it's very convenient to control WiFi and Bluetooth through the ThinkVantage software.

Mainly I use the switch when setting up a new machine that I don't want networked just yet. (Firewall not yet installed, backups not yet made, etc.) Actually my ThinkPads spend most of their time connected via ethernet, so sometimes the RF switch just stays in the off position.

The physical switch is very nice to have when using OSes other than Windows, for which the ThinkVantage software is not available. Although I did recently discover that on a 15" R61, at least, it's not a true hardware switch: WiFi can remain active even with the switch "off", it's up to the driver to note the position of the switch and enable/disable RF accordingly.

Anyway, by this point I'm mostly convinced that the current switch design is pretty good -- on all but the 15" R61 / R500, where you can't see what the position the switch is in while using the machine.

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful comments about the switch design.