W540 question yet again - trackpoint mouse button gone?

ok. my brand-new W530 didn't work out for me (Bad LCD) so i'm returning it.

rather than ordering another one, i'm thinking if I should wait for W540 since haswells are being

released everywhere right now.


of all the atrocities Lenovo has done to Thinkpad recently, I think the worst is the elimination of trackpoint

mouse button and integrating it to the touchpad.

does anyone know if this will be the case for W540 as well? This will decide for me if I should get W530 or W540.


i know it's a long shot but does anyone know???

 

I don't believe the trackpoint is being eliminated, but the dedicated mouse buttons for it are being integrated into the touch pad to hopefully make for a larger better touch pad. This would be helpful, particularly on the X series, which suffers from a small touch pad. It wouldn't be my first choice, but I'll reserve judgment until I use one.

 

Hard to say. I hope not on laptops as large as the T430 and T530/W530, but I would imagine it'd be nice for manufacturing cost reduction to use the same interchangeable part between the different models, so the new models could very well have a trackpad with the upper TrackPoint buttons integrated along the top edge.

 

The problem with going with a click pad is most of the ones I've seen tend to be very stiff at the top. The MBA and Toshiba Portege Z would be example of this. If the top of the click pad is stiff, can that be a workable solution? I would say no, but I think I saw somewhere Lenovo was working on fixing that problem. I can't see them doing this on the X series, but not the T or W series. Personally, I'd like to see them have two set ups - one with a keyboard and touch pad, which without the trackpoint, the touch pad can be made bigger and better. The other with the trackpoint and buttons, but no touch pad, which is also more aesthetically pleasing in my opinion.

 

Why is it so hard for lenovo to simply offer two palmrest options for the X/T/W series (excluding the Ultrabooks/X1C)??? One could have the trackpoint and dedicated buttons, the other would have the integrated buttons with trackpad as in the T431s. They're going down the wrong Apple-blazen path if they think proprietary/nonupgradable/noncustomizable laptops are the future. And why the fudge would they change the keyboard? Nothing was wrong with it except the lack of an LED backlight (which doeesn't require a chiclet deisgn). It's almost time for me to speek with my wallet...I'll be required to buy an iPad for my future job, and could make it work as my sole mobile device if these new laptops aren't executed well.

 

The new TrackPad has the same stiffness at the top and bottom. Here you can see the the mechanism underneath:

The T431s isn´t proprietary at all and very upgradeable for an UltraBook.

 

It could be too stiff at the top and bottom, but let's hope you're right.

 

Well, I have found a short video demonstrating the new Trackpad:

I doesn´t look too stiff, but we will see about that.