What are your impressions of the keyboard and trackpad on the toughbooks?

After a lot of research, I have my laptop options narrowed down to three. One of the contenders is a Toughbook F9. As a lot of you have found, it is pretty difficult to get your hands on a toughbook before buying so I am trying to get some feedback from users.

I am currently using a Lenovo T500 and really like the keyboard, trackpad, and trackpoint. My new purchase will travel with me and the T500 will be retired to a docking stating at the office.

I really like the lightweight and durability of the F9; however, I have not heard much about the keyboard and trackpad. The one review I found that mentioned them stated that the trackpad was small and took a little getting used to.

I know the F9's setup may differ from yours; however, in general, do you like the toughbook keyboard and circular trackpad?

 

Compared to the old IBM laptops, I owuld rate the TB keyboards I have used as OK, not the equal of an IBM keyboard, by any means. If Lenovo uses the same, then you will have to get used to somewhat lighter and flimsier keyboards.

That said, the other advantages of a TB more than outweigh any KB disadvantage there might be - in my mind, asyway.

 

Here are some things on the fully rugged machines to consider!:

1) The touchpads are NOT responsive to the electrodes in your fingers, but to touch ENTIRELY
2) The touchpads are NOT as sensitive as normal laptops BECAUSE OF THIS
3) The touchpads in the fully rugged's are DESIGNED to use while being WET or with GLOVES ON.

With that being said: I have had NUMEROUS customers complaining about the sensitivity and NOT being sensitive enough because they have a wimpy, girl like touch (my opinions ). HOWEVER! These fully rugged's are DESIGNED to be used by people with gloves on or with it being wet (Have you ever put a little bit of water on a normal touchpad? It goes CRAZY and doesn't work because it messes with the electrodes in your fingers, the fully rugged's won't do that)

ALSO: Lannyboy made a program called mousespeed3 becuase he was tired of the mouse not being sensitive enough. You can download that HERE


As far as the keyboards are concerned, I would say that EVERYONE on here would agree with me in staying away from the rubber ones (unless you will need to keep sand and dirt out from under the keys) and go with a normal one or an emissive backlit one (You can purchase the emissive ones HERE)

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the feedback and concise yet helpful overview of the fully rugged machines. I have not had the chance to look at the full rugged machines up close before; however, they seem to be in a unique class of their own for sure.

The F9 I am looking at is business rugged so I imagine that there is probably an increase in sensitivity on the touchpad; although, the F9's touchpad looks a bit on the smallish side.

 

Yes. ONLY the fully rugged's have the touchpad that is touch sensitive... the semi rugged and business rugged machines touchpads are just like normal laptops.

 

Yes My CF-51 is like normal computers but the CF-29 I had to get use to. I also was like the rest of those guys thinking it was broke or on it's last leg. Either way you will enjoy whatever you get to the point you venture off to the other models. We are not held responsible if you end up with 5 in 6 months.

 

5 in 6 months....sounds like toughbooks can be an addiction! I appreciate all of the feedback from folks. My only concerns with the F9 are that the touchpad will be small, the keyboard slightly smaller than what I am used to, and that in a business rugged design, I may be overpaying for the level of ruggedness relative to its competitors.

I know when it comes to the fully rugged models, nothing can touch the toughbook in terms of durability and functionality; however, I am a little concerned that the business rugged may not be that much more rugged than the other options and doesn't have quite as many options for upgrades.

On the other hand, I have always wanted a toughbook....

 

Or if you are Rick, Connor, Mnmenth, or me, you will end up with over a hundred in 6 months and make a business outta buying and selling them

 

Not saying you should try what you see on YouTube, but from normal people standpoint dropping them from off a desk or conference table It beats competitors. You can hot swap Hard Drive caddy's letting you run XP, Umbundu, Windows 7 independently from each other.

 

Would it be possible to use the hot swap feature to use an SSD for daily work things and then swap it back to the standard 320 HDD included for storage of media and other things that take up a lot of space but aren't needed on a regular basis?

In that scenario, would I need to purchase an additional license for Windows 7 if I wanted to run 7 on both? Would swapping back and forth be pretty easy once each disk had an operating system?

I am thinking that adding another stick of 4gb of RAM would be about the only other upgrade I could do or would want to do .

 

Wait a minute here! You can NOT HOT SWAP the hard drives!!! Only the optical/2nd bay parts!

 

That is good to know, thanks

 

You beat me to it.

 

Ah never mind I thought all did that!

 

So I spent a little time (actually a lot of time) on youtube last night watching toughbook videos including a few torture tests on F8s. I have to say, it's hard to watch those and not want to buy a toughbook. I think I am down to either the F9 or the Elitebook 8440w.

Thanks for all of the input thus far, it has been really helpful.