ThinkPad USB Keyboard — For the Rest of Us
In my last Mobile Tech Manor column I waxed poetic about the greatness of the ThinkPad keyboards. I guess Lenovo was paying attention, as they have reminded me of their USB version of the ThinkPad keyboard that can bring the comfortable laptop experience I described to the desktop. It uses the same keyboard layout as that found on the T400s notebook, and adds a trackstick pointer to the mix. $59.
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I would feel better if you said it was the keyboard from the T61, or any earlier T series. My new T400 suffers from a “swiss cheese” backing plate, and is way more springy than my older ThinkPad. They may have shaved a few ounces off of the weight, but their reputation has been taking quite a hit for their new keyboards in the T400 series laptops. I still recommend Lenovo, but with more reservation than I did several years ago.
–Ken
Ken, the keyboard in the T400s is a completely new design and has nothing in common with the T400 keyboards. It’s by far the best one I’ve ever had in any ThinkPad (owned T40,42, R61, used a T400, R500 and X300). Actually it’s the best I’ve ever used, period :-)
@ Ken: You’re not alone on that one, believe me. I know lots of users who complain about the T400 keyboard.
The external USB keyboard unfortunately just looks like a ThinkPad keyboard – but it doesn’t feel like one. It might come close, especially because of the extra keys für volume and the Trackpoint, but typing on this external keyboard feels really different.
I’m an avid ThinkPad user (currently a T43, which is just great), so I know what I’m talking about. ;-) When my T43 sits in the dock and is hooked to an external display (like right now), I also use an external keyboard. But it’s not the one mentioned above. It’s – shock – the Apple aluminium keyboard! This is by far the best keyboard I’ve ever typed on. Really. By far. ThinkPad fans don’t like to hear that though…
I have this keyboard and the older Ultranav USB keyboard. There were several versions of the Ultranav dating back to pre-Lenovo days, including PS/2 versions. The best ones, in terms of switch quality, have the “IBM” label on the right side of the palmrest and no Windows keys. I prefer my older ones because the upper row key switches on this current keyboard are made of different (cheap) switches from the rest of the keyboard and they feel just awful. If you use a lot the Fn keys, Esc, Delete, PgUp and PgDn keys you won’t be happy with this. The older ones had a trackpad (aka touchpad) besides the trackpoint (aka eraserhead, etc.) Being a trackpad hater, I simply opened up the keyboards and unplugged the trackpad. I participated in the Lenovo survey that yielded this product — without the trackpad. Besides being adamant about no trackpad I, and other participants, were emphatic about no palmrest. Lenovo didn’t listen on the latter point and the palmrest on this is of the same size as on the older keyboard. In general, dimensions are almost the same. By the way, all of these USB keyboards can be made to work very well on Mac OS X and sensitivity on the trackpoint can be controlled if you buy the SteerMouse utility.