At least for me, TrackPoint is one of those things that once it "clicks" is extremely hard to give up. Working on a laptop without a TrackPoint always feels clumsy and inelegant, even with all the improvements trackpads have seen. There's just something about the combination of a mechanical pointer and where it's placed relative to the keyboard that feels right.

All IBM's original patents on TrackPoint must surely have expired by now, so it always surprised me that we didn't see other OEMs start offering it as an option. There are a couple that have, but only on a few models, and by all accounts non-IBM/Lenovo TrackPoint implementations aren't quite as good for some reason. Disappointing!