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Comment by alexbanks | Hacker News Reader

Is it possible to get a ThinkPad without the rubber thing in the center of the keyboard?

Ha, meanwhile I wouldn't buy a ThinkPad (or any other laptop) without it.

As for your question, I've never heard of at least the "real" ThinkPad series laptops (X/W/T/...) sold without the TrackPoint. Does it really bother you when typing? If it's the appearance, you can likely find a black nib for purchase or maybe remove the included nib and blacken it out.

Same. Once I learned how to use it, I can't go back.

Recently my work laptop was switched to a Dell without the nub and I noticed reduced workflow immediately.

I grew up a fan of the track point, back when trackpads were either nonexistent or hot garbage (at least on PC laptops). Which is to say I definitely “learned how to use it”. Then I switched to Mac laptops a decade ago. Since then I’ve got to touch the track point a few more times and it felt so dated. People still tout the precision, but I can get the same level of precision on a quality trackpad, plus much needed fluidity in general, not to mention multitouch gestures.

For me, it's not about precision. With the Trackpoint I can rest my hands on the Keyboard/Homerow and I can use the pointer without having to move my hands at all.

That’s fair. I personally don’t mix typing and trackpad usage very much so that advantage is pretty minimal for me.

I think the advantage is bigger than you believe, and I would bet you mix typing/trackpad more than you believe also.

Could be, but I’m positive that I use gestures more than I mix typing/trackpad, so there’s that.

Overall I think you'd still be faster in keyboard, but gestures and such offer a lot in terms of simplicity which is a fair trade a lot of the time. If your workflow revolves around typing however, I would still put trackpoint above.

As the other commenter said, the benefit comes from keeping your fingers on home-row, not precision.

I'd have to try. It seems really awful from a typing perspective, but everyone's different.

It's excellent for typing, you don't need to leave home row

But....isn't it for the mouse? Why do you use your mouse while typing?

I had to disable the track point in the BIOS of my X1 carbon 5th Gen, otherwise it would completely freeze the OS on Ubuntu 18.04.

I never found a solution for this. I hope they fixed it in the newer gens.

The touchpad was also really annoying when I had to select and scroll.

Apart from that it was a fine laptop, but IMO the XPS 13 is a bit better.

I don't use the trackpoint but it's also never presented even the slightest issue to me when typing.

it's literally the best thing about a Thinkpad. I turn my trackpad off as my first step when getting a new thinkpad.

Why would you want that? Being able to control the mouse cursor without your hands leaving a typing position is great, and the entire point.

You can pull the rubber TrackPoint cover off and disable the sensor in the BIOS, but the trackpads on these laptops aren't always great (at least if you're used to MacBooks). I've learned to like it, but I can see how it might be a dealbreaker for some people.

You can remove it or replace it with a one in a different shape or size.

I'd rather have one without the trackpad (and the backdoor).

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