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Comment by renke1 | Hacker News Reader

I am growing increasingly unhappy with Thinkpads in general, but as far as I know there is no real alternative for TrackPoint users. There are some that have a TrackPoint but they lack three physical mouse button that are in reach of ones thumbs.

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What would be the requirement for someone to build a trackpoint for the Framework laptop? Would they need to design a whole new keyboard plus a touchpad with the three buttons?

I don't really know, but since there are no manufacturers that built good TrackPoints I think its either hard or there really is no demand (sadly more likely).

I don't need a touchpad though. Actually, one of the best laptops I've owned was one without a touchpad [1].

[1]: https://thinkwiki.de/Datei:TP_X60_2.jpg

> I don't really know, but since there are no manufacturers that built good TrackPoints I think its either hard or there really is no demand (sadly more likely).

Those are good points. I'm thinking there could be patents involved too.

> I don't need a touchpad though. Actually, one of the best laptops I've owned was one without a touchpad [1].

That's true! I don't really use the touchpad on my X230, even though it's there.

My Tex Shinobi keyboard has perfect IBM-like trackpoint.

Why are you growing unhappy? (I have a X1 Extreme Gen 1, and Legion 7, and Legion 5 Pro, so I'm curious)

A few things. The newer TrackPoint caps are not good. I actually had to order some 3D printed one from some Japanese guy. Also my Thinkpad T14 is throttling to the extent that I had to install tools [1] (?) that fix this problem. Battery seems to be bad as well. Intel by the way, I wanted to have Thunderbolt for an eGPU.

[1]: https://github.com/erpalma/throttled

Work gave me a dell XPS last year. I had it for a Week and gave it back because when I turned it on. The fans spin full throttle. And the laptop still throttled itself. So I use my X1E for work. The nipple is as good but it’s flat for the thin profile.

I upgraded all 3 laptops with more or better ram, wifi, and ssds. And currently ordering a Traditional Chinese keyboard for the L5P for the wifey. But I took AMD for the legions.

I regret not opting for the Ryzen variant, but I really wanted to replace my old desktop computer for the occasional gaming session (although they are rare these days) and hence the need for Thunderbolt.

> I actually had to order some 3D printed one from some Japanese guy

Thank you for mentioning this alternative! Just found him on Etsy. I have always preferred the old-style concave nibs for TrackPoints over the new convex ones. This will be a serious improvement for my Thinkpad.

It's an improvement but they are not as good as the old ones which were slightly larger.

I still use one of those on my external Thinkpad keyboard.

Soldered Ram.

Oh so dependent on the actual model not ThinkPads themselves.

As far as I've seen nearly all of them have Soldered ram now. Can you point to some that don't?

Some of the latest models in the "classic" lines with one or more RAM slots: P14s Gen 2 AMD/Intel (a.k.a. T14 Gen 2 AMD/Intel); T15 Gen 2 / P15s Gen 2; P15 Gen 2; T15p Gen 2; P1 Gen 4; X1 Extreme Gen 4. Plus some of the slightly more "budget" ones like L14 Gen 2 AMD/Intel and E14 Gen 3 AMD.

Tip: search "<model name> psref" to quickly get to a PDF with specifications.

Bundled spyware. That's why I swore off Lenovo.

I've bought it without any OS installed. But of course the general practice may be good reason to avoid Lenovo (if you can live without a TrackPoint, that is).

Joke's on you, the spyware was in the bootloader =]

Thinkpad TrapPoint :/

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