Comment by Slackwise | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Slackwise | Hacker News Reader

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> I've been asking around, including on HN, whether anyone has experience with Lenovo's chicklet keyboards and whether they've managed to reduce if not remove the suck that I've experienced with other brands' chicklet keyboards.

They are nothing like normal chiclet keyboards.

I too hate chiclet keyboards. I hate laptop keyboards in general. But this keyboard is not as bad as I expected, and if anything, potentially better than the old ThinkPad keyboard.

First off, there is zero sway in the keys. They're typical ThinkPad stiff and sturdy. The travel is the right distance, so is the resistance of the keys. They're so tight that when I was swapping the Ctrl and Fn keys on my X120e, I felt that I was going to shatter them trying to get the keys off. They just wouldn't budge.

And the bigger reason I like these keyboards is, they have curvature, unlike every other chiclet I've ever used.

Most chiclets on PC laptops have zero curvature. Just completely flat, terrible. I can't find my way to the center of the keys, and it makes me furious when I start to typo because of it.

The recent MacBooks are 'okay', but they still don't have enough curvature. It's barely even noticeable, and I typo on MBP keyboards all the time.

You can see the amount of curvature in this picture: http://www.thinkpads.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/lenovo_t...

But I do recommend trying it out yourself. I'm still not sold on chiclet keyboards, but at least Lenovo didn't cheap out and make a crappy one.

Thank you. I'd noticed the appearance of that curvature in some photos.

I'm hoping that I'll find what you described. Good travel and feel. Equal performance when the key is struck off-center. A tactile feel that keeps my fingers positioned and facilitates rapid typing. Keys that don't bottom out at or below the surrounding surface, forcing the user to type "into wells".

However, I still find it hard to convince myself I'll like them.

But... as you say, I'll give it a try. Before purchasing.

Remaining outstanding, my hope that they won't also follow other laptop manufacturers in introducing the "giant shelf" in front of the keyboard, and/or a sharp front edge to same. I can't stand how those press into my wrists particularly when I'm working on a surface that I cannot set to an optimal/ergonomic height (cafe table, conference room table, etc.). (And yes, I've griped about this before, as well. ;-)

They're still not as good as real full-height keyboards, and while they're the best chiclet keyboard I've ever used, I'm not 100% certain I would ever choose them over the old IBM keyboards, or my favorite, the PowerBook G4 keyboard.

But they're not bad, and I definitely don't have a problem with typing on them for extended periods of time. I've spend entire weekends using my X120e, and the keyboard was never annoying or disruptive to my typing.

If this is going to be your primary computer, I wouldn't commit until I've definitely tried them for a while. I actually spent like 30min+ typing on various demo computers at the local shop, just to get a comparable feel. They had multiple Lenovo laptops, and while yea, the big full size keyboard was great, the chiclet keyboard wasn't a problem.

Another reason I bought my X120e is Lenovo didn't skimp out on key size, whereas most netbooks would. All the keys were full size.

So do I regret my decision? No, thankfully.

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