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Comment by ginko | Hacker News Reader

The new Thinkpads are a huge step backwards however. Lenovo screwed one of the defining qualities of the Thinkpad line by replacing the high-quality keyboards with chiclet island keys that also have a row of keys less than previously.

They also switched from 4:3 to 16:10 and now to 16:9 displays. The only resolution you can get the X-series thinkpads in is 1366x768. At least you can get 1600x900 displays for the T-series. (Which Lenovo ironically calls HD+)

It's almost like Lenovo WANTS me to switch to Apple.

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What problem do you have with the chiclet keyboard on Thinkpad? For me, it is awesome, and ever since I started using one 18 months ago, my laptop buying criteria became "Is it a Thinkpad with chiclet keyboard?"

I am glad Lenovo switched all lines to chiclet keyboard in the latest refresh. I think it is a bold but calculated move.

While I generally prefer the classic keyshapes, my main problem with the new Thinkpad keyboards is the removed row.

Instead of the Insert/Delete/Home/End/PgUp/PgDown key block in the upper right corner, the keys are put into the function key row. This also means that the gaps between F4&F5 and F8&F9 are removed. They also removed the menu key and replaced it with Print for some reason.

With the old Thinkpads, you could just pick them up and start typing without having to learn too many idiosyncrasies of the laptop keymapping. This is not the case anymore. When you work both on a laptop and a regular keyboard, this gets really painful.

Good points. The changing keyboard layout can definitely be a source of frustration. My current Edge 11 has Insert/Delete/Home/End at the upper right corner. In the latest refresh, Lenovo changed the order to be Home/End/Insert/Delete, which in my opinion is less programming friendly.

Anyway, I am getting a E530 with full keypads so hopefully this won't be a problem.

Is there any way to fix the keyboards on the new Thinkpads? I read somewhere about some people replacing the keyboards on the last line of Thinkpads with more robust ones. I was thinking of getting one of the new ones but hearing this stuff about the keyboard is a real turnoff

They also switched from 4:3 to 16:10 and now to 16:9

I like the 16:10, but the drop in screen real estate going to 16:9 is too much for me. I ended up getting a Thinkpad W500 from a Lenovo outlet.

I'm tempted to go buy another and store while there's till a chance new ones can be found.

Looking at the ZaReason offerings I couldn't quite see who they are meant for. Poor resolution, no option for track point, these are not developer machines.

They did post about the screen aspect ratio issues on their blog. The problem is the panel manufacturers prefer those aspect ratios (they get more panels out of 16:9 than 16:10). The estimate was that Lenovo would need an advance order of tens of thousands to get the panel manufacturers to retool for the aspect ratios you and I want.

> It's almost like Lenovo WANTS me to switch to Apple.

Huh? Their 15" is 16:10 too. Lenovo lets you do 1920x1080 on their 15" while the highest resolution from Apple is 1680x1050. (The "HD+" resolution is the lowest Lenovo do, not the highest. Yes their mnemonics are stupid, and thankfully they actually clearly state the resolution these days.)

And the Thinkpads use non-glossy screens. For me that rules out everyone else.

http://blog.lenovo.com/perspectives/display-ratio-change-aga...

>Huh? Their 15: is 16:10 too. Lenovo lets you do 1920x1080 on their 15" while the highest resolution from Apple is 1680x1050.

At least they are 16:10. It's 16:9 all the way with the new Thinkpads. The 1920x1080 resolution is actually a step backwards. I currently own a 1920x1200 W500, sadly with a broken display backlight. Apple's highest resolution at the moment is 2880x1800, which is also 16:10.

I know that they have supply problems. It's just sad that the work-laptop line par-excellence can't even get enough supply for at least 16:10 displays.

The laptops are also getting physically larger. I checked the other day and the 14" T420/430 are ever so slightly larger than my several year old 15" T61, with the 15" T520/530 being quite a bit bigger. This matters because the T61 fits perfectly (just) in my favourite bag.

A few years ago I also bought what were probably the last 1920x1200 desktop monitors.

> sadly with a broken display backlight

Check out the sticky post on notebookreview:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/638662-thinkpad-s...

You can enter you serial number and get the exact part numbers in order to get more, and then there are the hardware maintenance manuals which will tell you how to take everything apart. I've known people repair Lenovos very successfully this way. Your manual is here:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides-and-manuals/detail.pa...

Or you could turn your laptop into a sunlight readable model like Tridge did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cp5EpoVrLs

I've already attempted that. I've replaced the inverter and even the CCFL itself. Neither did help.

Apparently there is a fuse next to the Bluetooth model on the mainboard itself that can blow. In that case the only option is to either solder in a new one or replace the mainboard as a whole. None of them are really options for me.

I currently keep on working on the laptop using the docking station and have an eye out for a possible replacement. I guess that's also part of my current frustration with the new Thinkpad lineup.

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