New W530 owner - keyboard thoughts

[reemul99]

I've not owned a ThinkPad before.  I had always thought of the IBM/Lenovo laptops as being abit blocky and while possibly useful, not to my taste.

My professional needs have shifted and I needed a new laptop, I did alot of reasearch and located a good fit (on paper).

So I pulled the trigger on a new W530.

then I came across some horror posts about the different kepboard (from the older models) and how much that change sucked and.. and... and...

Well, I have to say that after the Laptopn cleared customs and was unboxed it has become one of my favorite laptopns of all time!  I love the keyobard and the springy-ness that they have as well as the way that they cause my (large) fingers to self-center as I type.

Perhaps because I never owned a previous model or because of other reasons I really dont understand what the griping is about around these new keyboards.

In short, the new keyboard is awesome - the only thing I'd like to have seen is a separate number pad for it on th eright side, but otherwise its good so stop complaining..

[sarbin]

welcome to the community.

thanks for your feedback on the new-style keyboard. i'm sure it'll help prospective purchasers.

re: the numeric keypad, i believe they went away with the w7xx series. big beasts of machines!

cheers

[Fullmetal99012]

Usually only the 17 inch laptops have a seperate number pad.

I know my old (G550 i believe) has a number pad and is only 15.6. I noticed that unlike my former W520, the W530 doesn't have a number pad on the letter keys. as well I don't see a numlock anywhere. the W520 had num,scroll, and caps lock buttons.

I'm pleased with my W530's keyboard so far. I wish I had the backlight, but the thinklight works well enough for me.

[Eclipsed830]

I am also very pleased with the keyboard layout on my W530. The backlighting works perfect also. My only question is what does the button do to the right of the mic mute?

[Pongo]

I just came over from HP Elite books and I love this W530 keyboard. 

My only beef with this laptop is the short ratio of the screen, I so wish it was taller.

[RedEd12 Support Specialist - Retired]

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Eclipsed830 wrote:

I am also very pleased with the keyboard layout on my W530. The backlighting works perfect also. My only question is what does the button do to the right of the mic mute?

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This is the ThinkVantage or Simple Tap button. The ThinkVantage button is usually blue but this button is black on the W530. It brings up LSC options along with commonly used settings and applications. It sort of reminds me of the Android OS such as ICS or Gingerbread.

Cheers,

Ed

[skfurr]

The only complaints I have with the new keyboard are:

1) Insert and delete are not where they used to be (T61p.) Some of us learned cut/copy/paste using Shift-Delete/Ctrl-Insert/Shift-Insert as opposed to Ctrl-X/C/V. It's real easy to try to paste (Shift-Insert) and Cut instead because of the huge Delete key.

2) Page Up/Down are not at top-right anymore, they're where the Previous/Next keys were (with the arrow keys.) That's going to take a while to adjust to.

[RedEd12 Support Specialist - Retired]

I personally like how the page up and down keys are right next to the arrow keys. I feel that the key arrangement makes navigating certain websites, especially blogs and forums, much easier. I can understand your annoyance after being used to the previous keyboard layout though.

I'm sure adaptation will happen quickly

Ed

[bygnth345]

I've used the W530 and I have to say that the keyboard feels better than any other previous thinkpad keyboards. It is better than the W520 keyboard. For the lack of the 7:th row, it's a feature, less finger travel. Besides, you can remap hotkeys anyway you want these days.

But I grew to admire the old look because all the managers and all hot shot salesman at that time used extremely expensive thinkpads and they all had those easily recognizeable keyboards of the past. It was something you looked up to.

Consequentually, when the time came (arguably late) I wouldn't settle for anything less than those bezeled keycaps on that black austere body...If that was due to austetics or me just being silly, well I guess you can judge for yourself.

Anyway, these thinkpad keyboards does not hold a candle to *really* good external keyboards which renders the point moot. No one would mention a thinkpad keyboard when talking about the likes such as the Datahand, IBM model F or M15, Maltron, uTron, any realforce keyboard, Kinesis, etc! Infact, it would be absurd because the thinkpad keyboards kind of sucks.

[bl42ed0]

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bygnth345 wrote:

I've used the W530 and I have to say that the keyboard feels better than any other previous thinkpad keyboards. It is better than the W520 keyboard. For the lack of the 7:th row, it's a feature, less finger travel. Besides, you can remap hotkeys anyway you want these days.

But I grew to admire the old look because all the managers and all hot shot salesman at that time used extremely expensive thinkpads and they all had those easily recognizeable keyboards of the past. It was something you looked up to.

Consequentually, when the time came (arguably late) I wouldn't settle for anything less than those bezeled keycaps on that black austere body...If that was due to austetics or me just being silly, well I guess you can judge for yourself.

Anyway, these thinkpad keyboards does not hold a candle to *really* good external keyboards which renders the point moot. No one would mention a thinkpad keyboard when talking about the likes such as the Datahand, IBM model F or M15, Maltron, uTron, any realforce keyboard, Kinesis, etc! Infact, it would be absurd because the thinkpad keyboards kind of sucks.

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Eh. Why are standalone keyboards brought into a discussion about laptops unless you're using yours in a non-conventional way. Nothing compares to my mechanical keyboard but when it comes to laptop keyboards, Lenovo is way above everything else out there right now IMO.