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Any chance for a keyboard with a trackpoint and its 3 buttons in the future? A lot of us, addicted to the trackpoint, are not liking some directions Lenovo hav

Any chance for a keyboard with a trackpoint and its 3 buttons in the future? A lot of us, addicted to the trackpoint, are not liking some directions Lenovo have taken in the recent years.

eikenberry 5y ago
+1, please consider offering this. A track point and 3 real buttons are so much nicer than a trackpad. At least to some of us. ThinkPads success seems to indicate there are a lot of us.
- nrp 5y ago
  A touchpad with buttons is something that we have explored, and is in theory a replacement module we can create. Inserting a track point would be much more challenging from a cost and engineering feasibility standpoint. We may have underestimated the level of interest around track point...
  - JoshTriplett 5y ago
    At the moment, there are exactly two things stopping me from jumping on this: 1) 3 buttons at the top of the mousepad, ideally contoured to be comfortable and easily differentiated. 2) A 3+ year warranty, rather than just 1 year. The screen and the high-end internals are really grabbing me.
    - elric 5y ago
      Their warranty is utterly ridiculous. Even the EU mandates 2+years for all consumer electronics. I'm not expecting Next Business On Site warranty from a new company (though that would be nice...), but an option for at least 3 years is the very minimum for me.
      - nrp 5y ago
        We'll certainly be complying with EU warranty requirements before we start selling there. For longer warranties in general, that is something we would like to do. We're giving ourselves some time in market in order to price it appropriately, but since our product is easy to repair, we believe our costs for supporting warranties will be lower than it would be for less repairable products.
        JoshTriplett 5y ago
        > We're giving ourselves some time in market in order to price it appropriately, but since our product is easy to repair, we believe our costs for supporting warranties will be lower than it would be for less repairable products. Absolutely. In particular, I wouldn't expect an "at-home service" warranty this early in the life of your company, for such an easily repaired laptop. Rather, I'd expect a warranty in which you cross-ship a replacement part, provide instructions to replace it, and say "just put the old part back in the box we shipped you the replacement in and drop it in your outgoing mail".
  - silon42 5y ago
    2 buttons + trackpoint in the middle would be a viable alternative IMO.
  - ghosty141 5y ago
    Trackpoints are still very beloved in the thinkpad-scene and among (for the lack of a better word) "nerds". This community is not represented on youtube etc. so I guess that's why we don't hear about the interest in trackspoints that much.
  - Nrbelex 5y ago
    Joining the chorus of those asking for a trackpoint equivalent and a larger gamut screen option. Love what you're doing and would buy today if those two issues were addressed.
  - VeloMoto 5y ago
    As someone with experience looking into touchpad hardware are there any options that compare to the features and functionality of a mac? As a predominantly windows based user every time I use a mac touchpad I'm blown away the fluidity and features like the psuedo-click. I've been eagerly awaiting windows compatible hardware of the same quality and functionality.
  - eikenberry 5y ago
    I'd be 100% happy with 3 buttons and no touchpad. My thinkpads have had their touchpads disabled every since they added them.
- trulyme 5y ago
  As a counterpoint, I love ThinkPads but never understood the appeal of the track point. I don't mind it being there of course, but it is not a reason to prefer one laptop to another, and definitely not the reason I like ThinkPads.
  - kk6mrp 5y ago
    I normally don't ever use it however I discovered in some areas I work it is necessary. Attempting to use the trackpad results in the cursor jumping around the screen and the only thing I can figure is that there is electrical interference messing with it.
JoshTriplett 5y ago
With or without a trackpoint, I'd really love to have buttons above the trackpad. I can't stand tap-to-click, and I feel much more comfortable on a laptop with buttons. Everything else about this laptop looks great, especially the 3:2 screen aspect ratio.
michalf6 5y ago
+1, trackpoint is keeping me vendor-locked to Lenovo. It's just too useful for text editing to pass up. And it must have 3 buttons, middle button is essential for scrolling.

Any chance for a keyboard with a trackpoint and its 3 buttons in the future? A lot of us, addicted to the trackpoint, are not liking some directions Lenovo have taken in the recent years.

eikenberry 5y ago

+1, please consider offering this. A track point and 3 real buttons are so much nicer than a trackpad. At least to some of us. ThinkPads success seems to indicate there are a lot of us.

nrp 5y ago
A touchpad with buttons is something that we have explored, and is in theory a replacement module we can create. Inserting a track point would be much more challenging from a cost and engineering feasibility standpoint. We may have underestimated the level of interest around track point...
- JoshTriplett 5y ago
  At the moment, there are exactly two things stopping me from jumping on this: 1) 3 buttons at the top of the mousepad, ideally contoured to be comfortable and easily differentiated. 2) A 3+ year warranty, rather than just 1 year. The screen and the high-end internals are really grabbing me.
  - elric 5y ago
    Their warranty is utterly ridiculous. Even the EU mandates 2+years for all consumer electronics. I'm not expecting Next Business On Site warranty from a new company (though that would be nice...), but an option for at least 3 years is the very minimum for me.
    - nrp 5y ago
      We'll certainly be complying with EU warranty requirements before we start selling there. For longer warranties in general, that is something we would like to do. We're giving ourselves some time in market in order to price it appropriately, but since our product is easy to repair, we believe our costs for supporting warranties will be lower than it would be for less repairable products.
      - JoshTriplett 5y ago
        > We're giving ourselves some time in market in order to price it appropriately, but since our product is easy to repair, we believe our costs for supporting warranties will be lower than it would be for less repairable products. Absolutely. In particular, I wouldn't expect an "at-home service" warranty this early in the life of your company, for such an easily repaired laptop. Rather, I'd expect a warranty in which you cross-ship a replacement part, provide instructions to replace it, and say "just put the old part back in the box we shipped you the replacement in and drop it in your outgoing mail".
- silon42 5y ago
  2 buttons + trackpoint in the middle would be a viable alternative IMO.
- ghosty141 5y ago
  Trackpoints are still very beloved in the thinkpad-scene and among (for the lack of a better word) "nerds". This community is not represented on youtube etc. so I guess that's why we don't hear about the interest in trackspoints that much.
- Nrbelex 5y ago
  Joining the chorus of those asking for a trackpoint equivalent and a larger gamut screen option. Love what you're doing and would buy today if those two issues were addressed.
- VeloMoto 5y ago
  As someone with experience looking into touchpad hardware are there any options that compare to the features and functionality of a mac? As a predominantly windows based user every time I use a mac touchpad I'm blown away the fluidity and features like the psuedo-click. I've been eagerly awaiting windows compatible hardware of the same quality and functionality.
- eikenberry 5y ago
  I'd be 100% happy with 3 buttons and no touchpad. My thinkpads have had their touchpads disabled every since they added them.
trulyme 5y ago
As a counterpoint, I love ThinkPads but never understood the appeal of the track point. I don't mind it being there of course, but it is not a reason to prefer one laptop to another, and definitely not the reason I like ThinkPads.
- kk6mrp 5y ago
  I normally don't ever use it however I discovered in some areas I work it is necessary. Attempting to use the trackpad results in the cursor jumping around the screen and the only thing I can figure is that there is electrical interference messing with it.

JoshTriplett 5y ago

With or without a trackpoint, I'd really love to have buttons above the trackpad. I can't stand tap-to-click, and I feel much more comfortable on a laptop with buttons. Everything else about this laptop looks great, especially the 3:2 screen aspect ratio.

michalf6 5y ago

+1, trackpoint is keeping me vendor-locked to Lenovo. It's just too useful for text editing to pass up. And it must have 3 buttons, middle button is essential for scrolling.