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The corner cutting seems to have started the moment IBM sold ThinkPad to Lenovo. The fact that ThinkPad used to sell laptop keyboards for desktop use, says it a

The corner cutting seems to have started the moment IBM sold ThinkPad to Lenovo. The fact that ThinkPad used to sell laptop keyboards for desktop use, says it all: http://www.notebookreview.com/picture/?f=48072 http://www.notebookreview.com/picture/?f=48072 It didn't take more than a couple of years before Lenovo discontinued this gem either; in favor of a cheaper alternative (in terms of production cost).

tristor 5y ago
Everyone knew this was going to happen as soon as the sale was announced. Say what you want about IBM, for decades it was a company run by and for engineers, which meant that things like quality and tolerances were important product requirements, and they sold it to an entity essentially created to do acquisitions of IBM IP based out of China so it could be manufactured more cheaply. Lenovo did exactly what every expected, and it's honestly a miracle that modern Thinkpads are as good as they are, because they still stand neck and neck with Dell, where by all expectations they should be scraping the barrel.
- bjarneh 5y ago
  > Everyone knew this was going to happen as soon as the sale was announced. At least I feared this would happen; sad to see how it all went downhill. To be honest I think the brand still sells products based on that feeling you got when you bought a ThinkPad 15-20 years ago. It was so sturdy, so nice to type on; everything just felt so solid. That is certainly why I've stayed loyal to that brand.
necovek 5y ago
They still make and sell a T-based laptop keyboard in the form of https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/keyboards-and-mice/keyboards/4y40x49493 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/keyb... They always had silly, hard-to-search-for names (it seems the variants I have are called "Thinkpad Compact USB Keyboard with Trackpoint" and "Thinkpad Compact Bluetooth Keyboard with Trackpoint"): https://support.lenovo.com/nl/en/solutions/pd026745 https://support.lenovo.com/nl/en/solutions/pd026745, https://support.lenovo.com/de/en/solutions/pd026744 https://support.lenovo.com/de/en/solutions/pd026744 While they are not original T keyboards, they are supposed to match more recent T layouts. At some point, they had bluetooth and USB variants (I've got 5-ish of them around the house, I love the trackpoint for HTPC use), but this seems to be a newer iteration of those.
- bjarneh 5y ago
  Yes, but they really shouldn't have touched the original design; it was just right. I haven't seen those later models in person, but when I worked as a consultant 16 years ago in Oslo, we had 2 guys in my company that lugged that original ThinkPad keyboard around to every assignment they got.

tristor 5y ago

Everyone knew this was going to happen as soon as the sale was announced. Say what you want about IBM, for decades it was a company run by and for engineers, which meant that things like quality and tolerances were important product requirements, and they sold it to an entity essentially created to do acquisitions of IBM IP based out of China so it could be manufactured more cheaply. Lenovo did exactly what every expected, and it's honestly a miracle that modern Thinkpads are as good as they are, because they still stand neck and neck with Dell, where by all expectations they should be scraping the barrel.

bjarneh 5y ago
> Everyone knew this was going to happen as soon as the sale was announced. At least I feared this would happen; sad to see how it all went downhill. To be honest I think the brand still sells products based on that feeling you got when you bought a ThinkPad 15-20 years ago. It was so sturdy, so nice to type on; everything just felt so solid. That is certainly why I've stayed loyal to that brand.

necovek 5y ago

They still make and sell a T-based laptop keyboard in the form of https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/keyboards-and-mice/keyboards/4y40x49493 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/keyb... They always had silly, hard-to-search-for names (it seems the variants I have are called "Thinkpad Compact USB Keyboard with Trackpoint" and "Thinkpad Compact Bluetooth Keyboard with Trackpoint"): https://support.lenovo.com/nl/en/solutions/pd026745 https://support.lenovo.com/nl/en/solutions/pd026745, https://support.lenovo.com/de/en/solutions/pd026744 https://support.lenovo.com/de/en/solutions/pd026744 While they are not original T keyboards, they are supposed to match more recent T layouts. At some point, they had bluetooth and USB variants (I've got 5-ish of them around the house, I love the trackpoint for HTPC use), but this seems to be a newer iteration of those.

bjarneh 5y ago
Yes, but they really shouldn't have touched the original design; it was just right. I haven't seen those later models in person, but when I worked as a consultant 16 years ago in Oslo, we had 2 guys in my company that lugged that original ThinkPad keyboard around to every assignment they got.