3 ms·

Is it just me, or did old laptops have better keyboards that the new ones have today? My first laptop was Acer Aspire One (this one [0]). I still have it and I

Is it just me, or did old laptops have better keyboards that the new ones have today? My first laptop was Acer Aspire One (this one [0]). I still have it and I still use it, it's currently running Debian with Xfce. And the keyboard is still the best I've ever used, I genuinely prefer this keyboard over any desktop keyboards that I've tried and I've tried many mechanical including Cherry Brown switches. I get that the very low profile keyboards on modern laptops look nice, but I personally don't use the keyboard for its looks. Not to mention that my cat stepped on the "Enter" key of one of the newer laptops (Acer CB3-431) and she broke the butterfly shaped keycap stabilisation thingy making the button feel very inconsistent. I can't the replacement for just the bit that broke, I have to buy an entire new keyboard for it (~55€). The cat wasn't fat and she has walked over pretty much every keyboard that I've used, but that was the first one that broke... It is this line of thinking that I personally think is the reason why a good number of people like and still use ThinkPads today. [0] https://www.globalmediapro.com/dp/A25LT9/Acer-Aspire-One-AOA-150-Notebook/ https://www.globalmediapro.com/dp/A25LT9/Acer-Aspire-One-AOA...

toyg 5y ago
It's not just looks - newer keys likely use less plastic, because the market is inevitably obsessed with cost-shaving. Less plastic -> increased fragility -> more faults.
- zozbot234 5y ago
  The market is even more obsessed with shaving thickness, and the keyboard must typically sit above the mainboard, heatsinks, speakers etc. which leads to ultra-thin designs for that part. There's no way to make that properly ergonomic, the best you can do is let users cope with a "low travel" design that still provides some feedback to the fingers.
- Joeri 5y ago
  I had a 2015 thinkpad, and even on that model the keycaps were so thin that two keys split in half due to normal use after 5 years. They were so thin that I couldn’t glue them together, and lenovo as it turns out will not sell you replacement keycaps, only replacement keyboards. Luckily there are third parties which sell the keycaps.
ksec 5y ago
I am guessing that is the old 2.5mm key travel Keyboard. Which is practically speaking extinct. Even 1.8mm is on the verge of disappearing. Most now ship with 1.5mm or 1.3mm. But some people somehow liked the butterfly keyboard with only 0.7mm but later reverted back to 1mm. Personally 1.2mm was the minimum amount of key travel I could handle before a pain signal constantly sent to the back of my brain. But the world loves to follow Apple, rightly or not. Hence we are getting thinner keyboard.

toyg 5y ago

It's not just looks - newer keys likely use less plastic, because the market is inevitably obsessed with cost-shaving. Less plastic -> increased fragility -> more faults.

zozbot234 5y ago
The market is even more obsessed with shaving thickness, and the keyboard must typically sit above the mainboard, heatsinks, speakers etc. which leads to ultra-thin designs for that part. There's no way to make that properly ergonomic, the best you can do is let users cope with a "low travel" design that still provides some feedback to the fingers.
Joeri 5y ago
I had a 2015 thinkpad, and even on that model the keycaps were so thin that two keys split in half due to normal use after 5 years. They were so thin that I couldn’t glue them together, and lenovo as it turns out will not sell you replacement keycaps, only replacement keyboards. Luckily there are third parties which sell the keycaps.

ksec 5y ago

I am guessing that is the old 2.5mm key travel Keyboard. Which is practically speaking extinct. Even 1.8mm is on the verge of disappearing. Most now ship with 1.5mm or 1.3mm. But some people somehow liked the butterfly keyboard with only 0.7mm but later reverted back to 1mm. Personally 1.2mm was the minimum amount of key travel I could handle before a pain signal constantly sent to the back of my brain. But the world loves to follow Apple, rightly or not. Hence we are getting thinner keyboard.