Laptops with nice keyboards (e.g. Thinkpads)

By jordan.
in Hardware Hangout

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Experienced

jordan.

Posted
Posted

Anyone know of other laptops that have nice keyboards like Lenovo Thinkpads? I'm not a fan of these chiclet keyboards that seem to be showing up everywhere I go now. I may just go for a Thinkpad if I have to but they are a bit pricey for me right now so a cheaper alternative would be nice.

Thanks,

Jordan

Grand Master

TEX4S

Posted
Posted

Thats a good question. ThinkPads are known for their keyboards (as well as being built like a tank) - I am about to buy a zenbook for my fiance - and everything about the thing is amazing - except for the keyboard.

Older laptops had good keyboards - but now when trying to shrink everything - they have changed one of the most important parts for the worse.

What about an older ThinkPad ? I have a 1 1/2 year old ThinkPad T410, I'd certainly like to have a core i5, but I can tell you its plenty fast with a Patriot Inferno 120GB SSD, & 8 GB RAM.

Grand Master

cork1958

Posted
Posted

I have a Thinkpad and personally, I can't stand any laptop keyboard or that crappy touchpad!!

If I'm setting around the house on a laptop, you can bet I have a usb keyboard and mouse plugged. Don't really care for wireless devices either.

Feel like I'm paraplegic using a laptop keyboard!! :s

Experienced

jordan.

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thats a good question. ThinkPads are known for their keyboards (as well as being built like a tank) - I am about to buy a zenbook for my fiance - and everything about the thing is amazing - except for the keyboard.

Older laptops had good keyboards - but now when trying to shrink everything - they have changed one of the most important parts for the worse.

What about an older ThinkPad ? I have a 1 1/2 year old ThinkPad T410, I'd certainly like to have a core i5, but I can tell you its plenty fast with a Patriot Inferno 120GB SSD, & 8 GB RAM.

What processor and other specs does it have?

My HP's keyboard flows extremely nice. The edges of the keys are filleted down which provides an easy transition across keys.

What model HP?

Grand Master

TEX4S

Posted
Posted

What processor and other specs does it have?

Its a 14" (1440x900) LCD - it came with the typical 7200RPM HDD and 2GB RAM - the SSD & 8GB were upgrades. Other than that - not sure what specs there are. I mean it has about a 4 hr battery (3 hr if set on performance)

the speakers suck, screen isnt all that great - its a ThinkPad :D But if you drop it, just pick it up and keep going - its fine !

I guess before I could recommend a ThinkPad - I'd have to know what you will be using it for. Although they are legendary for stability and reliability - they suck if you're looking for something to game, listen to lossless audio, or watch Blu-Ray.

If you want something rugged, reliable, and worthy of its reputation - then go for it. You can get a T60 (2 models ago ~3 years) for about $250-$300.

Experienced

jordan.

Posted
  • Author
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Yeah my last laptop was a Thinkpad W500 that I had for just over 3 years. I beat the hell out of that thing but what killed it was knocking over a glass of water that splashed up against the side where the air vent and ports are. I'd love to buy another but new ones are out of my budget right now. I'll check eBay.

Grand Master

Arceles

Posted
Posted

The newer HPs with metallic palmrest have a very nice keyboard, the only defect? they frigging shrunk the up and down arrows, which is a massive let down for me but overall is a solid keyboard.... I just have to use the numeric pad as proper arrows (changing the alternate 5 function -Clear- to a down arrow with Autohotkey)

Proficient

grunger106

Posted
Posted

Current Thinkpad deals

14.1" T410 i7 for ~?650 (I can't recall the exact price but it was there or thereabouts)

12.1" X201T i5 convertable tablet ?499

Ebay wise you can pickup a T400 for sub ?300, and a T61 for sub ?200, or on the smaller side you can get an X61 for ?150 or a X200 for ?250ish, stick in an SSD and they fly....

That said, you could replace the board in that W500 for around ?150 too....

Nothing beats a Thinkpad :)

Grand Master

satukoro

Posted
Posted

What processor and other specs does it have?

What model HP?

I have an HP g70t-200 CSO, and my mom's dv6t has the same keyboard. I can't stand the keyboards that have separated, squared-off keys because my fingers get stuck on them (my brother has a laptop like this).
Grand Master

+Fahim S. MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

I have a Thinkpad Edge as my personal laptop (i3, upgraded to 8GB RAM and an 96GB Kingston V+100 SSD) which has a chiclet keyboard and a X220 (i5, 4GB RAM and 250GB HDD 7200RPM) as my work machine which has the traditional keyboard.

The chiclet keyboard's surprisingly good to type on (best chiclet keyboard by a long way in my experience because the keys have more travel and a more curved shape), but the traditional keyboard is still marginally better.

So my top 3 are 1) Thinkpad 2) Thinkpad 3) Thinkpad... but I might be a little biased...

Grand Master

goretsky Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
Posted

Hello,

Have you looked into purchasing a unit from the Lenovo Outlet Store or a IBM Certified Pre-owned Laptop store? Either of those might allow you to pick up a unit for less than retail. You can also look around for online coupons on places like RetailMeNot and LogicBuy to help get the price down from Lenovo's regular online store.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

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