[linguae]

The T420 is the last model to feature the traditional ThinkPad keyboard (except for the special 25th anniversary ThinkPad), though it is possible to install the T420 keyboard in a T430. There is still a segment of ThinkPad users who prefer using the traditional keyboard, and some of them are willing to forego the performance and other features of more recent laptops in order to use the traditional keyboard. There is even a market for modded older ThinkPads with newer components, such as the X62 and x210 projects.

[jart]

This. I bought my ThinkPad T420 around 2011 and have loved it ever since. In many ways, I could feel at the time that it signified both the pinnacle and end of an era. While the keyboard doesn't feel as nice as a model f, or beam spring, there's something to be said about using the red dot as a mouse, the aesthetics, the willingness to have every i/o interface imaginable, e.g. ethernet, wimax, wifi, serial, etc. I hope my T420 lasts forever, since the new ThinkPads come across as a cringeworthy attempt to be Apple, and I never settle for lesser inauthentic forms of things.