Yes, why? I'm shocked and disappointed. The keyboard layout was a big differentiator for Lenovo. What happened to the argument that escape and delete should be larger because they are used more often?
I've had a lot of difficulty locating a laptop with a keyboard I like. Even the "full size" ones with a numpad built in tend to have what I find to be awkwardly placed Home, End, Page Up, or Page Down buttons, or make them inaccessible except by using a Fn key combo.
Seems like the only real solution anymore is to buy a good external keyboard and carry it around with me.
The quality and layout of a keyboard can be just as important as any other defining feature of a laptop. You should not project your lack of preference in the matter on someone else and then call them hysterical.
Yes I should. The new Thinkpad keyboard is virtually indistinguishable from the old Thinkpad keyboard in terms of how it feels except for the different layout. The different location of certain function keys is something you quickly get used to if you decide not to be butthurt about it. To have your productivity affected by the switch to the new Thinkpad keyboard really does require some sort of mental disorder.
(The current Thinkpad keyboard on the T420 and friends isn't an "authentic" Thinkpad keyboard experience anyway.)
I asked about this here, recently, and had one qualified reassuring comment. But, in my reading of it, not unqualified.
I'll have to get my hands on one, to assess for myself.
Given that, my comment is a bit extreme and "cart before the horse"; nonetheless, I feel this is a physical example of what I've also been experiencing in web design: Some designers ("design ueber alles") need to... well, to avoid the harsh language, stop making my and others' lives miserable.
A LOT of people have expressed a lot of loyalty to the ThinkPad line specifically with respect to their keyboards. Also, with older or "upgrade" models, with respect to their displays.
What's under the hood is all fine and dandy, but some people feel and realize the paramount importance of the physical interfaces they use to the devices -- 8, 10, 12 hours a day, at times.
I'd seriously like Lenovo to speak -- in detail -- to their decision to go "chicklet" with the keyboards and whether/how they attempted to address the concerns of those seeking and loyal to their "legendary" keyboard feel.
P.S. Here's the response I received to concern I expressed a couple of weeks ago. It's more positive than I recalled, and I'm grateful for the reassurance. Nonetheless, I won't be comfortable until have a chance to try one -- more extensively than "glued to a shelf in a store".
I've used the X120e keyboard too. You can count me as another enthusiastic supporter of at least its equality with previous Thinkpad keyboards. I type a lot on it. It is definitely not worse. The force curves are disturbingly similar. If you press a key on an X120e and W520 and compare (which I'm doing as I write this post), you'll find the main noticeable difference in the sound the key makes. If you put the X120e force curve on keys that looked and sounded like the W520 keys, none of the Thinkpad keyboard complainers would notice the difference. If you put that keyboard side by side with an actual W520 keyboard and called the new version a "snappier" response to the Thinkpad keyboard (and possibly made some implications that it harkened back to the older Thinkpad keyboards), people would say they liked it and that this is what the Thinkpad is all about.