[linsomniac]

I used to be a Thinkpad die-hard (including both IBM and Lenovo), and as you say the full replacement keyboard was like $30US. And after replacing the keyboard, which I seemed to need to do every 3-ish years, it felt like a new laptop! Plus, the replacement would only take ~5-15 minutes.

Unlike my daughter's friend's Dell, where basically everything had to come out of the laptop to get at the keyboard (battery, speakers, motherboard, etc), AND it was plastic-riveted down. I must have spent 2-4 hours replacing it, because I had to do it twice (for reasons I don't remember).

[drillsteps5]

I love Thinkpads and have a few, but this depends on a model.

Some Thinkpads, more specifically x2xx series (ie x250 - x290) require removing all internals to get to the keyboard to replace it (batteries, storage, wifi, motherboard, speakers, CMOS battery, and a few others). Dell Latitude E5470 on the other hand allows replacing its keyboard by pulling out a small plastic panel and removing one screw.