Lenovo has removed the TrackPoint nub from new ThinkPad laptops

Kind of a weirdly written article. Only one model removed the nub, and it's from one of its "we're trying to be MacBook" lines (the X line, like the Z line, are more about form than function). And all that tech shipped in its other lines for a while, afaik.

I recently sold a Z13 because it had so many quirks (low battery life due to OLED, trackpad and trackpoint were crap, bluetooth barely worked through the dense metal chassis, display didn't fold down 180 degrees, felt heavy af).

I got a T14s instead. Holy crap, it is so much better. Feels lighter, the touchpad and trackpoint are great, 500nits low-energy display is "ok" but battery can last all day. I use the trackpoint all the time (partly due to the touchpad drifting for some reason, and partly just to have a more precise pointer for fine work). The only downside is the lack of more USB-C ports.

A random upside if you order it with Ubuntu: it comes with Secure Boot set up correctly. But then a downside: Linux kernel prevents hibernate from working if Secure Boot is enabled, unless you set up an encrypted swap and jump through hoops to set up the bootloader right (and of course it's not set up on Ubuntu). I can't believe it's still such a pain to get otherwise-standard laptop functionality with Linux.

The real tragedy is the omission of top TrackPad buttons.

Middle-click paste is widely used in Linux, and while I tried mouse emulators with limited success, it sure is good to have a physical button at your thumb. With a tiling window manager, you can copy (by visual select depending on the application) and paste (middle-click) without ever leaving your home row across multiple windows. This is a serious work flow tool in REPL.

Moreover the new haptic feedback they got on button-less TrackPads have motors etc which are not as reliable as million-click-tested ThinkPads' physical buttons.

Laptops are the tools of our trade, and unfortunately, we cannot make too many compromises, especially for the sake of trendy aesthetics. If ThinkPads want to be MacBooks, then we might as well buy MacBooks; indeed, many of us already do. Almost a decade ago, Lenovo already made a similar mistake with 2nd generation Carbon X1 (and some T series) and they had to revert back. Having a diversity in the market place is important, and I surely hope Lenovo keeps ThinkPads as uniquely performant as they have been since the IBM days.

> Does that mean the TrackPoint is dead? No, thankfully. It will still appear in the other ThinkPads made by Lenovo, said a company spokesman.

This is not about the death of the nub, but about how far the Thinkpad brand name can be diluted.

I hate the keyboard in the photo (ThinkPad Aura Edition). It has no gap between F4/F5 keys and F8/F9 keys. It has no Right Ctrl, which I use frequently for keyboard shortcuts, especially because I use Dvorak (e.g. Ctrl+C/V/S/T). It has tiny Up/Down arrow keys. I care a lot about how the keys feel to my fingers without visually looking at the labels.

For reference, I own and use the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 for many years, and the ThinkPad X220 for many years before that. The keyboard layout on both of these are more agreeable to me, albeit not perfect (e.g. X1C7 dropped the Context Menu key, which I actually use on computers where it's available; X1C7 doesn't have dedicated volume up/down keys unlike the X220).

I detest the 20-year-long trend of computer manufacturers messing with laptop and desktop keyboard layouts, chasing after sleekness or the latest fashion trends to the detriment of typists. I love laptop keyboards that differ from desktop keyboards as little as possible. I love standard 104-key keyboards on desktop and hate anything that messes this up. These details matter a lot to me as a touch typist, and as some who uses those keys that many manufacturers have implicitly deemed "useless" by their removal (e.g. Home, End, Right Ctrl, Right Windows, Context Menu).

Back to the article though, I used TrackPoint a lot on X220 because it functioned better than the touchpad. The X1C7 has TrackPoint but the motion feels unnatural to me, so I end up using the touchpad instead (which has improved over the X220). I was able to use the center button as middle click on X220 but there is no software to support that feature on the X1C7; maybe this is related to the TrackPoint vendor changing from Synaptics to Elan. Either way, I wish Lenovo made a ThinkPad that has both a good TrackPoint and a good touchpad; they were clearly capable of doing it in the past but have regressed.

That’s the whole point of buying a Thinkpad. I will never buy a Thinkpad ever without a Trackpoint.

The only reason we buy Thinkpads, is because of the trackpoint and the 3 buttons. They could remove the trackpad, we disable it anyway.

I do hope other manufacturers will fill this gap. Lenovo's quality has been going downhill.

Typing this on a Lenovo Thinkpad P16 gen2

Only a handful of classic Lenovo devices (e.g. X230) achieved "aftermarket ecosystem" status, where enthusiasts and repair shops have kept devices working 10+ years after launch, sometimes with screen or other upgrades. How did the Thinkpad 25th anniversary edition fare for laptop longevity? Have any recent Thinkpad models gained "collector item" status?

There are external Lenovo USB keyboards with Trackpoints. If Lenovo wants to copy Apple, they could make a detachable $300 MagicTrackPoint keyboard for 2-in-1 Lunar Lake devices.

Always loved the TrackPoint and only buy ThinkPads for that feature alone.

Maybe I'm getting older, or lazier, but these days I usually carry around a small mouse just in case I need to do some pointer navigation. Can't stand using a touchpad and always disable it.

The real problem with thinkpads is that the 14" is still stuck with that 55Wh battery in the service of shaving a fraction of a pound, while cheaper 14" laptops have 75+Wh batteries that last considerably longer.

Funny, I have a HP DevOne, a Linux-first, Ryzen-powered laptop they made in collaboration with System76, that has both the trackpad and trackpoint, when neither HP nor System76 usually include a trackpoint in their laptops.

Sadly they sold out of their first production run and haven't released a sequel, and even the one I have I had to have shipped to a cousin in the US because they didn't sell it internationally (I actually buy all my non-Mac laptops in the US because I can't stand the crackpot British keyboard layout).

I guess the writing is on the wall, and Lenovo has been slowly decontenting the ThinkPad, starting with the keyboards. I don't know that there is any brand that differentiates itself on premium hardware, other than Razer but their Linux support is iffy and their battery life an afterthought.

Oh, and I really liked trackballs back when thin-and-light wasn't such an obsession and Powerbooks had them like my 180c.

For those of us who find the Trackpoint handy sometimes, Lenovo sells a standalone wireless keyboard based on their Thinkpad keyboards with a Trackpoint and three buttons. It works via Bluetooth, RF dongle or wired USB and has a switch for PC and Android compatibility.

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-TrackPoint-Keyboard-4... (if the link someday dies, it's Lenovo Model #4Y40X49493)

Like many on HN, I'm keyboard-obsessive, preferring customized split mechanical keybs for desktop daily driving. But I have a few of these Thinkpad wireless keyboards too because they're small, portable and, with the Trackpoint, ideal for places a larger keyboard and mouse won't fit or isn't always needed. I keep one in our home theater, tucked in my lounger's armrest for when I need to enter an app account/password into an Android TV streaming box or game console (it's insane that most streaming apps still don't receive input from the device's system-wide voice typing).

I keep another one in our arcade room where there's a custom arcade cabinet for emulation with a PC inside. With all the arcade controls on the cabinet, there's not much room to put a keyboard when I need to install a new emulator or tweak something. Next to that I have a virtual pinball cabinet with another PC inside. The Thinkpad wireless is great for configuring stuff without opening the cabinets, messing with wires or a separate mouse. It's small, thin and light but has a full standard PC layout with Ctrl, Alt, Win, Esc and direct function keys yet doesn't feel awful like so many portable mini-keyboards. It also has auto-off, holds a charge for a long time, stores the USB RF dongle internally and falls back to wired so it always works.

I feel the trackpoint is less relevant today on laptops considering designs like MacBook Pro or these Aura laptops that have massive touchpads that are easily reachable without much hand movement. I can mouse with my thumb on a MacBook trackpad without much downward shift in hand position, and I find that a faster and more accurate pointing device compared to the trackpoint.

The place I really want the trackpoint is on my Glove80 or Kinesis Advantage, with these ergo desktop split keyboards I really never want to move my hand to the mouse, yet there’s no easy way to get a trackpoint. For a while I lived with an Apple touchpad in between my glove80 splits but it doesn’t seem any quicker or more ergonomic than a good mouse, although it is a bit more compact. I would love to see a stand alone trackpoint stick “mouse” that could easily be adapted to a desktop ergo keyboard. The happy hacking keyboard has a variant with a trackpoint, but it’s hardly ergonomic and is missing various modifiers.