These are Thinkpads. I recently bought a non-Thinkpad Lenovo (y50-70 gaming laptop) and it's a piece of crap. The keyboard and touchpad are mediocre, fans are pretty loud under load, the numlock key has fallen off (!), and it sometimes just powers off for no reason. It costs 40% of what a comparable MacBook Pro would cost, but it is unfortuantely reflected in quality.
The new lenovo thinkpads are nearly as bad. I'm an x series user, the last model with a good keyboard for programming was the x220.
From the x230 onwards they have stupid chicklet keys, no visual representation of caps lock or numlock, bad trackpads, and 'modal' function keys - (visually represesented with LEDs of course). Abandoning traditional insert/delete/home/end/pgup/pgdn layout.
Superfish on thinkpads, this battery thing, this bios thing:
I really don't mind the keyboard on my X230. Then again, I don't see the point of caps lock or trackpads. The layout is a bit annoying when I switch back and forth to a T61, but that's due to the difference rather than inherent superiority. If the keyboard dies, I will obviously consider replacing it with an X220 keyboard but nothing makes me want to do that preemptively.
The plastic case seems a bit flimsy, but so far hasn't broken. And obviously having a shortscreen sucks, but I accepted that tradeoff for the LED backlight and better specs.
In no uncertain terms I absolutely detest the x230 keyboard. I am none too happy about the location of Insert on the x220.
It is like using a cheap acer/toshiba laptop from Argos. A common question I have using them is 'where have the HW UX geniuses decided to put this button I want to use?'.
Cheap laptops are fine by me, but that's not what I want from a thinkpad.
The fact that there is a difference at all is the inherent superiority, a standard layout that stood the test of time and changed for the sake of saving a few pennies.
The fact that you would consider replacing it if it dies with an x220 keyboard (thanks for the info I didn't know that was possible) shows that you do mind it to a small extent.
Also in addition to my prior whining about lenovo, their customer support and returns policy is nowhere near as good as IBM's was. A friend was sent the wrong laptop and after returning it & huge delays lenovo failed to source the correct laptop. He bought a dell.
Richard Sapper, the German industrial designer who orchestrated the look of the iconic laptop for IBM, died 83 years old. I'm blaming lenovo, he's probably spinning in his grave.
The keyboard is a very common complaint, so I just figured I'd throw in my two cents of not actually hating the chiclet-style keys. Because I was unsure before I bought it, and ended up not actually minding the different keycaps.
PgUp/PgDn are more my problem when switching back and forth to the T61, but I would probably fix that by remapping the T61. I don't see how Insert is that different between the two, but I'm not so picky with specific positioning because I don't "home row".
Don't worry, I'm also bitter about the erosion of Thinkpad - just not so much about the keyboard. The 1.75 inches of missing vertical screen real estate is a much bigger annoyance.
Not sure what you're asking but I have a Lenovo y40-80. Compared to a macbook its $1,200 cheaper and has better specs (except the non-4k display and battery). Not to say I'd rather not have a mac, if I could afford one I would've gotten a mac for sure.
Comparable in terms of specs. On paper, this machine looks almost as good as the discrete GPU MBP - the only major difference is worse battery life. In practice, it's worlds apart.
