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Comment by christopherorr | Hacker News Reader

Good to know there's now a ThinkPad flavour but it's a shame about the chiclet keyboard. Seems to be a trend at Lenovo. They might look better but that doesn't mean they are any easier to type on. The keyboard on my x220 is one of the best things about the laptop. Molded keys are so much more responsive but if I remember rightly they went chiclet-style on the x230 too. If it ain't broke...

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The ThinkPad chiclet keyboard is superior to the classic in almost all ways. It has an identical feel, a larger effective hit target for each key, is thinner, doesn't gather cruft under the keys, and can't have the keys accidentally popped off. Don't judge the new keyboards based on the bizarre flat keycaps that every other chiclet keyboard seems to use.

The most obvious loss in the new keyboards is the switch to a 6-row layout. And I can see why people with large laptops would complain about that. But especially on a 11-incher any extra space for a touchpad is really welcome. The x120e touchpad is already hilariously small. It'd be a complete joke if you reduced the depth by a further 1-1.5cm.

I've been using Thinkpads for years and find the new chiclet keyboards just as good, if not better than the older ones.

Fair play. Ought to admit I haven't used one on a ThinkPad yet. Never enjoyed typing on other manufacturers' chiclet keyboards so I am judging them on that skewed basis. It's my first ThinkPad so I'm still a bit spellbound about the sheer quality of the keyboard compared to every laptop I've used before. Shouldn't be all too surprised to learn Lenovo's are a cut above the rest and, in light of your comments, I won't be so dismissive of them when buying my next ThinkPad. Don't knock it and all that!

I have a x131e AMD model. The keyboard is awesome. Way better than any other laptop I've used. It may look similar to some of the new chiclet keyboards but it feels great. I wish my mac had this keyboard.

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