Hacker News Reader

Comment by andrewfong | Hacker News Reader

Sort of off topic, but I'm kind of stuck with Lenovo Thinkpads thanks to my love of the Trackpoint, but we're a shrinking group and there are many, many tempting alternatives these days. Anyone know if there's any way to graft a Trackpoint onto other laptops?

View on HN

I just shell out for the thinkpad. Have a new carbon x1 on the way and I can't wait to get my hands on it. Yes it is twice the cost, but there are things to cheap out on and the things you use every day shouldn't be one of them.

Using Carbon X1 right now (older version, not the newer one with the weird touch keyboard) and it's phenomenal. I've been trying to find an upgrade though, since it's several years old now.

The new newer X1 Carbon (3rd gen) fixed the keyboard.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-ca...

Asus have a direct competitor featuring trackpoint and three physical buttons. Only problem is I can't seem to find its pricing or availability anywhere.

https://www.asus.com/us/Commercial_Notebook/ASUSPRO_ADVANCED...

In my experience with Dell and HP laptops, their versions of the trackpoint cannot match the smoothness of IBM/Lenovo's at all. Very noticeable difference that really ruins the experience for me. However, ASUS may have done better, not sure.

It's a bit cheaper than a Thinkpad, but the battery life is disappointing:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ASUSPRO-Advanced-BU201LA-D...

You can buy a USB keyboard with a Trackpoint built in. Check Amazon. For putting one on a laptop without an external keyboard, I'm not sure how that would work.

That's fine in the office, but not on the road...

You're right. I offered the only solution I know of, but I'm not sure how an external Trackpoint would work for a portable laptop.

I'm the same, can't work without the track point, trackpads are inefficient if you type a lot.

One of my colleague in the same situation ended up buying a Toshiba.

Unfortunately, Lenovo makes the best trackpoint hands down. Dell and Toshiba both offer models with one (I believe HP used to, but not anymore). Dell doesn't offer a middle mouse button on the models I've seen, which makes the trackpoint hideously inconvenient for scrolling. Toshiba does, but the trackpoint just doesn't feel as good as on Lenovo models. Lenovo won't get any of my money anymore after Superfish, though.

The answer for me is to use the keyboard as much as possible. This is already possible in a large number of text editors, and there are a good number of browser add-ons that will allow you to control everything completely mouse-free.

edit: corrected some spelling

> I'm the same, can't work without the track point, trackpads are inefficient if you type a lot

This is only true if your trackpad driver/software sucks. Good trackpads (like on Macs) are great at palm rejection and other heuristics to prevent these issues.

Really good hardware has great software to complete it.

It's not a software issue; it's physiology. The inefficiency is that using a trackpad, even one with very good software, requires me to take one hand off the home row on the keyboard. With a trackpoint, I just move my finger about an inch.

Correct, this is what I meant.

Additionally, I find it more efficient to apply pressure to move the cursor accross the screen rather than the "put fingers down, rub, fingers up, move through the air" loop!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com