Notebook keyboard to work with the text, or what is wrong Lenovo

Good afternoon, colleagues.

The article about the appearance of the new line of ThinkPad notebooks caused a lot of opinions in the comments, however, as a developer and user of two previous-generation ThinkPad models, I could not ignore one crucial detail: the keyboard. Under the cut, I will give my own view on the means of interaction between the developer and his silicon friend. This is a personal opinion, it contains a lot of "ad-libbing", but I think a large number of readers will agree with me.

It's no secret that the productivity of working at a computer directly depends on the usability of input devices. For me, the convenience of input is a complete merger of me and the computer, when I don’t have to think about my actions for a second: I just do it automatically. I don’t look at the keys, I’m not looking for them for a few seconds, afraid to make a mistake, I don’t twitch the touchpad in the hope of getting “that pixel” - I just do it and it turns out less than in a second. The fewer delays and reasons to be nervous, the better my work will be.
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I am a supporter of the standard clumsy computer keyboards , invented at the dawn of the era of personal computers. However, I’m a very agile person, so I’ve been looking for a laptop with the most convenient keyboard for a long time, and it’s on the ThinkPad.

I'm currently using the Lenovo X201 Tablet and Lenovo T410 . Their keyboards are slightly different, but the differences are uncritical.
But such a keyboard will be in all new ThinkPad:


So, what did the Lenovo experts do wrong?

PageUp and PageDown keys

I do not like it when a block of arrows is framed by anything else but emptiness. Dada, like on the old huge keyboards. The block of arrows should always grope as “arrows and a bit of emptiness”, and not “a solid surface with almost no seams.” All those who have additional keys near the block of arrows face one problem: while moving the cursor over an important text, the wrong key is accidentally groped, and as a result, the text scrolls in an unknown direction, or even disappears (hello browser keys) Back and Forward).

Home and End keys

I used to use the HP tx2 laptop, which suffered from one feature: the keys of the top row were obscenely small in size and completely unintuitively placed close to each other. I know firsthand that editing the text using the Home and End keys on such a keyboard turns into an agonizing fumble for "this fourth key to the right." I don’t wish anyone to voluntarily experience this! And it’s completely ridiculous to keep Home / End separate from PageUp / PageDown: using one in 50% of cases involves using the second and vice versa.

Print Screen Key

A useful, but very rarely used key. It is better that the space between the right Alt and Ctrl is empty, which was taken up by the buffer clogging button with a multi-megabyte screen bitmap.
It's a pity that the right-click button of the mouse dies, but it is inevitable: next to it is a trackpoint and touchpad with its two colleagues.

Function keys

Let me remind you once again of the eerie continuous HP tx2 without a pause. The use of any hotkeys turns into a convulsive search with their eyes on the keyboard, even after a year of active use of this laptop. It is impossible to get used to it!

Fn hotkeys

I can not imagine who interfered with the playback control unit on the arrow keys? Why send it to the link in the most non-intuitive edge of the top row? The keys for adjusting the brightness of the screen, which are used by all the users of ThinkPad without exception, join it: they were sent to ridiculous F8 and F9. Goodbye usability ...

Touchpad

I could not ignore the touchpad. Due to my mobility, I do not use the mouse at all, relying on hotkeys and touchpad + trackpoint. They are always in a series of ThinkPad were amazing both in quality and accuracy. However, there are two things that I cannot relive calmly:
1) the bumpy touchpad already after half an hour of use rubs calluses on the fingers. Who and why invented it remains a mystery to me. Fortunately, the touchpad can always stick a piece of adhesive tape or any other more pleasant to the touch material;
2) keys embedded under the surface of the touchpad, above it, or in the surface itself . I used to hold my thumb on the key itself and press it, and not tap on the touchpad with the index finger. With a quick run through the text and frequent clicks, this method is much faster. Now, the area of ​​the keys is sensitive to touch, which makes me keep my thumb on the weight, contributing to the exacerbations of carpal tunnel syndrome.

findings

Progress does not stand still. Our workstations are evolving and progressing. We turn to even more subtle island-type keyboards for the sake of mobility. But manufacturers forget that there are not only trends and trends, but also common sense, but instead they give us another marketing: “it’s insular, it’s subtle, we’ve redid it, it’s cool, it’s convenient, you’ll enjoy it, etc.” We already like it. For 20 years, as you like! Want to achieve subtlety and ease - achieve. But do not confuse it, please, with convenience: subtlety and lightness are only an integral part of comfort.

I was going to update my workstation this or next year to another one from the ThinkPad line. It seems you just lost a loyal customer.

PS Well, I knew that Fn and Ctrl were mentioned in the comments. Personally, I reused several keyboards with different locations of these buttons, and my personal opinion: there is no difference where these keys are. The addiction does not last longer than a week. In addition, these keys are the only thing for which Lenovo (ex-IBM) has been scolded for 20 years now, but they haven’t bothered to change the keys in places (not BIOS-ovo). So I do not see any regress here, so I did not mention it.