Lenovo Thinkpad T430 Keyboard and Touchpad Introduce

The Lenovo Thinkpad T430's keyboard is a departure for Lenovo; they switched to the increasingly popular Chiclet style with extra spacing between the keys. This has the most encouraging tactile feedback out of all the variants I've tried. It has a slightly more clicky sound than the traditional ThinkPad keyboards and the key travel isn't as long, though the feedback doesn't suffer as a result, dare I say it feels even more solid. Lenovo is offering a backlit keyboard courtesy of this new design, a first on a 'real' ThinkPad. It still has the Think Light for die-hard fans, though.

So what's the matter with it? Simply put, more than a few ThinkPad owners will say Lenovo botched the keyboard layout. The Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, Insert and Delete keys are all over the place instead of being clustered in a nice organized group at the top right. Also missing is the multi-colored keys such as the purple [Enter]. This bothers me in a way; the ThinkPad keyboard formula was exactly what many business users wanted and now they changed it - what was the reasoning? It doesn't make sense to the end user. I'm all for change but this is a step backwards.

The touchpad remains largely unchanged but the dimpled surface is slightly more pronounced. It feels almost too rough at first though I got used to it after a few days. The trackpoint "eraser" head in the center of the keyboard is also unchanged and remains the most intuitive version offered by any brand. The buttons for both the touchpad and the trackpoint are excellent with quiet, supple clicks.