Do you mean on laptops
Yes, unfortunately I mean the laptop boards. That's why it's not so helpful; they're kind of tied in to their hardware. I haven't experienced the standalone boards, aside from the full travel Rubber Dome boards which were pretty generic.
I have a T440p and the keyboard is pretty good - for a laptop - but I don't think that any laptop keyboard can hold a candle to a "real" keyboard.
I'd agree with that sentiment in all cases
except 2012 and earlier Thinkpads. The 440 just barely misses the cut.
Up to the T420, Lenovo included a standard, non-island keyboard design that was mostly unchanged from the days of IBM ownership. It was the undisputed king of laptop boards with crisp, well defined key travel, well suited to long hours of typing. The T430, which is what I run, was a transition year. They did away with the classic keyboard in favor of a more modern island style with a cut down layout, but for that one year they still offered a non-backlit board that had the same underpinnings as the old boards (this is becasue the T430 was the last year to offer the Think Light, so technically you don't need a back light; you could elect to buy the backlit version for like $20 more on the order.)
I've had both versions installed on my machine (due to a whole thing with Lenovo bunging up a warranty claim), and the backlit version, while very good for a laptop board, feels way less precise than the base version. I still elect to run the backlit version for convenience, since I can dock the machine and use a mechanical board if I want the nicest possible key feel.
