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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: NewbieOneKenobi on Mon, 11 September 2023, 15:21:29
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As per title. I can get a Latitude 7390 or 7490 much cheaper than a T490, but it seems the Thinkpad has like 80 or even 100 nits more, and reviewers seem to like Thinkpad keyboards more or at least use them as benchmark. I've seen Latitude keyboards be complimented as being as good as Thinkpad keyboards but not the other way round, which is also saying something. But I wanted to confirm, maybe get some extra opinions. (Not including Elitebooks in the comparison because I know nothing about them.)
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Thinkpads are pretty much the standard others are judged by, not Dell, that should tell you something right there.
Having some older versions of of both (latest are T450 and XPS 9550) and currently using the Dell, I will say the Dell keyboard is pretty much on par but has a (MUCH) better screen and audio, Thinkpads are utilitarian. While the Dell looks, feels and performs great it's probably the biggest pile of sh*t laptop I've owned and I've owned a LOT of laptops. I'm not saying all Thinkpads are perfect or all Dells are bad but this really set a low bar. Mine's a slightly older model than you're asking about but the real problem here is Dell, not the model, they attempted to address some issues with bios updates, even replacing some motherboards, sometimes it fixed problems temporarily other times the bios updates made things worse before they just flat out gave up and moved on and some of the problems are pretty serious.
I always research laptops before I buy for common issues and I never would have bought this but it was given to me so... At any rate, it's probably going up on Ebay at some point and I'll be getting yet another Thinkpad (probably a T480). Thinkpads are known for not holding value due to how many are sold to corporations so an equal aged Dell being quite a bit cheaper is probably a warning sign.
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Yes... Thinkpad keyboards are better on these models.. unfortunately they are not as good as they were back in the day...but of relatively contemporary and capable machines go... Thinkpads are basically the best you are going to find.