Keyboard for business trip and traveling

[Adgar]

For mobile setup, I would suggest trying out a ThinkPad - carrying just 1 piece of equipment is always the best, and usually people would find the ThinkPad keyboard agreeable.

Otherwise, then it would be a Surface Pro 4 (or similar form factor computer) + keyboard setup. And I suggest HHKB for its light weight and size or something like Pok3r or GH60.

If you really want a 75% which is understandable if you need to work on codes, then in China, it's easy to get a PLUM 84. PLUM 84 is decently built and has relatively light weight capacitive key switches at the 35g, oh, and it's fully customizable and programmable. I've heard some of them can even support dual mode (USB + bluetooth). Other working-out-of-the-box choice would be Noppoo Choc mini, where you have many options for Cherry switches and Gateron switches. I believe they've fixed most of the firmware problems existed in their earlier versions. Both of these Chinese 75% keyboards mentioned have the 5.5x space bar which is a pain in the ass to find replacement keys if you love to play with caps; however, these space bar caps themselves on the two boards are of decent quality made of thick PBT and thick POM.
Other 75% options are much more expensive and for most of them you need to make customized orders from makers: I really like Red Scarf 84 and Duck Octagon but they're not as mobile with those feet.

I am a believer of the 75% form factor. I think it should be the modern standard event for desktop computers and the number pad should be located on the left hand side of the keyboard if one ever needs that.

Please show us what you end up, there are so many keyboard clubs and sellers and makers in China.

This is the KB DaleSnail has referring to.

(Attachment Link)

Nice!  Did it come from a Pawn shop?

  To be honest, I don't like  the aspect ratio and keycap of  PLUM 84.But because I havn't use that before, so, I hope that I can have a try this interesting keyboard.

[opensecret]

I support Menuhin's recommendation to get a Thinkpad. I have mechanical keyboards at both home and office, but for travel I'm using a Thinkpad T450s.  It's a very good laptop keyboard, and I can type about as well on it as on a mechanical.  The layout is non-standard for certain keys, but not as hard to adjust to as a HHKB.  For travel, I don't want the added weight and bulk of a separate keyboard.

[Adgar]

I support Menuhin's recommendation to get a Thinkpad. I have mechanical keyboards at both home and office, but for travel I'm using a Thinkpad T450s.  It's a very good laptop keyboard, and I can type about as well on it as on a mechanical.  The layout is non-standard for certain keys, but not as hard to adjust to as a HHKB.  For travel, I don't want the added weight and bulk of a separate keyboard.

Thinpad laptop keyboard is okay. But for someone like programmer,game player, or some workers who  type usually, I don't think laptop keyboard is  a good idea. Because I have some terribel exprience. Because I use my laptop keyboard often. Some keys don't work right now. It's really a little tough for me. I always think that if I have a small keyboard early. Things won't getting so tough. For someone who doesn't using computer often, It's okay. But for someone like programmer, Writer or.... You better prepare keyboard to protect you fingers and laptop.

[PollandAkuma]

I support Menuhin's recommendation to get a Thinkpad. I have mechanical keyboards at both home and office, but for travel I'm using a Thinkpad T450s.  It's a very good laptop keyboard, and I can type about as well on it as on a mechanical.  The layout is non-standard for certain keys, but not as hard to adjust to as a HHKB.  For travel, I don't want the added weight and bulk of a separate keyboard.

I've been looking at thinkpads too, what's the hype? seems like they are the model ms of laptops.

[opensecret]

I support Menuhin's recommendation to get a Thinkpad. I have mechanical keyboards at both home and office, but for travel I'm using a Thinkpad T450s.  It's a very good laptop keyboard, and I can type about as well on it as on a mechanical.  The layout is non-standard for certain keys, but not as hard to adjust to as a HHKB.  For travel, I don't want the added weight and bulk of a separate keyboard.

Thinpad laptop keyboard is okay. But for someone like programmer,game player, or some workers who  type usually, I don't think laptop keyboard is  a good idea. Because I have some terribel exprience. Because I use my laptop keyboard often. Some keys don't work right now. It's really a little tough for me. I always think that if I have a small keyboard early. Things won't getting so tough. For someone who doesn't using computer often, It's okay. But for someone like programmer, Writer or.... You better prepare keyboard to protect you fingers and laptop.

Everything about keyboards comes down to what works for you, which might be different from what works for me.  I use my laptop in airports, airplanes, hotel rooms and trains, usually no more than a couple of hours at a time, and I try to travel as light as I can.  If you don't mind the added weight and complexity of a compact mechanical keyboard, then  carry one.  Home or office, I use mechanicals -- typing now on a 25-year old Omnikey with white Alps switches.  But I can happily type on the Thinkpad for as long as necessary; the non-standard keys are a bigger problems than keyboard feel.. 

[opensecret]

I support Menuhin's recommendation to get a Thinkpad. I have mechanical keyboards at both home and office, but for travel I'm using a Thinkpad T450s.  It's a very good laptop keyboard, and I can type about as well on it as on a mechanical.  The layout is non-standard for certain keys, but not as hard to adjust to as a HHKB.  For travel, I don't want the added weight and bulk of a separate keyboard.

I've been looking at thinkpads too, what's the hype? seems like they are the model ms of laptops.

In a way they are the Model M, given that they were an IBM product for many years before Big Blue sold to Lenovo.  I think they've always been one of the best options for business travelers, and they've kept improving them over the years.  The keyboards have historically been better than most other laptops.  I got my first laptop in the 1980s (it was pretty clunky), and I've had a number over the years, but it's been a long time since I bought anything other than a Thinkpad.   I like the T450s keyboard as much as anything I've seen on a laptop (except for a few keys in dumb places).  Another feature that I love, though some people don't like it at all, is the Trackpoint pointing stick, which I think works particularly well for touch typists because you don't have to move a hand off the home row to move the cursor.  One other thing I'm happy to report is that Lenovo was very responsive when I had a support event a couple of weeks ago: my Sierra wireless card failed after about a year.  I called Lenovo support, the part was still under warranty, and they got me  a new one in 48 hours with no questions asked.  The new card is in and working. 

[Adgar]

I support Menuhin's recommendation to get a Thinkpad. I have mechanical keyboards at both home and office, but for travel I'm using a Thinkpad T450s.  It's a very good laptop keyboard, and I can type about as well on it as on a mechanical.  The layout is non-standard for certain keys, but not as hard to adjust to as a HHKB.  For travel, I don't want the added weight and bulk of a separate keyboard.

I've been looking at thinkpads too, what's the hype? seems like they are the model ms of laptops.

In a way they are the Model M, given that they were an IBM product for many years before Big Blue sold to Lenovo.  I think they've always been one of the best options for business travelers, and they've kept improving them over the years.  The keyboards have historically been better than most other laptops.  I got my first laptop in the 1980s (it was pretty clunky), and I've had a number over the years, but it's been a long time since I bought anything other than a Thinkpad.   I like the T450s keyboard as much as anything I've seen on a laptop (except for a few keys in dumb places).  Another feature that I love, though some people don't like it at all, is the Trackpoint pointing stick, which I think works particularly well for touch typists because you don't have to move a hand off the home row to move the cursor.  One other thing I'm happy to report is that Lenovo was very responsive when I had a support event a couple of weeks ago: my Sierra wireless card failed after about a year.  I called Lenovo support, the part was still under warranty, and they got me  a new one in 48 hours with no questions asked.  The new card is in and working.

maybe the Thinkpad looks not very good when comparing with Macbook. (Macbook looks really  gogerous especially the Air). But the I prefer Thinkpad. Mac Book makes me feel like I am wearing a pair  expensive shoes, fashion ,beautiful... However, not comfortable. I should treat Mac like a pearl  carefully. But the Thinkpad is totally different. It makes me feel good and easy, I can treat them as I want.  BY the way. I  prefer WOS . I like palying games do programming...(Thnkpad is my favor. ). IN fact, I forget some, Talking about Keyboard for business trip, Besides the practical applicability, We love keyboard. We enjoy the feels when we click them. We wanna bring our beautiful keycap go out and enjoy our trip and keep convinent at the same time. But what's more important is our love to keyboard. So, If you love your cool  keyboard very much, What you want talk about is which one you should choose not whether take it or not.

[PollandAkuma]

If you don't mind me asking, on a completely unrelated subject, can someone recommend me a Thinkpad laptop that is travel-friendly and can last many years? Preferably also in almost new condition and not over £500. Oh, and also better than my Macbook Pro 2011... I guess I just really want a new Thinkpad, not one with shiny used keys


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[menuhin]

If you don't mind me asking, on a completely unrelated subject, can someone recommend me a Thinkpad laptop that is travel-friendly and can last many years? Preferably also in almost new condition and not over £500. Oh, and also better than my Macbook Pro 2011... I guess I just really want a new Thinkpad, not one with shiny used keys


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Look no further than a factory refurbished X series model. Depending on how recent the model is, but definitely not more than 500€ (not even £) to get something way more powerful than a 2011 MB or MBP.

[PollandAkuma]

Look no further than a factory refurbished X series model. Depending on how recent the model is, but definitely not more than 500€ (not even £) to get something way more powerful than a 2011 MB or MBP.

Where should I look to if I want one? Do I go to Lenovo's own website? They're not too clunky and heavy to bring around right? Which X models should i be looking at?

[menuhin]

Look no further than a factory refurbished X series model. Depending on how recent the model is, but definitely not more than 500€ (not even £) to get something way more powerful than a 2011 MB or MBP.

Where should I look to if I want one? Do I go to Lenovo's own website? They're not too clunky and heavy to bring around right? Which X models should i be looking at?

As a keyboard person, perhaps you first decide which keyboard you want first, X220 to X230 is the time of design change:

Anything around that time, even for X240 refurbished grade-A is around 400€, on Google search or eBay.
But I warn you not to get the X240 if you want to experience the trackpoint experience first-hand because they took away the red Thinkpad Trackpoint navi buttons on X240, everyone complained that becomes not so usable (China way of cost cutting or smart-ass design modifications instead of building upon heritage by Lenovo 'R&D', teams still led by non-Chinese though), and they had to bring it back on the X250. Just top it with a model with core i7 and SSD.

[Adgar]

Look no further than a factory refurbished X series model. Depending on how recent the model is, but definitely not more than 500€ (not even £) to get something way more powerful than a 2011 MB or MBP.

Where should I look to if I want one? Do I go to Lenovo's own website? They're not too clunky and heavy to bring around right? Which X models should i be looking at?

As a keyboard person, perhaps you first decide which keyboard you want first, X220 to X230 is the time of design change:

Anything around that time, even for X240 refurbished grade-A is around 400€, on Google search or eBay.
But I warn you not to get the X240 if you want to experience the trackpoint experience first-hand because they took away the red Thinkpad Trackpoint navi buttons on X240, everyone complained that becomes not so usable (China way of cost cutting or smart-ass design modifications instead of building upon heritage by Lenovo 'R&D', teams still led by non-Chinese though), and they had to bring it back on the X250. Just top it with a model with core i7 and SSD.

Anyway, the lenovol is the China's most  popular Laptop. Buy talking about the  Thinkpad laptop keyboard. I think the most excellent one is the thinkpad 600. It's laptop keyboard was designed by a Japanese  ほりうち みつお‎. Look at this.

[dorkvader]

Look no further than a factory refurbished X series model. Depending on how recent the model is, but definitely not more than 500€ (not even £) to get something way more powerful than a 2011 MB or MBP.

Where should I look to if I want one? Do I go to Lenovo's own website? They're not too clunky and heavy to bring around right? Which X models should i be looking at?

As a keyboard person, perhaps you first decide which keyboard you want first, X220 to X230 is the time of design change:

Anything around that time, even for X240 refurbished grade-A is around 400€, on Google search or eBay.
But I warn you not to get the X240 if you want to experience the trackpoint experience first-hand because they took away the red Thinkpad Trackpoint navi buttons on X240, everyone complained that becomes not so usable (China way of cost cutting or smart-ass design modifications instead of building upon heritage by Lenovo 'R&D', teams still led by non-Chinese though), and they had to bring it back on the X250. Just top it with a model with core i7 and SSD.

I was a Lenovo authorized service tech on the X220/230 for a few years and can confirm they are my favorite thinkpad computer from around that time. I can't comment on IBM thinkpads, but an X220 is an excellent computer. There were some issue with the screen / hinge, (we had the convertible tablet version) but very easy to work on, not very fragile (I can't comment about the laptop version, that screen looks fragile to me) and pretty drop-proof.

Many of the old IBM thinkpads used NMB keyboards, I think the X60 did and maybe the X40 also. They were pretty good!

[Adgar]

Look no further than a factory refurbished X series model. Depending on how recent the model is, but definitely not more than 500€ (not even £) to get something way more powerful than a 2011 MB or MBP.

Where should I look to if I want one? Do I go to Lenovo's own website? They're not too clunky and heavy to bring around right? Which X models should i be looking at?

As a keyboard person, perhaps you first decide which keyboard you want first, X220 to X230 is the time of design change:

Anything around that time, even for X240 refurbished grade-A is around 400€, on Google search or eBay.
But I warn you not to get the X240 if you want to experience the trackpoint experience first-hand because they took away the red Thinkpad Trackpoint navi buttons on X240, everyone complained that becomes not so usable (China way of cost cutting or smart-ass design modifications instead of building upon heritage by Lenovo 'R&D', teams still led by non-Chinese though), and they had to bring it back on the X250. Just top it with a model with core i7 and SSD.

I was a Lenovo authorized service tech on the X220/230 for a few years and can confirm they are my favorite thinkpad computer from around that time. I can't comment on IBM thinkpads, but an X220 is an excellent computer. There were some issue with the screen / hinge, (we had the convertible tablet version) but very easy to work on, not very fragile (I can't comment about the laptop version, that screen looks fragile to me) and pretty drop-proof.

Many of the old IBM thinkpads used NMB keyboards, I think the X60 did and maybe the X40 also. They were pretty good!

I  had used a Thinkpad Laptop for 5 years. It makes me feel very good at first. But at the last year, there were something wrong with its Video card. So, I found out  a electronic repaire shop to fix it. The owner told me to replace it, And I pay his money to help find out right vedio card on the internet , however, he just fix the vedio card and didn't replace it  . After that, my lenovl laptop never work well. I never fix something in electronic repaire shop and do everything by myself.

[menuhin]

Look no further than a factory refurbished X series model. Depending on how recent the model is, but definitely not more than 500€ (not even £) to get something way more powerful than a 2011 MB or MBP.

Where should I look to if I want one? Do I go to Lenovo's own website? They're not too clunky and heavy to bring around right? Which X models should i be looking at?

As a keyboard person, perhaps you first decide which keyboard you want first, X220 to X230 is the time of design change:

Anything around that time, even for X240 refurbished grade-A is around 400€, on Google search or eBay.
But I warn you not to get the X240 if you want to experience the trackpoint experience first-hand because they took away the red Thinkpad Trackpoint navi buttons on X240, everyone complained that becomes not so usable (China way of cost cutting or smart-ass design modifications instead of building upon heritage by Lenovo 'R&D', teams still led by non-Chinese though), and they had to bring it back on the X250. Just top it with a model with core i7 and SSD.

I was a Lenovo authorized service tech on the X220/230 for a few years and can confirm they are my favorite thinkpad computer from around that time. I can't comment on IBM thinkpads, but an X220 is an excellent computer. There were some issue with the screen / hinge, (we had the convertible tablet version) but very easy to work on, not very fragile (I can't comment about the laptop version, that screen looks fragile to me) and pretty drop-proof.[/spoiler]

Many of the old IBM thinkpads used NMB keyboards, I think the X60 did and maybe the X40 also. They were pretty good!

Does the X220 has NMB keyboards? And who are the new OEM for the new ThinkPad keyboards?

I have been using ThinkPads since 2003 or 2002, I forgot the exact year, but I started with T series. I have both X61t and X220t (tablets) and I like X220's (same in the tablet or T420) keyboard slightly better because of its community driven design changes (bigger Del & Esc keys, and a dedicated microphone mute button). The most complain people have about ThinkPad's keyboard is the Fn key position at the very corner, it later has BIOS supported swapping of that key. For me, what it doesn't make sense most is the Fn+Space combo to change screen resolution - it would make sense instead if they use a system like OSX where they can activate an under-the-cursor magnifying lens window.

My ideal laptop is a X220 non-tablet laptop with customized CPU and screen (to FHD or higher) upgrade. I'm not ready yet to jump into the new keyboard design despite many good reviews, plus I really like the extra large Esc and Del keys. My X220 tablet survived 2 drops but the little studs on both sides of the keyboards fell off and I spent like $60 to replace the bezel and palm rest just for cosmetic repairs. A tablet is still something real good to have especially when you use Windows and MS OneNote or any inking software the pressure-sensitivity enhancements.

I really like the TrackPoint, and I wonder what pointing device can really replace it while keeping a similar home-row philosophy.