Hi guys, I'm using ThinkPad P15 Gen 1 at work. The keyboard, touchpad, and trackpoint are not what I expected. They feel cheap. My old T450 is better. Is it just me? Or, has anyone notice this also? --WP
On Sat, 26 Jun 2021 01:06:23 -0400 William Park via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
Hi guys, I'm using ThinkPad P15 Gen 1 at work. The keyboard, touchpad, and trackpoint are not what I expected. They feel cheap. My old T450 is better. Is it just me? Or, has anyone notice this also?
not just you, I also am of the opinion that it is cheap crap :( personally I have now started using HP, the quality is just better
William Park via talk <talk@gtalug.org> writes:
Hi guys,
I'm using ThinkPad P15 Gen 1 at work. The keyboard, touchpad, and trackpoint are not what I expected. They feel cheap. My old T450 is better.
Is it just me? Or, has anyone notice this also?
I don't know about ThinkPads, but their IdeaPad 330 is Junk -- William Henderson aka Slackrat http://billh.sdf.org/slackware.jpg 9HS5203 ON HamSphere Ham Radio
lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Lennart Sorensen) writes:
On Sat, Jun 26, 2021 at 12:58:19AM -0600, Slackrat via talk wrote:
I don't know about ThinkPads, but their IdeaPad 330 is Junk
The ideapads have always been junk.
Thanks for the confirmation Len. The specs looked good and the price was right so at 82 years of age I thought I'd buy something which would be probably be my last new computer. I have an array of someones' "thrown away", "given away", "junked" machines but did want something brand new. I currently have: (1) a Dell Latitude E610, recently acquired, which I treated to a $40 new battery and a full Slackware 14.2 install and now, apart from running a trifle warm, is waiting to be given away to some deseving poor individual. (2) a Dell Vostro with a straight Slackware 14.2 install plus only Opera-Developer and the Radio Application along with a few of my radio-related scripts to show the Q-Codes and UTC/ZULU for any TimeZone. Azimuth and Station call signs are built into the Radio App. (3) a Dell Optiplex 980 box with 22TB (2x5 + 1x12) USB drives which is my video/music box. (4) a MAC of at least 10 years vintage. I gave up on Mac OS for various reasons and since it refused to install Slack but ;ove the large screen. It now has Ubuntu 10.4 and it's used as a machine I can use at bedtime, mainly for Youtube. So for a new Main Machine, I rejected HP as they advertize their USxxx Standard machines, but when you get them they are optimized for, in my case Portugal. And the local model is significantly different from the USxxx model. Luckily Portugal has a 14 day, no questions asked moneybsck (Not voucher) rule. I lucked out there. So casting around, by then trapped in Canada by the CovidScam, and after reviewing the specs went for the IdeaPad 330 with 17 inch screen. Mea Culpa. Also I have two hand-held cell phones, an Iphone and an el-cheapo android as android supports the latest Radio App whereas iPhone only runs an older incompatible version. I'll return to Portugal as soon as it opens up for travellers from Canada and will probably buy a DELL on/under the desktop box computer. -- William Henderson aka Slackrat http://billh.sdf.org/slackware.jpg 9HS5203 ON HamSphere Ham Radio
On Mon, Jun 28, 2021 at 01:13:28PM -0600, Slackrat via talk wrote:
Thanks for the confirmation Len.
I glued the screen hinge attachment point on my wife's ideapad 4 times in 12 months she used it before I gave up and got her the T430. Who puts screws into tabs of a plastic case to hold a screen hinge? On the thinkpad the screen hinge is attached to the frame of the machine. The ideapad specs wise was a better machine than the T430 but the T430 lasted years without breaking.
The specs looked good and the price was right so at 82 years of age I thought I'd buy something which would be probably be my last new computer.
I have an array of someones' "thrown away", "given away", "junked" machines but did want something brand new.
I currently have:
(1) a Dell Latitude E610, recently acquired, which I treated to a $40 new battery and a full Slackware 14.2 install and now, apart from running a trifle warm, is waiting to be given away to some deseving poor individual.
(2) a Dell Vostro with a straight Slackware 14.2 install plus only Opera-Developer and the Radio Application along with a few of my radio-related scripts to show the Q-Codes and UTC/ZULU for any TimeZone. Azimuth and Station call signs are built into the Radio App.
(3) a Dell Optiplex 980 box with 22TB (2x5 + 1x12) USB drives which is my video/music box.
(4) a MAC of at least 10 years vintage. I gave up on Mac OS for various reasons and since it refused to install Slack but ;ove the large screen. It now has Ubuntu 10.4 and it's used as a machine I can use at bedtime, mainly for Youtube.
I had enough of slackware around 1995. A couple of years dealing with SLS and slackware is enough for a lifetime. I prefer things that work a lot better than that. I put up with redhat for about 5 years before it got too buggy to tolerate and Debian got stable enough to be installed and nothing has shown itself to be better than that yet.
So for a new Main Machine, I rejected HP as they advertize their USxxx Standard machines, but when you get them they are optimized for, in my case Portugal. And the local model is significantly different from the USxxx model. Luckily Portugal has a 14 day, no questions asked moneybsck (Not voucher) rule. I lucked out there.
Is it just the keyboard they screw up or other parts as well?
So casting around, by then trapped in Canada by the CovidScam, and after reviewing the specs went for the IdeaPad 330 with 17 inch screen.
Mea Culpa.
Also I have two hand-held cell phones, an Iphone and an el-cheapo android as android supports the latest Radio App whereas iPhone only runs an older incompatible version.
I'll return to Portugal as soon as it opens up for travellers from Canada and will probably buy a DELL on/under the desktop box computer.
Well Dell certainly makes some awful desktop machines full of proprietary parts (so you can't replace the power supply since nothing else will have the right connectors). They are not all like that but some of their cheaper models certainly are. -- Len Sorensen
| From: William Park via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | I'm using ThinkPad P15 Gen 1 at work. The keyboard, touchpad, and trackpoint | are not what I expected. They feel cheap. My old T450 is better. | | Is it just me? Or, has anyone notice this also? For generations, fans have said that the ThnkPad line has been going downhill. To be honest, I was disappointed by my T530's FullHD display. And the case has cracked between the edge and the touchpad. That's the newest I've bought. The P15 should be top of the line. It is pretty sad if it really isn't up to snuff. Warning: the rest of this post is long and rambling. To be honest, each person has a different objective function when acquiring a notebook. I now lean towards medium-priced notebooks with features that matter to me. That's why I haven't bought a ThinkPad since the T530. My most serious notebook is a Dell XPS 15.6" notebook from a few years ago. I don't love it. Here are some learnings: - UltraHD isn't enough better than FullHD to be worth the battery drain (I assume) and the price. - a discrete Nvidia GPU is a liability (1) in power use and (2) for a Linux user - XPS 15.6" is a bit heavy to carry - I hate fans. Noisy fans that come on frequently are the worst. - keyboard feel is very subjective. Thin computers don't have full travel keyboards (if that matters to you). I don't love the XPS keyboard but I can use it. I wish the keys caps were dished but that seems to be avoided in the quest for thin. - it's nice to have slotted memory modules (no longer common). My XPS came (used) with 2 x 4G. I replaced them with 2 x 16G (probably not necessary). For casual use at home (I'm holed up for the duration of the pandemic) I mostly gravitate to a netbook: inexpensive fanless Atom-based 11.6" IPS FullHD with a long battery life. For serious work, I use my desktop. I use the XPS for video-conferencing. That's been its main pandemic use. I don't know if the netbook would be as good for that. My netbook cost 1/5 of the XPS but I use it much much more often. A tablet should be like the netbook, but more so. But I seem to want a conventional Linux desktop, with a keyboard. Old habits die slowly?
On Sat, Jun 26, 2021 at 01:06:23AM -0400, William Park via talk wrote:
I'm using ThinkPad P15 Gen 1 at work. The keyboard, touchpad, and trackpoint are not what I expected. They feel cheap. My old T450 is better.
Is it just me? Or, has anyone notice this also?
I haven't used my wife's P17 Gen 1 much but so far she seems to like it. She had a T430 before. My W530 is still doing fine so I haven't had a reason to look to upgrade. I can believe they are not as nice as they were, but certainly they are much much better than what Dell is selling. I haven't dealt with HP business laptops in a while so they might be OK too. Problem is people want smaller and lighter and cheaper which means something has to give in the design unfortunately. -- Len Sorensen
participants (5)
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ac -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
lsorense＠csclub.uwaterloo.ca -
Slackrat -
William Park