I disagree that the flexing is an issue. According to several computer techs the flexing is good, since it means the material is less likely to crack under stress.
I certainly feel the Thinkpads of yore had a more visually attractive material, but I've recently bought a Thinkpad x250 and frankly the quality is as good as always. Better, in fact, than the x240, in which several very bad decisions were taken.
The keyboard is fine. The problem is the single sheet trackpad. Half the time I right click it registers as a left click instead. I noticed they changed it back to the old style in the new T450 version so I'm pretty pissed I bought a T440s now. Something this expensive should not piss me off on a daily basis.
I'm unimpressed. The X250 is a nice laptop these days, by the X201 is just vastly superior. The keyboard has an idiotic layout for no reason. They have plenty of space to fit a real keyboard, by they don't do so because management is trying to copy Apple's form over function. But it's usable enough, better then other current devices.
The buttons for the trackpoint make it usable. Unlike the previous gen that had a pointing system I literally couldn't use. As in, I'd need several attempts for most click/targeting actions.
It gets warm, even with a bunch of CPU and other power throttling settings in place. But not really hot like a Mac or HP.
So, out of current systems available? Yeah it's probably the best. But it's not great, and the tradeoffs are all wrong, providing zero end user benefit. Plus it is leaving cash on the table. I'd spend $$$ to get an X201 with a high res 16:10 and modern chips in it. I spent over $2000 on my X201 when it came out, and less than $1000 on the X250.
I tried a Macbook Air keyboard this weekend, and I came running back to my T410.
This keyboard has the best feel in my opinion. I think I might buy one as a replacement part from China and hook it up to an Arduino and make an mini wireless keyboard.
Surprisingly, I'm not hating it. Considering that the x250 is pretty small, they have less displacement than other keyboards (coming from a T410), but it's full size, the grip is good, and the feedback is better than prior versions. The Trackpoint is laid deeper and lower than the T series, but I adjusted in the day. The click buttons don't protrude as much as older versions and I still haven't adjusted.
There are minor changes in keyboard coming from the T series. Insert has been bound to Fn + End (which is alright; I've never really used it), and the upper row is now Home/End/Delete. It's a different layout but I can't say it's worse. The light from above has been changed to an illuminated keyboard, which I find just as good and pretty spiffy.
The new trackpad feels, to me, perfectly sized very usable, and a decent replacement for the trackpoint if you're just browsing the web and not typing.
I bought a refurbished machine that has the HD IPS touchscreen, and it's been nice. It responds very well to touch and is much brighter than I would ever need. Certainly the touch functionality is not something you use every day, but for some occasions it's useful, and I'm already looking at some alternative skins in some DJing software to work from there in some situations and replace an external controller with just an additional sound card.
As a person that's been lugging around a T series on his backpack practically every day for the past 10 years, the lighter weight is a very welcome addition, the processor performance is satisfying, and the screen very readable despite the compromise in space. I'm really enjoying the lower weight and I personally think it's a gorgeous machine. I think there's less visible external parts and reminds me more of the first Thinkpads, with a very minimalist blocky feel.
My only critiques are that I wish it had an additional USB port (it has 2; 3 would be really nice), that the trackpoint were laid a couple millimeters higher (I know it's impossible because there's barely any room for the screen, but a man can dream), that modern software was better with HiDPI displays, and that the aspect ratio were taller, but the tradeoffs are easily justify the lighter weight, extra comfort, and screen quality, without sacrificing the input methods, which are the real reason why I buy and have used Thinkpads for the past 18 years. I'm a strong believer that Thinkpad + Trackpoint + Vim is the most productive input method for coding man has ever invented, and no trackpad will ever be a satisfactory replacement.
> Considering that the x250 is pretty small, they have less displacement than other keyboards (coming from a T410)
The irony is that until the 40/50, X and T series had the same keyboards – an X201 and T400 used the same keyboard, as did the X220/T410/T420 and X230/T430. The form factor (which also didn't change from the X220/X230, i.e. same space available for the keyboard as on a T410) is not a justification for crippling the keyboard.
> There are minor changes in keyboard coming from the T series.
The new T series has almost the same layout, it merely retains the Insert key (while its usefulness for most users is debatable, Lenovo ties it to the Fn switch on the X250 – it's either End + ACPI hotkeys or Insert+Function keys, annoying).
Not just bend. My 530 cracked a couple of months out of warranty, and Lenovo flat-out refused to repair it although they're obliged to do so under Australian Consumer Law. Writing a complaint to CAV is on my TODO list.
I have an X60 where some of the plastics on the case side (near the ports) have cracked off at some point in the past but that was because of some rather extensive... use, it doesn't really affect anything.
The palm rests cracked from, as far as I can tell, normal wear and tear. Certainly nothing more than I subjected my old L520 to, and that never cracked.
To be fair, none of the recent models has been as bendy as the T4x series, which I think was the last set of T-series actually built by IBM before the acquisition.
(I still have a T40p, kept running with parts from three different machines -- a wonderful machine to use, one of the very best, but that chassis was a bit of a disaster.)
A couple times carrying the W530 around in my backpack I've noticed that the corner of the keyboard will pop out of the casing and I'll have to shove it back in.
For example, in some areas close to the keyboard you can make it bend by applying a little pressure.
On the T440p you can somehow notice the screen matrix.