It's not like the parts have become bigger over the decades. With today's tech, you could easily make a laptop with a quality keyboard, with a form factor reminiscent of those old ones, packed full with modern hardware at fraction of the weight... that is, if manufacturers weren't optimizing for vanity metrics at the expense of utility.
Because people care less about how nice the keyboard is and more about how light it is which is a valid concern when you carry the thing around with you everywhere. The keyboard I have plugged in to my laptop weighs as much as the laptop itself.
Can only agree to certain extent.Lenovo ThinkPads retain exceptionally good keyboard design despite being wafer thin.I have a bulky Toshiba made in 2015 and the keyboard is just very so so. At work I've got XPS 13 and the keyboard is really nice,so ultimately its down to the industrial designers.
I have a late-2018 ThinkPad X1 Extreme, and while I love the feel of the keyboard, the keys around the mouse nub (GHBN) started becoming increasingly unresponsive after only a few months. Last week, the whole machine died horribly (unrelated), so I'm hoping to get the keyboard replaced as well when I send it in. I love the machine, and overall it's well-built, but I'm going to be wary of the keyboard. One of the main reasons I bought the ThinkPad was because I'd gotten fed up with MacBook keyboard failures.
Thanks to the self-serviceability of Thinkpads, replacing the keyboard is pretty easy. My Thinkpad gets a lot of use so I replace the keyboard about every 12 months. I do wish it were easier to order parts directly from Lenovo, but you can find them on Amazon and many other e-retailers.
The reason I ended up with XPS 13 instead of ThinkPad was appalling service levels from Lenovo.They are on the same level at least in the UK,as an average run down kebab kiosk.
I don't think I've seen any other company that'd have 0.8 rate on trustpilot:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lenovo.co.uk
Not sure how they remain the largest computer manufacturer on earth..
I called customer support on a Sunday evening, and quickly got connected to a US-based support person. They sent me a return box overnight. So far I'm happy with the quality of service. The real test will be what happens after I ship it in for repairs. No complaints yet, though.
On the other hand I think the focus on convertibles is a complete failure. We order a surface here and there but it isn't really something you would want to work with very long compared to a classic design. I also like exchangeable batteries without having to lose warranty. These are service parts ffs.
The market for laptops did shrink significantly due to phones, but I know a lot of people that still prefer to use a classic laptop for home use.
So while the market did shrink, the rest was almost entirely destroyed by bad design decisions.
I still don't know why people use devices like iPads, it is a complete mystery for me. They are as useful as tramp stamps.
I couldn't care less about weight or dimensions if that means I could get high quality parts. Not I don't get them and some models are still beyond 1000$...
I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X1, and I'm really happy with the keyboard. Had a Macbook for several years, and almost always used it with an external keyboard because of the horrible built in one.
