Lenovo ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II is now available

[Redaktion]

In January, Lenovo announced a new ThinkPad keyboard accessory that features the iconic red TrackPoint. Four months later, the keyboard is finally available for order.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-TrackPoint-Keyboard-II-is-now-available.463107.0.html

[Alessandro Pino]

Nice, what about providing a full keyboard (with numpad, like the 15" notebook keyboards) and a Precision touchpad? I'd buy that right away.

[Vlad]

I think it's time to kill the numpad as default in keyboards, be it laptop or dekstop. You can always buy an additional numeric keyboard for cheap, but I (and know absolutely nobody) use that part of it and am talking about use in office work like software development.

[Valantar]

Nice to see this hit shelves, though there's no sign of the Norwegian or Nordic version as of yet, nor does Lenovo sales support have the slightest clue about when it will be arriving. Hoping it's soon, as my current keyboard is close to death.

[_MT_]

I think it's time to kill the numpad as default in keyboards, be it laptop or dekstop. You can always buy an additional numeric keyboard for cheap, but I (and know absolutely nobody) use that part of it and am talking about use in office work like software development.

Well, when programming, I mostly use just 0 as a default value for initialization. And I certainly don't use numeric keyboard for that. It would be slower. Even on a layout without numeric row where I have to use combination of keys (as in our national layout as we have over 40 letters in our alphabet rather than 26 so we have four rows of letters for faster writing). And while I sometimes need larger blocks of static data, I usually copy them into the code (I'm not inventing it on the spot, it's coming from somewhere), use regular expressions for transformation if necessary and format them. For one, I'm lazy. And it reduces chances of human error. It's rare that I write numbers large enough to be annoying (the annoying part is mainly having to switch left and right hand for different numbers as I have to hold shift) but small enough to do them by hand. I guess the biggest exception is graphics and GUI work - dimensions, positions, colours.

But as soon as I open a calculator or work in Excel, for example doing cost analysis where I have to input prices and quantities, sometimes hundreds of them, or enter dimensions in CAD, you can bet I use numeric part of a keyboard. And if I'm on a laptop without one, without numeric section via function key like Dell commonly offers on Latitudes and Precisions, I immediately miss it and dread the work. As I said before, even entering a single IP address makes me miss it. Unless I had to, I would never consider buying a standalone numeric keyboard (having it loose is just not as good). My mother is an accountant so you can guess what she uses.

I don't mind the existence of keyboards without one. As long as I have a decent selection of quality keyboards with one. And the "virtual numeric keyboard" via function key works pretty well. It's angled, but I got used to it pretty quickly. Again, it's a shame that function key doesn't work like a proper modifier that can be customized in the OS.

[frogg]

Rather funny you have a usb-c wired connection for charging the battery but not for connecting the proper keyboard.  With some care, my TP keyboard will last many years still, don't need this crap. It's like wireless earphones, don't work just when you need because battery is flat!

And from a security point of view, i'm not sure  it's a good idea, especially in a business environment.

As is the trend in every industry now, not only IT, it is surely designed to be overpriced and to fail fast.

[Dantreest]

I think will be one with Nordic layout, at the end of the commercial draft are serial numbers that includes part numbers for other layouts such as Spanish that is the one I'm interested in. https : / / news.lenovo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ThinkPad-TrackPoint-Keyboard-II_Commercial_Draft_CES .pdf

I found all of these
Part Numbers (PN)4Y40X49493 : US  English4Y40X49496:  Canadian French ACNOR4Y40X49498:  Canadian French (058)4Y40X49499 : LA  Spanish4Y40X49500 : Brazil  Portuguese4Y40X49501: Arabic4Y40X49502 : Belgian4Y40X49503 : Bulgarian4Y40X49504 : Danish4Y40X49505 : Spanish4Y40X49506 : French4Y40X49507 : German4Y40X49508 : Greek4Y40X49509 : Hebrew4Y40X49510: Hungarian4Y40X49511: Icelandic4Y40X49512: Italian4Y40X49513: Norwegian4Y40X49514:  Portuguese4Y40X49515: Russian4Y40X49516:  Slovenian4Y40X49517:  Swedish/Finnish4Y40X49518:  Swiss4Y40X49519:  Turkish
4Y40X49520 : UK  English4Y40X49521:  US English Euro4Y40X49522 : Japanese4Y40X49523 : Traditional Chinese4Y40X49524 : Turkish-F4Y40X49525 : Estonian4Y40X49526:  Canadian French English4Y40X49527 : Nordic4Y40X49528 : Czech/Slovak

[lazyway]

I just received my ThinkPad TrackPoint II. Overall Great improvement over the original. I'm using the wireless dongle instead of BT.

Note: As of 5/14/2020, the supplied driver for this keyboard does not allow the user to swap the Fn and Ctrl like the way you can on the native keyboard in BIOS... :(

[Valantar]

I just received my ThinkPad TrackPoint II. Overall Great improvement over the original. I'm using the wireless dongle instead of BT.

Note: As of 5/14/2020, the supplied driver for this keyboard does not allow the user to swap the Fn and Ctrl like the way you can on the native keyboard in BIOS... :(

AFAIK that wasn't possible with the previous ones either - at least I've never been able to do so. You'll get used to it though (I keep pressing Fn instead of Ctrl on my Dell laptop just because I'm so used to the ThinkPad layout!).

Still no sign of Norwegian or Nordic layouts though. Definitely getting impatient now.

[Benjamin Herzig]

@Valantar,
the parts for the Nordic layouts are listed here: https://news.lenovo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ThinkPad-TrackPoint-Keyboard-II_Commercial_Draft_CES.pdf

Seems though like Norwegian (4Y40X49513) has not hit the shelfs yet. But Swedish/Finish (4Y40X49517) is already listed in some shops

[Valantar]

@Valantar,
the parts for the Nordic layouts are listed here: https://news.lenovo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ThinkPad-TrackPoint-Keyboard-II_Commercial_Draft_CES.pdf

Seems though like Norwegian (4Y40X49513) has not hit the shelfs yet. But Swedish/Finish (4Y40X49517) is already listed in some shops

I know, the part numbers were published back at CES (https://news.lenovo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ThinkPad-TrackPoint-Keyboard-II_Commercial_Draft_CES.pdf). Didn't know the Swe/Fin version had shown up though, that's a good sign - at least there are then some ISO layouts in the wild.

[Rafael]

I'm looking for spanish keyboard too

have you got it?
where could I buy it?

Thank you.

I think will be one with Nordic layout, at the end of the commercial draft are serial numbers that includes part numbers for other layouts such as Spanish that is the one I'm interested in. https : / / news.lenovo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ThinkPad-TrackPoint-Keyboard-II_Commercial_Draft_CES .pdf

I found all of these
Part Numbers (PN)4Y40X49493 : US  English4Y40X49496:  Canadian French ACNOR4Y40X49498:  Canadian French (058)4Y40X49499 : LA  Spanish4Y40X49500 : Brazil  Portuguese4Y40X49501: Arabic4Y40X49502 : Belgian4Y40X49503 : Bulgarian4Y40X49504 : Danish4Y40X49505 : Spanish4Y40X49506 : French4Y40X49507 : German4Y40X49508 : Greek4Y40X49509 : Hebrew4Y40X49510: Hungarian4Y40X49511: Icelandic4Y40X49512: Italian4Y40X49513: Norwegian4Y40X49514:  Portuguese4Y40X49515: Russian4Y40X49516:  Slovenian4Y40X49517:  Swedish/Finnish4Y40X49518:  Swiss4Y40X49519:  Turkish
4Y40X49520 : UK  English4Y40X49521:  US English Euro4Y40X49522 : Japanese4Y40X49523 : Traditional Chinese4Y40X49524 : Turkish-F4Y40X49525 : Estonian4Y40X49526:  Canadian French English4Y40X49527 : Nordic4Y40X49528 : Czech/Slovak

[Valantar]

I'm looking for spanish keyboard too

have you got it?
where could I buy it?

Thank you.

I think will be one with Nordic layout, at the end of the commercial draft are serial numbers that includes part numbers for other layouts such as Spanish that is the one I'm interested in. https : / / news.lenovo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ThinkPad-TrackPoint-Keyboard-II_Commercial_Draft_CES .pdf

I found all of these
Part Numbers (PN)4Y40X49493 : US  English4Y40X49496:  Canadian French ACNOR4Y40X49498:  Canadian French (058)4Y40X49499 : LA  Spanish4Y40X49500 : Brazil  Portuguese4Y40X49501: Arabic4Y40X49502 : Belgian4Y40X49503 : Bulgarian4Y40X49504 : Danish4Y40X49505 : Spanish4Y40X49506 : French4Y40X49507 : German4Y40X49508 : Greek4Y40X49509 : Hebrew4Y40X49510: Hungarian4Y40X49511: Icelandic4Y40X49512: Italian4Y40X49513: Norwegian4Y40X49514:  Portuguese4Y40X49515: Russian4Y40X49516:  Slovenian4Y40X49517:  Swedish/Finnish4Y40X49518:  Swiss4Y40X49519:  Turkish
4Y40X49520 : UK  English4Y40X49521:  US English Euro4Y40X49522 : Japanese4Y40X49523 : Traditional Chinese4Y40X49524 : Turkish-F4Y40X49525 : Estonian4Y40X49526:  Canadian French English4Y40X49527 : Nordic4Y40X49528 : Czech/Slovak

The part number for the Spanish version is in the post you quoted: 4Y40X49506. Try searching for that in any relevant online stores, through price comparison web sites, or just searching the web for it. The Norwegian one is starting to show up in business-oriented online stores (not in stock, just listed, some with an ETA of June 2nd), but is yet to be listed on any price comparison sites, with Lenovo itself or in consumer-facing retailers.

[Latent Schizo]

Once again, it only pairs to one computer, a tragic flaw. Give us at least 2 bluetooth hosts, please. It's incredibly easy for you.