Here's Lenovo's product page: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd026744
And here's what it looks like:
- ThinkPad Compact Bluetooth Keyboard with TrackPoint
- WP_20150723_002.jpg (213.33 KiB) Viewed 34074 times
- Rear of ThinkPad Bluetooth Keyboard
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Scissor-stabilized rubber dome, measured ~2.5 mm travel, measured ~53 g force (at 3 nickels (5.000 g), 6 quarters (5.670 g), and 2 dimes (2.268 g), for a total of 53.556 g, it buckled repeatedly, removing 1 dime stopped it from buckling)
19 mm key pitch for most keys (except for function row and arrows), cylindrical island-style keycaps, pad-printed
TrackPoint IV - a real one, with real buttons
84 keys for ANSI layout (not including TrackPoint buttons) in a 15 x ~6 U form factor, although the keyboard is bigger than that to allow for a rudimentary palmrest and space for the TrackPoint buttons
Lenovo claims 305.5 x 164 x 13.5 mm. Contrast with the one compact TrackPoint-equipped mechanical I can think of, the TEX Yoda, at 290.0 x 120 x 24 mm - it's a fair bit wider, and quite a lot deeper (not just the additional 14 mm that the top row (the Yoda being a 60%) adds), although not being a mechanical, it's a lot thinner.
The keyboard weighs 450 g. It's not exactly fair to compare it to the aluminum-cased TEX Yoda, at 1080 g, but that's really the only mech I can compare it to, and the Yoda doesn't have a battery.
3.7 V 500 mAh battery. That's... not that much battery.
Setup
On Windows, the keyboard was immediately discoverable, and pairing was your standard Bluetooth device pairing - go into Bluetooth settings, select the device, select to pair with it, enter the pairing code on the keyboard, hit enter. Windows Update proceeded to grab a Lenovo utility that said it was set up, but offered to install the full driver. I accepted this, it downloaded and installed the driver, and then I had full TrackPoint functionality along with some hotkey status display functionality (it displays icons for caps lock, Fn lock (because by default, the Fn key must be held to use F1 through F12), and microphone mute). After tweaking my settings appropriately (I prefer to max out the stick sensitivity on TrackPoints, and set the pointer speed almost to the max), it behaved almost exactly as I'd expect it to.
On my Mac, I had trouble getting it to see the keyboard the first time I tried to set it up (no, it wasn't paired to anything else), but after that, having used Fn-Delete to unpair it from my Windows tablet (it can only be paired to one device at a time), it paired just fine. More on the experience on a Mac later. I also performed the typical key remapping to swap Command and Option that you would do as a matter of course when using a Windows-oriented keyboard on a Mac.
Android was slightly easier - the keyboard has NFC pairing. However, you still need to enter a code on the keyboard, so it's not that useful IMO.
Usage impressions
On Windows, it behaved like I'd expect, for the most part. It's a scissor-stabilized rubber dome, albeit a decent one in my opinion (not very sharply tactile, but then not much in this space is, and it is fairly low force for what it is, too), with a TrackPoint IV with proper TrackPoint IV drivers. Typing on it isn't as nice as a good mechanical, but it's pleasant, I'd say, the force is reasonable, and the travel isn't ridiculously short, unlike a lot of scissor-stabilized boards nowadays. The only problem I've noticed is that under heavy CPU load, and especially heavy network load, the mouse pointer gets rather laggy. I'll blame this on the terrible RTL8723BS WiFi/Bluetooth chipset that the tablet has, though, as I never saw that behavior on either my Mac or my Nexus 5.
However, Macs don't have TrackPoint driver support, and I quickly found one of the quirks of this keyboard - without Lenovo's driver, it seems to try to emulate TrackPoint scrolling when you try to scroll... but if you aren't moving the stick and have the button down, middle button events are sent to the host. This also means that when you start moving, a spurious middle button release event is sent, and the OS interprets this as a middle click action. Annoying. (Older TrackPoint IVs that I have experience with don't do this - the middle button just acts like a normal middle button at all times.)
Similarly, on Android I got plenty of spurious clicks, and the key mapping seemed to be especially atrocious for Android. I also noticed that FnLk didn't work on Android, but I didn't try it on OS X.
Construction
- Top case removed
- WP_20150723_005.jpg (200.54 KiB) Viewed 34074 times
- Keyboard module unplugged and flipped out of the bottom
- WP_20150723_006.jpg (232.78 KiB) Viewed 34074 times
Main PCB holds the Bluetooth controller, the TrackPoint microcontroller, and the power circuitry (including USB charging). Interestingly, that's a departure from how ThinkPads have worked since, oh, 1998 or so - typically, the TrackPoint would have its microcontroller mounted up against the stick, and then it'd speak PS/2 directly to the motherboard. This is reverting to the old way of doing things, with a dedicated analog cable to the controller.
- Main PCB
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- Power switch daughterboard
- WP_20150723_010.jpg (190.11 KiB) Viewed 34074 times
- NFC daughterboard
- WP_20150723_011.jpg (205.94 KiB) Viewed 34074 times
- Battery
- WP_20150723_007.jpg (202.63 KiB) Viewed 34074 times
Verdict
Would I buy it again? Yes, given what it does and how much I missed genuine TrackPoint IVs, although I think $80 is a touch steep.
Would I recommend it to others? Really, it depends on your priorities. If you really want a mechanical, this isn't going to satisfy you, and $80 is a lot for a board with scissor-stabilized domes and only fair quality. If you want a TrackPoint IV and Bluetooth, and are fine with a scissor-stabilized dome, though, this is the only game in town... and it's not a bad one at all. There's some improvements that could be made, but it's definitely a serviceable keyboard.
Would I rather buy a TEX Yoda with Bluetooth? I think yes, even with my distaste for Cherry MX. Although, I think I'd want different mouse buttons than MX with much shorter travel - maybe ML would be a better choice for that if it has to be a keyboard switch - and there's some layout changes I'd make to that keyboard.
Would I rather buy a similar layout (to the reviewed ThinkPad keyboard) but with Matias switches, some sort of short-travel moderately but smoothly (not sharply - I like sharp tactility in my keyswitches, not my mouse switches) tactile button under the mouse buttons, the same stick as the TEX Yoda, and Bluetooth? You better believe it.
