Lenovo really got on my shit list withe the two latest generations of ThinkPads, and this is one of the primary reasons.
The T520 that I had up until it got stolen last Christmas was pretty much perfect - a 15" laptop with a centered keyboard, whose only deviation were oversized escape and delete keys. Excluding that, it was almost exactly the same as on my T61 and X32, and apparently all the way back to the ancient 700 series.
Yet in two generations, they
- Moved to island-style buttons (ok, but why?)
- Dropped the 7th row, and consequently had to
-- Bunch up all the F-keys together, making them more difficult to touch-type
-- Re-shuffle the former occupants, sticking them in stupid places and losing some completely
- Dropped the trackpad buttons
- Dropped the trackpoint buttons, making the whole trackpad act as a loud and awkward button
- Lost the dedicated mute/volume buttons.
- Removed the ThinkLight
- Added a fucking numpad, thus moving the keyboard off-center
- Move speakers god knows where
All this bullshit makes me much sadder about the loss of my dear T520, which otherwise would've been a good excuse for an upgrade.