Design Matters

It is always gratifying to see our products be recognized, which makes this recent article even more gratifying. Perhaps five times as gratifying, considering that five out of the ten “Best Ultraportable Laptops” are Lenovo products, as considered by PC World.

They aren’t even all ThinkPads – the Lenovo 3000 V200 and sleek IdeaPad U110 were honored there as well. Check out the article to see what three ThinkPads made it into the ranking.

David Hill

Recently I’ve seen a few blog comments regarding the stiffness of the keyboard on the new ThinkPad T500. Since the legendary feel of a ThinkPad keyboard is of great importance to both Lenovo and our ThinkPad customers I thought it would be best if I shared the facts. The historical stiffener plate was removed because we discovered a superior method to provide overall keyboard stiffness. We shifted from a stiffener plate to a stiffer chassis. The net impact is a more rigid keyboard and less weight. Who wouldn’t want that? It was not done as a cost saving play. We would never trade off keyboard feel for such a small cost saving opportunity. The rigidity of the keyboard when installed in the system chassis is, however, as flex free as always. Great care was taken to ensure the new design was superior to the previous one. It’s important to understand that this functions as a combined system, not individual components. For example plastic laminate for a counter top is bendy and floppy until it is glued to the sub-structure. Together they are very strong and rigid.

The combined system of chassis and keyboard were ultimately rigorously tested using real people typing in actual user scenarios. The typical force applied during typing is between 60-120 grams. Probably closer to 120 grams if your having a bad day. These types of tests are designed to capture the overall feedback on the feel of the keyboard, palmrest, and related navigational controls. The T500 performed beautifully.

We don’t drop bowling balls from space on the keyboard and inspect the remains, but we do put flex to the test in a classical engineering way. Our engineers perform a flex test where they apply a 1 kilogram force at each key location for 10 seconds at 18 unique points. This force is much greater than actual typing. This test yielded an average temporary deformation of no more than .73mm. When compared to previous systems the new design is superior by .03mm. From an engineering performance perspective this is exceptional. Stiffer and lighter is certainly a worthy outcome..

In addition to keyboard flexure tests we also run ThinkPads through an extensive suite of classical torture tests such as shock and vibration. I think it would be a fun job to try to break a ThinkPad, although a bit frustrating. ThinkPad’s are just plain tough. With these and other tests, the T500 exceeded previous levels of performance. Myth busted.

David Hill

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who participated in our Power Manager survey and shared some of their thoughts in the comments. We’ve gotten some good feedback and you may see some of it incorporated in a forthcoming revised interface.

David Hill