Dear Lenovo

Long time buyer, first time writer.

Over the years I’ve struggled each time I’ve decided it’s time to to buy a new ThinkPad. I’ve struggled because it used to be difficult to choose from so many solid entries in the T, X, and W lines.

These days I’m looking at lenovo.com and struggling to find a laptop computer anyone is happy to own.

Take a look at stars on the T series. The combined score is 12 / 20.

We’ll round up the stars in the X series and give these ultrabooks a combined score of 13/20.

These scores are in the “meh” category, and not what I’d expect from Lenovo’s flagship and premium brand. Reading through the reviews you’ll find most people are happy with the performance, the battery life, the selection of ports, and the build quality.  But I’m sure you’ve also noticed the copious rants about the keyboards you are designing and shipping on today’s models.

Perhaps we expect more from ThinkPads because the ThinkPad name was synonymous for “great keyboard”. Perhaps that’s why shortcut key aficionados were drawn to the ThinkPad line in the first place. We don’t need mice or track pads when we can use Alt+F4 or Alt+Insert to make things happen.

Now you’ve removed the Insert key from the X1 and turned the function keys into a capacitive flat-strip LED light show.

And moving the Home and End keys to the left side of the keyboard? I have no words to describe my sadness. I’ll instead use Peter Bright’s words from his article “Stop trying to innovate keyboards. You’re just making them worse”.

“I think these kind of keyboard games betray a fundamental misunderstanding of how people use keyboards. Companies might think that they're being innovative by replacing physical keys with soft keys, and they might think that they're making the keyboard somehow "easier to use" by removing keys from the keyboard. But they're not.”

Maybe the world has changed and the majority of productive professionals and do web conferences all day and Netflix movies all night. Perhaps this is the product line you need to stay alive in a world where the majority are consumed by consumption and touch.

Yet, I hope moving forward you will delight customers with qualities and features that are unique to ThinkPads, and not continue with these innovations that transform your products into inferior imitations of other brands.

With great sincerity,

--s