Wonder how the 16" MBP keyboard compares to a ThinkPad keyboard

[mightyjabba]

In terms of key feel, the ThinkPad keyboard is superior. It feels a lot like the pre-butterfly MacBook Pros. Honestly, I wish they had never deviated from that design, even if it meant making the machine slightly thicker. I think this whole butterfly keyboard fiasco has one of Apple's biggest missteps in the last 10 years. The 16" MacBook Pro keyboard is better, and should be much more reliable, but it doesn't actually feel that different from the butterfly to me, since they both have very low travel. That said, I personally am not a fan of the ThinkPad layout at all, so I would still prefer the MacBook Pro's keyboard overall.

 

[MarvinHC]

Thinkpads have always had better keyboards than Apple.

I would say they are comparable. (talking about pre-butterfly keyboard, not the 2015-2018 junk Apple made). But the Lenovo touchpads are still bad (although not as horrible as they used to be luckily). I switch constantly between my X1 Carbon (which I only got because I didn't want to take a Macbook with butterfly keyboard) and my 2013 11" MacBook Air. Personally I still prefer the Air's keyboard but they are both pretty good, but the Apple touchpad is 10x superior even on this old machine.

 

[mkelly]

Any current or past ThinkPad users out there now using a 16" MBP? If so, how is feel of the new 16" keyboard when compared to the ThinkPad keyboard?

Owner of multiple ThinkPads (including an X1 Carbon 6th gen, which I returned), a 2016 15" MacBook Pro, and occasional user of a 2019 16" MacBook Pro at the office here...

The ThinkPad keyboards feel awesome. Are they "better" though? Well, one little tidbit about ThinkPad keyboards that doesn't get reported on very often is the slow polling rate that Lenovo uses. This can cause ThinkPads to transpose characters when a moderately fast typist is at the keyboard. You most frequently encounter the issue when typing a word followed by a space - eg: You might correctly type "this is a test", but you end up with "thi sis atest".

The issue has been noted on a number of Reddit threads - it's affected a large number of their T and X models over the years, and was one of the reasons I returned my X1 Carbon, which seemed particularly prone to it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/9ivh0u

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/9j70v6

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/a0y4l6

Lenovo has supposedly fixed this in a BIOS update, but it doesn't seem to have fixed it for everyone. Plus, now owners of the new ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 machines are complaining of similar keyboard issues when their machines are under load:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkP...Extreme-Gen-2-missing-keystrokes/td-p/4569936

To summarize, I love the feel of the keyboards on my ThinkPads, but I would rather type on something that registers my keypresses consistently.

 

[CloudsNeverDie]

The issues with the latest ThinkPad keyboards are the main reason I'm holding off buying an X1 Gen 2 and making a Hackintosh out of it, which is the plan after I return my MBP 16". The issues have widespread attention, so hopefully Lenovo will release a BIOS update to fix them soon. If not, Dell will be getting my business, or I may try to make my adorable late-2013 MBP 15" last a few more years.

 

[Natzoo]

The issues with the latest ThinkPad keyboards are the main reason I'm holding off buying an X1 Gen 2 and making a Hackintosh out of it, which is the plan after I return my MBP 16". The issues have widespread attention, so hopefully Lenovo will release a BIOS update to fix them soon. If not, Dell will be getting my business, or I may try to make my adorable late-2013 MBP 15" last a few more years.

The workstation series of the Lenovo's are rated good. Especially the base model one with the curved keys.

 

[Madhatter32]

I personally like the 2015 15" MBP keyboard better than the 2020 16" MBP keyboard. It has more more travel and feels great. The ThinkPad's keyboard, in my opinion, is the best. However, all of them are enjoyable enough. The Butterfly -- a monstrosity.