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For six years, Lenovo sold the “ThinkPad Compact Keyboard” as an external ThinkPad keyboard with TrackPoint ($58.65 on Amazon). Now it will be replaced with the new ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II is not a big revolution, but rather a small evolution.
2013 was a turning point for the Lenovo ThinkPad laptop series. With the move from ThinkPad T420 to ThinkPad T430, Lenovo replaced the classic ThinkPad keyboard, which was still based on the original IBM ThinkPad design, with a new ThinkPad chiclet keyboard.
This change was not only made for laptops, but also for accessories, the new design was introduced. Consequently, the ThinkPad USB Keyboard with TrackPoint was replaced by the ThinkPad Compact Keyboard with TrackPoint. But the compact keyboard with TrackPoint is also getting on in years: it came onto the market in 2013. Since then, Lenovo has made many minor changes to the ThinkPad keyboards, so that the ThinkPad Compact Keyboard no longer completely corresponded to the current design. Therefore, the keyboard missed its actual purpose, since the external ThinkPad keyboards are supposed to reflect the internal ones as well as possible.
At CES 2020, Lenovo is now launching a new external TrackPoint keyboard. The new ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II replaces the ThinkPad Compact Keyboard. Visually, the new keyboard looks very similar to the old one, it is still a compact, full-width ThinkPad keyboard.
Like the current ThinkPads, the F keys are grouped again, and the FN functions have also changed in part. There are LED status for CapsLock and FNLock in the new ThinkPad TrackPoint keyboard. The TrackPoint buttons have a flat design.
Unlike the ThinkPad Compact Keyboard, the new ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II doesn’t seem to have a wired version anymore. Instead, Lenovo uses Bluetooth 5.0, and the keyboard can optionally be connected via 2.4 GHz WLAN. Lenovo explicitly provides for the use of the keyboard with multiple devices, which is why SwiftPair can be used to quickly switch between devices.
Since it is a wireless keyboard, it contains an internal battery. This should last around two months with one charge. The keyboard is loaded via a USB-C port, which replaces the micro USB connection of the old ThinkPad Compact keyboard.
The Lenovo ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II will be available globally from May 2020 and will cost at least $99.
