Home > Consumer Reviews > IBM 31P9490 Keyboard for Thinkpad (Black)
IBM 31P9490 Keyboard for Thinkpad (Black)
See it at Amazon.com for $70.00Average Customer Rating
(3.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
not thinkpad quality, disappointing
(3 out of 5) by Zhibin Yang on Sep 14, 2007 (Ann Arbor, MI United States)I bought it to extend my thinkpad keyboard experience, which was wonderful, to my new Toshiba TabletPC. It has about the same looking and layout as my old thinkpad laptop, which is what I expected.
However, the build quality is poor, compared to the one mounted on the thinkpad laptop and to the mac at my place. The functions keys on the top are shaky. I got a chance to detach some keypads from both the laptop and this keyboard. The plastic components suspending/mouning the keypads on this keyboard are poorly made, tend to be very soft.
These top-row keys are dull as well, not picking up every stroke. Especially bad is the "delete" key, which works only if I hit it with extra attention. I found this to be very distracting.
Also, motion components beneath the keypads seem not well lubricated, squeaking in quiet nights.
For a price around $90 and such a quality, I will hesitate to recommend it to anyone, except that you cannot live without a thinkpad keyboard.
However, the build quality is poor, compared to the one mounted on the thinkpad laptop and to the mac at my place. The functions keys on the top are shaky. I got a chance to detach some keypads from both the laptop and this keyboard. The plastic components suspending/mouning the keypads on this keyboard are poorly made, tend to be very soft.
These top-row keys are dull as well, not picking up every stroke. Especially bad is the "delete" key, which works only if I hit it with extra attention. I found this to be very distracting.
Also, motion components beneath the keypads seem not well lubricated, squeaking in quiet nights.
For a price around $90 and such a quality, I will hesitate to recommend it to anyone, except that you cannot live without a thinkpad keyboard.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Good keyboard, but not Thinkpad quality.
(3 out of 5) by Y. HO on Apr 9, 2007I have a Thinkpad X-31 for almost four years. I use it everyday and love the touch of the keystroke everyday. The keyboard quality on the elder thinkpad model is excellent.
For this reason, when I thought of getting a new keyboard for the desktop using in my office, I thought of the IBM UltraNav USB Keyboard first. I did some research and placed my order in 30 minutes.
Once this keyboard arrived my place, I tried it immediately and it turned out to be a big disappointment to me. It is a good keyboard but not a great keyboard especially when I paid 9x dollars for it. The touch is different. Some key are loose.
On this keyboard, Keys on the corner are loose. The 'insert', 'delete', 'PgUp', 'PgDn', 'Home', and 'F5' keys are loose. And the arrow keys and 'End' key are firmer than those on my X31.
In conclusion, if you need a good keyboard with trackpoint, this is one of the two choices you have. Buy it! and don't compare it with keyboards on your thinkpads. If you want an excellent keyboards, you should get a cherry keyboard for comparable price.
For this reason, when I thought of getting a new keyboard for the desktop using in my office, I thought of the IBM UltraNav USB Keyboard first. I did some research and placed my order in 30 minutes.
Once this keyboard arrived my place, I tried it immediately and it turned out to be a big disappointment to me. It is a good keyboard but not a great keyboard especially when I paid 9x dollars for it. The touch is different. Some key are loose.
On this keyboard, Keys on the corner are loose. The 'insert', 'delete', 'PgUp', 'PgDn', 'Home', and 'F5' keys are loose. And the arrow keys and 'End' key are firmer than those on my X31.
In conclusion, if you need a good keyboard with trackpoint, this is one of the two choices you have. Buy it! and don't compare it with keyboards on your thinkpads. If you want an excellent keyboards, you should get a cherry keyboard for comparable price.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Not IBM Quality
(2 out of 5) by J. Lund on Aug 5, 2007Like a couple of the other reviews, the features on this keyboard are great. I love not having to take my hands off the keyboard to move the cursor.
I was expecting the keyboard to be the same (quality and feel) as my older IBM A31p and A21p, but this is certainly not the case. It might be the quality of newer Lenovo laptops (I don't know since I don't own one).
As another reviewer points out, the keys are not uniform in feel. Some of the keys require so much throw that I find my self having to hit the key multiple times (Specifically Insert/Delete/HOME/END/PgUP/PgDN). I don't have issues with the Dell Precision M70, Kensington Slim Type Keyboard or Logitech DiNovo.
Out of the box without drivers, the keyboard and input devices work in both Vista and XP.
For some strange reason, on the machine with Windows Vista, the keyboard always enables the num-lock key at the login screen. The same machine has XP SP2 and this does not occur... Could be my hardware.
Too bad the logitech dinovo doesn't have a trackpoint.
I was expecting the keyboard to be the same (quality and feel) as my older IBM A31p and A21p, but this is certainly not the case. It might be the quality of newer Lenovo laptops (I don't know since I don't own one).
As another reviewer points out, the keys are not uniform in feel. Some of the keys require so much throw that I find my self having to hit the key multiple times (Specifically Insert/Delete/HOME/END/PgUP/PgDN). I don't have issues with the Dell Precision M70, Kensington Slim Type Keyboard or Logitech DiNovo.
Out of the box without drivers, the keyboard and input devices work in both Vista and XP.
For some strange reason, on the machine with Windows Vista, the keyboard always enables the num-lock key at the login screen. The same machine has XP SP2 and this does not occur... Could be my hardware.
Too bad the logitech dinovo doesn't have a trackpoint.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Mediocre
(3 out of 5) by Mark Twain on Mar 5, 2008 (California)I bought this keyboard for my desktop after falling in love with the keyboard on my T43. The experience has been mixed. The keyboard is certainly good, and if I don't use my T43 for a while I wonder how much better the T43 keyboard could be, but once I return to the T43 keyboard, I realize the desktop version has a ways to go. Note, this evaluation ignores the rather trashy function (FX) and Ins/Home/PgUp/Del/End/PgDn keys. Those are just as bad as, or worse than, those found on free keyboards.
Beyond the keys, the trackpoint is a delight to use. Though light ,the keyboard feels pretty solid.
For those looking for an alternative, I've tried the latest thin aluminum keyboard that Apple makes, and the keys are quite nice. It's a bit different from the thinkpad keyboards, but I think if I were willing to put that much money down for another keyboard, I could easily grow to love it. However, it doesn't have a trackpoint.
Beyond the keys, the trackpoint is a delight to use. Though light ,the keyboard feels pretty solid.
For those looking for an alternative, I've tried the latest thin aluminum keyboard that Apple makes, and the keys are quite nice. It's a bit different from the thinkpad keyboards, but I think if I were willing to put that much money down for another keyboard, I could easily grow to love it. However, it doesn't have a trackpoint.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Lots of Features But Not Great Quality.
(2 out of 5) by Jonathan A. Watmough on Jul 25, 2007 (Houston, Texas)Summary
I ordered one of these hoping that it might meet the same quality standards set by the last ThinkPad Laptop I owned, and whilst I was impressed by the features and ease of setup, I was not impressed by the quality of the item.
Features & Quality
The keyboard is a very compact size and fits a normal USB plug. Out of the box, with no additional drivers, the keyboard, trackpoint, and trackpad were all supported by my Ubuntu Feisty box.
However, the key feel quality was poor, and patchy across the keyboard, with an inconsistent feel between keys, and a generally flimsy feel. For the money, I would expect a more solid feel, much more like a real laptop.
In comparison, the keyboard on my Dell M65 is rock solid and *extremely* high quality in feel. In turn this is beaten out by the Mac Book Pro keyboard.
I ordered one of these hoping that it might meet the same quality standards set by the last ThinkPad Laptop I owned, and whilst I was impressed by the features and ease of setup, I was not impressed by the quality of the item.
Features & Quality
The keyboard is a very compact size and fits a normal USB plug. Out of the box, with no additional drivers, the keyboard, trackpoint, and trackpad were all supported by my Ubuntu Feisty box.
However, the key feel quality was poor, and patchy across the keyboard, with an inconsistent feel between keys, and a generally flimsy feel. For the money, I would expect a more solid feel, much more like a real laptop.
In comparison, the keyboard on my Dell M65 is rock solid and *extremely* high quality in feel. In turn this is beaten out by the Mac Book Pro keyboard.