Rest in peace, Trackpoint. We barely needed ye. Although a pointing stick — which is apparently the brand-agnostic name for the Trackpoint — was popular on laptops in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the only company to carry the tradition forward has been Lenovo. You’ll find the iconic red Trackpoint on just about every ThinkPad laptop available, but Lenovo is doing away with the design at CES 2025 with its new ThinkPad X9.
The Trackpoint is, in 2025, not very useful. Lenovo tells me that the change is to signal a modern approach to the ThinkPad range, the roots of which go way back, to when ThinkPads were branded with an IBM logo. Just a few months back, we looked at the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1, which still had the Trackpoint. Now, it’s gone, and seemingly gone for good.
Externally, Lenovo is using an OLED display across both the 14-inch and 15-inch model, and both use a haptic touchpad along with the well-known (and loved) ThinkPad keyboard. Under the hood, Lenovo says the laptop is serviceable by removing the bottom covering, allowing you to replace the SSD and battery if you need.
And, of course, you can’t have a laptop released in 2025 without a little dose of AI. It’s called Lenovo AI Now, and the company describes the feature as an “advanced on-device AI assistant that brings powerful, real-time intelligence to users.” It’s similar to something like Nvidia’s Chat RTX, as it uses a large language model (LLM) to provide a chatbot that only knows about your local files. Lenovo built the assistant with Llama 3.0, so hopefully it will work well.
I mean, it’s kind of the aesthetic nail in the coffin for the think pad. They’ve been removing the things that made them unique for a long time now. No more upgradable storage, no easily swappable batteries, no more repairability and no more brick like durability.
Like sure, the actual computer bits are getting better than the older models, but so is every other major laptop brand. Now thinkpads are just another generic laptop.
Like, if someone wants a laptop that is repairable and upgradable, framework exists now and they’re better about that than think pads ever were. Still a shame to see the think pad brand melt in to the puddle of generic laptops though.
I finally dropped Lenovo last month, got a laptop from Tuxedo. No three physical button trackpad, but it does have a 100 Wh battery.
Upvote for Tuxedo!
After like 2 or 3 years with my Pulse 15 the battery started to pillow. They sent my a replacement for free.
Now I’m having a Framework 16 and didn’t use my Pulse 15, so I gave it to my nephew. But I saw that the CMOS battery was dead. Wrote them a mail and they are now sending my a replacement battery for free.
All in all, great company
I’ve been using Thinkpads since the X61s, and used the trackpoint extensively back in the day. Hell, I had the X61s that didn’t even have a trackpoint(edit: didn’t have a trackpad), and I rarely used a mouse with it.
But I really don’t understand how anyone still uses the thing extensively. Once in awhile I’ll use it for some bit of specific precision work when I don’t have a mouse handy. I feel like the Trackpoint quality has gone down significantly over the years, and stuff like anti-drift seems to have been neglected.
If not for the horrible arrow keys that I already hate on my Macbook Air, I was all for this transition. I’d much rather have a great trackpad at this point. I want something more compact than a Framework, and I’m comfortable with Lenovo’s Linux support at this point.
I still love the trackpoint and use it almost exclusively if the notebook is not connected on the docking station.
It is just awesome if you can control the mouse while still keeping the hands on the middle of the keyboard.
It’s so much faster than to kove up and down and also more ergonomic, especially in the train when the laptop sits on my lap.
The middle button enables easy scrolling on webpages (although the vim browser extention makes it even easier ther) or documents…
Nothing else I used was able to beat this setup. And I used a lot of different devices over the tome
I’ve got two Thinkpads and I always use the Trackpoint. The touchpad’s gathering dust.
I don’t care about the Trackpoint, but I do like the three Thinkpad physical buttons on that Synaptic trackpad, which are also a signature feature going way back on the Thinkpad. Hard to find feature on laptops.
If you’re willing to use an external keyboard, the same factory that made the IBM Model M was bought by the employees when IBM sold the line to Lenovo, and is still making buckling spring keyboards off in Kentucky. Some of theirs still have a Trackpoint option.
https://www.pckeyboard.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=UB40PGA
Good thing too! I could never find it!
!Commonly known as “clit mouse” where I’m from!<
I see you attempted spoiler.
Spoiler name
Like this
:::spoiler Spoiler name
Like this
:::
Must be a client thing, I see those :::spoiler things everywhere but they don’t work, using the spoiler button in my markdown editor produced my comment and works correctly on my machine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
BOOOOO!
Only reason I’d still buy Lenovo just went out the window.
https://www.amazon.com/SurnQiee-TrackPoint-Keyboard-ThinkPad-Solutions/dp/B09QM5C1GV
Now anything you want can have a tweakable nipple.
I actually loved that thing when I had one. Much better control than the touchpad and with less need to move your hand off of the keyboard.
