ThinkPads Will Always Have TrackPoint: Lenovo

You might think the TrackPoint is going away. Dell and HP have stopped making computers with pointing sticks, so only Lenovo's ThinkPads have them. Now, Lenovo has said that the TrackPoint will always be around as long as there are ThinkPads. When laptops first came out, it wasn't clear which mouse input device would be the most popular. In the 1990s, the trackball, the IBM TrackPoint, and other pointing sticks that were based on it were the most popular. It should be clear by now that touchpads have won. Laptops almost never come with trackballs anymore. The only other real option, besides touchscreens and the digitizer pens that go with them, is the TrackPoint, which was mostly found on business laptops. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Lenovo[/caption] In the last few years, however, even this option has become less common. Dell and HP, two of the three biggest companies that make business laptops, have slowly stopped using their TrackPoint versions. No new Dell Latitudes or HP EliteBooks have a pointing stick anymore. That leaves Lenovo, which is the successor to the IBM PC. Since the first IBM ThinkPad, the TrackPoint has been a part of the ThinkPad brand. Its red rubber cap is now a part of the brand's image and is even in the logo. But with the trend toward business laptops that don't have TrackPoints, it's easy to think that TrackPoints are on their way out, even on ThinkPads. It doesn't look like this will happen. In an interview with the Japanese tech site PCWatch for the 30th anniversary of the ThinkPad, Lenovo Vice President Jerry Paradise said (in Japanese, translated): "We think that TrackPoint will always be used as long as the ThinkPad keeps being made. This is what we tell our customers, and we think it's still a very recognizable part of the ThinkPad brand." When asked about the first generation of the ThinkPad X1 Fold, which didn't have a TrackPoint, Paradise told PCWatch that customers told Lenovo they wanted the TrackPoint back. So, yes, the red dot is on the new ThinkPad X1 Fold 16. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Picture Credit: Lenovo[/caption] Even though the TrackPoint won't move, that doesn't mean that the rest of the design is set in stone. Lenovo has added a haptic trackpad with built-in TrackPoint buttons to the ThinkPad Z13 and ThinkPad Z16, which you can get from Amazon. This was done to make the touchpad bigger while keeping the TrackPoint. So far, Paradise says, most of the feedback has been positive. This could mean that this design will be added to other ThinkPad models one step at a time.