Lenovo has removed its iconic TrackPoint nub from new ThinkPad laptops

Fucking stupid ass dumb cunt editor with ragebait article titles making me mad in the morning

Does that mean the TrackPoint is dead? No, thankfully. It will still appear in the other ThinkPads made by Lenovo, said a company spokesman. But for the 14- and 15-inch ThinkPad X9 Aura Editions launched at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, the TrackPoint has been removed entirely.

Senior Editor Mark Hachman I hope you have a terrible day and stub your toe today

Thank you for this comment, it makes me happy to know Lenovo have not removed their nipple.
DEEP BREATHS
pls rub your nub too kay thanks
- I already took off my robe and wizard hat.
A fine addition to my collection
- I do miss AdAway, favorite part of rooting. I might be due for a trip down memory lane.
- Ironic, my collection is working well too
"Ragebait"? Really?
- It seems like they intentionally used a misleading title that'd get some people on pitchforks, so yeah I'm calling it a ragebait
- Yes! They're threatening to take away my clit mouse

Relevant xkcd

removing the nub from ThinkPad is like removing cheese from a cheeseburger.

it'll still be a laptop, but a nubless ThinkPad will always look wrong.

Next thing you know they'll put the Ctrl back in the right place.
- Thankfully it can be swapped in bios
- Control back in the right place... where you can press it with your left pinkie without taking your fingers off the home keys? Rather than where useless caps lock is just wasting space?
- @Dultas
  An Fn key is dumb anyway since that is the goal of every key anyway.
  @germtm
It's honestly the only reason I still buy them. If Lenovo removes the nub or Framework adds it, I'm switching to Framework. Give me a 14" T or E series with TrackPoint and I'm happy.

Those who don't use it are only mildly annoyed by it, but those who use it will raise holy hell now that it's gone.

Is it actually usable? I never owned one
- Used one for a few years and I loved it:
  it's precise, you can really aim small UI elements
  It is paired with actual buttons, index on the nub and thumb on the buttons, so no weird gestures to right click
  It is very quick to switch from keyboard to mouse, your hands nearly don't move
  But, there's no mouse wheel or scroll gesture and maintaining pressure on the nub is maybe more tiring than a trackpad.
- Some people prefer it over trackpad, or use both. Personally I like to disable trackpad because I tend to always hit it with palm or thumb by accident
- I use a mechanical keyboard with one on my desktop, I actually use it quite a lot.
- I think it works fantastically well. I personally like it much better than a touchpad. It lets me move the pointer without taking my hands away from typing home position.
- It’s fine. Takes some time to get used to. Some people really love it, but I don’t think it’s that great.
- It's not just for decoration. You can use it as a legitimate pointing device. Nudging it will move the mouse cursor and tapping it with your fingernail is clicking.
  It takes some getting used to but you can definitely use it for normal office tasks if you wanted to. That being said, I still personally prefer a mouse. But I have known some people who like using the nipple.
- It feels a lot like using a game controller to control your mouse, if you've ever used Joy2Key or similar programs.
- Dunno. I have one on my semifake E580 and I just used it to check if it works. It's a bit awkward for me.
- Oh yeah.
  It isn't a dealbreaker for me, but it really is nice. It takes getting used to, but it cuts down on the need to move to the touchpad or mouse. If you're working in tight quarters, or have mobility issues, or hand issues, it can end up being a major improvement. It's a ymmv thing of course, but I end up using it more than I thought I would when writing.
i don’t care about the nub on mine, but i do care a lot about the left/right click buttons that take up so much of the trackpad area. just gimme a bigass trackpad.
- ThinkPad isn't for you then. There are plenty of laptops with huge track pads, there aren't many with a nub.
  If Framework offered a nub, I'd switch. Until then, I'm sticking with whichever 14" Thinkpad has a nub.

Now put the clit mouse into a framework chassis (the relevant patents are now expired)

Put it on a handheld PC plz
- about a million years ago I had an HTC phone that had a trackball mouse thingy. that was cool. i think it was HTC desire, not sure.
Yes, I'd switch if they did.

I prefer it over trackpad, honestly. Just adjust the acceleration.

Edit: looks like they remove it only from Aura line. Please stub your toe somewhere, author.

me on a date

I AM THE CLIT COMMANDER!

Guillotine time

No more laptop clit

I will not buy a Lenovo without the clitmouse

My work laptop is not Lenovo but has a nub. It's works great when I have work gloves on, since the touchpad doesn't respond well with those.

me too my Thinkpad E14 gen 2 is very tough and that trackpoint helps me a lot.
Who has still with nub?
- https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/looking-for-nub-best-and-worst-notebook-pointing-sticks
  Mine is the HP type.

Is nothing sacred anymore‽

This, and why do they take away the 2 buttons below the track pad. PC track pads are barely tolerable as it is.

Fewer parts means cheaper to manufacture.
Don't be fooled; they're only doing it to increase profits because our standards aren't higher.
- Nobody was using that thing

I actually stopped using mine a long time ago, and every time I get a new laptop, I remove it. Not because I hate it, but because I like it. Even after modifying the acceleration settings to where I like them though, the repeated stress of pushing on the nub eventually start to develop dendonitis in my finger.

After I've trained myself to only use the trackpad I put the nub back on. Partly because it's so iconic it just looks wrong without it, and partly because I want to avoid conversations with guest about my growing clit graveyard (although I guess I could just not leave them in a cup on the coffee table where everyone can see)

I think you're overstimulating. You need to be gentle, which benefits both of you. Try resting it on or near the nub and applying gentle pressure.
my growing clit graveyard
How do you have more than, like, 3? How often do you change laptops?
- At least 2...

God is dead

Not a Lenovo icon. They bought ThinkPad, nippleclit and all, from IBM.

Engage giant-marble-headstone

R I P

A brand has (finally) died.

Nah. Died when Lenovo bought it from IBM. Died again when IBM stopped offering support for them.

Oh its one of those Thinkpads that isn't actually a Thinkpad like the Thinkpad Yogas. My ideal Thinkpad would be a proper release of the T480 25th Anniversary Edition with newer components.

The new ones were garbage anyways. Mine is stuck at a polling rate of 10hz, and the acceleration is god awful

Admittedly overdue and also a sign of the end days

It's super handy on my X1c 6thgen when my trackpad randomly freezes about once a month and I need to shut everything down and reboot. Bah.

Open to tips for fixing the trackpad if anyone has that on their radar!

Now it looks like...every other generic laptop.

I'm not a huge fan of the nub, I personally have always found it in the middle of the way. I do understand it's use, though.

- They are back with the "no buttons" design. People swear the haptics make it better, but it doesn't. My work gave me one and the touchpad gets phantom taps and now the pad "clicks" when it hasn't even been touched sometimes and there's nothing that can be done.
I use the "control nipple" occasionally, but I use the physical mouse buttons every day always.
Even though they're slightly oddly positioned to use with the touchpad, they're a million times better than not having any buttons at all.

Never used trackpoints.
And all my laptops are ThinkPads.
I Always disable both trackpoint and touchpad.