Lenovo ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II is now available

Lenovo ThinkPad laptops are a very popular choice in the office world. After all, the Lenovo & IBM ThinkPads are well known for their excellent keyboards with the included TrackPoint – and good input devices are crucial for productivity.

Since they are so popular, IBM and Lenovo have always offered their ThinkPad keyboards without the laptop attached. Even as a standalone accessory, ThinkPad keyboard proved to sell well. Which is why Lenovo decided to make a new external ThinkPad keyboard.

The ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II was announced at CES in January (a long time ago, when real world exhibitions still took place). Replacing the older ThinkPad Compact Keyboard, the new accessory features the iconic red TrackPoint that serves as its namesake. Its layout and key-style match current ThinkPad laptops, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2019. 

This product is finally available today: It is orderable on lenovo.com and it costs $99. According to the estimates on the Lenovo site, it starts shipping in 5 to 7 business days when ordered now.

Compared with the older external ThinkPad keyboard, the design of the keyboard has gotten a slight facelift. More importantly, Lenovo switched out micro-USB for USB C for charging. To connect the keyboard to a PC, Bluetooth 5.0 is utilized, though the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II also supports a wireless USB dongle – which type of connection is preferred is up to the user.

A wired connection is not supported, which marks the first time that Lenovo has not released a wired version of its external ThinkPad keyboard.