Are trackpoints being phased out on laptops ?

Yes, it is much harder to find the notebooks with both a pointing stick and touchpad.

Tests showed overall the touchpads were more ergonomic (at least if the touchpad is directly under the spacebar --some are not)

At any rate for use on a flat surface your best bet is to use an optical wireless mouse for $20-$30 from Microsoft or Logitech anyway.

But if using it on your lap or some other uneven surface of course it is nice to have both types available. I think Dell on some of its higher end models still offered both so check there but I don't see this on any of the HP's or Compaqs.

Note that HP/Compaq has a button to turn on and off the touchpad which keeps you from jumping the cursor while brushing the touchpad during heavy typing. This was a huge boon for me over my prior Winbook that had both devices you want but had the cursor skipping around all the time as my palm was hitting the touchpad. Also, you can adjust the touchpad sensitivity (at least on synaptics touchpads) so you may not even need to turn off the touchpad at all and you can program quick launch websites or forward and backwards for the website keys on each corner of the touchpad. I have X1000forum.com launching from my upper right, Cnet from my upper left, web page back from the lower left and web page forward from the lower right.

And the HP/Compaq notebooks (and many others) have a scroll function built into the right side of the touchpad as well. You can't do any of that with a pointing stick.

IBM's are business models and they have had the trackpoint for years so consider this is you still want this. I think some Dell higher end business models may still have both as well.

Otherwise, you won't find a trackpoint on nearly any consumer model and most other brands have been using trackpads for years.

Toshiba used the trackpoint for quite awhile also and could check their Techra models but I think they may all be touchpads now.

At any rate, IBM's have great keyboards and case construction. As I posted elsewhere, I got a 15% online Citibank coupon code to use for 15% off IBM notebooks at the IBM website -- if you have a Citibank card look for this coupon code in your credit card statements recently.

Hi Ken,

As usual, you're a credit to this forum.

I've overlooked IBM in the past, since they never seem to offer any coupon deals. Certainly nowhere near what HP/Compaq has done (i.e coupons, rebates, fatwallet cash etc). I'll check the coupon code

But a few questios
1) For laptops, does IBM ever offer Athlon esp Athlon 64 ?

2) Do they have anything comparable spec wise to the Gateway 7405GX or Compaq 3000Z range for around $1250-$1500 ?

From looking at pure specs, the Gateway laptop is wonderful value. Even HP doesn't stack up just yet (perhaps waiting a while for changes to the R3000Z or T line will do some good)

When I'm working at my desk, the gold old mouse is fine, but if I'm lazing around, I can surf a lot faster with the trackpoint and although not a deal-breaker for me, I'd love to find a laptop spec wise and cost wise, close to the Gateway 7405GX with a trackpoint

Are there any models that I should be considering ?

Perhaps Toshiba would be a better bet. Since they seem to produce more multimedia kind of laptops than IBM.

Are these trackpoints even available as configurable options outside of the majot OEMs i.e Sager, ABS, Voodoo etc. Granted I think those are probably more gaming oriented

Thanks again
Richard

The HP DV1000 is very comparable to the Gateway and both are available with the full Pentium M Dothan cpu (with 2mb L2 system cache) not a Celeron Pentium M.

The only drawback is that the HP DV1000 is shared video memory but the Gateway may be shared also (check that yourself).

The HP DV1000 is 5.3 pounds and has the brand new 14" widescreen LCD (with the briteview option) -- if you find this 14" widescreen on any other model post it here (the HP DV1000 was just released in September).

I had Winbook (Ohio notebook company) that had both trackpoint and trackpad (Windows 9 but I ended up having more quirks with it than I liked so I went back to a mainsteam company this time.

IBM's are great notebooks if what they offer fits your needs and the 15% discount may in fact make the price competitive as well (otherwise, you get more with HP/Compaq/Toshiba, etc normally).