Lenovo messed up on the default calibration of that panel. You have the same problem with the t430s which I own. I used a ColorHug to get the correct ICC profile at which point it looks a lot better. More details and the profile from G+ https://plus.google.com/110166527124367568225/posts/bLg18FtS...
(Lenovo do ship an ICC profile with Windows, but it was made in 2010 and is simply for a 60% gamut screen of that resolution and doesn't take into account the actual panel used.)
Screens have been the major area where Lenovo have been taking backwards steps, while everything else have been (sometimes debated) improvements. We now have low resolution and 16:9 instead of 16:10 losing vertical resolution. My laptop has over 5cm of wasted vertical space (just plastic) that would be better served by being pixels.
It's worse than you suggest, and the trend has been going on for years. Highest resolution available in a Thinkpad, by year:
2005: 2048x1536
2010: 1920x1200
2012: 1920x1080
And the old ones were IPS. I like the old keyboard lights better than the new backlit keyboards too. This is not arbitrary; they're useful for reading things other than the letters on the keyboard.
It's even worse that the worse you suggest from my worse suggestion! Viewing angles on the new screens are pitiful, with very rapid colour representation as you move out of the small sweet spot. The only thing I have found any improvement on is that my 2012 screen is brighter than my 2007 screen - sufficiently bright that I can actually use it ourdoors.
The new keyboards are more subjective - unlike the screens which I can't imagine anyone defending. I got the backlit keyboard on my new system and am happy with it - the old thinklight is still present so I switch between the modes as suits my whims but mainly use the backlit mode. When you press Fn-Space it cycles between keyboard backlight low, high, then thinklight (with keyboard off) and finally all off.
On the 6 versus 7 rows, I am okay with the changes. But then I'm not that big of a Thinkpad keyboard snob.
I'm comparing my 2007 vintage T61 screen which wasn't IPS - just a regular LCD panel to a 2012 vintage T430s screen. The viewing angle on the new screen is really small (both horizontally and vertically).
That's interesting. I rate the 4:3 T61 screen as not very good, but I'm comparing it to my UXGA Flexview so that may be a little unfair. I have to wonder if Lenovo thinks people just don't care about viewing angles.
I have the 1680x1050 (IIRC) 16:10 T61. That was the upgraded screen not the standard at the time. It was perfectly acceptable, and has decent viewing angles, but not comparable to the IPS panels of previous generations.
On the Lenovo blogs almost any post will have comments complaining about the screens. Lenovo's response has been that they could only get better screens if they had large orders and that doesn't happen (apparently it would take tens of thousands of orders to get a screen manufacturer to change tooling for a 16:10 run). But somehow Lenovo charge $1,000 to have 16GB of RAM in a laptop (the most expensive place I have found for buying the RAM as a component is $200), yet don't offer better screens for any money.
I am very grateful for Apple making screens an issue that can no longer be ignored on decent laptops. I'm very happy with all other aspects of the Thinkpad, but the screen made me seriously consider an Apple product instead. Lenovo are just lucky that some of the non-screen aspects of the Apple products are sufficiently annoying to this Linux user that I didn't switch.
Apple is well known for being able to get what its wants from suppliers, but I'm sure Lenovo sells enough laptops that if it cared enough to make screens a big issue with suppliers and a selling point for customers, it could get good screens too. When IBM wanted good screens, it created a new company (IDTech, since sold to Sony) as a joint venture.
(Lenovo do ship an ICC profile with Windows, but it was made in 2010 and is simply for a 60% gamut screen of that resolution and doesn't take into account the actual panel used.)
Screens have been the major area where Lenovo have been taking backwards steps, while everything else have been (sometimes debated) improvements. We now have low resolution and 16:9 instead of 16:10 losing vertical resolution. My laptop has over 5cm of wasted vertical space (just plastic) that would be better served by being pixels.