People who use their Windows laptops primarily for business/accounting data-entry tasks love the number pads.<p>This blogger does not know the market better than the large and profitable manufacturers selling into it. The manufacturers have real numbers backing their decisions – not subjective aesthetic and ergonomic hand-waving. If customers weren't choosing (and even paying extra for) for the numpad, it'd disappear quickly.
I am very happy to have a numpad on my laptop (first time I've had one after five laptops without) and in all likelihood would only buy a laptop in the future with a numpad. The balancing issue took a few minutes to get used to, if I use on my lap, but otherwise, it was an easy adjustment to make. Using the numpad when entering figures into Excel or other programs is much easier than before when using the top-line of the keyboard, and no longer need to have a usb desktop keyboard around to help with that.
No, the worst trend is the squashed screens. People writing - be it English or French, or source code of some kind, or for that matter, many other kinds of creating, work vertically, not with these super wide but not very tall screens.
I need numpads for fast stuff. Numpad keys are also not just duplicate numeric keycodes. Figure out a better laptop design, yes, but taking it out for good eliminates some use cases. While you're at it, make function keys work consistently across all manufacturers.<p>edit: and I love butterns.
> "the numpad is useless for the vast majority of people, and those who need numpads, already use them at desktop (keyboard) or, can buy numpads"<p>Nice, yet another blogger that says that I do not exist. I need a numpad, and I don't want to carry with another peripheral and no... I don't have a desktop.
I like my numpad. In fact, I bought my laptop explicitly because it has a numpad on it.<p>And I also like the fact that the PC market caters to every niche. I know some people don't like numpads on laptops, but I do. So you can buy a laptop without one, and I'll go buy one with one. Bam, both of us are happy.<p>What is wrong with that?
Nearly 10 years ago I bought happy hacker keyboards without numpads for all of my <i>desktops</i> and I haven't missed the numpad one bit. I did get the model with cursor keys though (edited to add: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000U1DJ2/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000U1DJ2/</a> ).<p>Giant keyboards are even more of a waste of space and ugly eyesore on the desktop than they are on a laptop.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Hacking_Keyboard" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Hacking_Keyboard</a>
Number pads are <i>very</i> useful to me as a programmer.<p>People forget that they aren't only useful for number entry...Num lock is there for a reason.<p>It's a solution from the horrible absence/reconfiguration of the Home cluster, as the numpad can be used for that purpose. And it can be used for rapid text movement. If you aren't using numpad as a programmer, you might be suprised at the code editing benefits.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Numpad.svg" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Numpad.svg</a>
The really stupid trend in laptop (and most portables) design is non-user replaceable batteries!! What can be at most a 10 USD, 30 second affair is now a drive to the service centre, a two week (if lucky) wait and a 100 USD bill ...
The stupidest trend in blogging is complaining about available options. Just because you use a product a certain way doesn't mean everyone else does.
16:9 display, glossy display, low screen resolution considering screen size, glossy plastic chassis, numpad.<p>I would not consider buying a laptop that had any one of these.
This is a bad trend, but eliminating trackpad buttons is probably worse. (The fact that most people don't realize it is worse makes it even worse!)
I don't like numpads either, but I see why some people do like them. Low resolution screens however; that does no-one any good I would say. And for me it's downright annoying. I work mostly exclusively on laptops and having as much room on one screen as possible is very valuable for me. 1366x768 is insanely low and yet most laptops have had it for years.
Good point. Liked the assessment of where eye focus is, though I often notice that I position myself slightly to the left of my balanced laptop, perhaps because I use my right hand for more than 1/2 of the keyboard.
Hmm.. I just got an idea for a compromise: Put the numpad in the wasted space below the keyboard<p><a href="http://imgur.com/zrZAeg4" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/zrZAeg4</a><p>Centered keyboard, numeric entry, everyone is happy?
Tiny arrow keys on the keyboards are also stupid.<p>Most people use the arrow keys way more than CAPS LOCK but guess which occupies more area.<p>Also needing a key combination for PgUp/PgDn Home etc.
I have no idea why numpads even exist on most desktop keyboards. They just make it more difficult to reach the mouse. I use the Filco Majestouch-2 in its "Tenkeyless" (no numpad) version[0], and it's great being able to reach the mouse so easily.<p>0: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Filco-Majestouch-2-Tenkeyless-FKBN87M-EB2/dp/B004WOF7QM" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Filco-Majestouch-2-Tenkeyless-FKBN87M-...</a>
Don't disagree with any of that, but I bet the reason lots of laptops have numpads is that when Average Customer sees a laptop with and without one next to each other in a store, he will not choose the one without the numpad because, well, "you never know". Or the one without doesn't look like a "normal" keyboard: "maybe it's horrible to type on after a while?" etc.
Or conversely put a pad of usefulness to the left of the keyboard as well to maintain symmetry. I don't know about the author but if the G15 keyboard came with a fully programmable 'number pad' like arrangement to the left of control and a number pad to the right of enter I would be totally OK with that.
I used to think I wanted a laptop with a number pad on it, then I saw one that actually had one, and hated it instantly. I feel bad for the poor saps that did get one.
Agreed. It is very hard today to find a cheap PC laptop without an accountant's keyboard. I don't even like them on desktops, a waste of space (for me).
The stupidest trend in laptop design is... having a screen, you know, because I just use my laptop to feed music into my sound system. I don't need a screen I'm not even going to watch. And the mic input? The webcam? Come ooooon, are the designers just that f.... stupid??? Why do they keep bloating laptops with a lot of useless features that just add weight, moving parts and create health problems in the long run???