Use Latitude keyboard layout in Vostro laptops (standard Ins/Del/Home/End/PgUp/PgDown position)

May 17, 2008

Posted By:  donut

25 Votes

Status: Archived

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Latitude laptops have a pretty nice key layout.

I think Vostro laptops, which are also business-oriented, should either use the exact same keyboard as Latitudes, or at least the same layout. The Vostro keyboard has several deficiencies compared with the Latitude ones.

For example the Latitude D830 keyboard here: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/imagebank/notebooks/lat_d830.jpg
(Warning: very large picture. If anyone has the URL for a picture with a more head-on view of the keyboard, please post here.)

The Ins, Del, Home, End, Page Up and Page Down keys are in the same 3x2 layout as a standard desktop PC keyboard, at the top right of the keyboard. So it will be easy to adapt between using a desktop keyboard and the laptop one.

Also, the right part of Caps Lock is recessed to reduce the chance of accidentally pressing it, and the cursor keys are the same size as letter keys. (It's not perfect though; who knows why the Windows menu key is at the top rather than to the right of the space bar?)

By comparison, see the Vostro 1710 keyboard here: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/corporate/imagebank/notebooks/vostro_171...
(Warning: another large picture)

Those six keys are in non-standard positions, in particular the PgUp, PgDown, Home and End keys are all on the bottom row underneath the numeric keypad. The Caps Lock key is not recessed, and the cursor keys are smaller than normal. (At least the Windows menu key is in the right place!)

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  • Jul 22, 2008     Comment Link

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    Posted By: doxigrafix

    See, I am not all that enamoured of the iBook layout! The keyboard looks too crowded to me, and that mouse plugging in on the left... very awkward (apologies to left-handed folk who deal with such inconveniences all the time)! Well, we'll never reach a consensus on keyboard layouts, that's obvious! So here's my idea.... for each laptop sales page, offer a link to a detailed view of the keyboard layout in a good large size- yeah, maybe close to those pics posted above- so a potential buyer knows exactly what they're getting and can choose accordingly. How about that?
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  • May 19, 2008     Comment Link

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    Posted By: freemenow

    maybe Dell could just copy the wonderful layout of the iBook portables: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Ibook12.jpg