Chiclet (island) style keyboards hurt my hands. What am I doing wrong?

This seems to me a case of 'you're holding it wrong' for sure.

I have, for years, used Latitudes without trouble. I am used to sitting for hours at end and I have never ever had a problem with a keyboard before. I understand correct posture and position is important but I have never had that issue in the past.

More recently, I got a retina Macbook Pro and I loved it. But it caused terrible pain progressively building up over a few weeks and then to a point where I constantly have it. It's not throbbing unless I use the chiclet keyboard.

I can still use the Latitude (E6510) without problems but as soon as I put my hands to the chiclet my hand starts throbbing.

I had to return the Macbook pro for fear of permanent injury. After a month or so, there's still resident pain but it feels like it's getting better, not worse.

Now recently I purchased a HP Chromebook 14 for someone. I used it for all of 5 minutes and all the pain started again. I went back to the Latitude immediately and the pain went from throbbing to passive (hand felt more relaxed).

I'm wondering how am I using it wrong. I tried out various positions to no avail.

I'm not expecting a doctor's reply here, I just want to know what I am doing wrong? Does anyone else have this issue?

It seems I'm doomed as far as chiclet keyboards are concerned.

Any helps appreciated! Thank you!


BTW: The pain I'm describing runs from the ring finger and the pinky all the way under my hand going to my triceps and then all the way up to my trapezius (I think) and I think it matches up with the description of the Cubital Tunnel Syndrome.

 

Your a proper touch typist aren't you?

I have heard of a number of cases where long time touch typists have issues with the compressed island keyboards found in many laptops including the rMBP.

A Dr. over at a video editing forum I frequent, has mentioned is it may be from having your palms further apart because of the touchpad and it causes those two fingers to be compressed inward more. have someone take a top down image of you on both laptops and look at your hand positioning and see if your palms are 1-2" further apart causing a different angle for your wrists and fingers.

I know my hands feel better on my workstations when I just turn off the touchpad and bring my wrists inward.

 

Yes, I'm a touch typist. I thought about taking pictures, but just used eyesight to compare my hands on the two keyboards. But I was focusing on the wrist angle and my finger "curl", not on the distance between my palms.

That's a great place to start. I'll have some pictures of my hands on both the keyboards. Thanks for the suggestion.

Another part of me wants to just give up laptops altogether and start using my desktop more, perhaps pick up a mechanical keyboard, but I know the advantages offered by laptops are hard to give up.

 

or go to a bigger laptop with an non-island style. or try different keyboards, I find that the good business class Dell's and HP's have decent ones, and older thinkpads are unbeatable

 

That's the plan! I ended up searching through M4800s and W530s. I'm not sure how the W530's chiclet keyboard holds up. I skipped on the M4800 because a lot of people are reporting issues.

The reason I want to figure this out is because if I can find the solution to this, I can have so many more models to choose from. Thanks again!

 

You're not doing anything wrong. The Macbook Pro Retina has many nice attributes. The keyboard ain't one of 'em. (It's awful.) Unfortunately the same is true of most laptop keyboards. The business-class laptops are a little better in this area -- Dell Latitude & Precision, Lenovo Thinkpad, etc. But even those are getting progressively worse with each product line update. Most laptop manufacturers seem to have decided that the keyboard is an area where cutting costs is okay. I think that it should be one of the LAST places to cut costs (along with the screen and touchpad/trackpoint), but they don't listen to me!

 

Not exactly sure what your current overall needs are from a laptop (except non-chiclet keys) but perhaps the E6510 might still be able to accommodate your needs a little longer? If that is not an option perhaps going to a B&M (brick and mortar) store and trying out several keyboards may help you develop some sort of general consensus about which recent laptop manufacturer may work out best for your fingers. Hmmmmm... also off-hand I am not sure if any recent laptop manufacturers even offer non-island keyboards on their laptops anymore

 

Not many, but some are certainly better than others. for example my Zbook 17 is, but yet it is a far better typing keyboard than my rMBP. as is my M4800 and M6700

 

I have a Logitech K360 for my desktop. It did not cost a fortune and it works is all I have to say about it xD

I plan on getting a ThinkPad USB keyboard soon. I miss using the trackpoint whenever I use my desktop!

 

I absolutely agree! I don't consider consumer class notebooks, but the direction Lenovo has taken with Keyboards, is scary.

I can get by with what I have right now, but I was hoping for a nice upgrade for hobbyist photo-editing. I do have a desktop for that stuff, but a powerful laptop would be nice. The problem with trying out keyboards in store is that it takes a little bit of use before the strain becomes apparent. In addition, most places will only have you try the keyboard standing up, which doesn't help.

I was debating between the M4800, M6800, Zbook15 and Zbook 17. I am tempted by the Dells because I know and use a E6530 for work and E6510 for personal use and I have no problems. The M4800 (afaik) shares the keyboard with the E6530, so it will be comfortable. The thing that scares me about the M4800 is so many people are reporting various issues with the M4800, how has your personal experience been so far?

The Zbooks look superb but the keyboard is still island style. I don't know if I should take a chance with that. I'm sure not all island style keyboards are created equal. How is HP with their returns in case I get one and have trouble with it? Is the refurb store return easy as well?

Thanks for your help everyone.

 

no issues with my 4800, both it and its little brother the m4700 are two of my favorite 15" units

 

I, for one, am quite happy with mine. That spiceworks thread is a lot less active recently, and mostly with snarky comments about returning the units for W540s, or complaining about the latest BIOSes throttling on smaller power supplies.

I find the machine very stable now on BIOS A09, and am not the only person reporting this. I believe I still have LPM disabled, but have not checked if that is still necessary. The throttling doesn't bother me - I have been using a 180W and a 240W adapter with no issues (I leave one at work and one at home, so I rarely need to carry one anywhere).

No similar problems in Linux, so it's likely a Windows and/or driver issue.

Hope that helps.

 

Which graphics card do you have? I had terrible luck with two M4700s with the AMD M4000 and ended up returning it.

Thanks! I plan to dual boot linux but I will need windows for photo editing. I'll keep an eye out for more feedback.

 

I'm running both Win 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04 without problems, FYI.

 

M4700 is running a K2000, m4800 is running a K2100m

 

Thanks for that info!