M17x: What's with this keyboard?

Maybe someone can help me with something here. Ever since the dawn of the Notebook Grande, keyboards have had a tendency to be mashed up against the screen, leaving you with this enormous palm rest that's better fit for eating a meal on than supporting your palms while typing. What's the ill logic behind this? Do these notebook chassis designers even know how to type? Is it lost on everyone that a thick notebook like the Dell M1710, M1730 or M17x is already difficult enough to type on without placing the keyboard an extra full foot out of reach?

And these days full sized keyboards and number pads are being built into the chassis, with the typing end mashed not only against the foot of the display, but also against the left edge of the chassis. Now, not only does the writer or business person have to have the relatively sharp edge of the palm rest force his tendons down into the Carpal Tunnel Triangle between the ulna, radius, and carpal bones, he has the very sharp front left edge (especially in the case of the M17x) of the palm rest ground deep into ulnar nerve.

Shouldn't a respected standard be established that can be impressed upon manufacturers of notebooks to design palm rests that are ergonomically sound? The ideal size for a palm rest is probably about 2.6 inches. Any longer than this and the edge of the palm rest begins to cut into the carpal tunnel region of the wrist.

Thus far I've been able to find a way to tilt my notebooks that made it possible for me to get my wrist off the edge of the palm rest. But the underside of the M17x is not flat like most notebooks, so my laptop stands do not work with it. I have to reach over this massive palm rest to type like a toddler stretching over the kitchen counter top to get the cookie jar.

Rant over.

Am I the only one who has a problem with these palm rest designs, especially the M17x? Does anyone actually use this keyboard?

 

There is nothing wrong with the keyboard or the design.
The thing is that the touchpad is to be placed somewhere aswell, this causes the space between the edge of the M17x and the keyboard to be this long.

I do agree with you that it's not completely ergonomical to use and that the touchpad (which I hardly ever use) can be left out. But then a again, how would you point, if there is none, and your not packing a mouse?

In the end "IF" this thing was designed just for typing it would be less then 1cm thick. But it isn't... it's a gaming laptop! So it has to pack a lot of stuff just to make us (the gamers) happy.

Anyways there is always the option for using an USB keyboard.

 

A touchpad doesn't have to be four inches wide and three inches long. They're very functional two and a half inches wide and an inch and three quarters long. They put these on the smaller laptops all the time.

All they need to do to make it more ergonomical is place the keyboard closer to the front edge of the chassis. And yes, it is a gaming laptop. Imagine the things you could do with that four to five inches of space behind the keyboard then. What about a series of two or three iPhone sized paneled displays that can be configured to run independent programs in them on bootup, like a performance monitor, Skype, or game status data? Or all three, one for each panel?

 

I don't actually agree with anything you've said so far

If you find the edge of the laptop cutting into your wrist just sit up a little bit or make the chair higher etc. You shouldn't be putting enough weight on your wrists to be causing discomfort if you're sitting properly.
Also unless you want a really sensitive cursor (i'd rather not personally) the large touchpad is good for navigating around the big screen when not using a mouse.

If you really hate the setup that much, you simply shouldn't have bought this laptop

 

I also felt quite uncomfortable because of the sharp edges, creating some minor bruising after prolonged use. They should have gone for a more rounded design on the edges. I have found that nice, soft tennis wristbands help for comfort quite a bit with this laptop, so perhaps you'd like to try that as well.

Hmm...come to think of it, it would be cool if Alienware would pack two tennis wristbands with an alien head logo with these laptops along with the hat.

 

Richjuk23:

I didn't purchase this laptop. I purchased an M1730, which I was able to tilt and type comfortably on. I use the laptop both for gaming and for work and writing. It's really surprising that something like this would be viewed purely as a gaming system. It's a great development platform as well. It's also a great system to do Q/A work on. It's nice for writing (or it would be if typing was possible) in home or on the go--and I'm usually on the go. I also do web design and development. A hack of all trades. So why should I spend all that money and only expect to sit there and tweak out on video games? Such thinking it seems to me belongs to people with a lot of money and absolutely nothing else to do but waste away in front of video games.

Now, like I said, I didn't buy this Alienware. I purchased an M1730. There is a design flaw with the M1730 video cards, which I managed to find three times within a 1 year period. Dell got tired of throwing parts at it, so they replaced it with the hood of a Cadillac. For the time being, I'll assume that you don't actually type on yours. Maybe there's another computer you use for that.

But I can say at least that it works. The M1730 never really worked right.


Gizmo:

I'll have a look-see for some tennis wristbands. I hand't thought of that before, and it really sounds like a great idea. Thanks for the constructive feedback.