Off center keyboards...

Is anyone else annoyed by the off center keyboard that Toshiba puts on their midsized laptops? They leave more space on the left than on the right, and put the media buttons on the large gap of the left. I tend to try and sit directly in front of my keyboard when I type, so I always feel like I am off centre or the screen is crooked when I type on the Toshiba.

I supposed I'll get used to it but its annoying... most manufacturers center the keyboard with the screen.

 

Other makers do somewhat of the similar thing, but most Toshiba notebooks should have their keyboards centered (with the exception of the A100 series and the P100 series). The P100 series, however, does have HP competitors that have similar offset keyboards and touchpads.

 

I was thinking part of the reason for the offcenter stuff had to do with how the internals were laid out, and that you might end up with uncomfortable hotspots to type on if they were centered normally.

 

I guess I can see it for design purposes, but I think in most cases notebook makers usually take into consideration keyboard/touchpad placement before designing a notebook.

 

Yes, it should be for thermal reasons - on A100 the fan exhaust is on the left side and while intense use (gaming...) the left side gets hooot.

Btw. I am comfortable with that placement...

 

I just saw this thread and wanted to add my 2 cents...

I just got a A105 and I'll have to admit that the keyboard is one of the worst designs I've used so far. The ergonomics are just terrible.

List of keys that are in weird places:
1) The tilde (`) key is on the bottom row next to the space bar instead of being next to the 1 where it usually is.
2) The Delete key is also on the bottom row next to the space bar, instead of being on (or near) the top row. This is the most frustrating things about this laptop, maybe enough that I'll return it.
3) The Windows key is on the top right corner? It's supposed to be a quick access key but it's so far away that my fingers can't reach it!

The Left CTRL key is one of the worst I've seen yet. It looks like it was added as an after-thought. Unless someone has midget-sized hands, they'll find that CTRL+Z and CTRL+A is practically impossible to execute with one hand.

And what's up with the Left ALT key! Some genius at Toshiba decided to put the tilde key next to the space bar.. and move the alt to the left, thus making ALT+F4 incredibly hard to use. I have to tilt my left hand 90 degrees clockwise to be able to hit ALT+F4.

The off-center keyboard is no help either, I have to concentrate very hard when I'm using this keyboard to make sure I'm hitting the right keys.

The touchpad is pretty bad too, it's too tiny for my fingers and lacks a dedicated scroll... which I've found on almost every other laptop I've used.

Other than those issues I think my A105 is reasonably well equipped and well built for the price I paid, the only thing that really bugs me is the retarded keyboard design.

 

- My A100 has a dedicated scroll
- The offset has not bothered me. I find the smoothed edge comfortable to wrest my wrists on.
- The only key i find myself searching for is the delete buttton. I still need to get used to having it on the bottom.