Experience with laptop Keyboards?

Question

I'm thinking of retiring my 3 year old HP laptop I want to know which manufacturor makes laptops with the best Keyboards?

I loved my Full width keyboard, with numberic pad on my HP, I've tried a a few laptop keyboards in shops and have found none of them satisfying to type with.

What I want is something that will maximise my typing comfort. All the ones I see in shops seem to be designed to look good but feel horible. The keys are either too shiny, too small, or don't press down enough.

All I want it a keyboard thats comfortable, I've been given a Lenovo laptop by my work and I've had to resort to pluging in a USB keyboard while I work, which is less than ideal.

Answer 1

Personally I like Apple's keyboards. (I like Macs too, but that's another story.)

HP's keyboards seem ok. I don't like Dell or Toshiba keyboards - their tactile feedback has been kludgy in my experience.

Answer 2

It's weird that you mention a Lenovo as being undesirable, since the Thinkpad series is generally held to have the most desktop-y keyboard among laptops. Did the new Lenovos change out the keyboard?

Have you tried the macbook keyboard? It's love-it-or-hate-it, but I really liked the "feel" of it.

I also really like the keyboards on the Acer Aspire series. You should be able to find one of these at the local big box store to try out.

Answer 3

I think the Lenovo's are out because they don't (or didn't at last check) offer a 17" model which is required in order to have the real estate for a full sized keyboard and number pad.

I have a Dell Inspiron 1730 as my main machine right now and I really like the keyboard on it. It includes the number pad and has real keyboard sized buttons. Placement is excellent and the touch pad is left-of-center which makes lefty mousing easy (also can be disabled when a USB or Bluetooth mouse is detected which I love).

Answer 4

The Lenovo/Thinkpad keyboards are the best ones out there as far as I'm concerned. The non-Thinkpad Lenovos don't seem to be as good though. I never used the number pad though, so I never even notice if it's missing.

Answer 5

The only laptop I've ever owned was an Inspiron, but I actually really liked that keyboard feel. It had functionality for a number pad, but you had to hit some function buttons to activate it, which was kind of annoying. My honest advice is to get a USB keyboard you like, and use that instead (if you can port it around)

Answer 6

You have to make a distinction between the simple lenovo-branded laptops and the thinkpads. If you ever used a thinkpad, you just know there's no other..

And there is a 17" thinkpad with full sized keyboard and a number pad, the w700. You even get a digitizer for that prize..

Answer 7

I don't mind the keyboard on my Inspiron but I will say that I recently had it replaced and was very pleased with the fresh keyboard feel... I advocate replacing the keyboard, if you use the laptop's keyboard frequently, fairly regularly (maybe annually?)

Answer 8

I also want to change my keyboard then friend of mine told me about HP keyboard. it works really good..... http://www.pdaaccessories.com/productDetail.asp?accid=965&searchcat=Laptop+K

Answer 9

hey HP keyboard is good,i ve been using since last year Its very comfertable

Answer 10

I have owned 3 hp's and I would have to say that their keyboards are actually their weaker selling points. I recently bought a Lenovo Y450 and it is the best keyboard I have ever used. It's got just the right amount of response, has great tecture, isn't really flat like the chicklet keyboards that Apple has that look really cool but suck to type on. The only thing bad about the keyboard is that it has ruined all other keyboards for me. While I used to be moderately satisfied with HP or Apple keyboards I now find them too stiff, too flat, or too clanky.