Laptop Keyboards

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about laptop keyboards. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about laptops in general. I own one, but it's old, I got it for free, and I don't use it often. The keyboard on it is adequate. I press the keys and letters, numbers, or symbols appear on the screen, assuming there's something running on the computer which receives information from key presses.

I recently had the displeasure of helping my sister choose a laptop at Fry's Electronics for the second time. This time, her demands weren't quite as strange. I didn't hear anything about not getting a laptop with a keyboard that didn't have spaces between the keys. She did have a wacky request regarding the buttons on touch pads that I didn't completely understand. This freedom in keyboard choice meant I walked around and poked some keys on all of the different types of keyboards. 

A typical laptop keyboard.

 The keyboard in the image above is the type on my laptop. It works but I prefer taller keys that move farther when they are pressed as would be found on most desktop keyboards. That would make for a very thick laptop so I can understand why nobody does it. A lot of recent desktop keyboards have these shorter, flatter keys. I guess it's supposed to be more "modern" or people were complaining about their keyboards being thicker than their monitors. Maybe they're cheaper to produce.

I think these are called Chiclet keyboards.

This not so good thing is not far off from the Apple keyboard I am typing on right now in CT 235 at PCC Sylvania. The Apple keyboard has slightly more rounded corners. The issue with Apple products is that they tend to emphasize rounded corners and shiny things over functionality. The issue with many other companies is that they tend to be influenced by/copy whatever Apple does. My sister's previous concern about spaces between the keys isn't an issue for me. I have no idea what her problem with that is. What I don't like about these Apple keyboards is how it feels like I'm jamming my fingers into a sheet of metal over and over. There's no cushion in the key movement. The non-Apple Chiclet typing devices are a bit softer. I don't think I'd find my wrist in pain after using them but they are far from optimal.

No!

I don't get this one. I don't know why it exists. It's easily the worst of the bunch. Imagine typing on a cheap calculator except it costs several hundred dollars and you have to do much more than enter equations for a little while. I didn't spend enough time with it to say more, which I regret, looking back on it.

I can't remember what type of keyboard the first computer my sister chose has. I think it was the Chiclet type. The Fry's employee disappeared for quite a while to look for the laptop or whatever it is Fry's employees do when they're supposed to be looking for something. I wandered around for several minutes and eventually returned to see that the same Fry's guy was doing something else and there was no boxed laptop in the hands of either present family member. After standing around for quite a while, another employee returned with the computer.

All was well until we arrived at home and and started using the laptop. The keyboard was peeling off. There was glue holding the keyboard on and the glue was not functioning properly. This made no sense to me. Why was the keyboard designed like this? Why was the glue on a supposedly new computer not strong enough to do its job?

The next day, my sister returned the first laptop and bought a different one. The new one came in one piece. This storm has blown over and I probably won't ever do this much thinking about laptop keyboards again.