Personal Tech: Key size matters, period
For the want of a simple period key, a laptop is lost. An otherwise great notebook computer from Dell seems impractical because of one small problem–actually, three small problems–shrunken keys for the comma, period, and forward-slash symbol.
At about $900, the fully equipped Inspiron 700m seemed a great deal, which is Dell's hallmark. At that price, it comes fully packed, including a 1.8 GHz processor, a DVD burner, and an extended-life battery that can run nearly five hours. Even with the fat battery, the notebook weighs only about 5 pounds, and its 12.1-inch screen is a thing of beauty.
I've spent a couple of weeks with one that I bought, sight unseen, from Dell's website. Now it's going back for a refund before it goes out the window. Sure, the keys have to be small on a notebook this size – it's roughly 8.5-by-11.5 inches. But then Dell further clipped the period, comma and forward-slash keys. That's meant routinely getting a slash when I want a period. And in this day of Web addresses, that's a steady irritation. Why not shrink the Q, X, and Z keys – they get used less!
The Dell keyboard pales next to one on an even lighter notebook from IBM/Lenovo, a three-pound ThinkPad X40. IBM is pretty much the last company that uses an eraser-type cursor control instead of a touchpad. Some folks find the eraser, which is a small plastic nub that sits in the middle of the keyboard, more awkward in moving a cursor. But I don't–and it takes up less room. That leaves ample space for good-size keys across the entire board. So there's no painful slashing when I just want to end a sentence, period.
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