It's hard to convince people that they should give up their numberpad and dedicated arrows/home cluster/fn row, but 60% is superior if you can adapt to it.
Why should we/me/anyone give up the number-pad, etc? And what do you mean by "superior" in regards to 60%?
I'm new here and these are serious questions (i.e. not trolling). Is there something objectively better about reduced size keyboards?
I'll elaborate on what Spamray said. The concept is to keep your hands on or close to the home row. If you can touch-type and memorize the Fn layer locations, you can type without really moving your fingers away from the home row, and save a lot of hand travel. It's good for speed and ergo.
As for me, I prefer a TKL to a 60. I guess I'm too old to learn a 60% layout. I'm also not opposed to having a numberpad, but I don't like it in the space where my mouse should be. I go with a detached pad to the right of my mouse, or perhaps above the keyboard or to the left.
I agree with all of this.
The way I see it is that there are 4 important parameters in favor of smaller layouts (from TenKeyLess to 60%):
- to save space in front of the computer
- to be able to cover most of the keyboard surface with your hands
- to keep your mouse as close to the keyboard as possible
- to center the keyboard in front of your screen
All of this helps in reducing hand travel, a good posture, and a well organized desk.
However as the keyboard gets smaller and smaller there comes a time when the benefits stop.
There is no universal truth here. It is a personal thing.
If for whatever reason you need the number pad, maybe because you enter a lot of numbers or you use very often its Enter key (which is conveniently located very close to the mouse) or use the symbols (like in typing "*.*" with the number pad only), going to a TenKeyLess keyboard may be already too much for you.
If you do a lot of work in an editor (programming for example) and you are very fluent with the navigation cluster of a full keyboard, a 60% keyboard may be counterproductive for you, because you have developed strong muscle memory for actions like PageUp/PageDown, going to the end of the line, moving to the start of the document, selecting several lines of text, and so on... Maybe you do these actions several hundreds times in a single day (I know I do), so it is not a given that you will be as efficient on a keyboard that requires key combinations (chording) for actions that used to require a single key. It's not that it is difficult to adapt to these new combinations, the problem is you have to think about them. They interrupt your mental flow until they become second nature.
So there may be a point where you say "I cannot do my work as well on this thing".
For most people, but not everyone, a TKL is OK. You already get the benefit of a closer mouse, which helps a lot, you save space on your desk, and you do not need to change your habits. You are immediately productive on the TKL. If you switch to a full keyboard and come back to your TKL (a common scenario in many working environments), you don't even notice it.
For a smaller population, a 60% board will work perfectly after some adaptation time. They get the full ergonomic benefit of a small keyboard. I think it works better if you don't have to switch back and forth between a 60% and a TKL or a full size.
The problem is that you will not really know how small you can go until you try a small keyboard for real work, and for long enough.
Personally I know from experience that I don't need a full size keyboard. But I'm not yet sure if I will end up using a 60% all the time or if I will just stay with a TKL.
