Best laptop keyboard?

[afton]

I haven't owned many laptops, but imho the best laptop keyboard
I've been on is MacBook Pro silver keys.

What do you think is the best laptop keyboard?

[DarthShrine]

I remember liking my old Toshiba Satellite keyboard. Too bad the laptops were terrible. I had a more recent Satellite and some keys just stopped working.
These days, I use an Aluminium MacBook ("meh" keyboard) and an EeePC 701 (not *too* bad for its size, but still not great).

[ch_123]

Thinkpads (particularly the X series) are reknowned for their great laptop keyboards, and I'm inclined to agree that the one on my T61 is definitely above par.

I remember liking my old Toshiba Satellite keyboard.

One of my cousins pulled one of those things out of a skip (it would have been made about 96-97) The keys were odd, I couldnt for the life of me figure out whether they were linear or whether they had their tactility towards the very bottom of the switch. They definitely werent scissor switches... couldnt pull the key off to see what they were.

[Xuan]

Thinkpads (particularly the X series) are reknowned for their great laptop keyboards, and I'm inclined to agree that the one on my T61 is definitely above par.

Agreed, thinkpads feels pretty well for scissor switches.

I typed on a chiclet mac once and I hated it.

[huha]

Thinkpad keyboards. There can be only one and this is it.
You've got the trackpoint, you've got the light and the feel is actually quite good. Nice snappy tactility.

Some of the never ones flex quite a bit, but it didn't feel bad when I once used one on a friend's Thinkpad--so I recon it's mostly an optical rather than an ergonomic issue.

-huha

[Viett]

The Dell Latitude CPi keyboard is amazing.

There's just something about the keys... they seem to have greater depth than most laptop keyboards and it makes them very comfortable to use.

[timw4mail]

The Macbook keyboards aren't chicklets, they are scissor-switch. And they don't flex. So, I'd say the Macbook keyboards are some of the better ones.

[huha]

They're some of the worser ones, as the keys are perfectly flat. No feel whatsoever, it's hard to keep your fingers centered on the keys--which is something required by almost any switch design.

-huha

[DarthShrine]

I'm not looking forward to getting a netbook.  Even the HP with a dynamite screen and not  bad specs had horrible keys.  I'm sure that's the first costcutting step in all the netbooks.

Since I have young, small hands, it's not the keys that are such a problem in netbooks for me, it's the tiny disgusting touchpads. Netbook + trackpoint would be great.

They're some of the worser ones, as the keys are perfectly flat. No feel whatsoever, it's hard to keep your fingers centered on the keys--which is something required by almost any switch design.

As for the hate about Apple's flat keys, I don't actually think they're that horrible to type on. Despite being flat, they're quite a lot larger surface-area wise, so it's fairly difficult to miss a key. You can also press anywhere on the key for the same even force and feel.

[takasta]

just get a tenkeyless realforce / hhkb / FILCO and use that for a laptop haha, nothing beats it.

[keyb_gr]

The Dell Latitude CPi keyboard is amazing.

I had a CPt C a number of years ago, and the keyboard wasn't too bad indeed. The poor thing finally went up in smoke (stupid docking station connector and stupid docs stating to connect the power supply first). Newer models also had a trackpoint, though build seems to have been somewhat shoddy, at least with the C610 it apparently was a good idea to tighten the screws once in a while. Otherwise it wasn't bad, quite thrifty on batteries. The HPaq business models seem to have been quite solid in these days (mPIII-M era).

Maybe one of these days I'll get me an oldschool notebook for the old times' sake.

just get a tenkeyless realforce / hhkb / FILCO and use that for a laptop haha, nothing beats it.

Actually that's what a number of folks do. I'd stick to a G84-4100 or somesuch if it's supposed to remain portable though.

[ch_123]

The Macbook keyboards aren't chicklets, they are scissor-switch. And they don't flex. So, I'd say the Macbook keyboards are some of the better ones.

I've heard the old Macbook G4 had a great keyboard, but I've never actually tried one myself.

[molto]

As for the hate about Apple's flat keys, I don't actually think they're that horrible to type on. Despite being flat, they're quite a lot larger surface-area wise, so it's fairly difficult to miss a key. You can also press anywhere on the key for the same even force and feel.

I've had the chance to test this keyboard, and although it is indeed pretty (style over function), I do not like it at all.
The bigger keys (space, shift, return, backspace) have dead zones where you can push, but they do not register; tactility is almost nonexistent; the keys are too wide and yet there is even additional spacing.

[timw4mail]

I've had the chance to test this keyboard, and although it is indeed pretty (style over function), I do not like it at all.
The bigger keys (space, shift, return, backspace) have dead zones where you can push, but they do not register; tactility is almost nonexistent; the keys are too wide and yet there is even additional spacing.

Trust me, its the better of the worst keyboards out there. Especially those roll-up keyboards...those are true chiclet keyboards.

Maybe I just have a good typing style, but I've never felt stymied by the Apple scissor-switch keyboards. I do like the laptop versions better, though. Something about not hitting aluminum, I guess...

[rdjack21]

just get a tenkeyless realforce / hhkb / FILCO and use that for a laptop haha, nothing beats it.

Actually that's what a number of folks do. I'd stick to a G84-4100 or somesuch if it's supposed to remain portable though.

I would say the the HHKB is just about perfect for the job of a laptop keyboard. It is Light has a detachable cable so you can get a really short one and is a really great keyboard. And don't forget it is really small. The only down fall is that it costs about as much as a netbook. But then again it will last far longer than the netbook will.

[lal]

But then again [a HHKBP] will last far longer than the netbook will.

We don't have empirical data to support that claim.