[_odey]

Maybe I'm weird, but when I bought my current laptop 2 years ago I specifically looked for one with a numpad, as I occasionally need to insert numbers into spreadsheets (working on replacing this workflow but I have a feeling it's still going to be manual number input overall, and some documents I extract numbers from are not copy-paste-able).

I found it convenient to have the numpad available at all times and the muscle memory I developed while typing on it makes the process less frustrating than looking all the time at the number row on the main keyboard body. As I understand it, the laptops with no numpad have a toggle that turns keys on the right side into a numpad, don't remember how exactly, might be vendor specific, some even have numeric markings on those keys, but the keys are laid out slanted, not in a square grid like the real numpad, so it's less precise that knowing you can feel the bump on the no. 5 key and to get to the others you just have to move straight up/down/left/right.

The fact that the touchpad is not centered never bothered me at all; I use a macbook for work, which is centered, and I felt no difference in hand position or comfort. In fact, the inverted position of CTRL and FN were (and still are) way more frustrating to deal with, even the switch to ISO keyboard from ANSI was less frustrating that that, but the off center touchpad/keys, never.

[gowld]

Sure, numpad is great for data entry. But that's a rare specialist use case, especially for a mobile laptop where you can't use an external numpad (since data entry is usually copying data from some device or paper)

[freehunter]

This is exactly the use case that laptops, docking stations, and multi-use ports are meant to solve. Not everyone wants or needs everything crammed into their portable machine and some people have weird needs. So laptops should have the features everyone needs and then allow you to plug in your own features as needed. Like Ethernet, floppies (they’re still in use, believe it), disk drives, etc.

But some people get very mad when a laptop is released that doesn’t have exactly what they need and don’t want to hear that there is a plugin that enables that use case. While others get very mad that there are extra things on their laptops.

Social media is fun.

[sergeykish]

On Dell [1] it is

    7 8 9 0
    U I O P
    J K L :
    M     +

right under touch typing right hand, J has a bump, activated with Fn. Slanted feels good for right hand - it grows from shoulder. Squire grid works best with wide keyboard (like traditional numpad).

Head naturally centers on the screen, it helps if palms lay on center too.

[1] https://kbimg.dell.com/library/KB/DELL_ORGANIZATIONAL_GROUPS...