Looking for 15' laptop with centered keyboard

[ricklo]

Hello everyone,

I am currently looking for a 15' laptop that meets the following specifications:

- latest Core i5
- 512Go SSD drive
- 12 or 16Go RAM
- FHD screen (preferably non glare, non touch, but can compromize on the non glare)
- VERY IMPORTANT: centered keyboard, i.e. either no num pad or with num pad but whole keyboard moved to the right so that the actual letter keys are centered with the laptop.

This last bit seems to be the hardest to find - I was looking into the latest Thinkpads (T560 for instance) and they looked awesome in every respect, EXCEPT that their keyboard are awfully off centered and that just makes it a no-go for me.

I did find one option: the latest XPS 15 from Dell. However, it is a very pricey option with the above criteria met (approx 1,800 USD from what I can see) and I do not care so much about design and portability that I need that model for sure.

Any help in finding my perfect laptop would be much appreicated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[hang-the-9]

If you want the home row keys to be exactly centered, I am not sure what model will have that. Meaning the GH keys are right where the middle of the screen is.

That is because there are more keys to the right of the keys than to the left. Right has Enter, '", ;: keys in the middle row, left only has Caps Lock (assuming standard layout). The keyboard is centered based on total size of the keys from end to end, not where the center of the alphabet keys are. If that is what you are looking for.

 

[ricklo]

Thanks for your answer. Indeed, it is near impossible to have the GH keys centered on the middle of the screen, but I was referring more to a globally centered keyboard (ie without a numpad) rather than a perfectly centered one. For example, the way the keyboard of the XPS15 is centered is perfect for me, but the way the T560 is centered is awful.

But I am definitely not getting the XPS 15, not so much because of the price issue mentioned above, but more because of the terrible user reviews I have perused, which seem to mention a lot of software and quality control issues.

 

[ricklo]

If anyone here has any idea to help, I would be most grateful...

 

[hang-the-9]

Thanks for your answer. Indeed, it is near impossible to have the GH keys centered on the middle of the screen, but I was referring more to a globally centered keyboard (ie without a numpad) rather than a perfectly centered one. For example, the way the keyboard of the XPS15 is centered is perfect for me, but the way the T560 is centered is awful.

But I am definitely not getting the XPS 15, not so much because of the price issue mentioned above, but more because of the terrible user reviews I have perused, which seem to mention a lot of software and quality control issues.

I was talking about keyboards without the number pad. I have several laptops to look at without number pads, every one has the H key about in the middle of the screen, the G and middle part is to the left.

It's because there are more and wider keys to the right of the keyboard than the left, for a keyboard to be perfectly centered on the letter keys the layout would need to be modified to shorter keys and moving some other keys or the keyboard itself wold have to be shifted to the right of the case to leave more space on the left side.

I looked at the XPS 15 you are talking about, the left side keys are smaller than standard, the Enter keys, Backspace key, \| key, are all shorter than most other keyboards. Basically you are trading off ease of typing on the keyboard for 4 mm of it being off-center.