Dell's Vostro 1310 keyboard putting the hurt on UK touch typists?
Update: Jake's been on the horn with Dell who confirms the issue exists on all 1310s (and possibly others) in the UK. We'll update you again once Dell sorts out a fix.
Update 2: Dell issued us a statement regarding the keyboard screwiness: "A limited number of Dell Vostro 1310 and 1510 laptops in Europe have been sent out with the wrong keyboard layout. We are working diligently to offer a solution to impacted customers and correct the error before any additional units are shipped. We will be contacting impacted customers directly to both apologize and instruct them on next steps. This issue is under investigation, and we will come back with more detailed information as soon as possible. We thank you and your readers' for their comments - we agree that a mistake has been made and we will be acting as quickly as possible to find a satisfactory solution for our customers." Guess that's that!
[US model image courtesy of NotebookReview]
US layout
UK layout
Filed under: Laptops
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Zorque @ May 1st 2008 5:34AM
Wow, that looks completely unusable. I'd be pretty mad at Dell for foisting that on me, especially when they could cut down the size of that massive Enter key and move the backslash there where it's supposed to be.
rdude @ May 1st 2008 6:08AM
Fortunately, Dell has a 30-day return policy for its Vostro line.
Josh* @ May 1st 2008 7:02AM
Dude, all UK keyboards have that Return key layout.
giuliop @ May 1st 2008 7:03AM
That's got nothing to do with the "massive" Enter key, which is fine where it is - and as comfortable as it is.
Dell laptops have always had a "standard" (i.e. Z under A) layout, and there is simply no reason why they should change it with this model; in fact, it must be some kind of gross mistake they have made.
Tony @ May 1st 2008 9:05AM
The Enter key on UK keyboards is my biggest gripe. After 7.5 years, I still enter a hash then return a lot as my little finger tries to hit it (keyboards in NZ have a similar layout to US keyboards, where I'm from).#
Who the fu
hansning @ May 1st 2008 10:08AM
doesn't europe use the "ASERTY" keyboard format instead of "QWERTY"?
Technex @ May 1st 2008 1:43PM
@hansning
Wake up dude...
tekdemon @ May 1st 2008 5:51PM
hansning...there's a lot of different countries with different languages in Europe...
In the UK the layout is also QWERTY, with differences mostly in the symbols you get when you shift the number keys.
I've never once encountered a UK keyboard that had a shifted Z row though, and I spent a fair bit of time using various keyboards at hospitals, a hostel, and internet cafes over a period of a few months.
I will say that it drove me nearly insane with the symbols though...the keyboards were so similar you'd usually forget that you have to hit different keys for the symbols.
Jamie McCall @ May 1st 2008 5:36AM
Recieved mine yesterday, and its a pain to type on.
Touch typing is a no no. Have to watch where I type on the keyboard to see where the key's are.
Apart from that it is a nice machine.
fish @ May 1st 2008 6:23AM
Return it.
carbonrain @ May 1st 2008 9:26AM
that's what she said.
KAIKAI @ May 9th 2008 3:27PM
i can beleive u said that
carbonrain
a year late are we :P
Chris Macdonald @ May 9th 2008 7:18PM
It's not because it's late it's because it makes no sense whatsoever
maty @ May 1st 2008 5:39AM
The Dell website appears to use the images from the US version (there's no \ key to the left of Z) on the UK site. You'd actually have little or no idea of the problem form the website.
And woah! That is quite an offset indeed! Sure, we have the \ key here on the UK to the left of Z, but it doesn't offset the rest of the keyboard. That's crazy, I'd die with a layout like that! Forever typing words wrong, like vo,e, nook, biew, emgadget...
Greg @ May 1st 2008 5:39AM
That is flippin the dumbest idea ever! That has to be a mistake!
Simon @ May 1st 2008 5:44AM
Buy cheap.... get cheap...
obviously what happens when staff are being laid off... was probably designed by an intern who thought he did a fantastic job of saving money.
owbert @ May 1st 2008 8:32AM
you sir are ignorant.
a laptop is by far nowhere a cheap purchase.
and even if the price is cheaper than other laptops it doesnt mean that as a consumer they are entitled to crap and horrid designs. nor does it mean they have no right to protest about it.
how does it feel to type from your 24kart gold lined keyboard? like a snob? yeah, that is what i thought.
TechRat @ May 1st 2008 3:01PM
Dells layoffs have all been in the Customer care, Sales and Production departments. No cuts in design yet. FYI, there is a huge market for 13-14 inchers with XP factory installed, and as such, this will probably be a very hot seller for the next 6-8 months.
Greg Baz @ May 1st 2008 3:40PM
Ne problem is that the right shift key is smaller allowing for a total of 13 keys in this row instead of the standard 12. There is an extra key not a missing key
technophobe @ May 1st 2008 5:45AM
The Problem is that the Shift Key on the left is oversized which causes the bottom row to be shifted along other tha that it is a standard UK keyboard layout
Faint @ May 1st 2008 5:46AM
Thats how my keyboard is, and how my UK keyboards have always been. It's never been a problem
Jake @ May 1st 2008 6:10AM
My Flickr photo with notes shows the problem best:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacobgordon/2455618195/
I'm utterly, utterly furious about this.
fish @ May 1st 2008 6:21AM
Huh? Every UK keyboard I've ever owned has always had the Z under and to the right of the A where it belongs. Also my Dell Vostro 1500 keyboard has the Z under the A too. Putting it under the S means touch typing is impossible.
Tony @ May 1st 2008 9:10AM
You're obviously not a touch typist.
happy_penguin @ May 1st 2008 9:26AM
Huh... well they must teach touch typing differently in the UK than they do in the US because that lower keyboard picture would not work for me.
James @ May 2nd 2008 5:17AM
happypenguin: That's kind of the point...
MacroEQ @ May 1st 2008 5:50AM
The UK layout as shown above is not unusual at all. I have a similar keyboard configuation for my UK 15" HP Pavilion laptop where the back slash is adjacent to the "z" key.
I agree that the UK Dell website is incorrect in showing a US laptop but in fairness to Dell they cannot be expected to get every product photo from every region correct.
alphabeta @ May 1st 2008 6:03AM
Guys - you are missing the point. The problem is not the "\" key next to the "z". The problem is that the letters on the bottom row have shifted relative to the row above. "Z" longer between "A" and "S", it is now between "S" and "D".
This keyboard would be unusable to anyone who touch types.
bloodythespians @ May 1st 2008 5:53AM
The 'oversized' return is normal in the UK and, as pointed out by technophobe, the only difference is that the left shift key is abnormally large!
maty @ May 1st 2008 6:22AM
Did you even look at the pictures?
The keyboard layout on the bottomw row is one too far to the right.
The Z should sit between the A and S, the \ key goes to the left of that. UK keyboards have a smaller Shift key.
bloodythespians @ May 1st 2008 6:36AM
Yeah, i did, hence the comment about the abnormally large shift key? Usually it's a little smaller so that the backslash key can fit to the left of the 'z' key without shifting the keys along.
Mario @ May 1st 2008 6:02AM
This is what a standard UK keyboard should look like:
http://www.bsjp.co.uk/ict/keyboard1.jpg
As you can see, the only difference between it and Jake's Vostro is that they have made the left "shift" button larger, and shrunk the right "shift" button, thus moving the "zxcvbnm" keys one step to the right. Why they would do this is an absolute mystery.
Jamar @ May 1st 2008 6:20AM
That looks kind of like the layout on my Japanese laptop. Out of curiosity- In the Japanese keyboard the apostrophe and quote marks require Shift to get to because Japanese doesn't normally use those. Why does the UK layout do this?
Carniphage @ May 1st 2008 6:17AM
The Z key should be under the A key. End of story.
For some time now the extra Euro-key has been troubling keyboards on the right side of the pond.
I'd like to know which Euro-tard insisted that there by a symbol key between the left-Shift and the Z key. No one asked us! What's wrong with a larger shift key?
But what Dell has done is uses a US keyboard layout, but Euro-ized it by inserting a pointless symbol key. In the process the dork has shifted an entire row of keys to the right!
Reject it and buy a Macbook man.
mattclarkie @ May 1st 2008 6:31AM
My Acer cleverly uses the blank space around the up arrow for the Euro key, but they still managed to shift the Z along half a key too far, still not as extreme as this example.
MosquitoControl @ May 1st 2008 9:14AM
Why would a faulty keyboard on one model make someone buy an entirely different OS?
How about "reject it and buy a different Dell," or "reject it and buy an Acer" or "reject it and buy any other laptop."
Why do Apple fans always jump to "Buy Apple! Buy Apple! Be like me! Think like me!" Every company has their fanatics, but Apple seems to be more.
You guys are the scientologists of computer nerds, always trying to convert people to your wacky ways. "We're all different in the same way, be like us!"
bidmead @ May 1st 2008 6:19AM
UK users who see no problem here seem to be missing the point.
Yes, the backslash key will typically be tucked in between the shift key and the "z" on a UK keyboard, but not in such a way as to shift the entire row to the right. EG, YHN should form a "backslash diagonal", not YHB, as on this misconceived layout.
--
Chris
mattclarkie @ May 1st 2008 6:22AM
My UK Acer is the same. I think the shift on the UK picture is actually smaller, the difference is the extra key which most UK laptops have.
I am a touch typer, but I cant use the z on a keyboard properly, always had problems with it, and with the layout they have now the z is really hard to use. Luckily I rarely use it.
fish @ May 1st 2008 6:25AM
It's not just the Z, the whole row is shifted. That would be a nightmare to type on.
mattclarkie @ May 1st 2008 6:27AM
I just saw the flickr pic, and what Dell have done is stupid. I would demand my money back.
Nurgle @ May 1st 2008 6:27AM
Wow, and I thought that the UK keyboard on my MacBook Pro was annoying (the mac has `,#, and \ swapped around compared to a standard PC/UNIX Kbd, and they swap " and @)
That is utterly insane though... Who on earth thought that was a good idea...
ThatGuy @ May 1st 2008 6:29AM
Yuck.
Marky @ May 1st 2008 6:29AM
Must be a slow news day. That's a standard laptop layout for UK and has been for many manufactuers.
alphabeta @ May 1st 2008 6:43AM
> That's a standard laptop layout for UK and has been for many manufactuers.
OK - send one photo of an existing UK keyboard that has this layout then (with the bottom row of letters shifted over).
> Must be a slow news day.
There *is* something slow around here today that's for sure.
w00t @ May 1st 2008 6:33AM
I suppose I wouldn't be the slightest bit bothered anyway, since the first thing I'd do is rearrange it into Dvorak like it should have been in the first place!
I'm still learning and so not really any faster than I wan on qwerty but touch typing is soooo much more comfortable, it just makes so much sense this way around :)
(Anyone annoyed by this who has one and wants to keep qwerty, pop the keys off and rearrange it yourself!)
technophobe @ May 1st 2008 6:45AM
The problem is that the left shit button is too long, that cant be rearanged!
ps @ May 1st 2008 6:56AM
Yeah, buy a broken product, fix it and loose your waranty for doing so. :/
bitguru @ May 23rd 2008 9:24AM
I use the Dvorak layout too, but those of you who are saying this Vostro 1310 layout wouldn't bother you because you use Dvorak are wrong. You couldn't use the custom Dvorak layout in Windows because that maps X to Q, but on this keyboard you would have to map Z to Q instead because the Z is located where the X would usually be.
I think the normal differences between North American and European keyboards are confusing people here. I have blogged about that at http://bitguru.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/ansi-vs-iso-keyboards/
Paul Barrett @ May 1st 2008 6:49AM
Thatcher's Britain!
joshualamgroup @ May 1st 2008 6:51AM
hmm, UK users are deprived of a fingerprint reader as well?