Uncanny valley of keyboards: Do small keys bother you?
Typing on the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)In testing Lenovo's IdeaPad S10-2 and IdeaPad S12 Netbooks this week, an interesting thought occurred to us. Technically, both laptops are nearly similar inside: Intel Atom N270 processors, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive. What differentiates them more than anything else are their screen sizes (10.2 inch and 12.1-inch) and their keyboards.
While screen size has been often discussed among Netbook owners, keyboard size and comfort hasn't as much. And, to a degree, it's the only true factor differentiating smartphones and Netbooks as far as interface is concerned. The real advantage to Netbooks is that you can type on them, like a laptop. But here's the question: are almost-regular size keyboards more difficult to use than intentionally small keyboards on MIDs and smartphones? Click through to hear us out.
Even though any Netbook keyboard is better in theory than any smartphone keyboard, slightly-smaller-than-full-size keyboards provoke a strange effect on prolonged typing. Fingers can get cramped, hands tired, and keyboard errors are made more often. We found that it's just when we begin to relax when the problems begin, because our fingers are ready to go into touch-typing mode, where we know key positions based entirely on sense memory. Being, for instance, 80 percent full-size means we overshoot, and lose a feel for where we are.
Typing on the Lenovo IdeaPad S12.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)I'll go ahead and speak from personal experience. On significantly smaller keyboards, such as my iPhone 3GS virtual keyboard, for instance, I've specifically adjusted to through a separate learning process. I don't ever lose myself in attempting to touch-type. For nearly-full keyboards like the Lenovo S10-2's, it's like the uncanny valley is to digital animation, where the more something approaches photorealism, the more eerie it becomes until true photorealism is obtained. In the Netbook keyboard's case, does 90 percent of normal size get more distracting than 50 percent?
Perhaps I'm overthinking this, or failing to appreciate the fact that affordable tiny laptops with functional keyboards are even available at all (I remember, once upon a time, when rigging a folding keyboard to a Palm Vx was my idea of ultimate portability). Anyway, do you feel this way about keyboards? Or am I just spoiled from seeing too many laptops and Netbooks? Is any keyboard, no matter what the size, sufficient? In short, which would you rather have: a small Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 Netbook with a smaller-than-normal keyboard, or a larger, more typing-friendly Lenovo IdeaPad 12?
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Scott Stein, a New York Jets fan and CNET senior associate editor, has written about tech, entertainment, video games, and viral culture for outlets including Laptop, Wired, Maxim, Esquire Online, Asylum, and Men's Journal. He also appears on the Digital City podcast. In his spare time, you might see him performing improv in New York City (when he's not being a dad). 
Hackintosh
I have an MSI wind u100, which I use constantly for taking to class and taking notes while a professor talks faster than I can even comprehend. What I have found is that I can actually type faster on my netbook than my full sized keyboard at home, because since it is slightly smaller, my fingers take less time to reach a key. However, the tradeoff is a slightly increased error rate, but not by much, and when it comes to neuroanatomy notes, I never know how to spell half those words anyway until I see them in print.
Perhaps if you wanted to go more in depth with this, you should take a couple different editors, yourself included, and give them typing tests (that measure speed and error rate) on netbook keyboards and normal sized keyboards (maybe even smart phones if you can find a typing test for them).
Anyway, my answer to the article title is no, small keys do not bother me, and actually help me type slightly faster than a full sized keyboard, at the cost of increases error rate by a small margin.
I cannot see the interest in a 12-inch netbook. Is it really that more portable than a 14- or 15.4-inch notebook? I can, however, see the appeal for the truly smallest of the netbooks if one is willing to sacrifice both screen space and keyboard size for the portability.
Some of us would like to avoid the monthly costs, and need something we can type very quickly on. I have a desktop at home, and a netbook for mobility, and I would take it over a smart phone any day (especially when I'm paying for it).
And no, it doesn't compare to those phone keyboards (where you can only use or thumbs or indexes).
Additionally, Asus makes some of the easiest-to-use netbook keyboards out there. It's got the same layout as a regular keyboard, so I'm not adjusting to new key positions. One of the reasons I didn't get the Dell Mini 9 is that they completely changed the position of the shift key, which would make it practically unusable for me. So keyboard layout is a little more important than size. After a short break-in period, I haven't noticed much of a difference in typing ease or speed on my Asus.
It's comical how poorly I type when I borrow someone else's computer or I use the built-in keyboard of my MacBook.
-dr. karl
What surprises me is that I found it easier to type on my Psion Series 3a and Series 3mx than it is to type on the Mini 9. The Psion was a pocket-sized machine with a keyboard about the size of a large pocket calculator. The key is that while the keys on the Psion were *tiny* compared to the Mini 9, they are spaced in such a way that I could actually type on it, while the larger keys on the Mini 9 are flat and not spaced, so I keep hitting two at a time.
But what really exacerbated the situation for me are the flat, chiclet style keys with relatively little spacing between them. I'm used to keyboards with slightly concave keys, plus some degree of spacing and ridges/valleys between them. I find that it's easier for me to type using my thumbs on my Nokia E71 smartphone than it is to type with my fingers on the Mini 10v's keyboard. To clarify, I can type a bit faster on the Mini 10v than on the E71, but it's more stressful on my hands.
After I get rid of my Mini 10v, I'll be considering the Samsung N120 or NC20, or I might wait until after Windows 7 is released and consider a $599 13" Acer Timeline instead. I actually found the keyboard to be more of a bother than the 1024x576 screen resolution, so I might not mind the N120, but I think I'd probably go for more screen real estate (1280x800) with the NC20 instead.
- by niubi10 July 25, 2009 3:39 AM PDT
- I use a Dell Adamo (http://eu.dubli.com/Dell-Adamo-134-12-GHz__5_12832). It's not a netbook, but it's super light and the thinnest I've ever had. As a writer, I will not sacrifice the keyboard for all the reasons listed in the article.
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- by streamline35 July 25, 2009 10:45 AM PDT
- Nope, but no one with a netbook paid $1500 to $2300. They paid $300 to $400.
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (56 Comments)Also, great speakers. Don't get that in a netbook either!