Agree, I often end up brushing the touch pad accidentally with the heel of my hand while typing, and inadvertently moving the cursor somewhere up the page. Maybe someone else can weigh in on any advantages to having such a large touch pad.
I have that problem with every laptop with the touch pad square in front of the keyboard. I am always brushing against it with my palm while typing that produces very unintended input.
I'm not the only one, I've noticed other people having the same problem.
I have no idea how this design became ubiquitous. It does not work for me at all.
I think this kind of thing is pretty cool, but ultimately, a touchpad below my keyboard is akin to the ones on the dashboard of many modern cars (though a lot less dangerous) in that I don't want to look there.
When reading more than few lines of text on the screen, my hands do not tend to remain on the keyboard. They instead drift up the sides of the computer, making the screen closer than the touchpad.
Not to mention, having the option to use both certainly doesn't harm anyone.
Tangential: I find using an actual (Mac) laptop, with the trackpad in front of the keyboard, to be very ergonomic. This is on a desk with a screen attached, so I’m not staring down at the laptop screen.
Rather than the hand sweeping all the way over to the right to reach the mouse, it just twists a little towards the trackpad. The palms never really leave their rests.
I don’t use it like this a lot, but when I do I enjoy it.
My wish for a laptop is one with the trackpad above the keyboard instead of below and the keyboard at the bottom edge of the case. I really don't like wrist-wrests on keyboards, but with a laptop, I have no choice.
I also find it gets in the way with doing everything with a keyboard in my editor and then suddenly my cursor focus is changed by my palm touching the touchpad.
At the same time having the extra spacer on the laptop as a wrist rest is pretty good, imo ergonomically better than a standard external keyboard (opinion informed by countless physio visits to sort out RSI). Also the built in trackpad is substantially better than moving hand position to an external mouse.
I use an external keyboard with a laptop, which I place on my lap. First, it's much more ergonomic to work this way.
Second, the laptop has a lot less wear and tear on it since I'm not typing on it. Not only does it help keep the keyboard nice and clean, but the screen, which gets grime on it from touching the keyboard when I close it.
I'm surprised this configuration is not more popular.
If you put it in the middle of the laptop, your right palm ends up on top of the touchpad while typing. Even with good palm rejection, it's unpleasant functionally even if it looks better aesthetically.
When I have the laptop in my lap the finger tips of my left hand often are above the keyboard. With function keys this is not much of a problem because you have to apply some pressure but the TouchBar is just too sensitive so I constantly trigger something.
I'm another one who much prefers the nib in the middle of the keyboard to the touch pad. I use a Thinkpad keyboard on my desktop machine for this reason. No mouse on my desk at all and I'm not constantly moving my arm back and forth to reach for it.
I do. I like to have a compact laptop directly under the centre of a larger monitor.
I touch type and want to keep everything symmetrical around a central point.
I avoid using mice or keyboards with numeric keypads because I try to reduce the amount of off one sided movements.
I try to drive everything from the keyboard and from the homerow if I can.
If I really have to use a mouse, moving my right hand a few centimetres to use a trackpad is, for me, much more ergonomic than a larger movement to reach past a numeric keypad for a mouse.
I think the point, though, is that your hand wouldn't naturally rest on the table near the screen like that. The main reason you're comfortable doing that is because you know you can scroll with your hand in that position. The natural resting position would be to relax your hands off the keyboard after typing and that puts it squarely in the area of the (comically) huge trackpad.
It's one reason why I wish for a laptop with the touchpad next to the screen and the keyboard next to the edge.
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