Laptops > UK Keyboard Layout

[throwaway3224]

I'm shopping around for laptops and it's infuriating how every marketing photo is of a US keyboard layout. So I'm finding it tricky to decide what to buy, I'll be using the keyboard rather than plugging one in so it's essential that I understand what I'm buying.

 

Any tips for finding correct product pictures? Is there a website or reviewer who has photos/videos of UK models of laptops - or is everyone just reviewing the US model and neglecting to mention that the keyboard's totally wrong? 

 

It would be cool to have an LTT video naming and shaming every manufacturer who can't show the correct product picture to UK customers. I imagine it's the same for any other countries who use a non-US keyboard layout. (/me wonders if Canadians use US layout).

 

 

Edit: Here's my UK keyboard for peeps who don't know what one looks like:

[JogerJ]

Don't know what's the default in canada, but in US it's definitely going to be ANSI while in Europe almost always ISO layout (with specific language). They're also always mentioned in description.

imo ANSI > ISO btw

[Commodus]

14 minutes ago, throwaway3224 said:

I'm shopping around for laptops and it's infuriating how every marketing photo is of a US keyboard layout. So I'm finding it tricky to decide what to buy, I'll be using the keyboard rather than plugging one in so it's essential that I understand what I'm buying.

 

Any tips for finding correct product pictures? Is there a website or reviewer who has photos/videos of UK models of laptops - or is everyone just reviewing the US model and neglecting to mention that the keyboard's totally wrong? 

 

It would be cool to have an LTT video naming and shaming every manufacturer who can't show the correct product picture to UK customers. I imagine it's the same for any other countries who use a non-US keyboard layout. (/me wonders if Canadians use US layout).

Apple does if you visit the purchasing page for a given laptop — you just need to check the image gallery. Not surprisingly, there are quick ways to type the Pound Sterling and Euro.

 

And since you're curious: us Canadians rely on a US layout, since there are no functional differences versus an American keyboard.

[throwaway3224]

21 minutes ago, Commodus said:

And since you're curious: us Canadians rely on a US layout, since there are no functional differences versus an American keyboard.

How do you type French on a US keyboard? 

[Commodus]

Just now, throwaway3224 said:

How do you type French on a US keyboard? 

On a Mac, I just press and hold the base letter and press a number to choose the accent I want, so I can write étape or garçon without much effort. I can alternately hold the Option key as I press a letter, so I'll either get the character I want straight away or an accent I can use by typing any relevant letter afterward (helpful for languages like German and Spanish). Neither method is super-speedy, but they're more than fine if you're a North American who normally writes in English.

[Senzelian]

Maybe this helps in finding a good laptop:
https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb&asuch=&asd=on&bpmin=&bpmax=&v=e&hloc=uk&plz=&dist=&mail=&sort=t&bl1_id=30

 

The pictures do also seem to only show the US keyboard layout (in most cases), but at least each model is easily identified, because the layout is mentioned in the title (e.g. US, UK, DE)

You can also search for "UK" in the small searchbar on the upper left side and it should only come up with UK layout notebooks. At least that'll make it easy to see whether a laptop is available in ISO or ANSI.

 

1 hour ago, JogerJ said:

imo ANSI > ISO btw

The ansi enter key is a child's toy. Men use ISO enter keys! /s

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 minutes ago, Senzelian said:

The ansi enter key is a child's toy. Men use ISO enter keys! /s

I made the mistake of buying a Rii keyboard that is the US layout with UK key caps (apparently it was unreasonable for me to expect them to use an actual standard).  I almost threw it out the number of times I accidentally hit # when pressing Enter.

Mind you, not nearly as bad as my Macbook keyboard though that was largely resolved setting the keyboard to PC UK.  Though doesn't fix the many other issues in usability with MacOS itself.

[porina]

If it helps the Lenovo Legion 5 has a UK layout. The Asus before that likewise did UK keyboard. Pics in my threads below. Keep in consideration that even if it is mostly a UK layout, they can still move some things around, particularly the arrow keys and around the numpad in general.

 

I also found it annoying also when they use US layout and swap only the keycaps over. My previous MSI laptop did that and I hated it. Unfortunately I externally hosted the images on that and it is broken, but my thoughts on it are still there.

 

 

[throwaway3224]

Good point about arrow keys. I use arrow keys extensively for programming and for retro gaming, so all the laptops with small arrow keys are instantly ruled out. I also use Ins,Del,Home,End,PgUp,PgDn a ton. HP Omen is the only laptop I've seen with all those keys in the usual TKL positions, but of course all the photos are US layout 

 

[JogerJ]

2 hours ago, 8tg said:

I didn’t know people actually used ISO keyboard layouts, I thought that was just a joke perpetuated by Europeans.

The German keyboard is such an abomination the parentheses are on the wrong keys, the brackets even wronger keys, they put <> on the same key, some essential keys need two modifier keys (alt + shift) to type, the apostrophes are on different keys, and they insist this is more efficient than other layouts 

 

It's a programmer's nightmare

[rikitikitavi]

11 hours ago, throwaway3224 said:

Good point about arrow keys. I use arrow keys extensively for programming and for retro gaming, so all the laptops with small arrow keys are instantly ruled out. I also use Ins,Del,Home,End,PgUp,PgDn a ton. HP Omen is the only laptop I've seen with all those keys in the usual TKL positions, but of course all the photos are US layout 

 

ANSI - horizontal Return/Enter

ISO - vertical Return/Enter

 

Home/PageUp/etc - I believe that Windows (like in macOS) has shortcuts for navigation, so smth like CTRL-Arrow or smth should do everything you need. So no need for anything bigger than 40-60%, like TKL.

 

You should look into software to modify your layouts (smth like karabiner-Elements on macOS), so you can have your arrow keys on home row, macros, app specific shortcuts, layers, etc customized to you usage.

[throwaway3224]

I contacted HP and Dell for pictures of their UK layout, results were:

[Fail] Dell - provided a picture of US layout, failed to provide anything on the 2nd attempt.

[Fail] HP - provided a picture of an old model that looks nothing like the models on the website, it's a weird hybrid layout with UK symbols but a US enter key.

I guess I'm asking the impossible. /sadface

[throwaway3224]

Went to a computer store IRL today to see a bigger sample of laptops.

tl/dr every manufacturer has made up their own layout

and they're all worse than the standard layout that has been used on every regular keyboard for the past few decades.

[Imbadatnames]

Macbooks have a UK layout and an international layout which is slightly different if that tickles your fancy.