HP (and other) Laptops in Canada

[atrauzzi]

I've had my eyes on the HP 16-f2008ca at various retailers, but I'm hesitant to pull the trigger as they all show "Canadian multilingual" for the keyboard which are garbage to type on.

 

That said, all the stock photography shows a US layout keyboard.  My experience has been that laptops of any quality that go through typically low-end consumer retail channels (Best Buy, Staples) in Canada end up stuck with these keyboards.  That rot goes all the way up to the online channels as well.

 

So this leaves me with two questions for this forum:

• Has anyone purchased from HP in Canada and ever managed to get a U.S. layout keyboard?
• Any Canadian HP Spectre x360 owners reading?  What did you end up with?
• Anyone have tips if I wanted to look a little further out and somehow special order this model outside of the regular Canadian channels?

 

[thrasher_565]

us  and Canadian keyboard are then same unless you want french?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

24 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

us  and Canadian keyboard are then same unless you want french?

The main thing is the shortened left Shift for an extra key for French typing. 

[atrauzzi]

There's also the size of the enter key, relocation of `\`, `<`, `>`, `^`, `{`, `}`, `[`, `]`, `#`, `~`...

 

It's absolutely brutal.  Especially if you're a developer   -- those are characters we use regularly, virtually regardless of language.

[thrasher_565]

8 hours ago, atrauzzi said:

There's also the size of the enter key, relocation of `\`, `<`, `>`, `^`, `{`, `}`, `[`, `]`, `#`, `~`...

 

It's absolutely brutal.  Especially if you're a developer   -- those are characters we use regularly, virtually regardless of language.

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/hp-spectre-x360-16-touchscreen-2-in-1-laptop-nightfall-black-intel-evo-core-i7-1360p-1tb-ssd-32gb-ram/17263396

 

looks like a full size left shift to me...

imo i dont like hp... or laptops but if you need it then you need it i guess.

[D1am0nd]

3 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/hp-spectre-x360-16-touchscreen-2-in-1-laptop-nightfall-black-intel-evo-core-i7-1360p-1tb-ssd-32gb-ram/17263396

 

looks like a full size left shift to me...

imo i dont like hp... or laptops but if you need it then you need it i guess.

He said stock photos show US but they come with French :/. I would contact support and ask specifically for a US keyboard or use a vpn.

[atrauzzi]

Yeah, not sure what he's trying to accomplish.  Ah well, my very first LTT forum block, haha.

[TechTubeMedia]

Just saw this post, adding for clarity:

- For the most part, HP uses the ANSI keyboard layout (even in their French bilingual keyboards)

- I've only seen the ISO layout from HP on a Chromebook -- so steer clear unless you can see it in person.

 

The HP laptops I've seen have standard enter, and left shift keys.

The only difference I saw is that the "right click" button to the left of the arrow keys is replaced with a "\" key that also has other FR markings.

 

Most other manufacturers use the ISO layout in their bilingual keyboards.

 

Hope this helps! You're generally fine with HP's French layouts unless you care deeply about the French markings....

[atrauzzi]

I absolutely don't want the French layouts.  They're significantly different to the standard US layouts.