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On Wed, 11 Feb 1998, Robert Dewar wrote: > One has to be careful not to overreact to the voice of one user who > has had problems and generalize. I have never seen any trade press > comments about 701 keyboard problems, and my many friends who have > one have not had troubles. Well let me add that I'm dissatisfied with the keyboard as well, and state why. - It is flimsy. Pushing on the trackpoint has a tendency to slightly shift that half of the keyboard, making fine mouse movements difficult at times. - It is flimsy. When opened, the only real places you can grab to pick the computer up is the front (too much torque - danger of dropping), the keyboard (flimsy, feels like it might break off), and the back near the screen (very thin decorative plastic material that cracked the first time I did this). - It sticks out. It gets in the way of XJack style PCMCIA modem cards. - It sticks out. It's fine if you use it on a desk. If you use it on a cluttered desk, on your lap, on a couch, or in bed, tipping the computer slightly makes it rest on the keyboard, which I've already told you is flimsy. So the small form factor is great for transportation, but the odd form when opened makes it somewhat more of a hassle to use. Now, in it's favor, I should mention I've dropped the damn thing, popping several keys out and breaking one of the joints on the keyboard (the right side could be lifted up), and it still worked. So maybe it is very rugged and just feels flimsy. But it still feels like I could break it if I accidently put it down and accidently catch the keyboard on some nearby books. That means I end up worrying about little things like that a lot, which is enough to make me want a different (solid) form factor for my next laptop. > As I said earlier, what hapened with the 701 was that it turned out > that people wanted bigger screens more than they wanted small form > factors. The 701 keyboard was seen as a way to reduce the form factor. > > The idea of using it on a full size notebook was, as far as I know, > never seriously considered (there is no very obvious market demand > for this, although it sounds like a nice idea). Exactly. -- John H. Kim kim@mak.com