why isn't the keyboard wider?

[mtalinm]

for the other Surfaces I understood that they couldn't make the keyboard any wider than the screen. the sp3 gives them more room to work with, and I've always thought the main problem with the keyboard is that it is not quite as wide as a standard layout.

 

[Donald King]

I had the same reaction. I love my new SP3 - but it seems like the type cover is big enough to house a standard MacBook Pro style laptop keyboard - yet it doesn't. The keyboard isn't bad - but would be much better if it was more like a laptop keyboard imo.....

 

[Liam2349]

Comparing its size to my Corsair K70, it looks about the same, minus the extra key sets of course.

 

[Donald King]

Maybe it is more of a spacing issue. I came from a MacBook Pro, and other laptops like that tend to have spaced out keys. Either way, I am slowly getting used to the type cover and still generally prefer my SP3 over my MacBook Pro.

 

[GreyFox7]

Probably a tradeoff between size and increasing sturdiness, the sp3 keyboard is noticeably more rigid than the older keyboards with the extra half centimeter edge on each side. they would also have to change the manufacturing, tooling, key sizes, board size, layout spacing.

However, IF they are done with the smaller size tablets then it might be something they could do but IF there are more 10.6 tablets coming keeping it as is makes it more efficient to manufacture.

 

[mtalinm]

Good point on sturdiness

 

[hughlle]

Typically, I look at things like this along the lines of "they had a reason".

As it is, i find absolutely no issue with the keyboard other than the cramped up and down arrows. Types perfectly.

 

[jnjroach]

I think the size is perfect and I find that when I use other Keyboards I'm not able to type as fast and miss keys....it is what we are used to using.

 

[bluegrass]

My prediction is that SP4 will have the same physical screen size but perhaps not quite as much wasted space around the edges. I would like to see the Windows button on the screen go away and place a windows key on the side of the screen like the power on button. I also predict that a new & slightly improved keyboard will be designed that is stiffer (probably causing it to be slightly heavier) and with some key placement improvement like the OP was talking about.

 

[Liam2349]

My prediction is that SP4 will have the same physical screen size but perhaps not quite as much wasted space around the edges. I would like to see the Windows button on the screen go away and place a windows key on the side of the screen like the power on button. I also predict that a new & slightly improved keyboard will be designed that is stiffer (probably causing it to be slightly heavier) and with some key placement improvement like the OP was talking about.

I like the Windows button being on the bezel, but I think it needs to be an actual, clickable button rather than a touch button. Either that or they find some way of eliminating accidental presses. Whilst they're at it, they should take the one good piece of hardware that Apple uses and introduce a fingerprint sensor to replace passwords and make logging in a bit easier.

As for improving the keyboard, I agree with @hughlle - the only issue I have is with the up/down arrows. I actually miss the up arrow a lot and end up pressing Shift. I can happily touch type with the rest of the keyboard, but there's an area for improvement. Would be nice if they could move up the whole keyboard a bit too and then make the trackpad a bit taller.