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Comment by mrich | Hacker News Reader

  All the professionals I know like the MacBook Airs
  increasingly.

I cannot imagine working with an Air for a prolonged period doing anything requiring the keyboard, since it is not ergonomic at all.

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You can type quite fast and accurately on the Air keyboard.

Not in my experience. Air keyboards are horrible. The older (pre 2009) keyboards were way, way better. It's easy to accidentally press a nearby key if typing fast, so I have to type more deliberately (and slower). Maybe I just have fat fingers. Thinkpad keyboards get it right (for a laptop). I prefer everything else about apple hardware, though.

I don't see how the ergonomics of the Air would be significantly different than other laptops. It has slightly less pixels on screen, but the screen height and keyboard size remains similar to all other laptops. The only way to fix ergonomics on any laptop would be to raise the screen to eye level and use an external keyboard at arm level.

Hey! Heard about external monitor, keyboard and mouse? I use 2011 MacBook Air, has actually used a MacBook Air since the first one. Had a Mac Pro for some time, but now I only use a MacBook Air. Depends on what you do, but works grate for me and I am a "power" user, linux VM and Windows VM running at the same time, MAMP, Photoshop etc.

I don't understand this argument. If you use external monitor, keyboard and mouse, then the fact that it is a macbook air or a dell with os x pried in it no longer matters.

As opposed to laptops with ergo keyboards, such as ... ? I plug a Kinesis into my Mac laptop and it seems to work fine.

There are degrees. ThinkPad keyboards are fantastic, the Air is a mess. I have a Vaio Z which a keyboard even worse.

It's true, though, that for serious long term use you really don't want to be using a laptop at all. My Vaio goes on a stand at work and I use an external keyboard (Microsoft Arc, which I was surprised to like very much). Hunching over a laptop to type is just a terrible state to be in.

The key sizes on the Air are identical to the Thinkpad, so I don't see how the ergonomics would be different. Your hand position on the Air would be identical to the Thinkpad. I don't think there are any laptops out there that would have an improved keyboard for the purposes of ergonomics.

You don't think the key action matters? Try typing on some different keyboards. The Air (and my Vaio) have very short-action compression strokes and very little tactile or aural feedback. You have to press harder to get them to register than for a longer-stroke keyboard, and yet your brain gets less feedback that you've succeeded.

Basically, spend some long days typing on a bunch of different laptops. Obviously everyone is different and taste matters, but unless you're a 2-finger hunt-and-pecker, I all but guarantee that you'll find you like some keyboards much more than others.

And I've found that the low-profile Apple keyboards are the very best. I simply cannot stand long-action keyboards. An Apple keyboard feels like I'm walking on water. Long-action keyboards feel like I'm wading through mud.

I don't think key action matters much to ergonomics. It doesn't change the positions of your hands or fingers. It's like comparing the health benefits of orange juice more pulp vs less pulp.

The (real) differences in key action are dwarfed for me by the layout of a laptop keyboard and the terrible ergonomics of the mouse-analog.

I think this is pretty subjective and personally I disagree with it.

I have a both a MacBook Pro for work and a personal 13" MacBook Air. I use both connected to external monitors but with the internal keyboard and track pads. The keyboards seem pretty similar to me.

I touch type with a non-qwerty layout (so no point hunt-pecking) and I find I really like the short, punchy travel of the keyboard. For comparison I also have an IBM M keyboard that I no longer use.

I guess if you want long travel keys they're not for you but it's, like, just your opinion, man.

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