So it's a funny thing getting used to different keyboard layouts.
- I love having the numpad back, that's great.
- The positioning of the arrow keys, closer to the main keyboard is jarring. Amazing how your muscle memory expects something to be in a usual place.
- Losing the normal Home/End cluster, not so great. I learned I use Shift + Home and Shift + End A LOT for text selection. Losing those dedicated Home and End buttons is taking some getting used to. I can do Fn + Shift + Home or End, but that definitely isn't an action I can do with one hand as when the Home/End cluster is in its normal spot, so it slows down my workflow.
- No spacing between the sets of function keys is weird... but hasn't been a problem.
These aren't complaints about this layout. It does what it sets out to do well. But I just thought I'd pass it along because the change may not be for everyone. Obviously there are always compromises to get the smaller footprint, but you have to decide which compromises work for you if that smaller footprint is important.
Although I'm happy to have the numpad back, I'm not sure losing the traditional layout my TKL had is worth it? We'll see after more time at this one. There are definitely more things I like about this keyboard than things I don't like.