Yesterday, my beloved Dell 430 finally died, so I immediately stepped out and bought an Asus E203N. It is fine, and really all I need, but I was not impressed when I started using DataCad.
This laptop does not have a dedicated HOME key.
Only two programmes will get serious use on this laptop, DataCad and Excel, they are the only programmes I can think of where I use the HOME key, and it is important on both. I DID check the keyboard first. It is slightly smaller than the Dell, but I thought I could live with it, and I probably can. It never occurred to me to check for keys gone AWOL.
I only this morning found that the left arrow key masquerades as the home key, but that requires SHIFT to go with it. I have also just found that I can do the same thing with the 7 key on my full-size off-board numeric keypad. Needless to say, I never needed to do that with the Dell - any Dell.
I'm rather pleased with the Asus, I don't think the above is enough for me to take it back, but I'm a little bit pissed off nonetheless, and I submit this is something to bear in mind during the decision-making process.
And who the hell uses the pause/break key anyway??
This laptop does not have a dedicated HOME key.
Only two programmes will get serious use on this laptop, DataCad and Excel, they are the only programmes I can think of where I use the HOME key, and it is important on both. I DID check the keyboard first. It is slightly smaller than the Dell, but I thought I could live with it, and I probably can. It never occurred to me to check for keys gone AWOL.
I only this morning found that the left arrow key masquerades as the home key, but that requires SHIFT to go with it. I have also just found that I can do the same thing with the 7 key on my full-size off-board numeric keypad. Needless to say, I never needed to do that with the Dell - any Dell.
I'm rather pleased with the Asus, I don't think the above is enough for me to take it back, but I'm a little bit pissed off nonetheless, and I submit this is something to bear in mind during the decision-making process.
And who the hell uses the pause/break key anyway??
Nick Pyner
Dee Why Beach NSW
Dee Why Beach NSW