I hypothesise it has something to do with reducing costs. Instead of manufacturing laptop chassis with two different keyboard layouts, ANSI and ISO, they just produce ANSI instead which presumably is cheaper and easier. Since most consumers don’t mind or notice the difference, they get away with it. But for myself and my colleagues who’ve been programming on an ISO UK keyboard layout for years, changing the physical layout of the keyboard is a big problem. I came across HP and Asus both doing this.

Let me explain what is going in more detail. Two years ago in the midst of the pandemic and working exclusively from home, I realised my HP Chromebook wasn’t up for the job. Normally, I would balance my workload between my office desktop workstation and my Chromebook. But the Chromebook wasn’t flexible and powerful enough to work on everyday. So, I purchased a new HP Spectre laptop in summer 2020. It had all the specs I need and the price was really good. I was also really happy with my HP Chromebook so I thought their flagship laptop would be great.

Then came the surprise: my UK HP Spectre laptop came with an ANSI keyboard layout! HP was cheeky in their marketing because to this day, their HP Spectre website says “If included, PCs will come with an UK keyboard and power adapter.” That gives the impression it come will a standard ISO UK keyboard layout but this is what I received:

HP Spectre UK laptop with ANSI Keyboard Layout

HP Spectre UK laptop with ANSI Keyboard Layout

I raised this issue with their confused customer support but got nowhere because as far as they were concerned it was a UK keyboard and I got what I purchased. I wasn’t surprised there were other posts talking about the same problem.

Let’s be honest, HP knows how to make standard ISO UK keyboards because the entire college, my workstation and my old HP Chromebook all had one! If you are not familiar with what I’m on about, here is the difference between ISO and ANSI keyboard layouts:

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Source: Wikimedia Commons

So to slowly and secretly start selling ANSI keyboard layouts on UK laptops is disappointing to say the least. Since there does not seem to be a huge backlash from European consumers against this practice and both HP and Asus seem to be selling laptops, I’m not confident we will see a return to normality.

I returned the laptop I purchased two years ago and instead had to look at other options from Dell and Microsoft which both come with UK ISO keyboard layouts.