I do not think netbook keyboards are too small. I actually prefer a smaller keyboard because I can type faster if my fingers can reach the keys quicker. I don’t think I have unusually small hands, I’m statistically average height, 5′10″. I tried the HP netbook keyboard at Office Depot and surprisingly found the keys big and spaced-out more than the keys on my ThinkPad laptop. Toshiba has an OK netbook keyboard, but not great.
My biggest complaint with netbook keyboards, most of them require a Function key to get to “Home” and “End” which makes Shift-Home and Shift-End into Shift-Function-Home and Shift-Function-End. That’s totally unacceptable in my opinion.
Also, most netbooks’ screens don’t have enough pixels in the vertical–most of them only have 600px in the vertical. Again, not really useful for real work. My other big complaint: netbook manufacturers don’t advertise external display resolution/color-depth specifications. Sure, I see a port on the back, but does anyone really want 1024×600 pixels again on the big 23″ widescreen LCD waiting at home, at the office?
These aren’t insurmountable obstacles, technologically speaking. Some of these netbooks have acceptable screens, some have acceptable keyboards. None have both. I think the mistake is consumers and manufacturers see these devices almost like disposable playthings.
Any way you look at it, shrinking laptops or adding features to netbooks, our computers continue to shrink in size while increasing in power. The ideal then, at least in the short term, is a netbook-size computer you can easily carry with you, that of course comes with the necessary sacrifices while on the go (ex: small screen) that is faster than yesterday’s laptop, plugs into that gigantic 1080p (or larger) LCD on your desk, and connects to all your favorite peripherals. Your favorite wireless mouse, your favorite keyboard, your favorite speakers, etc.
Touchpads and CPU-warmed keyboards were (are) still annoying, but good enough for the era of laptops. But in 2010, with more cheap netbooks out there (with cheap keyboards, cheap LCDs) we will want keyboards and mice and external displays on our desk again, like we did back before laptops in the 90s. This is why I think Logitech ($LOGI) looks like a good buy right now.