There is no doubt in my mind that the D430's keyboard is amongst the best I've ever typed on. It may even be THE best I've ever used. There is a little more feedback in the key-presses than my 8710p or the nc8430, and Dell even managed to fit in a full-size keyboard in the 12" frame. The keyboard feels extremely firm, and there is no flex anywhere on the keyboard when using it.

The keyboard also has a slightly different layout than what I am used to, but I've learned and adjusted. The biggest difference is that the PageUp and PageDown buttons are located above the arrow keys in the lower right corner of the keyboard, but they are within easy reach of the pinky finger and I prefer to use them instead of scrolling now. The F1-F12 keys up top are a little too thin for my tastes though, as are the Esc, Home, End, Insert, and Delete keys that are found in the function button row. Dell could probably have made those 17 keys full size had their design department thought a little more creatively.

The pointer stick is also pleasantly surprising, and I've found it to be very responsive to my touch. Controlling the directional movement of the mouse is fairly fluid, and I've found it to be less clunky than the sticks found on the HP Compaq notebooks.

The dual mouse buttons are also quiet during operation, however the mousepad is not as nice as I would have liked. I do miss the middle (third) mouse button featured on the HP Compaq machines. However, I did recently discover that the Dell mouse drive interprets a left+right click as a middle click, so maybe I'll adjust. But I doubt it will ever be the same.

Running my fingers over the touchpad feels fine, and the mousepad is fairly responsive so movements are smooth. At first I had to adjust a little bit to the touch and operation of this trackpad, since I was moving from the HP laptops to the D430, but in the end I have found the trackpad to be very responsive and useful.

I find the switch to be more annoying than anything for me. I cannot benefit from it, and it gives a little too much between the "On" and "Check Networks" positions. Even more so, the button is hard to toggle to the "Off" position and yet too easy to turn it back "On." Overall, this button is a worthless feature for the laptop and the space should have been used to install a side USB port which would have been more useful.

In the last month or so, I've had to travel extensively with the laptop, and often without the benefit of a wall plug nearby. As previously mentioned, this is one of the large benefits of having a ULV processor and low powered parts. Even with the relatively puny 6-cell battery, the laptop still squeezes out an incredible battery life.

With the screen at the maximum brightness, wireless ON, in the presentation power mode (which keeps the processor down to 800MHz), and while performing moderately difficult tasks on the D430, the laptop managed to clock in at a battery life of about 2 hours and 16 minutes. Considering I was frequently using the computer, accessing data and playing music, etc, etc, that is a fairly good lifetime. Estimates indicated that under heavy load the laptop should still last over an hour at least, possibly more than 90 minutes.

With the screen at the minimum brightness, wireless ON, presentation mode, and leaving the computer at idle most of the time while occasionally typing this review and browsing the internet, the laptop managed to score an impressive 3 hours and 18 minutes.

During other tests, there were times that my estimated battery life was 4-5 hours, but I was never able to actually achieve that projected battery life. But the potential is apparently there.

One concern I am sure users will have is the power button on the side of the notebook. It could potentially be easy to hit when the laptop is in a backpack or luggage or briefcase. Everyone knows that an active laptop is such a small space could cause heat related failures, and Dell was aware of this as well. Fortunately, Dell programmed the BIOS of the laptop to NOT turn on if the laptop is closed. If you hit the power button and the D430 boots while shut, the POST sequence will recognize that the computer needs to shut down, which protects the laptop.