I never used it. Well, I lie, I did use it back in the day for playing some DOS games where you had to share your keyboard with your friend...

But all my keyboards have been TKL over the past 15+ years and I don't miss it. I don't know why anyone needs to use a numpad unless they're in a job where they work a lot with numbers. And if you're not in such a role, what is your hobby exactly that demands so much number punching?

I bought a bluetooth 10-key. I use the home/end keys religiously when editing in an NLE, and it drove me crazy trying to be a road warrior without it. After having the external, I prefer it as it is full size instead of trying to squeeze it into the laptop frame size. So not having the numpad on the laptop is a-okay for me

I never use my numpad. I use the numbers in the top row of the keyboard.

I'd be super happy to yank my numpad out of my laptop, move the keyboard a little bit to the right and center align it with the center of the screen. My head would be centered with the middle of the screen too.

Unfortunately I had to settle with that keyboard because every other laptop was a worse tradeoff.

I do number entry with the number row. 8 fingers > 3 fingers.

I do not understand why a numpad is considered a necessity by some. I never used it when I had them. Do you work in data entry?

Numpad makes notebooks unnecessarily wide (I don't like widescreen, 4:3 was the best aspect ratio), but classical Thinkpad arrows and home key block layout is what I really miss (and Trackpoint with proper drivers and cursor kinematics as it were in linux circa 2005)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/IBM_Thin...

(though I prefer ISO enter, eg. Hungarian, German or Swedish layout)

I only use a number pad for playing a few games, and for bulk data entry. Neither of those use cases are something I prefer using my laptop for, and even on my desktops they're rare enough that I'd much rather have the number pad separate and largely out of the way.

What do you use a number pad for often enough to not only see it as mandatory for you, but to leave you unable to imagine how anyone could live without it?

Easy - by moving numpad to your main keyboard with a modifier so you don't need to move your hand just to type numbers

Absolutely hate numberpads on laptops - if you're sitting with the laptop directly in front of you it means your arms and hands are slightly offset to the left for normal typing.

For serious work, I'm docked and using a large monitor, split keyboard, etc. Many people make concessions when on a laptop.

What do you use yours for? All I’ve ever missed it for was the default Blender keybinds for the camera perspective