Please re-map Fn+Left and Fn+Right to Home and End on the new XPS 9700

@jphughan Thank you for the information, ofc I may try with some other solution, but native support would be the best in my opinion. All we can do now is wait for Dell  .

For the battery issue, although I always use my laptop with its charger, but I will review this. Thank again  . I aslo just read an update from your url

https://www.notebookcheck.net/2020-Dell-XPS-17-9700-facing-worrying-charging-issues-drops-from-100-percent-to-65-percent-battery-while-recharging.480923.0.html

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(Update: Dell says the slow battery drain is intentional and not a bug, Precision 5750 series confirmed to be the same.) Your new XPS 17 might not be charging even though it's plugged in. If you're running games or other demanding loads, then the system may actually be consuming more power than it can take in from the AC adapter.

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4K screen is meanless for me, Im currently happy with FHD, 2060 max-q, and i7-10875H. It fit my need perfectly  . Hope I don't have to face this battery issue.

Best Regards.

@daniel2301  I found an internal escalation path within Dell meant for getting visibility on "product quality issues" that were resulting in a negative customer experience, so I wrote this issue up for that portal, citing the threads you've already linked, and also noting that at least some Lenovo ThinkPads have the Home/End keys on the top row but also allow those functions to be triggered using Fn+Left/Right, even though those keys aren't actually marked as Home/End.  So as you say, Dell could easily add that capability with a firmware update even if it's not "advertised" on the keys themselves.  Thus far the most I've heard from that escalation has been that it's been sent to the firmware team for consideration.  I realize that isn't much to go on, but it's all I've gotten at this point.

In the meantime, just in case you weren't aware of this option, you could use Autohotkey to map some other key combination that involves Left/Right to trigger Home/End, although I realize that finding a combination that isn't designed to do something else you might need might be challenging.

Personally I don't know why even Lenovo thinks that having Home/End and PgUp/PgDn so far apart from each other is a good idea.  I had an old Precision M6300 that had ALL of the navigation keys in the upper-right corner, in their typical desktop-style 3x2 arrangement.  That worked nicely for me, but that was a long time ago when keyboards were allowed to have more rows.  When I first got a laptop that used Fn+Arrows for those functions it took some getting used to, but now I can't go back.  This issue alone would keep me from buying the new XPS systems or recommending them to power users -- which is a shame because for the most part there's a lot to like.  I used to have an XPS 15 9530 and my wife has an XPS 13 9350, but the new XPSes are dealbreakers for us.

By the way, on the subject of XPS 17 gripes and since you mentioned you're a programmer, watch out for (or at least be aware of) this issue relating to battery drain.

The same issue applies to Precision 5750 as well. Tbh, as a developer using home/end hundreds of times each day, had I known about this I would def have considered another brand.

The default home/end at the top is completely useless so in order to not go completely insane I've remapped fn+up/down to home/end using SharpKeys. This works but feels really awk, even after almost two months (got mine mid July).

I did try a keycode scanner software and there is absolutely nothing being sent when pressing fn+left/right so this have to fixed in BIOS.

Tbh this is joke. Knowing just a little about how developers work should have made this a no brainer for the design team. Please fix this sooner than later!

I sent a message to Dell requesting a BIOS update specifying fn + Left / Right as Home / End and I got the following response:

"These changes will certainly require hardware changes. As of now, I will not be able to promise a tentative time on when the changes could happen. It may require a new build altogether. However, our webistes would notify you when any such changes are made."

I don't understand why a problem like this cannot be solved via a firmware update and a hardware change is required.

If I had known that Dell wasn't using Fn-Left and Fn-Right for home and end on my XPS 17, I probably wouldn't have bought it.

This is just a ridiculously shortsighted change. Developing on this laptop is a huge pain, because moving quickly around code without easy and quick access to home/end is a productivity killer.

Same here. If knew this problem, I would not have bought this xps 13 laptop (9300)

There are irritants we adjust to. And then there's the home/end issue. After months of using this laptop, I'm still annoyed every time I need to PgUp / PgDn (because of course I remapped those to Home/End).

I too regret buying this machine. Having known, I wouldn't have done it. I'd hope Dell would stop with the tone-deafness, but at this stage I'm not very optimistic. Too bad, I really felt at home (no pun intended) with the XPS series for a while. But I'm looking for alternatives now.

It's so frustrating how Dell is listening to the community feedback, and such a comparatively small feature would significantly improve client experience. Just add Fn + Left/Right -> Home/End firmware support that it will be possible to map those buttons. 

check this :

https://github.com/radosi/virtualdesktop

I set capslock to replace fn for arrows and backspace like mac

So much wasted time and productivity trying to find a way to reverse such a poor design decision on Dell's part. As a developer, easy access to home/end is extremely important and unfortunately all the modifier keys easily within reach are already in use with left/right (alt for navigation, ctrl for word jumping, win for snapping windows, etc).

Thankfully over the past year or two people have been stuck working from home thanks to the pandemic, so for me the need to bring my laptop into meeting rooms and thus use it for lots of typing for notes and etc isn't anywhere close to what it used to be. However, if I want to go somewhere and start coding or editing lots of documents/bullets, I'm stuck hunting and reaching for the home/end shortcuts spread out across the keyboard or just constantly hitting "ctr+left" (or right) over and over and over again, which is so annoying as a keyboard power user.

Dell,

If a hardware fix is required to change FN-LeftArrow to HOME and FN-RightArrow to END please make available ASAP!

This is a product defect.

Even a firmware upgrade can't make the change? This is the year 2021 right? 

It would be really cool to get such update to firm ware

got new update today and it started to work on my XPS 9700. Thank you guys. That is really great news

@daniel2301 @NWFisher @chunk_split @RadoSi @pocheptsov did you get an update? does it work for you?