The numpads allow you to quickly change views: Front (key “1”), Top (key “7”), Right (key “3”), Camera (key “9), etc and change from orthographic view to Perspective (key “5”). On a regular keyboard, these keys are on the actual numpad but on a laptop keyboard, you have to change the settings.
Go to the preferences in the “Edit” menu:
Go to the Input section and check the “Emulate Numpad”
That’s it. You can now use the numeric keys on your laptop as if they were Numpad keys.
The basics of basics in Blender 2.8 