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The Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 has a very long name but works well as keyboard. The customizable “generic” keys and the Flock keys make the keyboard shine above the rest. The space bar did bind a bit when I first got the keyboard but after lots of use it has stopped doing it.
The average computer user supposedly spends about six hours a day in front of the machine. Those of us in the internet press pull way more than that, and despite the fact that the majority of us are young enough to otherwise be in the prime of our physical condition, at the end of a long day we're occasionally left wondering if that weird ache in our wrists is the result of early carpel-tunnel caused by so much typing at work. Of course, the wrist fatigue might also be from too much time spent on that other activity involving the internet that we have to wait to get home to do, but we think it's unlikely.Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard …
It's been pretty well proven that the standard computer mouse and keyboard are not the best fit for the human body. As nice as orderly rows of keys look, people's hands don't rest on keyboards at a nice perpendicular angle. The usual practice of placing one's wrists on the table and elevating the hands when typing or using the mouse is also apparently not good for you at all.In response to such concerns, and a number of successful worker's-comp lawsuits no doubt, the ergonomic keyboard was born. We've seen various designs on the market since the early 1990s, most characterized by their split layout design in which the normal QWERTY layout is split into two angled sections that better mirror the human body. Microsoft has been in the game for quite a while, and today we've got the culmination of more than a decade of development in this vein, the Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000.
The package combines two previously popular stand-alone products, namely the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and the Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000. Now combined, the two peripherals sport wireless 2.4-GHz connectivity to a small flash drive sized USB key. The design of both mouse and keyboard is by far the most aggressively ergonomic we've yet seen, and we were intrigued to finally see if joining the wonky keyboard club would save us from wrist disability by the time we hit our late 20s.
The Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 is born from its packaging with a roughly 2-inch rising foot attached where one would normally find a downward sloping wrist-rest, quite opposite the traditional keyboard stance. With the riser attached the keyboard actually slopes away from the user at about 10 degrees, which gives it a rather unique look. Like other ergonomic designs that have come before, the QWERTY keys are split down the middle into two sections, but unlike others that we've used, each half of the keyboard also slopes rather dramatically away from the center dividing line, a design Microsoft calls the 'gull wing' layout.
The wrist-rising foot can be detached, and the keyboard does feature snap out feet so that it can be positioned much like a normal keyboard. We decided to keep the foot attached so as to experience what typing with correct wrist posture would really be like. For the most part, we discovered that it was in fact rather comfortable. Elevating our wrists and letting our hands rest at a downward angle actually felt really nice, but our unfamiliarity with the split-keyboard layout took its toll on our typing accuracy. We discovered rather quickly that we've got a number of unorthodox typing habits, like hitting 'b' with our right hand rather than the left, that don't translate well to a split-design. Adapting the various 'CTRL' command claws we've become so familiar with to the split-layout was also annoying at first.
After some time, however, we got accustomed to the layout and began to appreciate the thought that was put into the keyboard's smaller details. Useful keys like Ctrl and Alt are oversized and easy to find, the spacebar is quite large and easy to hit, and all of the main letter keys curve comfortably, mirroring the angle at which our fingers hit them very naturally. The wrist guard area is clothed in faux-leather than actually feels quite nice. Between the spit keyboard layout lies a slightly useful Zoom shifter, while below it a pair of Back / Forward buttons allow for a degree of web browsing without the need to take a hand off the keyboard to use the mouse.
There were other aspects of the keyboard that we weren't so happy with, however. Though some buttons are made extra large, the Enter and Backspace keys are far too small, which became highly annoying as we consistently mis-hit keys in their vicinity. Media controls are somewhat limited to Play / Pause and volume controls, and we miss track forward / back commands we're used to on other keyboards. The keyboard does have six macro buttons that are easy to configure via the Intellipoint software, but the rest of the launcher buttons (Home, Search, Email, and Calculator) are terribly useful in our estimation.
Though we wish the Enter and Backspace keys were a lot larger, we were impressed with the comfort the Natural Ergonomic 4000 provided for normal typing. A gaming keyboard it is not, as the split layout really doesn't help a WASD FPS-style control scheme, but for laboring away generating content, we think the ergonomic design really does minimize wrist strain.
The Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 also includes Microsoft's Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000, which matches the keyboard in the aggressive manner it reorients a user's wrist posture. While gamers generally subscribe to either the palm or fingertip mousing styles, it turns out neither is very beneficial to one's wrist. The Natural 6000 mouse encourages a more healthy 'handshake-style' grip that places the user's pinky finger in contact with the mouse pad rather than the wrist.
The package includes illustrated instructions on exactly how to hold the mouse, but it's not hard to figure out. As soon as we had it in hand we were reminded of holding a baseball, which is exactly what Microsoft intended apparently. The entire surface of the mouse slopes dramatically to the left and does seem to align more comfortably to one's hand that a traditional arrangement.
A rather large thumb groove is lined in subtly textured plastic. The pair of thumb buttons take a bit of a reach to access, but since this is certainly not a gaming mouse we can't fault it too much for this. Other than its shape, the mouse is otherwise rather basic with a pair of main buttons and a smoothly scrolling wheel.
Though it's most likely thanks to our gaming roots, we didn't like the Natural 6000 mouse half as much as its keyboard counterpart. Though we won't doubt the research that suggests the handshake grip is better ergonomically, we think the benefit is primarily felt by somewhat less experienced computer users that move their entire arm when they move the mouse. Gaming instincts lead us to do most of our mousing with wrist twitches, and the Natural 6000 mouse really doesn't lend itself to this style of movement thanks to its weight, size, and grip.
Conclusion
We looked forward to the chance to review Microsoft's Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 package, not to see how it worked for gaming (it doesn't), but rather to see if there was real benefit to be found in ergonomic peripherals. After a fair bit of use we're confident in concluding that a nonstandard keyboard layout does indeed decrease stress to the wrists, and we're seriously debating making it our primary tool for busting out daily news and reviews. The mouse component of the package didn't grab us, however, but we can see how non-gamer types might dig it. The MSRP on the package is $149.95, which is a bit high, but it can be found at retail for a more reasonable $125 or so. Gamers may want to consider scoring just the Natural 4000 keyboard and sticking with a traditional gaming mouse.
The Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 is a mainstream solution: It's likely not going to solve the unique problems of clinically injured computer users, but it does seem like a decent entry point for the average user who wants a slightly more body-friendly desktop setup than a standard keyboard and mouse. And it's priced accordingly, at $150--pricey for a desktop set, but really at the entry level for ergonomic solutions.
We used the Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 with our primary computer for several weeks, and we're mostly pleased with the level of comfort it offers. Our only gripes come from resistance: The keys feel just a bit too stiff, and the mouse scroll button requires just a bit too much force. These weren't enough to outweigh the other comfort benefits of the set's design for our moderately achy wrists, but they could very well be deal-breakers for those with more serious injuries.
The design of the keyboard in the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 is essentially the same as the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, though the former connects to your computer wirelessly via a USB receiver. The split design rises in the middle to keep your wrists and arms in a naturally rotated position. An optional riser snaps under the front of the keyboard to create a backward slant that prevents you from flexing your wrists. You can further adjust the keyboard's height and angle via snap-up feet on the rear corners. The keyboard's wrist rest is padded with a faux-leather cover that's preferable to bare plastic but nevertheless not as comfortable as the gel wrist rests you can get elsewhere.
All these features add up to a rather comfortable typing experience; after just a few days with the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard we came to prefer it to traditional keyboards for all our typing. However, we were frustrated by the stiffness of the keys, especially the space bar. Even after prolonged use we felt we had to press just a bit too hard to type--not exactly ideal for a keyboard that's supposed to reduce repetitive stress injuries and certainly a deal breaker for anyone whose hand and wrist pain starts in their fingers.