Passionate about Typing (Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000)

Member Name: jonnyr

Product:	Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
Date:	30/11/08 (114 review reads)
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Advantages: Ergonomic Design, comfortable, RSI Busting!

Disadvantages: I would prefer a bit more positive contact with the keys, Media keys are a bit pointless

Being a computer programmer (ActionScript 3), I clock up a serious number of hours sat in front of a computer hammering away at small plastic keys (hell I'm even doing it now!), I used to suffer from acute wrist pain with normal "flat" keyboards after long coding sessions and I was worried that the first stages of RSI were kicking in. As a result, I invested the time to retrain myself to use the Microsoft Ergo 4000 and I have never looked back.

The first thing that people notice about this keyboard is the back-to-front design - the palm rest under the space bar is actually the highest point of the board with the keys sloping downwards - this forces you to have your wrists raised which all ergonomics experts recommend. Along side this you will notice from the picture that the QWERTY keys are split into two halves, both of which have their own "bowl" effect; again this helps with the ergonomics, but it also (once you are past the learning curve) helps you track the keys and touch type faster.

As I just mentioned there is a bit of "learning curve" to this keyboard as you have to re-train your brain slightly to remember where the gap is, this took me about 2 weeks, after which I could type significantly quicker.

The keyboard comes with a selection of multimedia keys - most of which are a bit pointless and I don't get much use out of them. It is however worth noting that the Media Keys (play / pause) do work with iTunes on both Mac and Windows, but you have to give the program focus (which slightly defeats the point!)

There are a few things I would change about this keyboard, the biggest being the action of the keys. Don't get me wrong, they are comfortable to use, and have enough travel (this is not a shallow mechanism like the Mac Keyboards) but I would prefer it if they had a little bit more "click" or "weight" to them (Ideally, they would be Spring / Buckle mechanism like the good ol' Model-M, but I don't think anyone makes an ergo keyboard like that!).

So, to sum up, if you are serious about typing (and can touch type already (or need to force yourself to learn!)) then you should definitely give the Microsoft Ergo 4000 a try.

Summary: A Perfect Programming Keyboard!

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