Using the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard for 10 months (Updated)
10 months ago, I was on a mission to get an external keyboard for myself. I’m a student pursuing computer science, and wanted a keyboard that was more spacious and had more travel distance than the one on my Dell XPS 13. Did I need a keyboard? No. Looking back, it was something that I wanted to try because I had never owned one. Hence, the keyboard story was born…
Initial Considerations
Initially, I wanted to try a mechanical keyboard. After all, I’ve always heard praises about mechanical keyboards and seen many videos where these keyboards appear beside coders.
My first pick was the Razer BlackWidow Lite. It was one of the more affordable options for a mechanical keyboard and was from a company that focusses on mechanical keyboards. What’s more, I was attracted to the mercury white option. It looked sick!
But I was always curious about ergonomic keyboards (and ergonomic products in general) as well. Their shapes always looked funny to me. The concept of ergonomics was appealing. And I have always wanted to try one. After some research, I came across the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard. It was “ergonomist-approved”, a relatively new product and was cheaper! In the end, I was swayed over by the quirkiness of the ergonomic keyboard and got it.
First Impression
What a big box! Damn.
First Impressions
Jokes aside, the keyboard was huge! You can see how the split in the middle and the integrated number pad really increases the length of the keyboard. Then, the integrated wrist-rest makes the keyboard tall as well. It really occupies a sizable part of desk space.
The design of the keyboard reminds me of a Stingray. It’s probably the wavy silhouette and the raised middle section that makes it feel like a Stingray moving through the waters.
The keys felt really nice to type on. Travel is deep and the actuation force is great — it is easy to tell whether you have pressed a key or not. Overall, this made the key-feel very satisfying. There is no mushiness — everything leaned towards the snappy side. Make no mistake though, it is not as snappy as mechanical keyboards that I tried in stores. The key-caps are matte, not slippery, and feel nice to the touch. Overall, it is definitely one of the nicer non-mechanical keyboards I have tried.
The sound made by the keys is kind of a mix between a “chonk” and a “clack”. The sound is audible but not high-pitched. It’s not annoying but it’s a good deal louder than laptop keyboards. In short, people you video call with can definitely hear you tying on your keyboard. In fact, one of my zoom-call mates thought I was using a mechanical keyboard.
Finally, the big wrist-rest has a fabric surface and a thin layer of foam inside. This gave it a slight pillow-like feel and my hands just felt comfy resting on it.
My Ergonomic Keyboard Experience
First things first. Prior to using this keyboard, I did not have good finger positioning when typing.
While typing, my hands sometimes crossed over to the other side of the keyboard. I also didn’t use my index finger and pinky enough.
Hence, I struggled to get used to the split keyboard design, which forced each hand to remain at one side of the keyboard. I was regretting my decision to get this keyboard in the first two weeks of owning it until I finally got used to it.
Using an ergonomic keyboard forces you to cultivate good finger positioning
It’s kind of like learning to play the piano. While you can use unorthodox piano fingerings and hand positions, it gets progressively more difficult to play faster and more complex pieces with it.
Anyway, I finally got used to the keyboard after the 2 weeks. How? I made a conscious effort to try undoing my habits. For the first time, I read a bit on finger positioning on keyboard. I paused regularly while typing to use another finger on a key that would be more ergonomic.
While it took a few months before I was flying with the keyboard, I came to realise that this forced adaption brought about great benefits.
- Using the correct finger positions was more comfortable for my hand and wrists.
- The shape of the keyboard and the raised middle section made it easier to relax my forearms and shoulders when typing. In fact, this is the best keyboard I’ve used that allows me to lean back and type. I have had fewer shoulder aches when typing on it which was amazing. In addition, the actions of copy (Ctrl + c) and and pasting (Ctrl + v) is feels much more comfortable.
- Even when switching back to my laptop keyboard, I was able to type faster, reaching over 100 words per minute!
- I can type more easily without looking at the keyboard.
Durability
There keyboard is not without it’s faults.
The B key gets stuck sometimes if I press it hard enough. I would have to press it down harder and let go for it to bounce back.
The parts of fabric of the wrist-rest where your palms naturally rest on can get slightly discoloured. Perhaps I should dry my hands fully before typing.
Finally, the keyboard easily collects dust between key-caps, and is hard to remove by wiping as the keys are quite deep.
Design Issues with the Keyboard
The keyboard is simply too long. If I want to centre the keyboard for a better typing experience, I will have almost no space to use my mouse. This also means that I have to extend my right arm significantly to use the mouse. Therefore, I have to sacrifice either mouse space or a centred typing experience, with both options being ironically unergonomic.
This would not have been an issue if I was left-handed, or if I got an ambidextrous mouse to use with my left hand. If you are left-handed or don’t have to constantly use a mouse, I would still recommend this keyboard for ergonomics. Alternatively, if you are good with keyboard shortcuts and use window tiling managers, hence not using the mice a lot, this keyboard is still great. If you have never heard of window tiling managers and are right-handed, then this keyboard may not be for you.
I feel that Microsoft should have made the number pad modular instead of integrated to the keyboard. In fact, Microsoft used to sell a version of their ergonomic keyboards with a detachable number pad. Here’s hoping that their next iteration of the ergonomic keyboard would have this improved design!
Additional Features
It isn’t really advertised on Microsoft’s website but the Ergonomic Keyboard comes with a detachable base attachment called the front tilt leg. This is pretty interesting because keyboards generally have back tilt legs instead of front tilt.
The use for a front tilt is when standing up or having a high seating position relative to table height. The front tilt raises the front of the keyboard and the wrist-rest up when you are typing with your forearms sloping downwards, making it more ergonomic.
Personally, I have not found the use for the feature because my forearms are generally level with the keyboard.
In addition, the keyboard comes with tons of additional shortcut keys. Firstly, there are 3 keys on the top left that can be programmed to launch different apps using the Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center app. Secondly, there are dedicated media keys like volume and skipping of tracks. There are also keys to open the calculator, take screenshots, enter the task view, lock the computer, and also perform a system search. Basically, these keys are dedicated and not part of the function keys so there is no need to press Fn when accessing them. The function keys are just plain function keys. There’s still more! An office key and a dedicated emoji key. Personally, I didn’t like the office key as I hit it accidentally sometimes. I wish I could easily remap it (through built-in software) to something else. I didn’t use the emoji key either. I found the volume and media control keys most useful.
Closing Thoughts
Using this keyboard was an enjoyable experience. I corrected my typing finger positions and also satisfied my curiosity on using an ergonomic keyboard on the long term. The designers and ergonomists at Microsoft really did a good job at the nailing the typing ergonomics. I just hope that they separate the number pad next time!
I hope that this long term review had been helpful for those of you who wanted to know more about ergonomic keyboards.
Thanks for reading! :-)
