Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000

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Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000

Aalaap Ghag, Dec 12, 2005 1010 hrs IST

When Microsoft gave us the Comfort Curve in their keyboards last year, we all believed it was the end of the split natural keyboards.

Most comfortable keyboard ever; soft palm rest, strict angles for maximum natural posture; almost all keys are in a standard layout; multimedia function keys; zoom slider; extra calculator keys

IntelliType required for zoom slider and extra calculator keys to work; zoom slider not reconfigurable; oversize N key and unified Function key blocks can cause some confusion; price is a wee bit high

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The function keys are not non-standard groups of three this time around, but they aren't the standard groups of four either. All the keys have been clubbed together into one group, and the split puts F1 to F5 on one side and the rest to the other. I thought this would be a problem, but after a few days of not accidentally clicking Alt-F5, I can say its alright. Once again these need the F-Lock to be turned on if you want to use the actual functions instead of some Undo Redo macro actions. Fortunately the F-Lock is only used with the function keys, and it stays on across sessions, so after the first time, you won't even remember it.

The space between the two halves of the keyboard has now been given to the Zoom slider in this keyboard. The control is very comfortable to use and has a very rubbery feel, offering good grip. The slider goes up/down and springs back into the central position, unlike previous zoom wheels. The good part about this slider is that it works in Firefox and Fireworks as well as Microsoft applications, but the bad part is that you can't reassign the slider to scroll the page instead of zooming it. Say what you may - I feel scrolling is a more frequently used function than zooming, and the ability to scroll with this centrally accessible slider would have been very intuitive and convenient. Of course, I can use the Page Up and Page Down keys for that, but you know, its fancy to use such controls. The other bad part about this zoom slider is that you need IntelliType installed to use it. IntelliType is also required if you want to use the user assignable favorites keys (5) on the top. The rest of the basic keys (Web, Search, Email, Calculator etc.) work fine without IntelliType.

There are a few more keys above the numeric keypad that are dedicated keys for = (equal to), opening and closing brackets, and backspace. These essentially mimic the features of a calculator by providing the functions right where you need them to be. Of course, most of the applications are written to use the Enter as an "equal to" action making the button redundant, but the usefulness of the brackets and a handy backspace key are countable. However, even these extra keys need IntelliType installed to be used, which seems pretty pointless since the keys are simply emulating three other keys present elsewhere on the keyboard. If these three keys (equal to and the brackets) just sent the same signals as the other keys, IntelliType overhead would be unnecessary.

The Comfort Edition did away with the LED keyboard status indicators altogether, which was a bit of a problem since that also had the F-Lock concept. The status indicators were actually displayed by the IntelliType software as icons in the system tray. That was probably one of the worst concepts ever in a keyboard. This Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 brings back the LEDs and places them away from the clutter below the space bar, dividing the pleather palm rest into two, just like the alphabet keys block. At first, I thought the split in the palm rest may be uncomfortable, but after using it for a few days, I realized I barely move my wrists once I start typing, so I can say that the placement is perfect!

There you have it - a natural ergonomic keyboard that's almost perfect. A price of around Rs. 3651 is also not unnecessarily expensive. Yes, it is a little high for a wired USB keyboard, but you only need to use it once to fall in love with it. If it wasn't for the issues with the oversized N key, the unified Function key blocks, the dependence on IntelliType for the Zoom slider to work and the inability to reconfigure the slider to scroll, I would have given this a full five stars.

Test unit sourced from: Text 100