Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard & Mouse (2019)

[Evil_MrM]

The friendly UPS truck just delivered the new Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard & Ergomomic Mouse to my office this afternoon, and I thought I would leave my first impressions here.

These are WIRED wired devices, and some might wonder why I didn't spring for wireless. Using a bluetooth Microsoft Surface Mouse for the last few weeks (after the mouse on my MS Ergonomic Keyboard 5000 died), I disliked intensely that I there was an initial lag upon first using the mouse, and I worried that a bluetooth keyboard might lose the first keystroke or two, which could be disastrous in a business setting.

Anyway, I am warming up to the keyboard, but I love the mouse from the first time I touched it. To start with the latter, the right-handed designed mouse fits nearly perfectly in my hand, and feels just great. It moves the mouse around the keyboard with extreme accuracy (at least in a business setting, gamers should try it themselves). I won't miss the best part of the Surface Mouse I'm replacing, since the Ergonomic mouse has the same scroll wheel, excellent! There are two re-programmable buttons on the left side (by your thumb), and they seem to work well enough, I just don't use side buttons much.

I'm warming up the MS Ergonomic Keyboard, also. I notice I'm already making a few less typing mistakes (I'm no great shakes as a typist), and the keys have a slight forward/back/left/right jiggle to them. I understand this is a membrane keyboard, but the keys have a nice travel to them, and are cushioned at the end of the key depress, making for a more comfortable typing experience. There are three keys (imaginatively labeled 1, 2, 3) which can be re-programmed easily in Mouse and Keyboard Center app. There's also an Office key, which brings up (what I think is) Office 365 on the web. From here, you can open Office docs, or enter any of the programs in your Office account.

There is also an Emoji key, and this one has me confused. I'm can't imagine wired keyboards being real popular in homes; do businesses really need to have ready access to ? That said, I understand the key might be programmable, so that is the first modification I plan to make.

All I all, I'm pretty happy with the keyboard, and I ❤ the mouse (oops!)

 

[Rich Bordoni]

Hey, I saw your comment on the review article. I left you a reply over there but I don't know if this site sends notifications or anything like that for comment replies so I figured I would also post it here:

"I'm not a regular of the forum (in fact, I didn't even know this site had a forum until you mentioned it), but I read your review. I didn't know MS released a new mouse also. Question: is the mouse pretty much flat, or does it have a pronounced slope from left to right? (There aren't many pics of it online that I could find.) And the scroll wheel is metal right?

It looks pretty nice, may be a candidate for replacing my current Logitech, although I find vertical mice to be the most comfortable for me."

 

[Evil_MrM]

Sorry about getting back to you so late, Rich, I was away from my office this past weekend.

Regarding slope, it has one, but its a bit more gentle than most, with the left side of the mouse being higher than the right. Also, it has a thumb rest, which means that you'll move all your finger while keeping your palm stationary when moving the mouse in any direction. This mouse is really for right handers only; I don't see how left handed users would be comfortable using it.

Also, I believe the scroll wheel is metal; it is not rubberized, like earlier MS mice, where the rubber eventually disintegrated within a few years. The wheel looks identical to the Surface Precision Mouse or Precision Mouse. If I was to hazard a guess, it feel like aluminum.

That said, it is the most comfortable mouse I've ever used. It tracks accurately, and is extremely comfortable. If a wired mouse is what you are looking for, I'd give it my highest recommendation. Just make sure to keep your receipt in case I'm a liar (seriously, what is comfortable for some is not always comfortable for all).

I am planning to follow up my first quickie review for the keyboard and mouse with another quickie review a week on.

 

[Evil_MrM]

It's been a little over a week, and I'd thought I'd check back in to let people know how I've been faring with the new Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard & Ergomomic Mouse (both wired). My initial feelings about the devices haven't changed. The Ergonomic Mouse is just about perfect, and the keyboard is also very good, although not without a few faults.

I'm using both primarily for business use, as I believe that wired devices work best in that environment. For general home use, I don't understand why you'd want wired devices, unless a) you can somehow hide the wires, or b) want to boast that you have the most wired computer system on your block.

Because I have nothing to add about the Ergonomic Mouse, other than you'll only be able to take it away from me by prying it from my cold, dead fingers, I want to focus on the Ergonomic Keyboard. It is a split style keybord, with A-G on one half, H through Enter on the second half, and cursor and number pad on the third half (can you figure out I work with numbers for a living?). It is EXTREMELY comfortable to type on, and the split design means that my hands are just the right distance apart for the rather rotund individual I am. Both the key travel and pressure is perfect, and there seems to be a cushion at the bottom of the key travel, which makes typing comfortable for longer periods. The keys are not backlit, but there are LEDs on the Caps, NumLk, and ScrLK keys, and that's good enough for me.

Let me now pick the nits. Let's take the Backspace key. It's a bit smaller than I'd like but worse, they added a Delete key right above it. There's actually THREE Delete keys on this keyboard if you turn the NumLk off. There's already a Delete key above cursor pad in the Home/End/PageUp/PageDn cluster, why add another one above the Backspace? My ham-fisted fingers regularly hit the Delete key when I want to hit the Delete key, which does erase my typing, just in the wrong direction. I think I'm also having problems sometimes hitting the "=" key which is right above the "7" key on the numeric keypad. I'll just have to be a bit more careful here.

There are a number of extra keys on here, and I appreciate them. There's 3 user programmable keys, keys for volume and media player controls, calculator, snip, desktop and computer lock, all located above the function keys. There's even a few extra keys above the cursor and numeric keypad, most notably a dedicated search key.

The Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard app supports both the mouse and keyboard, allowing you to re-map some, but not all of the custom keys. For example, the calculator key brings up the Windows Calculator; I have a third-party calculator, but I can't re-map it. The emoji key can only be converted to a second application key. Hopefully, future versions of the app will allow me to map a few more keys.

Okay, I've droned on for far too long about these two peripherals. It doesn't answer the question literally no one has asked me; Why pay $100+ for a wired keyboard and mouse when you can get an Amazon Basics setup for about $15? If you have to ask that question, then you're an insensitive ****. No, just kidding, but if you ask that question, you're not the target market for these upscale devices. Cheaper keyboards will do the job just fine, but the experience you get from typing on quality devices such as these offsets the pain in the wallet. Anything that makes me (slightly) less of a whiny ***** to my clients more than offsets the additional cost.

Final Verdict: Keyboard (8.5 out of 10); mouse (10 out of 10).

 

[joshuadlieberman]

Thank you for this great, descriptive review... I'm writing because I'm curious about using this keyboard with a Mac. I have a 2017 15" MacBook Pro that runs Windows 10 on Parallels, to which I currently use the Surface Ergonomic keyboard with (I do a lot of typing in Microsoft Word). I do like the surface ergonomic keyboard but its started doing exactly what you mentioned in your review with lagging when I begin to type and every now and then it fails to enter a letter when I'm typing. I'm very curious if this would work with a Mac, especially since it's WIRED. If anyone reading this has given it a try with a Mac then please definitely let me know your impressions/thoughts/advice. etc. thanks!

 

[Rich Bordoni]

Thanks for the response! I wish the mouse had a more pronounced slope.

My ham-fisted fingers regularly hit the Delete key when I want to hit the Delete key, which does erase my typing, just in the wrong direction.

I think you meant Backspace there? lol

For example, the calculator key brings up the Windows Calculator; I have a third-party calculator, but I can't re-map it.

I don't know how technical you are or how much effort you want to go through, but you may be able to re-map some of those special keys using AutoHotkey or KeyTweak.

 

[anderson2691]

Thanks for the information & I'm also using a wireless ergonomic keyboard for the last three months & I'm pretty much happy with the keyboard service. It reduces my fingers, wrist, shoulder pain which a normal keyboard not do. Its buttons are more flexible than normal keyboards. I highly recommend this keyboard for my office members.

https://woahtech.com/best-ergonomic-keyboards/