Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 (B2L-00002) Review

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(More customer reviews)Let's talk about the features Microsoft advertises on its product tour mini site.
Great comfort: It's generally more comfort than a traditional keyboard once you get used to the curved layout and thin profile keys. Don't forget to spread out your arms. Other than the surprisingly low cost (for a ergonomic keyboard), I bought it for another reason - good spacebar design. (Well, the spacebar on my copy of the keyboard has a problem that I'll discuss in a moment) I do touch typing and almost always use right thumb for space key. Spacebar on a traditional keyboard has sharp edge towards your thumb pad. Just put your thumb on a spacebar and you know what I'm saying here. The spacebar and all other keys on this row of the comfort curve keyboard have been tilted towards the user and have reduced thickness at the bottom so the thumb touches the flat (slightly curved) surface of the keys. Some traditional keyboards now have similar design but cost more and they are hard to get. However, the spacebar on my copy of the keyboard apparently was assembled incorrectly. The tiny metal support wire/hinge under the key is not snapped in place therefore the spacebar makes noise all the time when typing on other keys. It's easy to fix once I pry open the spacebar and snap in the metal support wire. The spacebar is still kind of loose due to its large size but no more unwanted noise. The quality problem makes me worry about Internet purchase because of inconvenience of return/exchange. My experience tells me that recent Microsoft hardware quality is inconsistent (probably like its software). I bought a Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer early this year and it had a near dead button (push very hard to make it work).
Another annoyance is the tiny Ctrl keys. Due to the layout design, Ctrl keys are fairly small and easy to miss. I'd rather have smaller Win keys to give space for larger Ctrl keys. Or at least the Ctrl keys don't have to be rounded aggressively at corners. More expensive Microsoft Nature Ergonomic Natural keyboard seems to have slightly bigger Ctrl keys.
Easy setup and use: No software is required. The keyboard has USB connector and no USB-to-PS/2 adapter is provided in the package. It probably will work with a USB-to-PS/2 adapter based on what system requirements info says from the Microsoft website. Because it's a USB device, make sure your PC BIOS USB keyboard support is enabled or you lose keyboard control until USB HID (Human Interface Device) driver is loaded.
Spill-resistant keys: This is largely true as long as you don't tilt your keyboard too much or spilled water/coffee below the keys doesn't overflow to the desk. Each key is supported by a cylinder which raises high above the base plate. Base plate has four tiny drain holes. Pry open just one key and you'll understand. I don't know how special function keys at top of the keyboard are protected. They may be more vulnerable.
Save desktop space: False! This keyboard is slightly larger than my Dell Quiet keyboard. It's much bigger than some compact keyboard with razor-thin edges. Basically it takes no more space than your old traditional keyboard.
Ultra-thin profile: Not sure I'll like it or not. Time will tell. It makes me feel like using a notebook but key travel may be comparable to a desktop keyboard. The tactical feedback is close to a notebook keyboard but I can still type pretty fast.
Some other notes:
Special function keys are useful. No software is required but they only work with certain software and cannot be customized. Pictures on Microsoft website are tiny so let me tell you what these special keys are: Back, Forward, Volume Down, Mute, Volume Up, Play/Pause (above vol down, mute, vol up keys), Web/Home, Search and Mail. There is also a Calculator key next to the keyboard status LEDs.
Finally, Microsoft gets rid of the quirky edit keys layout (keys above reverse T toothpick arrow keys) that was popular in its last generation keyboards. The comfort curve keyboard has traditional layout for those keys and that's important to me. I wouldn't use any keyboard without this layout.
So far I'm happy with the purchase. It's a nice and cheap keyboard if you're looking for an ergonomic one. Hopefully, the shortcomings I mentioned above can be fixed in the next version of this keyboard. It's not bad for a v1.0 comfort curve keyboard.
UPDATE: Each special key can be customized once latest IntelliType Pro software is installed. Although Microsoft harware download web site doesn't provide a driver for this keyboard, guess what, this keyboard is listed as the very first one in Keyboard model dropdown list in keyboard settings.
After eight months of use, I still stand behind my comments and it still gets 4 stars :)

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Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000Building on its success of the Wireless Optical Desktop Comfort Edition introduced last year, Microsoft is expanding its Comfort Curve product line, at an affordable price, with Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000. With a sleek, low-profile key design, this keyboard allows for more natural wrist and arm alignment, as well as better overall posture than a straight keyboard. With a difference you can feel, Comfort Curve keyboard was preferred 3 to 1 when tested against other best-selling flat keyboards. It's Comfort Curve at a more comfortable price point.

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Logitech K350 2.4Ghz Wireless Keyboard Review

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(More customer reviews)My K350 came yesterday and I'm quite pleased, in contrast to the other review. I've been using PCs since 1980, so I've typed on a bunch of keyboards, all the way back to the original IBM PC and a handful of DEC and other terminal boards. This is the first "wave" keyboard that I've used, but not the first with an attached palm rest.
GENERAL:
The feel of the entire unit is solid, and the keys seem to have a good response. (It's not as solid as my Northgate OmniKey, but nobody has made mainstream metal keyboards for over a decade.) The keys seemed to be spaced and sized much like any other keyboard, then I measured. The keys on my basic Dell keyboard are 3/4" square, nearly flat, and touch each other. These keys are separated, deeper like an older keyboard, and just about 5/8" square, though there is enough space between them that they are almost 3/4" from center to center. My conclusion is that these keys are, indeed, typical in size and spacing. The wave shape makes the positions a bit different fom what I'm accustomed to, but not enough to cause me problems.
The palm rest is lightly padded and I find it quite comfortable, though for me it is a wrist rest as I have small hands -- 6 1/2" from base to fingertip. There are two feet on the back for either a 4° or an 8° angle lift. BTW, when the keyboard is flat on the desk the front edge of the palm rest is 7/8" off the desktop in the middle where you wouldn't have your hands. Where your hands go, it is 5/8" off the desktop. I must also say that my wrists are beginning to feel a wee bit chaffed, but, since I don't do that much typing any more, my habits have become lax, and I know I'm moving my hands around when I should be leaving them in place. Looking at the bottom, I'd say that the palm rest could be removed and recovered with other material, but you would have to put it back on or the base of the keyboard would stick out.
DIMENSIONS: about 19" by 10 1/8" at the widest part of the wave.
POWER: 2 AA batteries, included; on/off switch on the underside; battery monitor when you press a function key, but the picture is misleading. The picture looks as if the battery light shows you the level of power, which it does not. However, there is a tab in the SetPoint software that will at least tell me that my brand new batteries are "good." Right now the battery light is green. When you first power up the keyboard, the battery light will turn green if the batteries are good. I tried putting in a couple used batteries to see if the light has another color to tell you the batteries are low, but I couldn't find a combo that gave me anything but green or no light.
PROGRAMMABILITY:
The black set of keys at the top center that control volume and pause/play/stop/ff/rev cannot be reprogrammed.
Ten of the 12 function keys (document, spreadsheet, calendar, 3 unassigned, browser, messaging, e-mail, search) can be reprogrammed using the SetPoint software; only F11 (battery light) and F12 (CD/DVD eject) cannot. You can program the keys to: launch a program; open a file, a folder or a web page; show a custom menu; perform a keystroke combination; do nothing (very useful if you don't want to perform the default action but haven't anything else to assign to the key); or perform another of the preprogrammed actions. When you launch a program with a function key, the name of the program flashes on the screen briefly to tell you what you just started. The original set up is that you have to press the "Fn" key at the bottom right with the function key to get the special, programmed function; however, you can change it so that you press a function key alone to get a special function and have to press Fn to get the normal function key.
Of the 8 silver specialty keys, only the zoom key on the left cannot be reprogrammed. The silver "PC" key on the top far right can be changed, but in a more limited fashion. It will sleep the PC, restart, shut down, log off, or do nothing. The other 6 can be programmed the same way as the 10 function keys. That gives you a total of 16 keys that can be very flexibly programmed. I find that quite useful.
You can choose to disable the caps lock, num lock, scroll lock, Windows start, and insert keys so that you can't accidentally press them. You can also choose to have a sound play when you do press any of them, and/or have a notice flash briefly on the screen to tell you what state they are now in. There are no num lock or caps lock lights on the keyboard itself to tell you when they are on.
RECEIVER EXTENDER CABLE: I wondered about that one and couldn't find info on Logitech's site. It's a 5' USB cable that you can use to extend the range of the receiver plug. Plug the receiver in this cable, then the cable into the PC, stretch out the cable and your PC is now that much closer to your keyboard. On the other hand, I walked to the end of my room, about 15', and reception was still fine without the extender cable. I presume it's intended for use with large screen TV setups in big rooms or projection/lecture setups, because by the time you get far enough away to need it you can't see a normal PC screen. Well, *I* can't, anyway.
"UNIFYING": If you actually read the info about the devices with "unifying" technology on either the Amazon pages or the Logitech site, you will quickly realize that Logitech's "unifying" technology is new and does not work with older mice and keyboards, and that there are only a few keyboards and mice out for it at the moment. Oh, well. I guess I wasn't surprised at all that because I already had two Logitech wireless mice and neither worked with the other's receiver. I thought that was dumb till I realized that if they did speak to each other's receivers and you had two PCs in the same room using those mice, might both mice be controlling the cursors on both machines? No doubt the new tech has a way of identifying the devices and linking them to a particular machine to prevent a problem like that. I have an Anywhere mouse on order, which is one of the ones that has "unifying," so I'm delighted with the idea. Not only fewer cords, but also fewer USB dongles. Life is good.

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With its distinctive Wave design and Constant Curve layout, Logitech Wireless Keyboard K350 guides your hands into just the right position. You\'ll type with ease and confidence, but without having to re-learn typing on an unfamiliar layout.

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