Hurray! A new keyboard! And I almost entirely like it! It has a few quirks that I don’t entirely enjoy, but overall it is pretty good. Again, this is the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.
Things I like:
- The black and silver and very sharp looking. Even the “Do Not Remove - Safety Information” tag is designed to blend in.
- Lots of customizable buttons with generic labels.
- No special “Help” button! I’m so glad a keyboard manufacturer has finally realized that a help button isn’t needed.
- There are 4 extra keys above the keypad: ”=”, ”(”, ”)”, and “Backspace”.
- Keyboard remembers that I want F Lock turned on! I HATE how keyboard manufacturers have decided that the function keys should be replaced with stuff like “Undo” and “Close”.
- The hand rest is VERY comfortable. It’s made of some kind of foam material, and the reviews say it is very durable.
- Had the traditional 6-key.. umm.. thing above the arrow keys. None of this weird vertical crap.
Things I don’t like:
- The Zoom button is virtually worthless and not programmable. I’d rather have it set as a, well, pretty much anything else would be nice.
- Space bar is difficult to press in upper corners. Can be very annoying depending on your typing style.
- Programmable buttons are not lit, and the writing on them is to mellow to be easily read in low-light conditions.
In sadder news, my families router died today. Luckily we had a spare.