The general shape and magnitude of the curve is similar, but a bit shorter. Unlike most “tenkeyless” keyboards, you still get a numeric keypad - it’s just a separate, wireless module now, so you can put it somewhere else (the left side, a drawer, New Jersey) and keep your mouse closer to your right hand.Įrgonomically, it seems roughly equivalent to the 4000: if you found that one comfortable, there’s a good chance you’ll like this one, too. So far, I’ve had none of the missed- or repeated-key problems that I had with the old wireless edition of the 4000 (the “Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000”). In theory, this should lead to better battery life than Bluetooth, but I haven’t burned through a set yet to find out. It’s wireless via a tiny custom USB dongle, not Bluetooth. The mushy membrane keys have been replaced with laptop-style scissor keys.(The Home/End block is rearranged to save space, but that won’t bother most people.) It’s much smaller in every dimension, yet retains a full-sized, almost-standard desktop key layout minus the numeric keypad.The Sculpt attacks the 4000’s biggest shortcomings head-on: And the ugly gray media keys are now integrated into the smaller F1–F12 keys. The useless “Zoom” wheel and redundant back/forward buttons are gone.
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The chunky plastic and fake-metal accents are gone. 1) Even Microsoft’s logo is small and tasteful. (Kinesis keyboards look like medical equipment. The Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop’s keyboard is the best-looking ergonomic keyboard I’ve ever seen. Top to bottom: my gross old Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, the new Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop, and my 10-month-old Kinesis Freestyle 2 for Mac. It is indeed smaller and with better-feeling keys than the 4000, but I wouldn’t confidently recommend it unless you need its flexibility to be in a radically different shape.
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It’s decent, but not great: the split design easily scoots around and loses your set position, the key layout is subtly different enough to have a moderate learning curve, it’s even uglier than the 4000, and it’s a bit expensive for a wired keyboard.
#Microsoft ergonomic keyboard mechanical for mac#
Last year, after using the 4000 for six years but wanting something smaller with less-mushy keys, I bought the Kinesis Freestyle2 for Mac (with the “VIP3” feet). (Spoiler: It’s in the mouse’s battery compartment.) I had to read the instructions to find out where the USB RF transceiver was. But it’s surrounded by cheap, rough-edged cardboard, and unpacking is not obvious. Microsoft has learned some packaging design from Apple: you’re greeted with the product facing you nicely, rather than stuffing it upside-down in a plastic bag.
#Microsoft ergonomic keyboard mechanical install#
I also didn’t (and won’t) install any of Microsoft’s software on my Mac - I never had problems with the 4000’s Mac software, but the Sculpt works well enough for me without any, so why install it? Just go into System Preferences, Keyboard, Modifier Keys and swap Command and Option. Note: The Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop also includes a goofy mouse, but I won’t be using it, so this is solely a review of the keyboard. I was hoping the Sculpt would be a worthy successor that also fixed some of the 4000’s shortcomings. And it’s cheap-feeling and ugly as sin by today’s standards, but keep in mind that it’s 8 years old - it was designed when PCs looked like this.ĭespite its flaws, the 4000 is a good keyboard overall for four reasons that have always made it stand out from other ergonomic keyboards: it has a standard key layout, it’s available in brick-and-mortar stores for easy tryouts and returns, it’s very comfortable, and it’s very cheap. It also never had a usable wireless version.
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The 4000’s biggest flaws are its mushy membrane keys and its tremendous size, which forces right-handed mousers to keep their mice too far away. When the new Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop was announced, I preordered one immediately: as a huge fan of its ancient predecessor, the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, I knew it had promise. And that I own a 1-kilogram tungsten cylinder. Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard shown with other objects for scale and subtle evidence that I’m productive and/or hip. A programmer, writer, podcaster, geek, and coffee enthusiast.Ībout Microsoft’s Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard