Keyboard Reviews

This instrument is probably the best buy one can get for way under a grand (no pun intended). It includes some really nice sounds, especially the piano sounds, the organ sounds and the flute sounds.

It has some really nice features and bells and whistles (both literally and figuratively) including very good touch. It is not fully weighted, but is still pretty good.

The only problems I have with it is the weight, which prevents it from being totally portable and the tinny sounding speakers. But this are nit picks because both can be overcome easily enough and what you do get more than offsets the losses.

If you want a keyboard that can do a lot of things, has a lot of great pre-set sounds, is pretty nice looking and can be used either for an inexpensive home piano or as a gigging instrument and with a bench, a stand, and way to record your music as well as being useful as a learning instrument, this is the one. it is fully MIDI ready and has a lot more that I have not yet scratched the surface of. And all for way under a thousand dollars.

I don't think there is anything better for an all-in-one keyboard for this level of expense. A great deal, an excellent instrument.

After I learned the "80 Built-in Songs", can I download more songs? Would the keyboard's lighting function work on the download

I bought this keyboard because I wanted to learn how to play the piano. The touch feels more like an electric plaything, rather than a real piano, but for the price it is fine. There is a built-in feature that helps you to learn how to play. First, you choose from a fairly extensive songlist. The first mode allows you to hit any key, but with the proper rhythm. The second modes allow you to practice one hand at a time. The nice thing about this, is that the keyboard will play the other hand for you, so you can still play the piece. Although this is fun, I don't think it's the best way to learn how to play. I bought some adult piano learning books and am plugging away at it. Overall, I'm happy with the keyboard and it will serve me well for learning piano basics. Someday I may upgrade, but I have to prove to my wife that I am serious about playing!

Very simple and very useful. You can assemble it without any addional tool, it includes all necessary. It is very light to transport and most convenient then any house-table you can use for your keyboard. You can change height to use keyboard standing up.

As a programmer, I can't stand that they changed the layout of the center row (ins, del, pgup, pgdn), slowing me down considerably, as well as the arrow keys (too small & awkward).

NOT recommended if you have to switch between keyboards (at home/work).

Works good. I've had mine for quite a while now. This is so much easier to type on compared to traditional style keyboards. Especially if you know the proper way to type; separated left and right sides just make sense.

I also owned the older model. The only beef I have is that the newer model has smaller, moved arrow keys. They are not in the traditional "T" style. Also, the Home, Delete, Insert... etc.. buttons are also re-located. That's why I gave this 4 stars.
It took me a while to get used to this, but you can get used to anything. After repeated use, it's not a problem anymore.

Overall:
Works great. So much easier to type on. Easier on the hands. I found mine durable also. I can't tell you how many times I've spilled a little on it or dropped it while moving it somewhere. I will definitely buy a new one after this one wears out.

This keyboard feels so good! Typing is effortless and flowing. Once you've used it for a few days, going back to traditional keyboards feels uncomfortable and awkward...that's because they are! --they force your wrists to be in an unnatural position. The keys on the Microsoft Natural Keyboard are set up at the angles your arms would be if you just let them rest in their natural position. See for yourself: hold your arms in front of you and let them fall naturally on the desk. See the angle they're in? That's the angle of this keyboard. Now don't fall for the imitations--only the Natural Keyboard by Microsoft feels this good and works this well.

"Home" "End" "Delete" "Pg Up" and "Pg Down" keys are in the wrong place. Until getting this keyboard, I never realized how much I used these 5 keys, particularly "Delete". Although I am getting use to the new placement, I must unlearn the placement ever time I use a different computer with a normal keyboard, such as at work. I really don't care which placement is better from an engineering standpoint. With keyboards, consistency is really important. Finally, I am finding I have to hit keys twice sometimes to get the keyboard to type. I have moved the receiver around with no improvement. I did not have this problem with my last cordless keyboard (logitech). Maybe that is a result of bum batteries (they come with the keyboard).

...I mean, this thing not only looks good, and feels good (the keys and ergonomics) but actually works really well (software is mostly flawless on my Win XP Pentium 4 machine)! Of all the peripherals I've ever invested in for my PC, this has to be one of the best---it's a pleasure to use, day in and day out.

PROs: the programmable keys make Internet surfing a snap, the cordlessness (all of my previous keyboards were corded) allows for all kinds of flexibility in terms of the junkpile masquerading as my desk, and the signal quality is very reliable (granted, I haven't tried to test the range much beyond my desk or my lap). Absolutely love the scroll wheel on the keyboard, and the back/forward buttons above it---perfect for going through photo galleries. So much less wrist-strain on my mouse-arm. The key word is: liberation!

CONs: pretty minor, really. A couple of the function keys have only limited programmability---but since there are a total of 25 of them, it doesn't really matter! Once in the while the software gets "stuck" so that when I hit any of the function keys that I've programmed to take to different websites, it only does so for the same one Explorer window. No way to tell if that's the keyboard software or the overall system software screwing up, though.

All I can say is, if Microsoft could only make ALL of its products, namely its monopolistic software, at this quality level, then Bill Gates might actually deserve the gazillion dollars he makes every 30 seconds!

... there is however ONE persistent problem this keyboard's software has. When I have multiple Explorer windows open and I hit the function shortcut keys to take me to different websites, it often will get "stuck" in one window and change the web page for that window only. So I end up having to do it manually, going to my "Favorites" pull-down menus. Kind of annoying, but can't tell if it's the MS software or my computer's OS that's screwing up.

This fancy keyboard and mouse set came with my PC a few months ago. Right away I noticed it was slick looking, and overall made my desk look much more professional and impressive. However, I can't give this product my full recomendation based on looks alone.

Firstly, I want to say that the MOUSE is just wonderful. Smooth, lasts very long and not a single problem. The best mouse I have ever owned. It even works well directly on the table, which is more than I can say for most wireless mice.

The Keyboard, however, has two problems.
1) There are no lights to indicate 'Caps Lock' or 'Num Lock', which is slightly annoying when typing passwords.
2) While the batteries last long, my keys frequently stop working and I need to give the thing a shake before they start working again. Maybe its because it's because I've spilt my fair share of food and beverage on the keyboard, but never have I had this problem before. Its not a big deal. Just a little shake and it works fine.

Overall, its a pretty, professional looking set and I recomend it.

GOOD:
I bought this set from Compusa for about $70 and it was totally worth it. The keyboard/mouse looks great (black and silver styling), and the wireless transceiver seems to have a very good range. I use rechargeable batteries that I switch out every couple months. The media control keys at he top of the keyboard are really cool. They work with whatever application is currently open with no configuration required. If nothing is running they will launch the default media player app. This means if winamp is the default player, you can control volume, track, pause/stop, etc... and later if you are watching a DVD through powerDVD or something like it the keyboard will control powerDVD instead with no config. changes. It's really pretty smart. I highly recommend this product :)

BAD:
Mouse light stays on at low setting all the time, mouse battery must be switched every two to three months with normal use (not too bad). Also, the caps lock, numlock, and function lock (special function keys on this keyboard) are all located on the transceiver base (not on the keyboard). Since I keep this thing behind my desk, I can't always tell which lights are on. Oh well... :)

Ok, let me start by saying that like most other human beings I don't like Microsoft, but lets not allow this to prevent us from judging a product objectively.
This keyboard-mouse combo does exactly what it should do, nothing less, but a few things more.
The keyboard is excellent. Reception is perfect, and the extra multimedia keys work well and are programmable with the supplied drivers. The fact that the CAPS/NUMLOCK lights are on the receiver haven't bothered me a bit so far.
The mouse is simple yet efficient. It does what it should, a bit heavy and most be used from a shorter range than the keyboard (but still surpasses the 6-foot specification), but other than that very good.
Installation couldn't be easier, unless you're a complete newbie to computers. Battery life is good, channel switching is possible (though I didn't need it at all), and the design looks great.
The price is very cheap, what more do you need?
Very recommended.

It sounded like a good idea to clean a laptop keyboard (I thought that would solve some problems), but let me tell you once you put all the lovely little keys back, nothing works. So, I figured it was either time to get a new laptop, deal with waiting days and days while the keyboard was repaired or find another solution.

It took a few hours and suddenly I decided to go look for a keyboard and try to plug it into the laptop. The thought really didn't cross my mind before or I would have bought this amazing keyboard months ago. Not only can I type way faster, I love the freedom of the cordless world. Plus, hey, hey, I can now see the letters on the keys. My laptop has a few keys where my nails literally clawed through the top of the key. It is funny, but true.

The "Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop" is quite a sexy system with a sleek look and plenty of style. I really haven't used all the features because mostly I just type and type and type some more. This is a nice package deal with one-touch features. The customizable keys will amuse anyone who has the time to figure everything out.

If you love to listen to music while you are at the computer, there is a Media Center so you can open, play and navigate music with the touch of a few buttons. I was trying to figure out why you would want a keyboard that works within 6 feet of the receiver and then I figured it was for the music functions.

The Wireless Optical Mouse is shaped for comfort and can be used by right or left-handed users. The clear/wider scroll wheel allows you to move quickly through web pages. I noticed that the scrolling was much faster and there is no need to click on the scroll bar. Basically everything works faster with this keyboard. I'm quite impressed.

This works with PS/2 or USB. 4 AA batteries are included. Two for the keyboard and two for the mouse. They seem to last quite a long time.

The Software installation and setup was so easy, I thought I was dreaming. Within hours of finding out I was not able to type, I was suddenly back in the review-writing mood. Although my husband says I sounded like someone had died when I told him I could not type. Talk about feeling helpless. Since fixing a computer is a few hundred dollars these days, I think we really lucked out by buying this very affordable desktop system. When I comparred prices, I saved myself over a thousand bucks. Well, if I had to go buy a new computer.

The reason I chose this particular keyboard is because it has a palm rest, which makes typing very comfortable.

~TheRebeccaReview.com

I purchased this keyboard and mouse combination off Amazon a couple of weeks and love them except for one glaring issue...the F-lock key. If you're use to function key shortcuts (ie - Alt-F4 to close a window, F7 to spell check, etc.) please be aware that Microsoft has disabled them by default and changed the keys to perform these various functions directly. Of course, spell check is now where F10 use to be, and "close" is F6, and so on. You can turn off this "advanced" functionality but you have to do this manually every time you turn on the computer!!! By the way there is a "hack" (registry edit) that is suppose to fix this but it hasn't worked on my XP machine with this keyboard. Other than the F-lock key (and a few other key re-arrangements - home, end, page up are moved around) I love this mouse and keyboard...the mouse is sensitive, keyboard very responsive and I like the upper row of keys (above the function keys) that launch email, media player, etc. directly.

I have always been a fan of the Microsoft Natural Keyboard but I had always wanted a wireless one. This combo works very well and I think the price is very reasonable. Overall, I think this is an excellent product and so far I'm very pleased with my purchase.

I've seen many people complain about the function keys and while I can see this as a potential problem, I personally don't mind the change. All of the functions are there for me and it saves me a keystroke (e.g. Press the Close(F6) button instead of Alt+F4) The mouse is a nice change though it takes a bit getting used to for the smooth scrolling as opposed to the clicking of the past.

This product was wonderful. I had an natural keyborad and intellimouse explorer 3.0. The mouse was bad and need to be replaced. I came across this item at Best Buy and they were asking too much for it. I found it here and it was cheap and exactly what I wanted. I really didn't know what to expect of the product before I purchased it. Once I got it, the product was great. The thing was easy to set up. I could place the receive any where on my desk, below my desk and just about everywhere else the cord could reach and still has perfect reception for the mouse. The keyboard is great, just like the old natural keyboard, however it is lighter and feels a bit cheaper than the old one. The keyboard has little texture on it and it is transparent black. The functions on it were great. The mouse takes a while to get use to because it is higher than the old mouse which I had been using for a long time. I got use it in 4 days. I would recommend this product to anyone who is looking for a great combo.

Overall Nice keyboard. I bought it to use at home with my laptop. Easy to plug in since it is a USB keyboard, but it has few problems.
Problems: The num lock turns off and pisses me off. The F-lock is another hassle since I cannot use the F keys when its turned off. Also, the end , home and page up & down keys are placed in a wierd way. I always hit the wrong keys.
Good things: The cut, copy paste buttons are great. If they were on the right side (since I am right handed) it would have been perfect. The scroller is also nice sometimes. The open application changing (alt-tab) shortcut is very convenient. I still haven't used it that much because I am used to changing applications the hard way, but this feature can be quite helpful. The = sign and parenthesis for excel are also helpful. I haven't gotten to use the top buttons that much. Basically, this keyboard tries to substitute a mouses work.

When one takes into account Microsoft's success with what I consider to be the best mouse in the market out there--the Intelimouse Explorer (and its Wireless cousin)--and then take into account this keyboard, its hard not to get the impression that someone *really* knows what they're doing at Microsoft. This keyboard truly is a wonderfuly keyboard, in my opinion.

First, addressing its status as a Microsoft Office keyboard--You don't really need office to make it useful. Only two permanent buttons deal with office programs, Word and Excel. All the others are general ones (Web, Mail, Calendar, Files, Calc, etc.). Of course, Office benefits quite a bit from this keyboard.

Pros: As another reviewer pointed out, this keyboard is mechanically great. When you type with it the keys hit gently and you don't end up with a typewriter style sound from your keyboard. The wrist rest at the bottom of the keyboard may bother some at first, but I got used to it and think its quite nice, and helps your hands position when typing. The sidepanel is where this keyboard truly shines: an inch scroll wheel added with cut, copy, paste, back, forward, and application buttons (having the same function as ALT-TAB, causing you to switch between programs). All of these can be useful depending on your habits, but personally, I use the scroll and application switching buttons the most, and use the others less frequently.

Cons: OK, there are some downsides to this keyboard, but none of them are too bothersome, and were significant enough to give it a 4 (if only Amazon allowed 4.5... =). First, theres this function thing they have going on with the Function keys. The function keys (F1 - F12) have their normal function, and also have an "enhanced mode", with special Windows functions such as help, new, open, close, reply, fwd, send, spell, save, print, etc. I'm sure that these are useful to some people, but for the past 5 years I've trained myself to use all the shortcuts. And, unfortunately, the keyboard defaults to enhanced mode and when you restart it goes back to enhanced mode as well. What irks me even more is that they didn't have the brains to put at least some of these enhanced keys to correspond to their normal function. Everyone knows what Alt+F4 does, right? Well, do that in enhanced mode and it opens a new window--and add to that that the close button is only two keys down from it. Why not have Close be on the F4 key? The enhanced key thing is a serious problem that Microsoft has to take care of--its not too inconvienet, but I expect better from them.

Two more comments on key placement: there is only one windows key, and its on the left side. This is just me personally, but I've grown quite accustomed to using it on my right hand. Second, and even more of a pain if you switch between computers (and thus keyboards) often. The delete key is huge. Basically, they took the normal 6-key group of Insert, Home, Page Up, Delete, etc, and made it 2x3 instead of 3x2, and then they took out the insert key and made the delete key 2 keys long vertically. It takes getting used to, and its a pain when you switch keyboards.

I don't want to stress too much the problems--they really are few, and I'm nitpicking here. It truly is a good keyboard.. Microsoft just needs to fix a few things though.

I had been using the Microsoft Internet Keyboard for several years. I enjoyed that keyboard but I never quite felt the keyboard was designed for the way I work. The Office Keyboard, however, very well may be as good as a keyboard gets.

The keys have a nice soft touch, but that's just the beginning. The best feature is the scroll button on the left. Not only has it sped up my internet surfing, its functionality has proven itself in almost all of my daily computing experience. It has a much looser scroll than I have found in a mouse so one can literally ZIP to the end of any page or document. Additionally, its location is near enough to the CTRL button to press CTRL with your thumb and scroll up and down with your finger, which zooms in and out in many programs.

The cut/copy/paste buttons have proven themselves very helpful. No more accidentally striking CTRL+C when I want to paste something! The application scroll buttons also nicely replace and enhance what I used to use CTRL+TAB to do.

Some reviewers poo-poo the enhanced F key functions. With the latest Intellitype Pro software, I have found that I can customize them very easily and set their functions to the tasks I use most frequently. (The defaults, however, were nicely chosen and I have found rare occasion to change them.) I am constantly opening, closing, and saving documents. I can now do this quickly without moving my mouse. Most of the button also work in non-Microsoft programs as well.

Contrary to others, I have not found that the enlarged delete button to be a problem. In fact, I enjoy the absence of the Insert button that I erroneously frequented prior to using the Office Keyboard.

Although this review has been overwhelmingly positive, I do not mean to presume that everyone will love this keyboard as soon as they take it out of the box. I am very picky about keyboards and usually get attached to ones I've used for a long time-vocational hazard, I guess. But I liked the philosophy of this keyboard, and although it took a while for me to get used to utilizing my new keyboard to its fullest, within two weeks of daily use this keyboard's functionality revolutionized my computing experience. This one is a keeper.

I have been using ergognomic keyboards for 4 years, ever since I developed very mild CTS. The split boards helped keep wrist stress down. I broke my old ergo board, so I bought the MS Natural Multimedia. Like most new boards, it's slathered with new buttons. Use em if you like. I use the multimedia controls for MP3s.

My criticisms
(1) The function keys are by default off. This is stupid. There is an F key lock so you can have the Function keys in their proper F mode. Otherwise, they're 'shortcuts.'

(2) The biggest problem is the redesign for the Ins/Del, Home/End, PgUp/PgDn keys. It's an awkward layout, and you have to reteach your hand how to use the keys. I still fumble for which key I want and I've been using the board for 3 months.

That being said, there are some rather nice features.
(1) The oversized Alt, Ctrl, and Start buttons are wonderful. I've quickly become accustomed to them.

(2) The key resistance is quite pleasant. It's not IBM clicky, but it's not soft like those old Mac keyboards. It's a pleasant amount of resistance, and I've had no trouble adjusting to it. My typing speed is almost to normal.

(3) The wrist rest is very comfortable. It's designed quite well. At first I was concerned because the center of the board sort of floats, but the wrist rest can support weight well, and this board is built sturdy enough.

Overall, I'd say the keyboard is adequate. The change in key locations is my only problem. If you've never used a split keyboard, you should learn to touch type. Trying to hunt and peck on a split board would be a nightmare. You really do need to be an adequate typist to see any benefit from having an ergo board. For casual computer users, stick with standard boards. For me, the comfort of the split board has helped my wrist out quite a bit. I could imagine a better ergo board, but I have yet to find one to my liking.

I love the feel but the functionality takes some getting used to. Also, as has been said in almost every other review, the F-Lock key is a pain. I am a long time computer programmer. The IDE's that I use for software development rely on the function keys for debugging. I can't count how many times I have started to debug and instead opened a new project by accident or perfomed some other "user friendly" task because I didn't hit the F-Lock key. It is still not as bad as some say and the typing flow is very smooth. It just takes some getting used to.

There are some registry hacks out on the internet that will map the function keys for Windows 2000, XP and up. I think I may look into one sometime soon.

i just recieved the natural multimedia keyboard and it works quite well. the IntelliType Pro 2.2 software allows you to customize the top multimedia buttons allowing you to start up your favorite programs at a touch of a button.
the buttons feel nice and solid. i dont like the soft feel ones because it is too sensitive and i keep on pressing keys that i don't intend to press. the keys feel like a Dell Quietkey keyboard (its those white ones, not the stealth black ones which are Dell Enhanced Quitekeys). i like a little resistance in keys so i don't accidentally press keys. the right shift key however, was a little too hard to press so i just popped it out and added some grease and replaced it and now it works just fine. it also didn't take much time to learn how to type on this kind of keyboard than standard keyboards. in addition, like the main goal of this keyboard, i dont feel any more pain in my wrists!!! the 6 key i don't really care about which side its on (if you are such a good "typist" then you should be able to learn and get used to it!!!) ...