But they should bring it back, dammit, because it's so convenient to plug in your mouse or a memory card right on your keyboard! I can't really fault Microsoft here because USB ports are extremely rare on any keyboard these days. Many of the other keys got larger (tab, tilde), but Enter somehow got smaller. I particularly like the LEDs being front and center so I can more easily see when caps/f/num lock is accidentally set.Īll is not perfect, however. The otherwise wasted "dead" space in the middle of keyboard is put to use with the zoom slider, LED indicators, and back/forward buttons.
MICROSOFT ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD 7000 VS 4000 PRO
I love the favorites that was the only good thing about the Digital Media Pro keyboard I was previously using. And they're more logically organized into three distinct areas. Only the essentials (favorites, home/search/mail, volume, calc) are present.
After that, there were hardly any ergonomic split keyboards with standard PgUp/PgDn clusters. The MS Natural Pro was discontinued in early 2001.
This keyboard is the natural heir to the obsolete but much loved Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro: Now that I own one, I'm not excited any more. I was plenty excited when I saw Microsoft was releasing a new non-mangled ergonomic keyboard - the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. So is it worth it? It's time to kick our existing keyboard and mouse to the curb for a couple of weeks to find out.įor more on the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000's keyboard that rides the wave of success, check out our sister site Extremetech.Keyboarding: Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Both input devices sync up with the same wireless USB receiver too. We've seen the standalone versions of the wired 4000 keyboard retail for an average price of $50 and the Natural Wireless Laser Mouse for about $70, so you actually spend around the same for the standalone versions.
MICROSOFT ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD 7000 VS 4000 MAC OS X
The Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 supports Windows 2000 and later, including Vista, and Mac OS X v10.2–10.4 (excluding Mac OS X v10.0–10.1). We'll discuss both ergonomic input devices into greater detail in the next two pages of this article. We were for the most part positive in our review, citing that it is a good step in the right direction for Microsoft, but the mouse doesn't contend as much as more extreme ergonomic vertical mice, like the VerticalMouse 3 or the Zero Tension Mouse. The main ergonomic benefit with the 6000 is that users position their hand into a diagonal position, as opposed to a not-as-healthy horizontal position like most mice.
As for the mouse, it's pretty much the same as the baseball-resembling Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 we reviewed a few months back.