It's almost perfect. Key action is better than the Ergonomic 4000. But the screwed-up Home/End/Insert/Delete stuff is very annoying. Even months later, I'm still having to look and making mistakes. I put the numpad up on the desk past my mouse, for the few times I _need_ it.

What I'd pay $$$ for is a Sculpt keyboard with mechanical keys. Nothing else, no new inventive designs, nothing crazy or very different, nothing terribly ugly. Just put some Cherry MXes onto a Sculpt and sell it to me. All the ergo-mech keyboards seem to either have significantly different layouts, or are just huge.

[Another thing I'd pay $$$ for: sell me a kit to move the keyboard/pad on an old ThinkPad X/T/W series to transplant it onto a new one. I used to use my X201 all over, all the time. With my T440p, I actually hate using it. As in, it's negative and I actively dislike touching the damn thing.]

PSA time, I suppose: I've got a UK example of this keyboard, and it's no better than OK. The chiclet layout has ordinary-size keys, but the gaps between them (that the mechanism requires...) are larger than normal. The # key on the Sculpt is as far away from H as the Return key is normally; the Return key is another key further out. Very uncomfortable. Test drive before purchase. A big shame, because the key action is pretty good, the rearranged navigation keys are - as these things go - sensible, and of course the separate numeric pad is pretty useful. Independently-mappable space bar halves would have been nice though.

(If you have any friends in America, get one of them to buy you an American version. I bet they're much better, and the wider Return key will prove easier to reach.)

Quite why they just can't sell an MS Ergonomic 4000 with mechanical switches, I have absolutely no idea. Just about every other niche of mechanical keyboard fiend is very well served - except the people that want a split mechanical keyboard with a layout that hasn't been pissed about with. They're shit out of luck.

I've acquired two Sculpt Keyboards recently (home & work) and the numpads have remained in their respective boxes. Having the mouse closer is definitely more comfortable.

> Say what you will about Microsoft, but their input devices are quite nice.

I have a lot to say about Microsoft, but I've been a satisfied customer of their ergonomic keyboards for most of 10+ years: they're comfortable, functional, affordable and easy to find-- the latter two factors important for inevitable beverage spills...

Anyone know the names of the designers of classic Microsoft input devices (mouse, keyboard, trackball), e.g. what are they working on these days?

I have recently just bought two of these (one for home and one for work) and they have helped my RSI immensely. Would highly recommend. Agree with the sibling comment about the annoying small and hard to reach Esc key though (the function keys don't really bother me).

Yeah, I ended up remapping Caps Lock to ESC. Never use Cap Lock anyway. The function keys bother me since they are used on Mac OS and are debugger shortcuts on my IDE of choice.

I have one and love it, but fuck those squishy function and escape keys, they almost ruin it.

The IntelliMouse 3.0 is basically a legend of its own.