Ergonomic keyboard from A4Tech
How many hours per day do you spend at the keyboard? If you’re like me, it’s generally several hours per day. A good keyboard makes a huge difference in my ability to convey thoughts from my head into the written word. A good keyboard can also help prevent repetitive motion injury.
When I was searching for a keyboard, my first priority was to find a keyboard that would maximize my touch-typing productivity and minimize my chances for repetitive strain injury (RSI).
My initial search brought me to the usual suspects: the ergonomic “split” keyboards made by Microsoft and Logitech. These are wonderful for limiting RSI because they do split the keyboard and allow you to properly align your wrists and forearms in a straight line, but they are rather large because of the way that they “bulge” in the middle and – at least for me – would not fit properly in my keyboard tray.
But a PC World article put me on to a keyboard/mouse combination from a little known company (A4Tech). After many months of use, I’ve discovered that A4Tech’s keyboard/mouse combination has met my initial needs and provides additional productivity gains that I didn’t originally foresee.
Instead of splitting the keyboard in two, A4Tech takes a different approach whereby the keys are shaped and aligned so that they “lean” toward the center of the keyboard. A4Tech calls this the “A-shaped” keyboard, and it enables a user to naturally align their fingers, wrists and forearms in a straight line. This complies with anti-RSI recommendations, and allows comfortable typing for hours on-end without strain.
The other unique aspect about this keyboard is that the numeric keypad is located on the LEFT side of the keyboard instead of the right side where it’s located on 98% of the available keyboards. For most right-handed individuals who use the mouse on the right side of the keyboard, this is a tremendous productivity boon. Think about it: every time you move your hand to and from the mouse, you (the right-handed user) have to travel over the numeric keypad. By removing the numeric keypad from the right-hand side, you are dramatically shortening the distance between the home keys and the mouse for the thousands of times that you make this move. For right-handed users who don’t use the numeric keypad very often, this is a great benefit.
The keyboard has a few extra keys – including several programmable ones – that further increase productivity by reducing or eliminating mouse clicks. I use the volume and mute keys quite a lot, along with the “sleep” key every night when I sign off.
Last but certainly not least, the keyboard and the mouse are wireless. To me, a wireless keyboard doesn’t provide much value because you don’t need to move it around very much. But a wireless mouse is a wonderful thing: I no longer need to fight with the mouse cord whenever I move the mouse. Of course, one of the key concerns about wireless devices is that they eat through batteries. But A4 Tech has taken care of that as well by providing a wireless receiver that doubles as a battery charger.
The only negative thing that I can say about the combo is that the keyboard is a bit “mushy”, and doesn’t have much tactile feedback. On the other hand, once you get used to the mushy feel (and the A-style keyboard), my words-typed-per-minute really zoomed. Personally, I type fast enough that lots of tactile feedback can interfere with smooth key operation and create lots of unnecessary noise.
These guys don’t have the marketing muscle of Microsoft or even Logitech, and you probably won’t find the keyboard in many of your local stores, but you can order the keyboard/mouse for about $50 via the web at A4′s website (click on the “Shop” button). I have yet to find another keyboard with this combination of ergonomic and productivity features. And at this price, it’s a steal.