Keyboard of the future? - Microsoft Natural Keyboard - Hardware Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, Jan, 1995 by Emerson Andrew Torgan

Rating: ***

Microsoft Natural Keyboard List Price: None set Average Street Price: $99 Manufacturer: Microsoft, (206) 882-8080, (800) 426-9400

If you are a dyed-in-the-wool hunt-and-peck typist, move on to the next review---Microsoft's Natural Keyboard is not for you. If you are a touch-typist, however, or if you're concerned about repetitive stress injury (RSI) and are ready to get serious about leaming to type correctly, you'll find Micro soft's first entry into the keyboard business a comfortable, albeit strange-looking, alternative to the standard keyboard.

Out of the box, the Natural Keyboard is a stunner-two separate keypads, an undulating surface, a wide, curved wrist rest, and three mysterious keys. But before you chalk up the Natural Keyboard's design to an alien spaceship or a Salvador Daft painting, give it a try. The split, gently sloping keypads allow your elbows to drift away from your sides and keep your wrists from pivoting and twisting. The wide wrist rest is the first to live up to its descriptive name--a place to comfortably rest your wrists between typing sessions. Underneath, there is a pulldown stand that raises the front of the device to angle it away from you while you type. It's a bit like a tilt wheel in an automobile, and once you've driven a while, you'll find it hard to live without.

But what's the story on the three extra keys? They're shortcuts. Down by the curved spacebar, in between the Ctrl and Alt keys on either side, are two keys with the Flying Windows logo. Hit either one and up pops the new Windows Task Manager, which lets you switch among applications without reaching for the mouse. The third, which has a small graphic of a pull-down menu, will come to life when Windows 95 ships later this year, adding features that can be accomplished without a mouse.

The new Windows Input Devices driver software includes the new IntelliType Manager, which offers such options as setting the keyboard repeat rate or activating a new "sonar" feature that sends out concentric circles to locate a missing mouse pointer. Those of you frustrated by years of "Num Lock-iris" will be happy to learn that the Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock keys can also be programmed to be inactive on start-up.

On the downside, the keys are less than responsive, lacking the straight travel and click of a good Lexmark keyboard. If you are a cross-over typist, typically someone who uses macros such as Crtl Shift X by hammering away speedily on one end with both hands, you will get frustrated.

Additionally, Microsoft inexplicably decided to include the option of setting the numeric keypad to act as an alternative cursor-control panel--a return to the bad old days of navigating a graphical interface with slow and inaccurate arrow keys. Use the numeric keypad for more than an hour, and you'll experience the very pains of RSI this keyboard was designed to help alleviate.

Overall, the Microsoft Natural Keyboard is a good first effort. It's also a glimpse into the near future: When Windows 95 hits the streets, and the Dells and Zeniths of the world start offering computers bundled with the new operating system, you'll be seeing quite a bit of this keyboard. For a mere $99, you can get a jump on the future, and give your aching tendons a rest as well.

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