Written by Ken

Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000

Price paid: £32.25 including delivery from Amazon marketplace

The Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 is the latest (and supposedly greatest) in Microsoft’s line of weird and wonderful keyboards that emphasise comfort. With a weird and distinctive split down the middle and angled boards, these keyboards are supposed to make typing faster, healthier and more enjoyable.

 

 

Why go ergonomic?

 

Some people feel that having the fastest processor or best graphics card is important in a computer. I’m of the opinion that having the best mouse, keyboard and monitors (and to a lesser extent speakers) is more important – these are the things that you interface directly with. I can never understand those people who have a 400 pound graphics card and run it through a single cheap monitor, and in the same way I can’t understand people willing to spend thousands on a new computer, but happy to stick with the ultra-cheap cost cutting keyboard the manufacturers threw in.

 

A while ago, when I was writing software for a living, I started to get the first twinges of RSI – pain in the back of my hands, stiffness and coldness. Since I was relying on my typing to hold down my job at the time, this sent a shiver of fear through me, and I took immediate action. One of the measures I took to stop the problem getting worse was to buy a Microsoft Natural Pro, one of the original ergonomic keyboards.

 

Recently, after at least five years of hard use, this venerable, stained, worn keyboard finally gave up the ghost (too many pints of beer have been spilt through it over the years, I suspect). This was an excuse to invest in the Natural 4000, which I’ve had my eye on for some time – a little bit of shopping around secured me an OEM (brown box) version for £32.35 including delivery from PC Arena on the Amazon marketplace.

 

Design

 

At first glance the Natural 4000 looks very similar to the much older Natural Pro despite the newer keyboard being decked out in black and silver (an improvement on the easily-stained beige of the Pro). Both keyboards have the main QWERTY pad split into two sections at an angle to each other. Both have a deep wrist rest, and a number of extra buttons for media control, launching programs and accessing your computer. There are slight differences in button layout – the newer board has a “zoom” slider in between the keyboards, and some of the programmable buttons are different.

 

However, the ergonomics of the Natural 4000 are quite different underneath. The biggest difference is that the 4000 comes with a (removable) plastic platform designed to raise the front of the keyboard. This means that the board actually angles down from the front to the back, raising your wrists and ensuring that the bones in your hand line up with your forearm.

 

More subtly, the two main letter-pads on the Natural 4000 are slightly concave to match up with the differing lengths of each finger – the pads on the Natural Pro were convex, meaning your middle finger was raised up while your little finger had to stretch down.

 

Finally, the keys are arranged in a subtle curve on the newer keyboard, whilst being presented in two (albeit angled) straight lines on the older keyboard. These changes, combined with a soft fake-leather wrist rest, promises to make the Natural 4000 more comfortable and better for your skeleton than its predecessor.

 

At this point it’s worth pointing out that people who can’t touch type (and aren’t prepared to learn) shouldn’t bother with this keyboard. When I first started using a split keyboard, I was amazed by how often my fingers typed on the wrong keys – the split board tends to enforce touch-typing discipline. Hunt-and-peck typists might also have trouble with the keyboard tilting away from you, since it makes reading the letters on the keys almost impossible.

 

The Natural 4000 is slightly lighter and feels a little cheaper than its older Natural Pro sibling, although time will tell. If the Natural 4000 is still working after 5 years of hard use I will be very impressed. Microsoft quotes 250,000 keypresses per key as the expected lifetime (compared to over 1 million keypresses for a microswitch keyboard). The keyboard comes with a three year warranty.

 

Using the keyboard

I’ve always been a big fan of clicky microswitch keyboards – the kind that make a huge clattering noise like a big man running on a stone beach. The switches seem to last longer than the cheaper membrane keyboards, and give a more positive action.

 

The old Natural Pro, whilst a membrane keyboard, had a fairly positive clicky feel. When I first poked the new Natural 4000, I was disappointed by the spongy feel of the keys – the positive feedback I am used to wasn’t there. However, once plugged in and at a sitting position, the typing experience is very pleasant. The keys are positive enough that you know when you have pressed them, and I’m actually finding the quiet to be nice. Everyone around me will probably appreciate the difference too!

 

Comfort-wise, its probably a little early to tell if the Natural 4000 will prove better than the older Natural Pro, but its certainly heaps better than a normal straight keyboard.

 

One of the things I am rather disappointed with is the lack of a built in USB hub. The Natural Pro had a two port USB 1.1 hub built in, which was perfect for plugging in my mouse and other peripherals, and cutting down on the number of leads trailing over my desk and up the wall of my computer. A minor issue, but given the cost of including a USB hub, it would have been nice – as it is, I’ve had to spend an extra few pounds on separate hub.

 

I’ve also seen some complaints about the size of the enter key (it probably has less surface area than the huge N key), and the rounded corners on some of the keys. I personally haven’t had any problems hitting any of the keys, and after a few hours usage I’m up to speed and happily typing.

 

Gamers and others who use the mouse a lot might not appreciate the split and tilted keyboard design either – it makes accessing the right hand side of the board with your left hand very hard. This will be a trade-off for all ergonomic keyboards though, and the health of my fingers outweighs my need to access the 8 key with my left hand!

 

Software

Microsoft provide a CD with their keyboard software on it (imaginatively called “Microsoft keyboard”.) This allows you to use the zoom slider (on some applications – its not as effective as it sounds), configure actions for the special shortcut keys, and adjust repeat delay and rate.

 

Mac software is also included – this will allow you to adjust the layout so the windows key and alt key do their fruit-flavoured equivalents (right click etc). Linux software is not included, but the keyboard will work happily without the software, and I expect a lot of people will choose to use the keyboard without installing it at all.

 

Summary

 

The Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 is hardly the most extreme design for those who are keen to prevent RSI. Many ergonomics enthusiasts will talk about the Dvorak layout keyboard that places the common keys in faster and more accessible positions (after all, the QWERTY design was intended to slow typists down!) Those still keen on the qwerty layout might look at keyboards such as the Maltron (around £350), the sadly defunct Datahand (which was something like £1200) or the Handkey Twiddler.

 

What the Microsoft Natural does do is take a very-nearly-normal QWERTY keyboard and make it much more hand-friendly, for a very reasonable price. If you can already touch type, the learning curve with the Natural 4000 is very shallow and short (as compared with having to learn a complete different layout, chording system or shape).

 

Typing is easy and comfortable, the extra keys, buttons and weird slidey widgets that you would expect from an after-market keyboard are all there, and the styling fits in nicely with the black and silver look of most modern PCs.

 

Conclusion

I would strongly recommend that anyone who is still using the cheap spongy keyboard that came standard with their computer spends a bit of money on an upgrade. If you can touch type (or want to learn), the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 is definitely worth the money, especially since it will help to safeguard your health.

 

 

Design    8

Comfort  8

Value     9

 

Overall  9/10

 

 Price £32.25 from PC Arena on Amazon Marketplace

 

Microsoft product website:  http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/productdetails.aspx?pid=043