Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 Keyboard and Mouse Set
Wednesday, 07. October 2009. 06:31
- Designed for Comfort – Type more comfortably with low-profile Quiet Touch keys.
- Ergonomist-approved Comfort Curve design – Microsoft’s Comfort Curve encourages natural wrist posture and is easy to use.
- Microsoft BlueTrack Technology – World’s most advanced tracking – go more places than optical and laser.
- Reliable wireless with snap-in transceiver The 2.4 GHz wireless USB Mini-Transceiver connects wirelessly right out of the box.
- Windows 7 Taskbar Favorites – Easily access programs in the taskbar with convenient hot keys.
- The palm rest and removable feet create a slope for a more comfortable wrist posture.
Product Description
Wireless Comfort Curve Keyboard and Mouse Set with Soft-touch Palm Rest… More >>
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October 7th, 2009 at 7:20 am
I am very picky with my keyboards and mice. I’ve used at least four different sets of keyboard/mouse combos over the past two years (including the rather expensive high-end logitech MX 5500 laser combo), and I haven’t been satisfied with any of them. This new comfort combo, however, seems like a winner.
The keyboard is very comfortable and the wrist rest has a nice feel to it. The keyboard comes with detachable feet that you can attach to either the front or rear of the keyboard underside so that the keyboard tilts either toward you or away from you (or lies flat if you leave off the feet).
The mouse is one of the “blue track” mice that uses a blue LED and supposedly works better than lasers or other kinds of mice. I’ve never really had any problems with any mice not tracking, so I can’t comment on whether this mouse works better than others. However, the mouse is comfortable and the scroll wheel is a smooth-scrolling version (no clicking as you scroll).
The wireless range is pretty good. I have about 7 feet between the keyboard and the small USB receiver, plus the receiver is obscured behind a desktop tower. Most important for me is that the majority of the keyboard and mouse’s features work without installing special software that runs in the background. My logitech MX combo wouldn’t work properly without a bunch of pesky software that was always running in the system tray and generally annoying me. With the exception of some of the custom shortcut keys, this combo works fine without having to install anything.
Rating: 5 / 5
October 7th, 2009 at 7:24 am
I bought this keyboard because they’ve been pushing pair programming at work and they want everybody’s workstation to have 2 keyboards (whole different topic). Regardless, I took this as an opportunity to shop for a new keyboard to use at work. First, I ordered a Logitech Wave, what a miserable pile that was. I could not get over 90wpm on that keyboard. Now yes, I know, 90wpm is pretty good, but the keyboard kept frustrating me and I could not get in rhythm with it. So I went to Best Buy and got this. And I must say…WOW! I had a comfort 3000 already and loved it, but I did not expect this keyboard to feel so good. On my first try at [...] I hit 136wpm! The keyboard’s keys are provide incredible feedback and feel amazing going at high speeds, it really is hard to describe. The rubberized palm rest makes the keyboard a joy to use for long hours at a time, and the curve the comfort’s are known for makes sure that the extended reach keys (b,n, etc.) are elongated enough to make them easier to reach and unlike the split keyboards, the spacebar feels like a normal spacebar with no extra effort required.
The downsides:
I’m a professional software developer so having good sized function keys is an absolute must. On this keyboard, they are small and slightly recessed. There is also very little separation between the groups as is normal on most keyboards (1-4,5-8,9-12) which makes it hard to find the one you want without looking. This might also be a pain for gamers. The function keys also seem to go down deeper than the regular keys putting a small amount of extra strain on my wrists. My other complaint is about the mouse, while it is small than the average Microsoft mouse, it is still quite comfortable in your hands, but the scroll wheel is annoying. I personally prefer a scroll wheel that clicks, and this one is smooth with no clicking. Again, this might be my preference as a programmer as I like more predictability when scrolling as most development environments scroll by line instead of pixel, but it was an annoyance to me.
So overall, for typing, the keyboard is my absolute favorite keyboard of all time. For other things such as hitting F-keys and scrolling, I guess I’ll have to get used to them. The Windows 7 function keys are nice I guess, but even though I do use Win7 (legal MSDN version of course), I find no use for them. The other little feature I like is that the usb dongle is a very small flash drive sized stick and not those long mouse looking things of the past. In the end, every person needs to make up their own opinion when it comes to keyboard preferences because keyboards are like chairs and mattresses, it is highly dependent on what you like.
In the end, with all the bitching and moaning I do with the F keys and mouse, I’m contemplating buying another one to use at home.
Rating: 4 / 5
October 7th, 2009 at 9:14 am
I’ve been using a Microsoft Comfort keyboard for a while so the only thing I had to get used to is the ESC & Function keys being shorter. The keyboard itself is very solid feeling and the buttons are quiet and have a great feel. My previous keyboard was giving me fits as it would intermittently drop keys. I love the textured feel of the palm wrest and the rubberized feet on the bottom.
This set is by far the best I have had. I do have an issue with the scroll wheel on the mouse, but Microsoft is sending a new one to me soon. Dealing with technical support was quite painless and took only 20 minutes of my day.
I would have liked to rate this with 4.5 stars because of the shorter function keys, but I can get used to them.
Rating: 5 / 5
October 7th, 2009 at 11:37 am
This keyboard has a great feel and the textured rubber wrist pad feels very nice. I love the curved key layout, I have been buying this shape of keboard for years.
The keys are quiet and give a great soft bounce feedback (not too soft).
The mouse also has a very nice textured rubber feel.
The optical tracking of the mouse works very well on any surfaces.
I bought this keyboard for the ergonomics and the windows 7 compatibility.
I like the taskbar keys buttons wich make accessing your pinned applications a snap. (Note: that in Windows 7 those keys will not only start the applications but once they are opened the keys will toggle between foreground, minimized state and application specific shortcut menu)
There is no led indicator of the keyboard state (num lock or caps lock) but the intellipoint software will display a tiny popup on the screen to show the state (Which I think is even better, since you don’t have to look down from the screen). This “lack” of feature ultimately saves the battery life of the keyboard greatly.
Rating: 5 / 5