Evoluent Mouse Friendly Keyboard

by BugEye Digital

Product Details

• Shipping Information: View shipping rates and policies
• ASIN: B000MAFQ20
• Item model number: KB1-SB
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 19, 2004

Product Description

Evoluent KEYBOARD-FRIENDLY KEYBOARD SILVER BLACK KEYPAD ON THE LEFT RETAIL

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good solution but for one little thing, September 15, 2008

By 

Bill (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evoluent Mouse Friendly Keyboard (Personal Computers)

I bought this because of arm and neck strain from many hours of intensive keyboarding and mousing during magazine production.
This keyboard does allow a far more natural working position with the mouse and its nice and low so you don't have to lift the wrists much.
One thing that drove me crazy was the unwanted 'feature' of the extra delete key right between the spacebar and the alt(pc)/command(mac) key. Its way to easy to delete work if you are used to using keyboard commands in say photoshop or indesign. This cost me a lot of work till I pulled the key off with a screwdriver and put in a blank piece of rubber.
I've now gone for an apple wireless keyboard with no numeric keypad as it sits even lower. Apart from the extra delete key the Evoluent keyboard is a fine product though, I really cant understand why everyone puts up with the standard keyboards.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brings balance to your desktop, June 26, 2008

By 

Karen S. Garvin (Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Evoluent Mouse Friendly Keyboard (Personal Computers)

I bought the purple version of this keyboard elsewhere. I use a Mac at work and the standard Mac keyboard is quite wide. I was having problems with my wrist and shoulder because I'd have to reach out so far to the right to keep my mouse from hitting the keyboard. I ended up having to move the keyboard to the left, mouse a little, then move the keyboard back to the right and type. It was ridiculously un-ergonomic.

I started looking for a left-handed keyboard but the ones I found on most ergonomic sites were more than $100 and just as wide and clunky as the one I wanted to replace. When I found this keyboard, I ordered it at once and I've been enjoying it since I got it.

First, the keyboard uses a standard USB port, so it can be used on both PC and Mac computers. The keyboard is optimized for Windows and features special keys at the top of the keyboard for e-mail and media player functions. It also has the standard key with the Windows flag to bring up the Start menu. On the Mac, most of these functions do nothing. You have to go into the Mac OS System Preferences to have it read the keyboard, but that works just fine. The only thing I've noticed is that the NumLock LED doesn't light up, but I don't know if that is a Mac thing or something with the keyboard -- but the NumLock key does work.

Second, the keyboard is small and light-weight. It is flatter than the Mac keyboard, and that's been a plus for me. I find that the flatter surface means my wrists are not bent so much, and that has relieved some of the issues I was having with carpal tunnel syndrome.

Third, the keys seem more like those on a laptop computer than a regular keyboard. At first I thought this was cheapness, but after a couple of hours I really fell in love with the feel of this keyboard. It takes a fairly soft touch and it does click, but it isn't as loud as my old keyboard.

The only caveat I can think of is that it takes a bit of time to get used to using the keypad on the left. But that's actually a good thing because I don't have to take my right hand off the mouse to use it. After all, when you have two hands, doesn't it make sense to use both of them?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is a great concept, but a shoddy, impossible-to-clean implementation, December 11, 2009

By 

N. Lindner "grad student & geek" (Mid-Atlantic region, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Evoluent Mouse Friendly Keyboard (Personal Computers)

Take home message:
This keyboard's design makes it a bad purchase for anyone who (a) is a touch-typist who relies on the F-keys and the Home / End / PgUp / PgDn being where they typically or (b) has EVER needed to clean a keyboard (e.g., will eat anywhere near their keyboard or has small children).

Explanation:
I own this keyboard and the Kensington SlimBlade Media Keyboard, so I've had time to try out two designs that move your mouse hand closer to the keyboard. I love the idea of a detachable or left-sided numberpad, but this keyboard's layout is based on a nonstandard "mini" keyboard layout. The Home / End / PgUp / PgDn keys are rearranged, and it's hard to distinguish between the F-key row and top number row without looking down. The nonstandard layout differs from that of my laptop and work computer and I use these keys frequently, so the layout is utterly frustrating.

This keyboard is very slim and feels like typing on laptop keys. It's the laptop-style key mechanism that ruins both this and the Kensington keyboard for me. I'm not a hardware expert, but the keyboard appears to use a scissor-switch key mechanism. That is, if you pry up a key, you'll see that it's attached with a pair of prong-y clips that must be angled together: there are 4 small tabs that fit into the back of each key, with 4 more that stick into recesses in the keyboard and a sponge-y rubber dome that sits in the middle of the tabs.

It is a nightmare to clean because of several related design bugs...I mean "features". Here's why I gave up on this keyboard after a few weeks of frustration:

1. The spacing between the keys is wider than is typical of laptops, so it QUICKLY accumulates crumbs and detritus

2. The "slim" (not very tall) keyboard design means that even the smallest of crumbs will block the keys from descending all the way or springing back up (I have an ongoing problem with the shift key sticking for multiple keys when I try to capitalize something).

3. The keys are hard to pry off, and the scissor-switch tabs are difficult to fit back together and into the many crevices that hold the tabs in place. Should you be foolish enough to spray compressed air between the keys, every single crumb will appear to wedge itself tightly into one of those crevices.

Rather than spending (a Ulysses S. Grant) on this wired keyboard, I'd recommend trying a basic "mini" keyboard whose layout corresponds to any other keyboards you use. Mini keyboards typically drop (or require a function key to use) the numberpad, but this keyboard's numberpad isn't easily accessible anyway. If you want a left-handed keyboard, then the Ergoguys wired left-handed keyboard is cheaper. As for me, the next keyboard I try will be the A4 Tech GKS-2570 media keyboard which is wireless, looks to have a more standard key layout, and is currently cheaper than this Evoluent keyboard.