Review by William A. Ronke: I purchased this set for work because I enjoyed using them at home. I have a desk job where I use a computer all day. In brief, I love these ergonomic devices.

The mouse I give 4.5 stars. Both the mouse at work (and the one I own at home) are amazingly comfortable to hold and use. When you let your hand lay over the mouse, it positions your wrist in what I think of as a “handshake” position rather than flat on the desk. This takes about a week to get used to, but after that it’s amazing how much better that angle is. It’s a mouse that has a bit of “meat” to it, so it’s better for my big hand to hold on to.

The mouse has a smooth-scrolling wheel, great for productivity (though bad for FPS games). Pressing the scroll-wheel for a middle-button effect is very hard to do with this particular wheel, but that’s not much of an issue, as one of the two thumb buttons can be reassigned to the middle button functionality via the Microsoft software.

The keyboard I give 3.5 stars. It’s wonderfully ergonomic and comfortable to use, but the “wireless” part of the equation makes it work a bit erratically from time to time. I type very quickly, and the keyboard will occasionally just lose keystrokes… or briefly stop receiving input altogether. I much prefer my home setup, where I have the Microsoft Natural Mouse hooked up wirelessly, and the Microsoft Natural Keyboard hooked up via USB.

Review by cellanjie: I have used MS ergonomic keyboards since they came out with the original. I ordered this set to replace my Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 which is the same keyboard except that it isn’t wireless. Since I wanted to get the Natural Ergonomic Mouse 6000, I thought I’d upgrade the whole shebang.

The mouse is fabulous. It is responsive, smooth, quick, and places my wrist at a more natural angle. No pain. I have never been happier with a mouse. Did I say I am thrilled?

The keyboard. I didn’t play with the keyboard for a while since it is identical to the 4000 that is my favorite keyboard. I was more concerned with the mouse. When it came time to get back to work, I was in for a surprise. They have changed the design of the spacebar.

To press the spacebar, one has to move one’s hands out of the ergonomic position to reach the center of the spacebar with one’s thumb. The sides of the spacebar do not work. Even then one has to pound the spacebar… a light touch won’t get it. It doesn’t have the smooth feel of my 4000; instead it makes a loud thunk when depressed. What’s the point of ergonomic if one can’t maintain the correct ergonomic position?

I called MS tech support thinking the keyboard defective. After going through 3 people before finally getting someone with possibly some knowledge, I was told that I wasn’t used to ergonomic keyboards. Obviously, that is their pat answer. When I finally got it through the guy’s skull that I have used ergonomic keyboards for years and years, he said the keyboard may be defective.

I’ve filed a return request with Amazon. I was going to try to continue using the kb until the replacement arrives, but after an hour of pounding the space bar with my thumb, the thumb was cramping, my wrists hurt, and I had to yank out my trusty 4000. It may have a wire, but it’s the best keyboard on the market, imo.

I’m hopeful the replacement fixes the problem, but after reading the sticky key issues here, I have my doubts. I now wish I’d done a return instead of a replacement.

If this is the norm for this keyboard, I do not recommend it. The mouse though, I give a 5.

Review by Amazon Shopper: Let’s talk about the features Microsoft advertises on its product tour mini site.

Great comfort: It’s generally more comfort than a traditional keyboard once you get used to the curved layout and thin profile keys. Don’t forget to spread out your arms. Other than the surprisingly low cost (for a ergonomic keyboard), I bought it for another reason – good spacebar design. (Well, the spacebar on my copy of the keyboard has a problem that I’ll discuss in a moment) I do touch typing and almost always use right thumb for space key. Spacebar on a traditional keyboard has sharp edge towards your thumb pad. Just put your thumb on a spacebar and you know what I’m saying here. The spacebar and all other keys on this row of the comfort curve keyboard have been tilted towards the user and have reduced thickness at the bottom so the thumb touches the flat (slightly curved) surface of the keys. Some traditional keyboards now have similar design but cost more and they are hard to get. However, the spacebar on my copy of the keyboard apparently was assembled incorrectly. The tiny metal support wire/hinge under the key is not snapped in place therefore the spacebar makes noise all the time when typing on other keys. It’s easy to fix once I pry open the spacebar and snap in the metal support wire. The spacebar is still kind of loose due to its large size but no more unwanted noise. The quality problem makes me worry about Internet purchase because of inconvenience of return/exchange. My experience tells me that recent Microsoft hardware quality is inconsistent (probably like its software). I bought a Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer early this year and it had a near dead button (push very hard to make it work).

Another annoyance is the tiny Ctrl keys. Due to the layout design, Ctrl keys are fairly small and easy to miss. I’d rather have smaller Win keys to give space for larger Ctrl keys. Or at least the Ctrl keys don’t have to be rounded aggressively at corners. More expensive Microsoft Nature Ergonomic Natural keyboard seems to have slightly bigger Ctrl keys.

Easy setup and use: No software is required. The keyboard has USB connector and no USB-to-PS/2 adapter is provided in the package. It probably will work with a USB-to-PS/2 adapter based on what system requirements info says from the Microsoft website. Because it’s a USB device, make sure your PC BIOS USB keyboard support is enabled or you lose keyboard control until USB HID (Human Interface Device) driver is loaded.

Spill-resistant keys: This is largely true as long as you don’t tilt your keyboard too much or spilled water/coffee below the keys doesn’t overflow to the desk. Each key is supported by a cylinder which raises high above the base plate. Base plate has four tiny drain holes. Pry open just one key and you’ll understand. I don’t know how special function keys at top of the keyboard are protected. They may be more vulnerable.

Save desktop space: False! This keyboard is slightly larger than my Dell Quiet keyboard. It’s much bigger than some compact keyboard with razor-thin edges. Basically it takes no more space than your old traditional keyboard.

Ultra-thin profile: Not sure I’ll like it or not. Time will tell. It makes me feel like using a notebook but key travel may be comparable to a desktop keyboard. The tactical feedback is close to a notebook keyboard but I can still type pretty fast.

Some other notes:

Special function keys are useful. No software is required but they only work with certain software and cannot be customized. Pictures on Microsoft website are tiny so let me tell you what these special keys are: Back, Forward, Volume Down, Mute, Volume Up, Play/Pause (above vol down, mute, vol up keys), Web/Home, Search and Mail. There is also a Calculator key next to the keyboard status LEDs.

Finally, Microsoft gets rid of the quirky edit keys layout (keys above reverse T toothpick arrow keys) that was popular in its last generation keyboards. The comfort curve keyboard has traditional layout for those keys and that’s important to me. I wouldn’t use any keyboard without this layout.

So far I’m happy with the purchase. It’s a nice and cheap keyboard if you’re looking for an ergonomic one. Hopefully, the shortcomings I mentioned above can be fixed in the next version of this keyboard. It’s not bad for a v1.0 comfort curve keyboard.

UPDATE: Each special key can be customized once latest IntelliType Pro software is installed. Although Microsoft harware download web site doesn’t provide a driver for this keyboard, guess what, this keyboard is listed as the very first one in Keyboard model dropdown list in keyboard settings.

After eight months of use, I still stand behind my comments and it still gets 4 stars

Review by Joseph C. Mooney: For under 20 bucks, this keyboard is a very nice upgrade to the heavily value-engineered keyboard that comes with most computers. (In my case a Dell Quiet-key. It’s actually a bit better than most stock keyboards, but still has shortcomings which I won’t get into since this is a review of the Microsoft product).

Pros:

o keys have a nice “feel”. Light touch, low travel, quiet.

o although this is an ergonomic keyboard, the differences in layout and spacing are minor and easy to adjust to, yet they still offer an improvement in typing comfort.

o nice spacebar, slightly deeper than standard keyboards, is easy to reach.

o reasonable price for a this quality of keyboard.

Cons:

o size: the width is identical to my Dell Quietkey, depth is about 1 inch greater, to accomodate the extra browser-specific buttons which I don’t use. If the extra buttons were generic and user programmable this item would be in the Pros category.

Disclaimer – taste in input devices is highly subjective. What works wonderfully for one person can be a nightmare for another. I like this keyboard and find it more comfortable to use than a standard layout. Your mileage may vary.

Review by Jeffrey Kaplan: Of the two “main” keyboard manufacturers with ergonomic versions at price ranges the average consumer can afford (Logitech and Microsoft), I much prefer the shape of the Logitech Wave over either of the two lines from Microsoft. The Logi Wave just feels way more natural to me.

What I like about the Wave 450 is that while it doesn’t have as many “extra” keys compared to the Wave Cordless or Wave Desktop set, it also does not need any special software to run. All of the “extra” keys are fully supported natively by Windows. Being a corded keyboard, there are no batteries to go dead at an inconvenient moment, and it has the three lock-toggle indicators.

So far, I only have two niggles with this keyboard, that knocks it down to 4 stars: There is no “Sleep” button on the keyboard (very minor) and the keys are a bit mushy. There is a very slight tactile (but not audiable) snap when pressing them in, but not as pronounced in the Wave Cordless that this replaces and that one is a soft-touch to start with.

Review by V. Zanini: I recently purchased from Amazon and tried 3 or 4 different keyboards. I wanted to replace my old keyboard with a more comfortable/ergonomic one, and I thought I had hit the right one with the first purchase. After a few hours, I felt I didn’t like it, and bought another one. Then another. All had a weird feeling, or required adapting to a new layout and I had no time to “re-train”.

Finally, I bought the Logitech Wave 450. I have used it for a few hours now, and I love it! Finally a good, comfy, and solid keyboard! I actually have ordered another one, to replace my keyboard at work, so that I have two of the same.