A Review Of The A4Tech Ergo A-Shape Keyboard And Mouse

This is going to be a quick review of the A4Tech Ergo A-Shape Keyboard and Mouse. I am not affiliated to the company in any way, shape or form, but have had a couple of people asking me how my new keyboard(s) are coming along, so I thought I'd kick off with the simpler one.

As I mentioned, when I was back in Singapore I had a play around with my cousin's Microsoft natural ergonomic desktop 7000 (seen in profile on the left). The main advantages to this keyboard is that it caters to your hand position in three dimensions. The keyboard is split, with the keys inclined so your wrist stays straight, it is also tilted away from you so that there is an slight "limpness" to the angle of the wrist, and on top of that both palms are rotated inwards, to give you as natural a position as possible. Typing on it was a real dream, plus the keys have a good travel, spacing and a comfortable bounce. I took to the new configuration like a duck to water. The only trouble with the setup is that the keyboard and mouse combo is ridiculously expensive.

So what is a skinflint supposed to do? Hurrah, eBay to the rescue and, a quick couple of clicks later, an A4Tech Ergo A-Shape keyboard and mouse arrived. The title is a bit of a mouthful, but the A-shape refers to the rather odd shapes of the keys, which incline outwards along a plane running to the right of the trapezoidal and convex Y, H and N keys. I've never seen this key configuration before, but the principle is quite nicely illustrated on the box, and in the animated picture here.

In practice, I am not totally convinced of its merits. Firstly, when I type on a regular keyboard I certainly don't type with my wrists knocking each other. Instead, I type as the lower picture suggests, with my wrists at a comfortable angle. What shape the keys are doesn't really matter in the least - they could be square, or circular, or, in this case, parallelograms with a slight concave upper surface, and it could not change the ergonomics of how I type. Of course this keyboard doesn't have the angling in the other two planes which the Microsoft keyboard has either, so, in reality, it is little more than a normal keyboard - a significant failure for a self-proclaimed ergonomic keyboard.

As a regular keyboard though, it works fine. The keys, in spite of their odd and rather redundant shape, are sufficiently precise with little "clickiness" or "smooshiness" (highly scientific terms for the feel when typing) and are damped just the right amount. My only annoyance with the keypad is that the enter key is half sized. I am used to bashing a huge enter key with my little finger, and find that instead of typing a carriage return, I end up hitting the # button more frequently than desired.

The keyboard comes with the usual media and internet control buttons at the top, and the good news is that all of them can be configured to whatever you like, including web shortcuts. Clicking on 'home' for instance now takes me to Google Reader, while 'email' opens up Yahoo! Mail. The only trouble is that the drivers for the keyboard come on a 3.5" floppy. Wha?! Thankfully the seller loaded the relevant programs onto a CD or I'd have to dig into my electronic trash collection to find one of those prehistoric drives.

I should also mention the mouse which comes with the system. It is smaller than the Belkin one I was using previously, and therefore more comfortable for my dainty hands. This too has its own drivers, and all three mouse buttons can be configured as you like. By default the middle mouse button calls up a menu with cut and paste and assorted other functions. I disabled it because it was getting in the way of opening new pages in Firefox.

Both the mouse and keyboard connect via radio to a base station which interestingly comes with its own charger for two AAA batteries. This is really useful since the mouse basically eats batteries for lunch. In contrast, the keyboard with uses two AAs has no such problems. The base station then connects to the PC via two PS/2 connectors, and not USB.

So, do I recommend the keyboard and mouse? Well, it professes to be an ergonomic keyboard, and it isn't really, which is a bit of a disappointment. That said, typing on it is pleasant enough, and it is a full-functioned keyboard, especially when you consider that it is probably out of production now and therefore very cheap. Know what you are getting into before buying!