Microsoft Natural Keyboard Professional

So I bought it. And it certainly is easy to use. It may take a while to get used to layout, but it only took me a couple of days. Now I don't need to even look when I type, I know where everything is. From the 'Stop' button on the top, to the '6' on the keypad. It is all put together beautifully in this disign, and I am certainly not dissapointed.

If you are worrying about needing to use one of these all the time instead of a conventional keyboard, then there is no need to worry. I can still type just as quickly on the normal keyboard, even if I need to glance down ocassionally to keep my mind on things.

A great buy.

In all of the jobs I've had over the last couple of years I've always taken my Natural Keyboard with me and it's usually got the same reaction - people take an instant dislike to it because the keys are split into two sections, it's an odd shape with a nifty "bump" in the middle and when you're used to a traditional keyboard layout it feels very alien.

However, persevere with this nifty device and it soon becomes apparent why users swear by it. It forces you to type properly, and encouraging more than the standard two fingers into the equasion quickly becomes second nature. The odd looking bump serves as a natural wrist rest and the nothing is too far away from your fingers - ever.

Add to this the two USB ports for plugging in peripherals (brilliant if you have things like joysticks or webcams) and the array of definable hotkeys which can be set to do anything from firing up Word to kicking off an Internet connection and what you have is a top notch piece of kit that's robust enough to stand years of hammer from even the heaviest of hands and versatile enough to do everything you'd expect and then a little bit more.

I have an older model of the Natural which has been in daily use for the past three years and shows no sign of wear and tear - this is an excellent purchase for any PC user and one I can't rate highly enough.

I was a little unsure of how I would get to grips with it, but purchased it anyway.

On taking it out of the box, my hands took an instant liking to the feel of the keys, and the position of the keys.

One thing though that I do not like about the keyboard is the fact that the function keys are split up in the same place as all the other keys, for example, instead of having f1 to f4 in a single block, we have f1 to f5 in a single block, which really stumps me when trying to press keys such as alt+f4 to close applications.

I have not experimented with all the buttons at the top, but they work; I use other keyboard shotcuts to do these functions.

Last but by no means least, I now have two extra usb ports! Although only advisable for low power devices, it gives me a bit more expandability, and as my friend pointed out to me, for those people who only have one usb port on the back of their computer and one at the front, I would say it was a good deal. I was also glad the keyboard plugged both into the ps/2 port and if you wanted the usb ports a seperate connection went into the usb port - meaning you don't waste the ps/2 socket!

Buy it!