CherryErgo KC 4500 Keyboard - Cable Connectivity - USB Interface - 109 Key - English (US) - QWERTY Layout - Computer - Windows - Black

Take your hands and hold them relaxed in front of you (don’t imagine a keyboard in front of you). Do you see your little fingers are lower than your thumbs? Do you notice that your hands are closer together than your elbows and would meet if you moved them ahead six inches or so in the same direction as a line from your elbows to your wrists? Your hands are in a neutral position and are not stressing your joints or muscles to stay there. Now imagine a standard keyboard in front of you. Place your hands as if you’re about to type. Do you notice how you have to pull your elbows closer to your side and that your wrists have to turn outward to accommodate to the keys? That’s not an ergonomic position for your hands. It stresses them and is not good for them in the long haul.This keyboard from Cherry forces you to put your hands in the relaxed, best for them position. I do say “forced” because it’s not all that comfortable at first, not because of the position of your hands but because the keys on this keyboard have been shifted so as put them right under your fingers when your hands are in the best, most relaxing position for typing. It’s a pain having to take care of yourself sometimes! But after a few minutes (really a very few minutes) you find out that your hands know where to go to type. After a day of typing with this you won’t even be thinking about it.This keyboard is curved to match the curve of your hands when you hold them out over the keyboard. There is a triangular gap between the keys of the right and left hands. That’s one of the things I appreciate most about this. It allows my hands to relax and not have to be crowded together. Another part of this keyboard that I like is that there are three little legs on the underside of the keyboard nearest you. This raises up your wrists and allows your fingers to drape downward over the keys, which is another more natural position. The wrist pad is also a very nice thing to rest your hands on while you’re typing. The keys are very easy to depress, but they also have a quiet click to them when you press down on them so you have that feedback in your typing. The USB cable connecting the keyboard to your computer is long enough to do the job (if I remember it’s 1.5 meters long?)There are a slew of options you can a do using the keyboard from controlling a media player, calling the calculator to using all the function keys that do all of the functions they are designed for. The only thing I don’t like about this keyboard is that those optional key functions controlling the sound are very difficult to see on the keyboard (mostly). If you use them enough, you’ll learn where they are.

Overall, this is a nice, inexpensive ergonomic keyboard. It isn’t as good as my old Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, but sadly that isn’t made anymore.It is relatively quiet, and it has a decent feel to the keys. There is more key travel than a laptop or chiclet keyboard, but less than on more traditional keyboards.I only have two complaints. First is the lock key. It is placed just above the backspace key, so if I reach up too far, I lock the computer instead of erasing the previous character. I find myself doing this several times a day. The “Cherry Keys” software doesn’t allow me to reassign this key, and the “Cherry Utility” software doesn’t work with this model. I’ll probably end up disassembling the keyboard and physically disabling the key. I can always press Win+L to lock the computer.My second complaint is that there isn’t enough space between the key groups (function keys, cursor keys, number pad, etc.). My other keyboards have extra space between each group of keys to prevent, for example, pressing the number pad zero key instead of the right arrow, or the lock key instead of the backspace key. Eliminating the extra space makes this keyboard more compact, but it also makes me more prone to hitting the wrong key.

I've used a lot of ergonomic keyboards over the years and I've learned it's helpful to keep a spare on hand. Once you get used to typing on them, using a traditional keyboard again is not easy.I didn't care for the lightweight feel of this keyboard or how cheap the touch of the keys feels. It's fine to keep on hand as a spare, but I couldn't see myself using it long term.

I wanted to try a Ergo keyboard and this one is a great bang for your buck. It takes some time to get used to. I do appreciate a wired keyboard as I hate repeatedly having to replace batteries. The comfort pad is great and I am sure over time I will get used to how to use it.

This split keyboard is a nice option for a lower end board. This is a full sized keyboard, which is nice. The split keys make long term typing much easier on the wrists. The wrist support is a soft cushion for long term use as well. The keys are low profile though and I'm a bit of an old school tactile key person, so that has taken me a bit to get used to. I find myself miskeying a bit because of it. And the backspace is dangerously close to the lock button. This is also a corded board, which is good to me. I like not having to worry about charging or batteries or any of that. I'm still waffling on whether I want this as my full time board, but if not, this is a solid backup board for sure. And at this lower end price point, it would be a good option for that as well.

Normally I like compact wireless keyboards, but when working on computers when I need to install a new operating system, and don't have Bluetooth drivers, etc., it is must to have a keyboard that plugs directly into a USB jack. This one has the added advantage of being ergonomic and comfortable to use. It is quite large, and not very compact - but that's ok if you have a bit of room on the desk.

This keyboard has ghosting issues. Lasted less than 2 months

Keyboard was installed and recognized by my WIN 11 PC immediately with all functions working.At this price it is a good keyboard, but the key action is just OK and the LOCK and Calculator keys are so close to the backspace that I have been hitting them in error often. I even tried downloading Cherry Keys software, but it only allows you to customize the first 6 Function keys and a few others NOT on this keyboard.I have had split keyboards in the past, but have been using a wave keyboard the last 10 years, so this was a good opportunity to try a split keyboard at a reasonable price.It would have been a 3 star, maybe a 4 if I was able to disable those couple keys.