Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Microsoft 3RA-00022 Surface Ergonomic Wireless Keyboard,Gray

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2017

UPDATE:
I'm updating my review and moving this to 5 stars. I incorrectly assumed the problem I described in my initial review was the keyboard going to sleep. It was in fact my bluetooth adapter going to sleep! I had to go in to the adapter settings and disable the option to allow windows to disable the device to save power. With this problem solved, I have no real complaints about this keyboard, it's amazing!

ORIGINAL REVIEW (please make sure to read the update above):
--I removed the section about the problem I was having because I didn't want anyone to read it and miss reading the update and thing there is a problem with this keyboard. I was originally having a problem with a delay on the keyboard after not pressing a key for a few seconds. I assumed it was the keyboards battery saving being to aggressive and going to sleep. See the update above for the solution should you have this same problem.

This thing really is amazing for typing. The keys are crisp and require just the right amount of force to actuate. I can rest my fingers on home row without fear of pressing a key by accident, but just a little bit of pressure will actuate the key. The travel is enough to be satisfactory. Also other than the spacebar the keys are pretty silent. For some reason the spacebar is "loud". I say "loud" because it's not really loud, just louder than all the others and noticeable while typing.

I am a computer programmer and have been typing for a long time, capable of typing over 150 wpm. And with this keyboard it feels completely natural and comfortable to be using it all day long.

The only other slights I'd give this keyboard is one the color, I mean grey? Bleh... I wonder if they plan to eventually release it in other colors? And two, the positions of some of the functional keys are not traditional. They have a Clear button where Num Lock would traditionally be, Num Lock is where Pause would be, Pause where Scroll Lock would be, and Scroll Lock where Print screen would be. Then Print Screen button is next to F12, and then there is a second Delete button next to that for some reason.... No idea why they did that, I would have preferred a more traditional layout of those extra keys. And yes, I do use them a bit as I'm a computer programmer. A lot of people would probably never notice these position changes ad they are not keys that really get used very often.

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David A. Urban

maybe the best keyboard I've used... with a few nearly deal breaking issues

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

Update 2020/05/23

Three years now and I love these keyboards. I have three of them now. I'm writing this on a Sculpt though and I wish I had a Surface. I love the keys on the Surface they almost feel mechanical, but not overly so. The Sculpt keys feel decidedly mushy in comparison, not to mention the ridiculous issue with the Sculpt where you can throw the keyboard away if you lose the dongle.

I still don't have any issues with connectivity or lagging anymore. I'm still 100% on Linux computers. Sometimes it takes an extra tap to wake it up but it's only when I've been away.

Battery life is good. I don't remember the last time I changed the batteries and I use rechargeables.

The only thing I don't like about these keyboards is the wear on the palm rest. I have to wipe it down every day with cleaner or it starts to get gross. Invariably, over time, there's nothing you can do and it will never look good again.

Oh, and some of the keys have worn off the oldest one (the f, g and h), but I don't really need letters on my keys anyway.

Update: 2019/01/15

After nearly two years with this keyboard, I'm a fan. I ended up buying a second one that I needed for a second location. The second one is slightly nicer. The keys are slightly more clicky. This is the best keyboard I've used. The disconnection issues are gone. I don't know what the problem was. The stuck keys issue is gone. It's just perfect... except on OSX where it still doesn't show up as a keyboard but it can be worked around.

It's definitely hard to keep clean... just about impossible. I wish it came in black. On Linux is works perfectly. And that's fine since I upgraded my MacBook Pro to Linux.

------------------------

So, bittersweet.

Way back when, when my fingers were constantly numb from typing at a non-ergonomic keyboard, I found the original Microsoft Natural keyboard and it was revolutionary. Within 30 days my fingers went back to normal and I was saved. Never again could I type for long periods at a flat keyboard. I have to admit, there are some things that Microsoft does well. Though even then, there are frustrating issues that stain perfection.

I've had a number of sculpt keyboards and they're pretty good. The exception being that one that had the lazy '/' key (a huge problem for me). The other huge problem with them was the potential for losing the dongle, which would render the keyboard garbage because there is no way to pair a new one. None. Astonishing. So, maybe this Bluetooth thing will work better? More on that later.

The third problem with the Sculpt keyboards was the wrist rest covering, which would wear fairly quickly and leave an unsightly rat-marked device. The Surface Ergo keyboard has a new covering material and we'll see how that fares but I can already notice the area under my palms becoming more rough with wear.

On the other hand, it's a great keyboard. The action on the keys is much better than on the Sculpt. To me it's nearly mechanical in how it feels with satisfying clicks and travel. The sharper edges of the keys is also surprisingly better. Overall, this may be the best keyboard I've used on a day to day basis. I like the keypad being attached again. Sometimes it just comes in handy. I was worried about the mouse being further away, after getting used to the Sculpt, but I haven't really noticed too much.

I'm a coder. I type fast expect my keyboard to perform perfectly. This one does... except... sigh...

Here is where your mileage will definitely vary. I use this keyboard between two laptops, a Powerbook and a Thinkpad running Arch Linux. I have a USB hub that allows me to easily switch between laptops with one connection (and the DP for the monitor). This was a great setup with the Sculpt. With the Surface, however, it doesn't seem to be able to be paired to two devices at once. Other Bluetooth devices, like my Sony headphones, don't have a problem with this but the Surface needs to be re-paired every time I switch. Also, the pairing process with the Mac is finicky. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 tries. Annoying.

Furthermore, not the keyboard's fault, but definitely a thing to note for OSX use is that it doesn't show up as a keyboard option in Settings, so you can't just set a different key mapping for the Windows and the Left Alt key as you might with recognized input devices. To get around this, I had to install Karabiner, and I have to switch configs when switching from the Surface to the laptop's keyboard. Doesn't show up as a Bluetooth keyboard either as apparently, that's reserved for Apple Bluetooth keyboards. Annoying. (though on Apple, not Microsoft)

Also, every once in a while, my mouse goes wonky and I've narrowed it down to some key being sent incorrectly by the keyboard because I can fix it by cycling Bluetooth. :-/

Finally, on the Mac, the media keys aren't mapped right. Not a huge deal. In fact, I haven't even fixed it yet.

Now on Linux, aside from the re-pairing, it's much better, except for that one thing. That one thing? It drops. Inexplicably, and sometimes mid-stream, the keyboard stops working and I have to cycle Bluetooth on the laptop to get it back. I don't know what the problem is here yet and it could very well be something stupid with my Bluetooth setup that I can fix, and when I do, I'll report back. It does seem to be consistent with the keyboard acting up under OSX, so maybe it's sending something that isn't dealt with well? IDK.

Lastly, as others have mentioned, it goes to sleep. This hasn't been an issue for me. At worst, it just takes a couple extra keypresses when coming back to it and it wakes right up. No Bluetooth disconnect at these times for me. Not a big deal.

I'd say, if typing and ergonomic keyboards are important to you, then this is the best one from Microsoft yet and as for Logitech... what happened to them? Definitely the best mainstream keyboard you can by off the shelf, IMHO. If you're stuck on mechanical keyboards or are a really big keyboard geek, building your own and whatnot, I don't know. For me, I think I'd be exploring those options if this keyboard weren't so good. It's just good enough to keep me from getting into the world of custom and specialty keyboards, for now.

Subtracting stars for the Bluetooth single device pairing limitation and, maybe unfairly, for the lack of concern for OSX interoperability. Microsoft: keep building good keyboards, but please, consider the rest of us who like your keyboards but don't like your operating systems.

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Jon Haines

Form without thought for function

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

I want to preface by saying this is a great keyboard. The bluetooth is responsive and almost never feels behind, I get very few if any "stuck" keystrokes. The layout is a bit quirky is you're someone who consistently uses the upper side of the enter key as I do for coding but other than that this keyboard works perfectly. The key presses are just right and the look and feel is great.

But now to the flaw. Form was given precedence over function when Microsoft designed this. Microsoft has been in a push to put forth its own design style to identify its brand of "Surface" products. We're seeing futuristic grays and whites which I actually love, but the bottom of this keyboard is covered in alcantara. If you're unfamiliar with alcantara, it's best described as a synthetic suede. It feels soft and silky and is actually quite appealing and, to be fair, feels great on this keyboard. However much like traditional suede or more openly fibrous materials, it has a habit of absorbing anything it comes into contact with. As many people have shown in photos with this keyboard and similar alcantara coatings on the Surface laptops, if you happen to be someone with oily skin over time this alcantara layer will stain and become discolored. This isn't something you could easily pop out and replace as its integrated into the unibody of the keyboard.

I personally haven't had mine start to stain yet, and I've been using it for almost 6 months. I may just not be an oily hands guy but I can easily see how the transfer from your skin would color the gray material to a brown.

This one flaw doesn't ruin it for me, but at this price point I'd hope they find a better solution in future iterations.

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Marco

Fantastic Ergonomic Keyboard

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2016

Verified Purchase

I have used Microsoft ergonomic keyboards for close to twenty years, so I already knew that I would like the split keyboard design and the elevated, angled shape of the keyboard. I previously used the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, and this keyboard compares favorably to that keyboard while rectifying some of the shortcomings of the Microsoft Sculpt Ergo Keyboard.

Since this is a Bluetooth Low Energy device, you don't need the annoying wireless receiver/dongle of the Sculpt keyboard.

Also, the Surface keyboard has a real function "Fn" key instead of a "Fn" switch found on the sculpt. The function row keys on the Surface are half-height keys, which is an improvement over the one-third height (?) function row keys on the Sculpt. The function row keys on the Sculpt didn't feel like the other full-height keys; they were very spongy without good key travel/action. The function row keys on the Surface feel just like all the full-height keys with excellent key travel/action. This is especially important for the Escape key, which programmers use often.

The placement of a second Delete key immediately above the Backspace key is a genius idea.

I'm using this keyboard with a Mac, and it works really well. The following keys all work as expected on a Mac: volume up/down, mute, display brightness increase/decrease, media play, media FastForward, and media Rewind. Some of the other dedicated function keys don't work on a Mac, such as Computer Lock (lock icon), Calculator (calculator icon), Search (magnifying glass icon), and Settings (gear icon). However, that shouldn't dissuade you from buying this keyboard for a Mac. You'll have a great keyboard experience on a Mac, and an even better keyboard experience with a Windows PC.

One minor annoyance with the Surface keyboard is that the Control, Windows, and Alt keys are more narrow than the same keys on either the Sculpt or the Natural 4000. These three keys were made more narrow to accomodate the new "Fn" and Menu keys.

Overall, this a fantastic keyboard. It's the best ergonomic keyboard Microsoft has ever made. Programmers will love this keyboard with its many thoughtful features. If you type a lot and are worried about carpel tunnel syndrome or other repetitive stress injuries, you should definitely consider this keyboard.

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dutchhome

Easily the best looking ergonomic keyboard

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2016

Verified Purchase

This just arrived, so my review only consists of first impressions right now. I'll update this later after I use it for a while.

I bought this keyboard for use with the new MacBook Pro w/ touch bar. Although I hate to admit it, Microsoft is known for making good ergonomic keyboards. This keyboard is no exception. It feels solid and seems to respond well. It paired easily with the Mac and many of the special keys work as expected (volume, brightness, etc).

Of course one of the reasons I bought this particular one is that it looks visually similar to the Apple brushed aluminium look. It is fairly close, but it is obviously plastic rather than metal. It still looks great.

TL;DR: It looks as good in person as it looks online and pairs easily with a Mac over Bluetooth.

UPDATE: It has been a week now and I have some additional feedback to share..

First of all, I'd like to respond to the reports of lost keystrokes. I have not experienced anything like what the other reviewers have described. When typing on the keyboard connected to my Mac, I have not experienced any lost keystrokes. What I *have* experienced is a sluggish power saving mode that I suspect occurs even on Windows. What I mean by this is that eventually the keyboard will go into some kind of sleep mode to save power. At this point, if you start to type nothing will transmit - even after it "wakes up", it will not send these keystrokes. This means that if you walk away and come back later, you may need to tap a key and wait a moment for it to start working again. This is a little inconvenient but it is not like the middle of words will be lost. Hopefully there will be some kind of firmware update that will correct this. It would be very nice if it would send the keystrokes even if there was a slight lag.

Apart from the power savings mode, I have a couple other things to report. My biggest gripe is the lack of spacing between the right control key and the arrow keys. There is no noticeable gap. I don't look at the keyboard much when I use the keyboard, so I'm having to learn to feel for the up arrow to center my hand to use the arrows and Insert/Home/End/etc. There is a bump on the down key, but I haven't had much luck picking it up quickly.

Next up is the 6 key being mapped to the left hand while I've spent the last year training myself to use my right hand. This is a bit quicker to transition to, so not that big of a deal for me.

Finally, I'm not quite sure if I like using the Fn key to trigger the function keys. I'd almost rather use it to trigger the media keys instead. I'm sure I'll get used to this, but one week in and it's still bugging me.

Bottom line is I'm still quite happy with this keyboard and can definitely recommend it for Mac users. As others have mentioned, you do need to have support for Bluetooth 4.0, which the 2016 MBP has. I'll consider updating this again after another month of use.

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Douglas Robertson

Stay away, there are some serious problems caused by the shoddy Bluetooth connection.

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2018

Verified Purchase

First the good things. The keyboard has a good feel and when it is working, it works well. I have been using an older Ergonomic Keyboard that was larger and the shift to this smaller keyboard was a bit of work, but not unexpected.

One thing I like is that this keyboard is much quieter. I do online presentations and at times people had complained that it sounded like an elephant was typing on my keyboard. This keyboard is not nearly as loud, but the space bar seems to have developed an annoying squeak sound when I press it. No idea what is causing that, but it is frustrating.

The core reason I gave this 1 stars is the Bluetooth connection. First, if this is going on a desktop machine be ready to buy a Bluetooth adapter. As expensive as this keyboard is they don't even bother providing the necessary Bluetooth adapter with the keyboard. I ended up paying another $35 for the Bluetooth adapter at an office supply store.

The next part is the most frustrating. The keyboard constantly disconnects. This issue is so bad that I now have an extra cheap keyboard that I keep next to my desk when that happens. I have no idea why this happens, but suddenly the keyboard no longer types. The Bluetooth settings don't seem to help me fix this. When it happens I often need to reboot the computer and re-link the Bluetooth connection. It is extremely frustrating.

I am using the latest copy of Windows 10. I don't know if it is the OS or the keyboard, but it keeps happening. This has been a real problem during a live presentation.

Sorry, I had high hopes, but I am just not a fan of this keyboard.

Update - It has been 4 months with this keyboard. I am actively looking for a replacement. The Bluetooth issue is terrible. It often misses the first few keystrokes every time I start typing. At first, I thought I was just being lazy as I typed, but I have tested and confirmed that this is the case. If I don't use the keyboard for 10-15 minutes it will miss the first keystrokes consistently when I start typing again. Stay away from this keyboard.

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Bengal Mom

Modern Look meets Comfort for a Perfect Design!

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2017

Verified Purchase

After much deliberation on if I could make this keyboard work, I went for the buy. I'm using a Windows 7 Pro OS with Microsoft's predecessor, the Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard, when I found the Surface Ergonomic keyboard. I really like the unique color and wanted to try it. It's sad that it is listed as being compatible with Windows 10 only, when I'm living proof that it is simply not the truth.

Easy Steps to Make it Work with Windows 7: I purchased a Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle from Amazon. Unfortunately, the site to download the driver for this dongle is no good (they won't get as good as a review). I relied on Google and ended up downloading the CSR Harmony bluetooth 4.0 software package. I deleted the bluetooth device that Windows 7 installed for the USB dongle when I plugged it in. Installed the software package, and it found the Microsoft Surface keyboard just fine. I'm typing this review with the very keyboard that people say doesn't work with Windows 7.

I absolutely love this keyboard and highly recommend it if you enjoy ergonomic typing like I do! Soooo much more friendly on the wrists!

The keys are a little more spread out than the sculpt and takes a little bit getting used to if you're already familiar to the Sculpt. The keys have a soft touch and are super quiet, another bonus! I despise "clicky" noises so I combo my keyboards with Logitech's M590 silent mouse (another genius invention!) and WahLah - piece and quiet!

The Function, Caps, NumLk, and ScrLk keys all have tiny little white lights that are barely noticeable when lit if you work in an area that has a lot of light as I do. The Sculpt keyboard doesn't have any lights, so I'm already used to that, but wanted to point it out in case you were interested. The wrist pad is soft to the touch and very comfortable when placed on a desk. When I placed the keyboard in a tray, it works fine, but I miss the lift that the Sculpt came with to raise the bottom of the keyboard for a perfectly aligned wrist position. And, I am a little worried about how long the marble grey colored wrist pad will stay looking nice.

All in All - it does what I want it to do and puts a smile on my face. :) If I jinx myself and something happens to dissuade my opinions, I'll update my review. Thanks for reading and happy typing to you!

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Sterling G. Wells

Superb Keyboard (When It Works) - Mac Users Beware

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

EDIT (AGAIN): After doing some additional research and speaking with a few other owners of this keyboard, it appears bluetooth connectivity issues I describe below disproportionally affect Apple computers. In fact, I suspect the issues affect only Apple products, which should come as little surprise given this is a Microsoft product.

EDIT: My original, glowing review below was based on my first week of use - before the keyboard decided to stop waking up from sleep and reconnecting. Everything I said in the original review is still true; when the keyboard works, it's superb, one of the best keyboards I've ever used.

However, I've now gone through two of these units and they both suffer from the same bug of inconsistently waking up and the inability to consistently reconnect to your computer. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to waste 5 minutes removing and re-pairing the keyboard every time my computer goes to sleep so I'm sending this keyboard back. Hopefully Microsoft will release an updated version that fixes these issues.

After a weeks of use I had to revise my initial glowing review down to one star, unfortunately. As it turns out, this keyboard is extremely inconsistent when it comes to waking up from sleep. Occasionally it works flawlessly but frequently it refuses to wake up at all. Removing and replacing the batteries doesn't solve the issue, though sometimes waiting 20 or 30 minutes and trying to wake it up again does work. But the only real solution I've found is to remove the keyboard from my bluetooth devices and re-pair it, which is highly frustrating. I'm hoping this is just a glitch with an early production run of the device because I really want to love this this.

For what it's worth, the laptop with which I pair this keyboard is a 2016 model and is equipped with the latest Bluetooth 4.0

I evaluated the new Surface Ergonomic keyboard through the lens of the previous iteration of the product, the Microsoft L5V-00001 Sculpt Ergonomic Wireless Desktop Keyboard and Mouse and I've found it to be an improvement in nearly every way.

Pros:
+ FINALLY A BUILT IN NUMBER PAD! My single biggest gripe with the Sculpt ergonomic keyboard was the fact that the number pad was a separate detached unit. There were so many problems with this: it was easy to lose, it didn't stay put when you were using it and the crappy little watch battery died months before the AAA batteries in the main keyboard expired.

+ Build Quality. From the moment you take this keyboard out of the box, you can feel that it's a much more substantial product than the old Sculpt Keyboard, which was light and entirely plastic. This Surface ergonomic keyboard may not have a metal case but it's thicker, heaver and less flexible. This bodes well because I went through 4 of the old Sculpt keyboards over two years.

+ Tactile feel of the keys. This isn't a mechanical keyboard, so don't expect that super satisfying click. But the switches used in the Surface ergonomic keyboard offer substantially better feedback than the previous version, which was slightly mushy when new and very mushy after a few months of extended use. The keys are still light and easy to press, but the level of travel and resistance is pleasing enough to create a really nice tactile feel.

+ Neutral color will hide wear and tear better. My old black Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard looks positively disgusting after a few months of use. The palm rest was stained a lighter color in places and the most frequently used keys became greasy and gross looking. The lighter colors of the Surface ergonomic keyboard should hide those things much better.

Mixed:
+/- Bluetooth connection instead of wireless dongle connection. For me this is a pro because I lost one of the little USB wireless receivers required with the Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard and Microsoft simply didn't make replacements. So if you lost the USB receiver, you had to buy a whole new keyboard. But I understand there are use cases where bluetooth could be a con.

Cons:
- Price (kind of). Yes this keyboard is more expensive than the previous version. However, I think this will be a better investment in the long run. As I stated earlier in this review, I had to buy four Sculpt Keyboards over two years whereas I could realistically see this keyboard lasting a full two years, though I could be completely wrong on that.

- Color (possibly). The keyboard I received doesn't match the color scheme of the product photos - the keys and wrist rest are a light grey rather than dark grey or black. I'm not sure if I inadvertently ordered the wrong version or if the product photo isn't accurate, but it is definitely different. It's still pretty good looking and I don't really care. But the white letters on the grey background don't provide excellent contrast, which could be a problem for some people.

Overall I'm extremely pleased with this keyboard and plan to order a second one for my home office soon.

27 people found this helpful

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Jasper P.

Way Cool, Way Comfy, WAY Too Costly...

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2016

Verified Purchase

If you have money to burn on just look-and-feel, go ahead: you will not be disappointed. If you’re looking for functionality beyond the basics, look elsewhere.

I am currently writing this review with the Microsoft Surface Ergonomic Keyboard. It may very well be the last thing I do with it. Don't get me wrong, it is a nice keyboard. The ergonomic shape is comfortable and the construction is solid—feels quality. The keys have a nice, soft, almost silky touch to them; and the Alcantara palm rest feels very nice on the palms and wrists. The way the keys press down—the resistance—and pop back up is a nice tactile experience. Also, the overall look is nice and appealing to the eye: sleek and modern (although it does look a little out of place on my cherry desk; seems like it would look more at home on a metal or glass desk, or something with a gray or white color).

All that being said, this keyboard is WAY overpriced for what you get. Everything I mentioned above can be found in other, FAR cheaper keyboards. Microsoft’s own Sculpt Ergonomic Wireless Desktop Keyboard is a perfect example: stylish, comfortable, with a nice tactile feel as you type. And it is currently $50 cheaper here on Amazon. AND it comes with an extremely comfortable ergonomic mouse. For $130, you would think the Surface Ergonomic Keyboard would have at least come with a mouse, or be much, much, much more feature rich.

I am at a loss as to why this keyboard is so dang expensive. Is the Alcantara palm rest comfy and nice to touch? Yes. In fact, it makes sense that they are starting to use this material in luxury vehicles. Is it nice enough to warrant the $130 price tag on this keyboard? Not even a little bit. The material used for the palm rests on Microsoft’s Sculpt keyboards (or other manufacturers, such as Logitech’s Wireless or Illuminated keyboards) is perfectly nice and comfortable. And the Sculpt Comfort Desktop Keyboard has nifty features like a split space bar where you can make the left split be another Backspace button. The Surface Ergonomic Keyboard has a split space bar, but does it have the neat Backspace feature? No. For $130 are its keys at least backlit?! No. In fact, name just about any cool feature a modern keyboard may have, and this keyboard does not have it. Extra ports? No. Information readout screen? No. Touch area? No. Lots of extra shortcut buttons? No. Customizable hotkey buttons? No. Customizable ANY buttons? No. Customizable ANYthing? No. This keyboard does not even show up in Microsoft’s Mouse and Keyboard Center. Seriously: from a functionality standpoint, it does the exact same job as the stock keyboards that come with the low-end Dell computers my company buys. I expect WAY more from a keyboard that costs $130.

Connectivity was fine for me. I was able to effortlessly connect to my Windows 10 PC equipped with a Bluetooth 4.0 low energy USB adapter. The keyboard showed up quick as can be under “Manage Bluetooth devices” and I clicked on it, typed a security code on the keyboard, and voilà! Paired. I also managed to pair the keyboard to my iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 10 with absolutely no trouble at all. Found the keyboard listed right there in the Bluetooth menu (as “Ergonomic Keyboard”), tapped it, entered the subsequently displayed code, and BAM. Paired no problem. Works great for anything involving straight-forward typing on my iPhone: Texts, emails, notes, etc. Of course, the keyboard is built solely for Windows, so you will not find any fancy iOS shortcuts (that you would on, say, Microsoft’s Universal Keyboard…). I feel this is neither bad (eh, I’m indifferent—not really what I bought the keyboard for) or good (what?! yet more lack of features?); just thought I would mention it for informational purposes.

Also, there’s a fun (the word "fun" is used sarcastically here...) side effect of this keyboard being Bluetooth only. It’s not necessarily the keyboard’s fault—it’s an issue common with a lot of Bluetooth devices. In order to help reach that “Up to 12 months” battery life that is boasted about in the feature list, the keyboard will shut off after about 10 minutes or so of inactivity. After that certain amount of time has passed and you start typing again, it takes about two or three seconds for the keyboard to wake up and start responding. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but I have already had it happen a couple of times and it is juuuust annoying enough to be noticeable and make you wish that it would not happen. Nice from a power preservation point of view, slightly irritating from a productivity point of view. Probably not a deal-breaker, nor the straw that broke the camel’s back, but I thought I would mention it for posterity.

The only thing that makes sense here is Microsoft once again cribbing the “premium” page from Apple’s playbook. Surface is their top-of-the line. $3,200 for the best Surface Book?! Thirty. Two. HUNDRED. Dollars. There is nothing on that computer that warrants that price tag, except the premium gadgetry, quality, and “luxury” Microsoft is trying to get people to perceive with the Surface name. I get it, it makes good business sense from Microsoft’s angle. Slap the word “Surface” on a product and charge a premium—if people pay it, why not? It’s worked for Apple for going on two decades now (although Apple is a little more efficient about it: instead of the name of a product line invoking that feeling of top-tier, it’s the Apple name itself; Microsoft is a bit late to the premium party, so “Surface” will have to do). And I will admit: It worked on me. I pre-ordered this Surface Ergonomic Keyboard because it looked cool and I figured it would be well-made. Well, it is, on both counts. But, for $130, I also figured it would have some really cool features (beyond materials and shape), and it most certainly does not. I absolutely should have done a bit more research before clicking on that “Place your order” button. Hence this review.

My conclusion is pretty much the same as my introduction: If you have money to burn on just the look-and-feel, go ahead: this keyboard looks great and feels great. If you want a simple keyboard, this is probably the best (and most expensive) one you can buy. However, if you are looking for clever, neat, or merely productivity-enhancing functionality, look elsewhere.

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GABRIEL HENAO

What I was looking for

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2022

Verified Purchase

I have tried many keyboards on several brands, basically looking for the functionality that I had with Natural Keyboard 4000 but with the addition of wireless. This one meets my expectations so far because of this:

- Lock lights. I REALLY need to know when Caps Lock is on, Num Lock, Function Lock, in that order of importance.
- My last one before this was Microsoft Sculpt. I love the keys distribution on the Sculpt (which is practically the same as MS Surface Ergonomic) and the soft keys (same as MS Surface) but, as much as I see it useful for others, I hate that the numeric keypad is separated (And I travel often). I also hate that the function (FN) switch is not a key but a hard switch that constantly forget to move back and that there are no indicator lights for FN, CAPS, Num. MS Surface has all that. Many times I press a function key with the sculpt and end up doing something totally different just because that switch is in the wrong position. It's a matter of just looking at the switch but it's a small switch and not as easy to tell in which position it is.
- Surface uses bluetooth. With my other keyboards, I was using a dongle. Sometimes when I travel I would forget the dongle and the keyboard was rendered useless. Once, one of such dongles got broken. I researched in many sites and some people would say there was a way to get a replacement. I never found one (For the MS Sculpt). Without that dongle, the keyboard cannot be used. I was able to open the dongle and do do some minor soldering to fix it. With the Surface Ergonomic, I connect to my laptop without the need of a dongle.
- If the computer doesn't have bluetooth then I, again, would need a USB to bluetooth dongle BUT if I forget that dongle while traveling or if it gets broken, I just buy a new one and most of them range from $6 to $15 dollars and they are NOT tied to one keyboard, which was the problem with the other keyboards I used.
- The function keys are not too small like in the Sculpt. I can use them way easier
- With the Jelly Com KE 68 (another keyboard I tried), I had many features exactly like the Surface but the navigation keys (Home, End, Pg Up, Pg Dn, arrows) were being shared with the numeric keys. I use both the navigation keys and the numeric pad a lot. It was awful. On top of that, there was no indicator for the Num lock so I was always having a hard time trying to know whether that part of the keyboard was ready for navigation or for numbers

WISHLIST
- Please offer one in black
- I didn't find a mouse that comes in combo with this keyboard. I had to get it separately
- Please offer a base to put underneath the keyboard, like the one that Natural 4000 and Sculpt have. That or extensible legs or anything equivalent. I'm borrowing the base from Sculpt

CONS
- If I go inside CMOS setup, the keyboard doesn't work (at least on my machine). On those rare cases that I need to go to CMOS setup, I use another keyboard
- One of the laptops I tried has symantec security login which intercepts the boot up (This is before Windows loads). For that one, the keyboard didn't work (I'm assuming there was no equivalent driver outside of Windows. Same situation as with CMOS setup). In the morning, when I turned on the computer, I had to temporarily use another keyboard for that laptop. It's a minor for me but, if somebody uses one of those pre-boot security measures and / or restarts the computer often during the day, that might become annoying.

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Microsoft 3RA-00022 Surface Ergonomic Wireless Keyboard,Gray

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