A best buy keyboard: Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000

I’m assembling a new PC and I also need a keyboard; I want to give you my impressions on a keyboard – Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000.

First of all, you should read this article: When you buy IT things, should you do research or not? – Get a result now!.

As you can see, prior to buying a keyboard, I tested it myself; I went to Auchan hypermarket in Titan and tested a few products; I was looking for only three things:

Small effort to push the keys; there are keyboards with tall keys, and there are keyboards with small(er) keys; this is on the small keys sample;
USB keyboard, so I can attach it to a laptop (I can live with a poorly designed PC keyboard, but laptop keyboard? Aaargh, it’s so frustrating, small keys, poorly mapped, very close one to another, don’t like them at all);
Cheap or so (very cheap is 4 EUR, not so cheap is 20 EUR; more than this is expensive);

I looked at the keyboards, and also based on other experiences, and there were three main categories:

Very very cheap keyboards (4-9 EUR) – classical or only with a few buttons;
Cheap or average price keyboards (with more fancy stuff, like my chosen keyboard);
Outrageously expensive keyboards, with lots of functions (customizable keys, back lit keys, new&lots of keys, atypical design);

(I don’t really know what’s “normal” in this category – is 30 Euros for a keyboard you use daily for 5 years expensive? That’s 6 EUR per year; is that expensive? Can you compare this with the risk of having RSI – Repetitive strain injury – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia? So, what’s “normal”?)

OK, so why do I like my keyboard?

(as said above) Small effort to push the keys; there are keyboards with tall keys, and there are keyboards with small(er) keys; this is on the small keys sample;
(as said above) Cheap – 70 lei OR 16 EUR;
(as said above) USB keyboard, so I can attach it to a laptop (I can live with a poorly design PC keyboard, but laptop keyboard? Aaargh, it’s so frustrating, small keys, poorly mapped, very close one to another, don’t like them at all);
(new!) I like that the keys are not straight, but in such a way that they adapt to my hand quite a bit (the lines of the keys follows the line of the hands);
(new) I don’t look for extra keys, but in this case they’re useful; I need no keys like power off (I press it about two times each day), or sleep / wake (never?), but I do need keys for WinAmp; previously, I liked the combo keys in WinAmp (Ctrl + Shift + Insert for play; Ctrl + Shift + Home for Pause; Ctrl + Shift + PgUp/PgDn for previous/next; Ctrl + Shift + End for Stop – you can activate these very easily in the options, or even change them if you don’t like them); but now I can use the keys from the keyboard for combo stuff, like Play/Pause (great! It’s much better to have this button, since pressing play twice usually meant that song would go from beginning, which I didn’t like); I also changed the option for Back/Forward, in Internet, to be Previous/Next for songs in WinAmp (I don’t like Back/Forward buttons in browsers, I use them rarely, and not via keyboard, and Alt + Left, Alt + Right is fine, and I also have the buttons on my mouse);
(new!) I had an experience with a wireless USB keyboard (the wireless connector was on USB) which didn’t work prior to the start of the operating system; so each time I had to enter BIOS, or perform actions which were not part of the OS, I had to attach a PS/2 keyboard; with this keyboard and this computer, it worked on my BIOS too (I’m not sure for every configuration, but on mine it worked).

Right now, I don’t know how I’ve lived with another keyboard; it’s so much better!

Feedback from other users:

Prima impresie: sweeeeeet! Neagră, plată, tastele nu sunt dispuse în plan ci într-o formă uşor concavă. Cablul e mai scurt, ajunge la limită la PC-ul de sub birou. Cursa tastelor e mai mică, stil laptop, excelentă pentru touch-typing. Dă un feedback tactil plăcut şi destul de ferm, acţionarea tastelor pare precisă şi nu simt o diferenţă semnificativă la poziţionarea mâinilor faţă de tastatura anterioară. Îmi lipsesc Ctrl/Alt supradimensionate, şi nimeresc în Insert sau End căutând tasta Delete. Butoanele suplimentare sunt reduse la minimul necesar. Pentru împiedicaţi, acum sunt practicate nişte fante ce trec prin corpul tastaturii pentru ca lichidele vărsate din greşeală în tastatură să nu băltească în ea ci să se scurgă pe masă – chestie implementată de Dell de multişor:D. (puterfixer on XF.ro)

Nu am avut probleme cu tastatura de nici un fel, nu se plimbă pe masă și funcționează ireproșabil, doar iese din când în când mufa din carcasă din cauza front panel-ului făcut de Antel curbat și care face ca mufa să intre incomplet și nu tocmai perpendicular, dar sigur nu e vina tastaturii. În sfârșit, nu sunt mare fan al acestei tastaturi, e relativ simplă și ieftină și își face treaba, suficient pentru a fi mulțumit. (AdrianB1 on XF.ro)

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