Microsoft Natural Ergo 4000, USB keyboard - about this product and why some products only need minor reviews

Hello, yesterday I bought two of these:

Tastatura Microsoft Natural Ergo 4000, USB – Tastaturi – Periferice – Componente & periferice – IT&C

Feed-back?

The keys are very nice.
There are not that many ergonomic keyboard on the market. There are some, but not that many.
The price is generally 200-300 lei (it’s hard to get it at 200 lei), I bought it with 140 lei, quite a discount (that’s why I bought two).
The keyboard feels nice.
The palmrest is OK.
The initial impression is that the F keys are too small (F5 is where F4 should be), and that the calculator button (which I use for Play/Pause on WinAmp) is placed in a wrong place (on my Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 keyboard is much more on the right, actually in the upper-right corner, so it’s very easy to use).
I like the feel & look of it.
I took down the bottom plastic, it seems rather pointless to my current desk.
If, for some reasons I can’t use both hands (talking on the phone, for example; or, more likely, using the mouse with the right hand and the keyboard with the left hand), it’s not a cool keyboard anymore.
The keyboard doesn’t solve basic problems. I still make the same typos.
Right now, I think I would have preferred a keyboard with smaller keys – it takes quite a while to “push” the keys to the bottom.
Later edit – the biggest bug of the keyboard is the changing of the positions for the Fn (F1-F12) keys. I really don’t get this – why change something that works?

How have I bought it?

I was very close to buying a Comfort Keyboard from Microsoft. I went to PC Garage and they had no product on display, I would have bought it on the spot.
I decided I should test the product myself, so I went to … Carrefour Unirii (for the previous keyboard I went to … Auchan Titan).
Going to supermarkets to buy IT stuff is a poor decision, if that store has only a limited display of products. Cora Sun Plaza has more keyboards, but not enough of them.
I then came to my senses (finally!) and went to Flanco Unirii to see quite a display of keyboards. I limited my choices to ergonomic (the current keyboard only – only this product) and close-to-ergonomic keyboards (all from Microsoft, mostly various types of Comfort Curve Keybards).
I tested some products, I saw the price discount and didn’t buy it (metaphor & actual thing – they claimed the price cut was from 200 lei to 140 lei. I thought it may be a marketing thing, and that 200 lei could also be a high price for a keyboard, so I said no).
I went to Altex Unirii. Nothing ergonomic, just some close-to Microsoft stuff.
I went home, did my homework, saw the price was a steal.
I read close to nothing about the keyboard. Some comments, and that was it.
I phoned the store, told them to keep me two keyboards.
Next day (yesterday) I went to the store and bought them.
I’ve since typed this blog post on it.

Why some products only need minor reviews?

First, a difference:
- For buying camera lens, I’ve read tons. Even today, I still can’t tell if I made the right decision (see the paradox of choice).
- For buying the keyboard, I went to the store, only looked at three keyboards, and typed on them all. For my current keyboard, I tried to type some more, until I was happy with considering it a fine keyboard. I went home, read right about nothing on the keyboard, looked up some prices on the Internet and saw that the Flanco deal was actually a good deal, and bought it.
For the lens, there are a lot of factors to consider – price, zoom, light, conditions, size, distance from subject, type of subject shot on camera. I named the ones I know, I’m sure there are more than these. It’s hard for me to correctly evaluate all these, and even to evaluate the person giving me this information (is it a trustworthy source?).
For the keyboard – price & look & does it feel good, all of which I can evaluate myself. I don’t need a forum to tell me how the keys feel to me.
It is important to read comments of the users who used the product for years – it measures reliability. I’ve read about the keyboard that it’s not waterproof (some damaged it with soda) and after some times some keys might go wild.
Let’s take a fridge – there are about 3,000 (!!!) comments on Softpedia on what fridge to buy. They’re mostly from experience, you can trust a crowd’s opinion, and by reading the comments, you get to know more about what type of fridge you need (there are some options) and what brands fail less. Other than that, buy whatever fridge has the best specifications for your needs. Reading the forum helps you know better what you want and what brand to trust. There is no magic fridge, best-buy, with tons of awards and so on. “It’s a fridge”. Yep, it pretty much is. After some research, I bought a fridge with a warranty of 5 years. I don’t care that much about extended warranties, generally but if the producer of the fridge makes this a standard, it says something about the trust in quality. All being equal, buy from the producer with most warranties (there are not that many differences between producers. It’s nothing huge). Now, let’s think how to write a review on a fridge. If you can compare them, test them one to another, if you have good experience, then, yes, you need to make an informed decision about buying a fridge. What can I personally write? Not that much. “It’s a good fridge, it behaves OK, no problems until now”.
Buying a door – I haven’t researched this, but if I would, I would look on my needs first, trying to figure what what I really need about a door. Then find a good producer, read some comments. But to write a review on a door – it’s not that much to write about. Design, colors, materials, it’s not huge.
A phone – here there are a lot of options, operating systems, interfaces. Lot to read about (what do you need, what brand to buy, what model to buy), lots to write about.
A pen – close to nothing. After two years of using a very good pen, you can write some long-term feed-back. After one instance of seeing a pen – not that much.