At a Glance
The Good: Lightweight, attractive, comfortable
The Bad: No on/off switch on keyboard, battery life not great
The Keyboard
As mentioned here before, not everything labeled "ergonomic" is comfortable. Thankfully, in the case of the Wireless Desktop 5000, the two are one in the same, at least where the keyboard is concerned. The mouse is a slightly different story.
As full-sized keyboards go, the Comfort Desktop 5000 definitely falls on the lighter end of the scale. Despite this, it still feels solid and very well constructed. I dropped it a few times onto a wood floor (once intentionally, once … not so much), and although I never recommend dropping your peripherals, the keyboard operated flawlessly after each episode.
Although the QWERTY portion of the keyboard curves, the navigation, arrow and number pad keys are all level. A line of F keys lines across the keyboard with another line of media keys and designated Windows 7 hot keys above it.
The Comfort 5000 has a comfortable, textured wrist pad that doesn't take up too much space on your keyboard tray, unlike some other keyboards . My only quibble with the construction is the elevation feet are detachable instead of the standard flip-up design. I'm not sure why they went this way since detachable usually = easy to misplace in my experience.
An on/off switch would have been a useful feature in this desktop set. I know I frequently complain that on/off switches are only useful for people who remember to use them, but the batteries ran out of juice in the keyboard after just two weeks. Granted it was two weeks of pretty heavy usage, but that's still a lot of AA replacement. There is a battery indicator light, but I did not notice it illuminating before my batteries abruptly died, so I can't say how much of a warning you're given.
The Mouse
While the keyboard has a "Comfort Curve"-shaped design that fans the keys in a slightly bowed fashion, the mouse is ambidextrous and only features a rounded top. Although this may not bother some, it doesn't make sense to me that Microsoft would pair an ergonomic keyboard with a non-ergonomic mouse. I guess they went with the ambidextrous route, hoping to please both lefties and righties.
Although it isn't traditionally ergonomic, the five-button mouse is still fairly comfortable to use, and I experienced zero cramping in my wrists and only a little fatigue in my palms. The scroll wheel unfortunately doesn't offer a tactile click-scroll option, which is really a personal preference thing.
It does, however, have something more valuable: Microsoft's BlueTrack technology . BlueTrack, which is already available in a few other mice, lets you mouse on virtually any surface. It can be a huge asset for travelers, and considering the extreme lightweight of the keyboard, this could be an option for road warriors who prefer a full-sized keyboard and mouse. Another vote in favor of this: the designated placeholder on the underside of the mouse for the USB receiver.
The Bottom Line
At $79.99, you're getting a pretty good deal if you're in the market for both a keyboard and a wireless mouse with BlueTrack. This keyboard would make a fine addition to a home user who's looking to combine office use with some light media capabilities. The keyboard's battery life was disappointing, though, so be sure to stock up on some extra batteries if it's going to experience heavy use.
