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- Your wrists and hands both suffer strain from extended periods spent sitting at a computer, but an ergonomic keyboard can provide much-needed relief.
- The sleek Microsoft Sculpt aligns your hands, wrists, and fingers in a neutral and natural position, covering all three bases that a truly ergonomic keyboard should.
It's no secret that working for hours at a time on the computer, as many of us regularly do, gradually takes a toll on our bodies. Your neck, shoulders, back, eyes, and - just as importantly - your wrists and hands all suffer stress from extended periods spent sitting over a keyboard, and this can lead to serious discomfort and even long-lasting repetitive strain injuries.
This is a problem that people are well aware of today thanks to decades of experience and medical research on the subject, as the growing availability and popularity of ergonomic computer peripherals shows. A good ergonomic keyboard might be the most important of these, offering some much-needed relief for your wrists and hands, which are among the most likely parts of your body to suffer from computer-related work fatigue.
If you think about how your standard flat, rectangular keyboards are designed, then ergonomic alternatives make sense. Quickly lay your hands flat on top of your desk without thinking about it: When resting naturally, your hands and fingers don't line up as they typically do when positioned on a keyboard. Now, lay your hands on top of a normal keyboard with your fingers in the typing position, and the problem becomes clear.
Standard keyboards place your hands at a relatively odd position with your fingertips parallel to the computer monitor. This position requires you to hold your wrists at an odd outward angle. Traditional keyboards often lack needed support for your wrists, too, which forces your wrists into an awkward angle. These odd angles put pressure on your wrists' nerves and blood vessels, and this misalignment can cause problems such as carpal tunnel syndrome.
A good ergonomic keyboard solves these alignment problems, and owing to their increasing popularity, there are a number of different designs available today from curved one-piece keyboards to unique two-piece models that separate the keys onto separate "islands." We've done the research to pick out the best ones below with our picks covering a wide variety of needs, designs, and price points to offer something for virtually every user.
Here are the best ergonomic keyboards you can buy:
- Best ergonomic keyboard overall: Microsoft Sculpt
- Best gaming ergonomic keyboard: Razer Ornata Chroma
- Best two-piece ergonomic keyboard: Kinesis Freestyle2
- Best ergonomic keyboard and mouse combo: Logitech MK550
- Best anti-microbial ergonomic keyboard: Fellowes Microban
Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.
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