Logitech MK550 Wireless Wave Keyboard and Mouse Combo - Includes Mouse, Long Battery Life, Ergonomic Design, Black

This is easily the best wireless desktop combo I have ever purchased. While I don't use it for my extreme gaming machine at home, this product is really designed for media and work. I use it everyday at work and absolutely love it. It's so comfortable, that when I have typing-heavy projects like reviews or work-related matters that could otherwise be done at home, I usually wait until I get to work so that I can type them out using the Wave.I am a heavily left-handed typist, and I average about 140 words per minute when typing from memory. I type a lot, so a good keyboard/mouse combination can really make a tremendous difference in my life. Being an IT professional, I also make fluent use of a lot of hotkeys, often which are very left-cntrl and left-shift based. I almost never use the right control or right shift. This makes the outer muscles in my left hand and wrist often ache (all of that constant bending the pinky to reach control and shift). While the Wave doesn't prevent 100% of injuries, I can definitely go much longer on this board. The reason being that the sides of the board are sloped up, so reaching keys at the corners of the keyboard is not only easier due to the angle, but also due to their oversized nature.Further, the slight vertical positional differences between the center of the keyboard and where your hands actually 'rest' is tremendously helpful. When we reach towards the center of the keyboard from our 'home row', we tend to raise the finger. If the keyboard is level, this results in having to twist the finger back down onto the key. When the center keys are raised ever so slightly, our fingers are already on the keys in their natural position from this reach.I'd also like to add that when you first buy the Wave Combo, the keyboard and mouse are extremely smooth and quiet. It will get louder with age, as the rubber domes wear out and become a little less resistant to your hands. I believe it actually becomes easier to type on, though, as well. The key sizes, force required to press, and general layout is just perfect. It's quite ergonomic, but there is no re-learning how to use the keyboard involved. You won't have to worry about accidentally hitting the wrong keys or having to reposition your hands from their normal spots when you first use this keyboard - It works just like your traditional stock keyboard, only it is far more comfortable!A few more points I really like:-Media keys: They're extremely handy, and the volume rocker is hard to live without on my gaming keyboard at home.-Logitech Software: 'Setpoint' has been around a long time. It's not fully feature-packed, and it has its quirks, but it generally works acceptably.-Programmable Mouse buttons: The side buttons, left/right click, left/right scroll, and middle mouse button are all customizable-Unifying receiver will work with just about any other Logitech devices that use this receiver. I believe you can use up to 5 at a time via their pairing software-Range and accuracy: I can travel ~50 feet to the edge of my personal office and still type quickly on the keyboard, or accurately use the mouse without any noticeable lag or key misses. The older adapter wasn't nearly as powerful.What I'd like to see, in a perfect world:I love this combination so much for work, but I wish it could be used on my gaming/media machine at home. I would love to see a mechanical version, complete with backlighting and a wired option. I would gladly pay 200$ for a set that's as comfortable but adds these features.EDIT: 2/20/15For those of you having issues with the outside of the left hand (pinky and ring finger especially), it is likely due to the heavy amount of reaching to the CNTRL and Shift keys. While the WAVE helps a lot with this issue by having the CNTRL and shift keys on the left side being curved upwards and oversized, the pain still can come back gradually. I'd recommend re training yourself to use the right shift if you don't use the right pinky for much else so frequently. As for left cntrl, I'd recommend using a remapping program like Sharp Keys to map left cntrl to caps lock. Caps lock is far easier to strike, and doesn't require that bending motion that left cntrl does. If you're like me, you spend a lot of time on this key even in browsing to copy/paste, switch between tabs, and various other tasks that are performed regularly. If this helps at least one other person... it was worth taking the time to type!

The new Wave combo uses a different receiver - a tiny stick, vs the previous, which was about like a memory stick. You can still remote it as was the case in the previous style if your available USB slots don't present well for your activity with either keyboard or mouse.This is their universal receiver - handling up to 6 devices. As my wife has a Logitech mouse, with the presumed same receiver, I wondered about conflict. So far, neither of our devices have triggered the other's receiver. So, I am guessing/presuming that there are a large number of frequencies used. However, I have no idea how they associate, as there aren't the "connect" buttons on the mouse or keyboard as there were on the earlier version.How, you might ask, do I know so much about the earlier version? I had one, and the mouse failed. I gave away the perfectly good keyboard (and the dead mouse), as the mouse could not be replaced, being supplanted by their new universal system.That being the only negative I had regarding the previous version, let's move on to my real review...This style keyboard instantly cured me of my carpal tunnel equivalent in my elbows. I'm 6-4, with 38" sleeves, which should minimize the distortion needed to place my hands in accordance with the usual keyboard layout - but it wasn't.My first swept keyboard was a wired Microsoft Natural. The second was a wireless keyboard and mouse, also Microsoft Natural. In that case, the failure was on the keyboard - one of the keys' circuit film's trace lines broke, depriving me of many keys on the bottom row. Repair was not an option.Going looking, at the time (many years ago, now), I found that Logitech had a competitor. Better, it was less expensive. I ordered it.This one is contoured. My fingers fall naturally to the level of the keys, which are - as the name suggests - in a wave pattern. That's a bonus over the Microsoft version, and at a substantially lesser price.I finally got to looking (I expect the prior one had them also) at the hotkeys, which actually work, on my keyboard.I've become spoiled. The "off" button on the keyboard (extreme top right) is very much faster at shutting down my XP system than any other I'd used previously. The media center buttons are a joy, and all the others I've tried are like playing in the toy store for me.The new keyboard has a much softer touch and sound than the previous, which, as I'm heavy handed (I learned on manual typewriters), is a relief to the neighbors (we live on a boat; I'm kidding, but my wife appreciates the relative quiet). As my computer has only two USB slots on the front, I use the extension for the receiver because we have the computer mounted under a shelf and behind a bench, making reception a bit dicey in general, but especially for the desk I use, which is directly in front of the computer where the receiver would be behind all the various metal and electronics as relates to the "view" of both keyboard and mouse.We routinely use the mouse remotely, as that's how we do our movies aboard; we move the monitor to a shelf, and the mouse does all the navigation from that point forward, sitting at 90° from my desk, and out several feet.I simply can't, for any extended period of time, be without a "natural" keyboard. Just the couple of weeks where I used my backup, PS2-wired keyboard and mouse, led to my elbows complaining loudly. Thus, this was a no-brainer for me.However, it goes beyond merely a sweeping set of keys; it's comfortable, quiet, my hand falls naturally to the wave pattern (your - longest - middle fingers' keys are lower than the surrounding keys, and so on out from there) and fully featured. Fortunately, when one of these eventually dies, I'll now be able to replace the individual component (all of these devices are available separately), instead of having to buy a whole set.Can you tell I like it?