Adesso AKB-450UB Ergonomic Keyboard with Built-in Touchpad, Wired USB

Great keyboard, perfect key layout for those moving from a traditional keyboard, requires almost no time to relearn, and the keys are smooth and easy to press. The touchpad is smaller and cheaper than a thinkpad's but is usable. One design flaw, however, is vexing: The backspace key's pivot point is on its left side, but I normally strike it on its right side, which causes it to feel stiff. If I could somehow press it from its left side (right above its pivot) then it would work fine, but I can't seem to relearn that habit, so I'm stuck with one important key being stiff -- about three times the force needed for other keys. Three stars. Will continue the query for the perfect keyboard. *** UPDATE 2025-December *** It's now been six weeks, and I have gradually retaught myself to strike the backspace key on its left side, rather than its right side as we all normally do. Having gotten over that hump, this keyboard is now perfect, I love it and will order a second one to keep as a spare in case this model goes out of production. I did also pay big bucks for the very famous Microsoft Ergo 4000 keyboard, thinking it would be superior owing to its stratospheric price. And maybe for some people it is, but I gave it a serious try, and the problem is, its keys require about three times the force of this Adesso. Maybe folks prefer that, but I'm vulnerable to RSI and so I like my keys to require minimum force, the way a ThinkPad's keys do. The Adesso's keys require that same light force, like I said, about one-third or one-half of the Microsoft keyboard. I'm changing my review to five stars. I never ended up using this keyboard's touchpad, so I've nothing to report there. It does seem quite small compared to a ThinkPad's; that would take a while to get used to, I suppose. *** UPDATE 2026-January *** Additional updates as I continue to live on this keyboard. The numlock/scrolllock/capslock lights are blazingly bright. If you work in the dark, then you'll need to place some tape over those LEDs. The white printed key label on my "C" key is already half worn off, which is disappointingly quick. I figure my favorite dozen keys will be blank after the first year. I wish they hadn't skimped on the key labels. Nevertheless, this keyboard is such a joy to use, I've decided to grant it my highest honor: I've ordered a second one, to keep in the closet for the dark day when this one dies and I discover they are no longer made. :) *** UPDATE 2026-February *** Pic uploaded, showing my favorite keyboard after the first four months of hard service. You can see where the print is wearing off my favorite keys. This bugged me, but then I realized that any key getting used often enough to wear off, is ipso facto so familiar to me that I'll never need to look at the label. As long as the labels stay on the weird keys, I can overlook the rest. Everything else still going strong. *** UPDATE 2026-March *** I ran some tests so that I can quantify the difference in pressure needed to strike a key. I used stacks of pennies on a center key (F or H) on all the keyboards here, including my retired Microsoft Comfort Curve that I loved so much before it finally died and I bought this new one. You can see a picture of the test. Here are the results: This keyboard, after five months use 18 pennies / 48 grams Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000, well used 19-20 pennies / 52-55 grams Newer ThinkPads, two different models, lightly used 24-25 pennies / 63-65 grams Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 v1.0, unused 29 pennies / 76 grams So that is the reason why the much-ballyhoo'd Microsoft keyboard felt so hard to use -- it really does require a lot more force per keystroke. Remember that your finger weighs about 30 grams, so subtract that amount from all the weights listed above to see how much force is actually required to strike a key. After subtracting finger weight, this keyboard requires about half the force of the Microsoft keyboard, and about two-thirds the force of a Thinkpad keyboard. *** UPDATE 2026-April *** I had an insight to pass along to anyone having RSI or carpal-tunnel symptoms. If you are like me, you once had a coworker who used a split keyboard like this, and you tried it, and it felt weird and wrong and you just couldn't type on it because your hands were too far apart. Years ago, when my RSI first hit, I tried and tried to use a split keyboard, but eventually gave up and bought a curved keyboard (Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 iirc). That helped, but it's still not as good as a true split keyboard, which I now use, and so I realized: Use a curved keyboard for a year, to make the transition from straight keyboard to fully split keyboard. Hope this helps someone! *** UPDATE 2026-May *** Answering a question posed by another: Yes, this keyboard makes a light clattering sound when typing. It's nowhere near the noise of a full clicky (buckling spring) keyboard, but it sits in the middle, between the squishy-soft near-silence of a Thinkpad keyboard and the noise of a full clicky keyboard. If you share a room with a coworker they might hate it. One other thing to keep in mind when shopping for a split/ergo keyboard like this one. It drives me absolutely crazy how some keyboard designers choose to rearrange important keys like cursor, pageup/pagedown, insert/home/end/delete, the function keys, and the numpad. Who gave you permission to move those around?? I initially picked this keyboard because it sticks to the standard IBM 104-key layout. The designers did have to compromise on the function keys. Normally those come in groups of four, which makes it easy to find F4 and F5 in the dark, but this keyboard ran out of room and so had to clump the function keys together in two groups: F1-F5 and F6-F12. If you are like me and frequently use F4, F5, F9, F10, and F11 a lot, you'll have to relearn those, or place some small bright stickers above the important function keys to help you find them. Other than that, so far so good. I've worn the symbols off my C, D, N, M, period, and cursor keys, and am working on the S key, but everything still works perfectly.

Finally, a reduction of pain in my wrists while using a keyboard. The mousepad is excellent and helps me further limit the range of motion in my wrists to reduce further strain. Not the quietest keyboard I have ever had but definitely not excessively loud; it has a nice clicking sound. Keys are large and easy to press. Very easy to type on. I’m in love with this keyboard so much I have one for work and one for home use. I was a bit worried when I was this was an older model of keyboard but it still works great with the current Windows version. Other ergonomic keyboards I tried first simply do not compare.

I've had various ergonomic keyboards over the years, and this one is perfect. Slight slope, and *important* touch pad. One of the problems with lots of other keyboards is you have to take your hands off the keys to use the mouse. Not so with this one. It's perfect and has the touchpad. I'd buy it again.

I can't put down zero stars? Touch pad expired after 1month of use, just outside the period for returns.

Great key board and is quiet. A lot less cost than the one I replaced and just as good

The keyboard works as expected. The size of the touchscreen did take some adjusting too. If it was one square inch bigger it would work better for my activities.

Came as promised, quickly and in new condition.

I had this in my cart for weeks and hadn't bought it because I generally won't buy anything with less than 4.5 stars and at least 100 reviews.. but I went for it on this and I'm so glad I did! I hate having to use a mouse. Maybe I'm lazy but moving my hands off the keyboard just seems horrible 😂 I do wish it were a much larger pad, but it doesn't seem like that exists at a reasonable price so this will do!

As a person recovering from EMF hypersensitivity, I realize that the shape of the keyboard forces me to place my wrists on the table and therefore helps to ground my body (along with my feet on the floor). This is a big help. I would not hesitate to buy this keyboard again. I am using it with a simple low-tech monitor and am able to keep my laptop about 6 feet away owing to the extra-long cord. This too is a big help. I am an empath and am no longer feeling toxic EMF radiation from my computer with this set up (no-pain easy-to-use touchpad). I only regret that I didn't buy it a year ago when I first became incapacitated by EMF hypersensitivity.

I needed a keyboard with an integrated mouse due to a shoulder injury. A breath of fresh air. Got used to curve design quickly and is very natural and comfortable. The integrated mouse has helped me keep working. It is a tad noisier but not annoying so. The issues I have had is I have set keyboard up in settings to UK, but it won’t change the $ dollar sign to UK £ Pounds, so I have to go to in insert Also, the @ does not work either. So disappointing for UK users and subsequent keys.

I am so happy that I found this on Amazon. In the past I had to order from the US. I especially like the built in touch pad. I prefer the ergonomic style of keyboard.

Was good while it worked. Have to pay my own shipping to return it. The mouse pad started to scatter and then stopped responding.

Nothing about this keyboard is gonna blow your hair back. It is a pretty standard keyboard with nothing flashy. So far I can't remap the keys and that is kind of frustrating given how many there are but nothing too serious. I would buy this one again and not feel bad.