SafeType™ Vertical Keyboard Review

It's obvious from the SafeType Vertical Keyboard that creating ergonomic keyboards is becoming quite an art form. Imagine taking your regular keyboard, breaking it in half, and standing both sides up vertically, keys facing out in opposite directions. The idea behind the design of the vertical keyboard is this puts the forearms in a more neutral position which is less destructive on the wrists than the typical wrists-facing-the-floor (pronated) position. In your normal typing position, the bones in the forearm twist and put extra pressure on the Carpal Tunnel.

At around $300, the SafeType Vertical Keyboard is surprisingly usable. As you might expect, the first few minutes were very awkward. The keys are in the same QWERTY position that most of us are accustomed to, however, so it didn't take long to get the knack of things. Within a couple days, the board felt fairly comfortable and accurate.

Be warned, this keyboard is for touch typists. If you have to look at the keys when you type, you'll find the vertical keyboard set up frustrating. There is a little bit of aid provided in the way of vertical mirrors that let you see the function and number keys, but it's not versatile enough to be extremely helpful.

The number pad, arrow keys, and multimedia keys lie in the canyon created by the two vertical boards. You'll probably need to get a vertical mouse to go with this set up (yes, somebody actually makes them), otherwise switching back and forth from the neutral to pronated position can be just as troublesome on the wrists as normal typing.

Pros: saves wear and tear on your wrists, especially the Carpal Tunnel area

Cons: the arrow keys and number pad is in the middle (between the keyboard halves) so you have to move your hands around the board to get those keys.

Sites about the Safetype Vertical Keyboard:

SafeType™ vertical keyboard

Pictures of the SafeType

Comments

[mahesh]

Safetype key board sucks, I used it for 1 and half year. My wrists recovered fast. But after 6 months of usage, I started receiving severe low back pain. I tried all for my back pain. One day, I moved to microsoft keyboard. All my back pain went away. Good for one thing, but over a period of time you will start getting back pain

[Frank]

I've been using a SafeType keyboard daily for almost four years, and have no back pain. Everyone's results will differ, but it definitely worked for me.

[anon]

I use my SafeType keyboard all the time now. It really eliminated my wrist pain.

The main disadvantage is slightly slower typing speed, but I can live with that. Formerly, it hurt to press any keys at all...

[anon]

The SafeType is great. I use it all the time now, and it has done something I didn't think was possible-- reverse the progress of my RSI ailment.

These guys deserve a lot of kudos for this keyboard. It's sad that things like this aren't even available at Best Buy or Micro Center. Instead, they just try to push flat keyboards with fancy LEDs or styling.

[Aaron]

Is there any company besides SafeType that sells vertical keyboards? It's just so expensive to get one...

[Ergoblog]

Ergonomic keyboards always seem to cost an arm and a leg no matter who sells them, but you could try looking on ebay, Aaron. Since many of the boards have, shall we say, funky designs, some folks try them for a bit but then decide they are not for them. I've seen quite a few almost-new ergonomic keyboards on there.

[Matthew]

Regarding the question: "Is there any company besides SafeType that sells vertical keyboards? It's just so expensive to get one..."

Check out Kinesis (http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/ )

The "Freestyle" keyboard that Kinesis sells can be customized with their "Ascent" accessory -- an adapter that allows this particular split keyboard design to be used at several angles, including the vertical position. I am going to buy a SafeType, however what Kinesis has is intriguing.

[David Wildman]

I very much like the ergonomics of the Safetype, but the keyswitches leave something to be desired. My fantasy keyboard would be the Safetype with the mechanical keyswitches of the Das Keyboard.