Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Desktop review

The Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Desktop is a wireless keyboard and mouse set with a curved design. As it’s a wireless set, it comes with a USB dongle that allows the keyboard and mouse to connect to your computer. The set is very easy to set up, so you’ll have no trouble getting started with it.

The main keyboard curves upward in the centre, and it took us some time to get used to the position of the keys. This wasn’t helped by the keys’ spongy feedback. However, our typing accuracy increased when we used the detachable wrist rest’s flip-out feet, as they raise the height of the front of the keyboard, lessening the overall curve. Otherwise, the keyboard’s layout is much like a regular keyboard, except the Fn key, which has been replaced by a flimsy flip switch above the number pad. The Fn key changes the behaviour of the regular function keys.

The mouse was a good size for our hand, and our thumb rested naturally in the groove on the side. The four-way scroll wheel was responsive and easy to use, but we weren’t fans of the mouse’s integrated Windows key. The key is touch sensitive and is useful for quickly accessing the Start screen in Windows 8 (or the Start Menu in Windows 7), but its touch-sensitive surface is far too fiddly and unnatural to use.

You’ll need to spend a lot of time familiarising yourself with the Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Desktop, but ultimately it isn’t particularly comfortable.