Microsoft Arc Keyboard review

This small, lightweight keyboard from Microsoft is designed for use around the home with any USB-enabled device that uses a keyboard. It has, according to Microsoft, been designed to fit in aesthetically with home decor and accessories. It's most striking feature is the arc that gives it its name; the keyboard rises in a curve from edge to middle and then falls away towards the other edge. The reason for the curve is entirely aesthetic, rather than ergonomic, and it makes typing on the keyboard a strange experience. It takes some getting used to when typing on a desk.

At just over 30cm wide and 15cm deep, the Arc keyboard is about the same size as the company's Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 (see MacUser, 4 December 2009, p39). In this case, however, the wireless connection is not Bluetooth, it's a proprietary 2.4GHz radio connection that needs the nano transceiver that comes with the keyboard.

That transceiver tucks away neatly under the keyboard when not in use and is held in place magnetically, which is just as well as it is likely to get lost otherwise. It looks identical to the one used with Microsoft's wireless Blu Track mice, but they're not inter-changeable. This means that you can't use the same transceiver with both keyboard and mouse, so if you want to use both, you'll have to occupy two USB ports.

The Arc keyboard has six function keys, with another six available by pressing a modifier key. There are also volume control and mute buttons, and a single key arrow pad for controlling the cursor. We'd have liked to have seen more media keys on a keyboard designed for use in the living room, in particular keys for playing, pausing, and skipping through iTunes music tracks would have been welcome.

We initially found the typing action was a little spongy for our liking, but we soon got used to it and found it to be very comfortable after a while.

We're not convinced of the wisdom of the arc shape though, particularly as it seems to be a purely aesthetic innovation, and the single key for moving the cursor isn't great. The Arc keyboard, however, is small, light, and if you're choice of keyboard for use around the house is influenced more by style than substance, it might be just what you're looking for.