The AlphaGrip is one of the most unique keyboards on the market, taking the form factor of a gaming controller. It has all the keys from a standard layout and a trackball to use with your thumb. Comming in at $100, it’s not the cheapest keyboard we’ve seen, but compared to some of the other specialty keyboards on the market, it’s not too shabby either.

So here at RSI Stuff, the big question is: Is this the keyboard I’ve been looking for to help with my typing injury? The answer is neither black or white, so lets talk about it.

When using the AlphaGrip the first bit of relief I felt was being able to hold my hands in a completely different positon than a traditional mouse and keyboard. It also enables you to kick back in you chair, stand up, lay down, or choose any position for you body you’re in the mood for. One of the best things you can do for repetitive stress injuries is, well, be less repetitive about it; and this device enables you to move around a lot more easily while you work. While there are several keyboards and mice on the market that put you hands in a vertical position, this is the first usable device we’ve seen where it’s all in one unit.

The keys are pretty easy to push. The pressure needed to push a key down on this guy is rated at 80 KOF (grams of force needed to push the key in). Most keyboards range between 40-120 KOF so that puts the Alphagrip right in the middle. Why does this matter? 80 grams of force is very little, but accumulated over time, the difference of how hard your finger has to work to press the key can lead to fatigue. Too low of a number and the keyboard will feel unresponsive and a number too high will be clunky and strenuous. For our sake, and given the form factor, a rating of 80 is pretty decent and has a very natural feel to it.

Unfortunately, the trackball is somewhat low quality, so precision leaves a bit to be desired. Compared to other trackballs, they could have done a little better. It’s also slow, even with the speed turned up all the way, so I found it taxed my thumb a bit more than a normal logitech trackball.

How hard is this keyboard to get used to? I’m a computer programmer, so on a slow week I brought it into work and forced myself to learn trial by fire. It took ~5 days before I knew where all the keys were. It took another 3 weeks before I built up much speed. I ended up using it for 6 months, and although I never got as fast as I am on a normal keyboard, I was able to get fast enough that I was satisfied. The nice thing is that the odd form factor is different enough from your normal keyboard that learning it doesn’t have a huge impact on your normal typing abilities.

I’m going to get very subjective for the long term use part because everyone’s RSI is a little different. I used the device for about 6 months and it was a good 6 months. The welcome change up to my normal setup nearly saved me from having to take a leave of absence, but after 6 months, I found that I’d traded one set of pains for another. If you ever played halo on the original xbox for hours on end, you may have noticed your hands got cramp just because of how large the controller is. The alpha grip is even bigger and holding it in your hands for 8 hours a day was a little much for me.

If you’re is search of the magic bullet and you have enough will power to learn a completely new keyboard layout, I say the Alphagrip is a good candidate, and they offer a 30 day return policy. For casual use it’s wonderful. For heavy use, I suggest combining it with an ergonomic keyboard & mouse and swapping between the 2 setups throughout the day. Some people use the alphagrip to surf the web and their normal keyboard for typing a lengthy email for example. And yes, you can have the Alphagrip and another keyboard plugged in at the same time. Switching between the 2 is merely a matter of putting it down, and if you’re lucky, the added variation to your daily computing routine might be what makes the difference for you.