(FORTUNE Magazine) – Some People Join the Navy not knowing how to swim. I've met dog trainers who never learned to whistle, baseball players who can't spit, and executives who aren't able to knot their own neckties. We all have our little professional secrets. As a writer, mine is that I never figured out how to type with more than three fingers. But that doesn't keep me from appreciating a particularly good computer gadget, like Microsoft's Wireless Comfort Keyboard--one of several new hardware products coming from a company better known for its software. I can count on three fingers the things that make it great.

One, it's wireless.

Two, it's got all sorts of handy buttons that streamline common operations like launching favorite applications and documents. It even has a sliding switch that zooms in and out on photos, web pages, and text documents, making it easy to view things onscreen even when I can't find my reading glasses.

And three, it's easy on the wrists and fingers, thanks to an innovative arrangement of keys in the hardware equivalent of a Mona Lisa smile.

Microsoft introduced the first ergonomic keyboard a decade ago, designed to reduce the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome and other related ailments by splitting the keyboard in two and tilting the halves slightly to allow more natural finger, hand, and arm positions while typing. Besides being unconventional (okay, just plain weird-looking), the split-keyboard design was intimidating even for expert touch-typists, but especially for hunt-and-peckers.

By slightly curving the key layout--six degrees of smile, Microsoft says--the Wireless Comfort Keyboard keeps the familiarity of a traditional "flat" keyboard while allowing the hands and fingers to rotate inward more naturally. (Go ahead, put your hands on the desk in front of you. Do your hands point straight ahead? No! They curl inward, as if you're resting them on an imaginary volleyball.) A padded faux-leather wrist rest offers additional support.

As if comfort was not enough, Microsoft has also added handfuls of convenience in the form of shortcut buttons. Let's take a tour, starting on the left:

Five buttons are assigned to specific common tasks, labeled WEB/HOME (one poke and you're at your home page on the World Wide Web), CALENDAR, MAIL, MESSENGER (to launch Internet Messenger for instant text messaging), and MY DOCUMENTS. Because I rarely use Internet Messenger, I reprogrammed it easily, using the software that comes with the keyboard to take me to iTunes instead.

Just beyond the left pinkie is the zoom sliding controller. It's a well-documented fact that text shrinks with age, forcing people like me to wear reading glasses and crane forward to see things clearly onscreen. Sure, I could buy and load one of many software utility programs that add zooming capabilities, but--irrationally, perhaps--I still view the Windows operating system as a house of cards that might crash if I pile on one more stack of bits. The keyboard zoom switch doesn't work on every application, but it does on many of the apps that I use most frequently, like Internet Explorer and Word.

Media buttons at the top of the keyboard offer standard music and video controls like VOLUME, MUTE, PLAY, PAUSE, and so on. There's also a fully customizable five-button My Favorites array that can easily be set to go to web pages, documents, pictures, or folders. On the right, above the numeric keypad, are quick-hit buttons to bring up a calculator, to log off the computer, and to put the computer to sleep. Not all the features work on a Macintosh, although it's unclear whether that's because of Microsoft's cavalier attitude toward Apple or Apple's disdain for things Microsoftian.

The feel of any keyboard is subjective, but to my taste the Wireless Comfort Keyboard gives just the right amount of tactile feedback. As always, it's important to try any keyboard before committing to it, if possible. After all, it's the most used part of the computer interface.

In stores this month, the Microsoft Wireless Comfort Keyboard comes in a bundle with a matching wireless optical mouse, for $85. The mouse is no slouch, either, comfortable for lefties as well as righties (I'm referring to handedness, of course, not political leanings). The mouse is conservative when it comes to battery power, scurrying for as long as six months on a pair of standard AA cells. It also has a scroll wheel that rolls documents and web pages side to side as well as up and down.

However, I'm electing to ditch the Microsoft optical mouse in favor of the world's first laser mouse. As its name suggests, Logitech's impressive new MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse has no tail and uses a tiny laser instead of the more conventional light-emitting diode (LED) employed by other optical mice.

Optical mice are like little digital cameras that send flurries of pictures to a microchip sensor. By analyzing the pictures--thousands of them per second--the mouse detects movement far more accurately than first-generation mice that relied on a rolling belly ball. And unlike the balled mice, a rolling optical mouse gathers no lint and dirt. The red LED light on the bottom of a conventional optical mouse is like a flashlight compared with the focused precision of a laser beam. By replacing the LED with a laser, Logitech has taken mouse precision to a new level--some 20 times the precision of its LED rivals, Logitech claims. The MX1000 also performs better on high-gloss desktops and other shiny surfaces that often confuse LED mice. Try this test: Run your optical mouse over a sheet of glossy white photo paper. Chances are it will be befuddled, skipping and stalling. With the laser mouse, however, the cursor on the screen moves with exquisite precision. The laser mouse still won't work on a clear glass surface or on a mirror, but for most other situations a mouse pad is superfluous.

Logitech asserts that the low-power belly laser of the MX1000 is perfectly safe, with a range of about one inch. It could be a problem if you feel compelled to hold the mouse's belly against your eyeball for an extended period, but if that's the case, you probably have greater problems unrelated to the laser.

In terms of functionality, this comfortable mouse--sorry, lefties, it's right-handers only--has eight buttons, including PAGE FORWARD and PAGE BACK, SIDE SCROLLING, and ZOOM. It uses a built-in lithium ion battery and thus requires occasional visits to its recharging stand. It's compatible with Mac OS X as well as Windows XP--based PCs.

Granted, conventional optical mice are quite good, including the one paired with the Microsoft Comfort Keyboard. So why pay $80 for a laser mouse? Hmm. Good question. It might appeal to graphic designers, engineers, X-ray technicians, hard-core gamers, and serious digital photographers who tweak images pixel by pixel. Or to gadget freaks, like me, with shiny desks and an infatuation with any advance in technology.

Now, if only I could train the mouse to type, I could rest my three typing fingers until it's time to hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE.

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