External Keyboard & Trackpad/Mouse Needed—6 Potential Setups, What's the Best?

[curban]

I'm a long-time MBP 15" user who wants to work less with the notebook itself but more with an external keyboard and screen.

One thing I realize is that I am way slower with the combination external keyboard and a dirt-cheap mouse. Before I could move both hands from my internal keyboard to the internal trackpad to do some gestures within milliseconds. Now, I can only take my right hand and the distance to the mouse is quite far (the keyboard is also quite wide). This makes everything much slower. I even use a lot of short-cuts and stuff like Vimium for Chrome but still I need the mouse quite often. Surprisingly, I am so much slower than with my MBP before where my hands flew over internal keyboard and trackpad with ease.

So what's the best setup to be as fast?
1. Magic Keyboard + Magic Mouse 2
2. Magic Keyboard + Magic Trackpad 2
3. Magic Keyboard + Magic Trackpad 2 BUT the Magic Trackpad in front of the keyboard, imitating MBP internal keyboard and trackpad positioning. Or will the back height of the trackpad hurt too much my palms? Maybe some of you guys owning the Trackpad 2 could try this...
4. Magic Keyboard + Magic Trackpad BUT the Magic Trackpad in front of the keyboard + Magic Mouse 2 on the right in addition
5. Magic Keyboard + some qualilty 3rd part mouse (Logitech or Razer)
6. Razer Blackwidow + Magic Trackpad BUT the Magic Trackpad in front of the keyboard (the Blackwidow is a bit higher, so this might work re the back height of the Trackpad 2)

Or, am I always slower with external keyboards?

Happy to get your opinion.

 

[Fishrrman]

I have -NEVER- liked or used Apple-brand USB keyboards or mice (at least not for very long). Apple's products are all about style, and almost nothing about substance.

I prefer 3rd party offerings - far, FAR better.

I -ALWAYS- use a WIRED USB keyboard, as wireless keyboards can have problems with boot-up commands now and then.

I prefer Logitech mice, been using them for years, would never go back to anything else.

My opinions only...

 

[danielwsmithee]

My current setup is WASD Keyboards CODE 10-key-less keyboard with a Logitech Performance MX mouse. You can't go wrong with that setup.

If you prefer a full size keyboard with a built-in 10-key than look at the Das Keyboard 4 Professional for Mac. It has a few more snazzy features.

If you like the use a trackpad the Magic Trackpad would be great too. As would the Razer Naga Hex v2 as an alternate to the Logitech Performance MX.

I'm not a fan of the Magic Mouse, or the new Magic Keyboard based on the Macbook Keyboard.

It sounds like you would probably like a 10-key-less keyboard like me. I've never liked the added distance the 10-key adds to got to the mouse. I also spend most of my time coding, so I don't do a lot of data entry and hence can touch type numbers as fast as I could 10-key them in.

If you really are use to the laptop feel you will probably prefer the magic keyboard and magic trackpad. If you like the feel of an older school keyboard with more travel, check out the CODE Keyboard. A good mechanical keyboard will last forever.

http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/code-keyboard.html

If you are very happy with the MBP keyboard and setup you are use to. I used my MBA connected to an external monitor and just placed the monitor on a stand to raise it above the MBA screen. It worked really well, and I used the MBA screen for email/messages etc.