JEDIA Foam Wrist Rests
★★★★☆ - Great!
Simple, comfortable, thick, and cool.
Pros
It’s thick enough to raise wrists to a much healthier angle
Seems to stay cool, haven’t noticed sweaty hands
Includes both mouse and keyboard rests
Inexpensive ($18 at time of writing)
Cons
Thickness will make them difficult to fit in a small bag
The keyboard rest is a little wider than it needs to be if you’re using a compact keyboard, but only by an inch or two
People will ask you what it is, thinking it’s an extra keyboard 🙃
Review
A wrist rest is probably the “lowest-hanging fruit” when it comes to improving your ergonomics. They are inexpensive and immediately correct what is typically a very unhealthy wrist angle.
There’s not a lot to say about a wrist rest - it’s just a thick pad. They tend to come in two primary materials: foam and gel. Which one is better I suspect is mostly a matter of personal preference. For me, I like the firmness of the foam and the fact that it isn’t rubbery as gel ones often are (and which can get hot).
What really matters though is that you want your wrist and fingers to be roughly level. If you don’t use a rest you’ll be bending your hands backwards (even more so if the keyboard has a positive tilt towards you), slowly doing horrible things to your wrists.
This particular rest has nifty little depressions that I assume help with airflow and keeping it cool. The funny unexpected side effect though is that people keep asking me what it is since the indentations almost look like buttons.
To note, I’m not saying this is “the best wrist rest”. I haven’t done extensive testing, but this is the one I got and I’m happy with it.
Conclusion
You’re not going to go wrong with most wrist rests. This one comes as a matched set, is reasonably-priced, and cool, and that’s what I wanted in mine.
