ProtoArc Mice and Keyboards: Which Ones Are Worth Buying (EM11 vs. EK01 Plus vs. the Folding XK01)

ProtoArc is a Chinese peripherals brand that has spent the last few years building a lineup of one idea: ergonomic input devices at a third of the price the established names charge. On Amazon that has worked. Its EM11 vertical mouse sits in the top 25 of the entire computer-mice category with more than 6,000 reviews, and its folding keyboards are among the best-selling of their kind.

The catalog is confusing in a specific way: model names (EM11, EK01, EKM01, XK01, XKM01) tell you nothing, several products exist in near-identical variants, and the combos overlap with the individual items. The decision is actually simple once you split the range in two. The E products (EM11 mouse, EK01 keyboard, EKM01 combo) are for a desk you sit at every day and a wrist or shoulder that hurts. The X products (XK01 keyboard, XKM01 combo) fold up and are for typing on the move. Nobody needs both halves.

We compared every current ProtoArc mouse and keyboard sold in the US on price, connectivity, review count and the pattern of low-star reviews. We didn’t put them on a test bench; this is a spec-and-owner-review comparison. All product links on this page are affiliate links to Amazon, and ProtoArc did not send us anything.

The lineup side by side

Prices are what the listings showed in early September 2026; ProtoArc runs on-page coupons often, so the black colorway is usually the cheapest on any given day.

Start with the mouse

If your complaint is a wrist that aches after a day of spreadsheets, the EM11 NL is where to start, and it’s where most people should stop. A vertical mouse turns your hand from palm-down to a handshake position, which takes the twist out of the forearm. The evidence that this helps is mixed in the research and overwhelming in the reviews: the recurring five-star story on this listing is “wrist pain gone in a week,” and the recurring two-star story is “couldn’t get used to it, returned it.” The second group is why we’d tell you to buy the mouse alone before you spend $80 on a combo.

At about $25 the EM11 is a fraction of a Logitech MX Vertical (around $100, not an affiliate link) and does the same job for office use. It charges over USB-C rather than eating AA batteries, pairs over Bluetooth or the included dongle, and comes in a handful of colors that cost the same. What you give up versus the Logitech: build quality is plastic rather than soft-touch, the scroll wheel is ordinary, and the sensor is fine for documents and browsing but not for gaming. Give it ten working days before you judge it; the reviews are consistent that the first three feel wrong.

If you have large hands, ProtoArc also sells an EM11 Pro at about $50 with a taller body and a side scroll wheel. It’s new, has under 200 reviews, and we’d wait; the standard EM11 fits most hands.

The split keyboard, and when the combo is the better buy

The EK01 Plus is a full-size split keyboard: the two halves of the letter block are angled apart and the middle is raised, so your wrists sit straight instead of bent outward. It has a padded palm rest, a backlight (which the Logitech Ergo K860 it’s modeled on does not), and connects over Bluetooth to a laptop and tablet or over the 2.4 GHz dongle to a desktop. It’s rechargeable.

At $70–$80 it’s the most expensive thing on this page and the one that divides reviewers. The 4.2-star average hides two camps: people who type all day and say their shoulders stopped hurting, and people who bought it for a shared family computer and found the split layout maddening. If you touch-type, a split board takes about a week. If you hunt-and-peck, don’t buy one from any brand; the split between the halves punishes looking down at the keys.

Here’s the pricing quirk that decides the combo question. The EKM01 Plus bundles the EK01 Plus keyboard with a vertical mouse of the EM11 type, both talking to one dongle, for about $80. That’s roughly the price of the keyboard on its own, which makes the mouse close to free. If you’ve already decided on the keyboard, buy the combo. The only reason not to is if you’ve already got and like an EM11, in which case you’d be paying for a second one.

The folding keyboards are a different product for a different person

The XK01 folds in three along two hinges into a slab about the size of a paperback and opens into a full-size key layout, with the number row and arrow keys most folding keyboards drop. It pairs over Bluetooth with up to three devices and switches between them with a key combination, which is the use case: an iPad in the hotel, a phone on the train, a laptop in the café. With 3,400 reviews at 4.3 stars it’s ProtoArc’s second-best seller, and the top of the keyboard category on Amazon has it in the top 25.

Be clear about what a folding keyboard is not. The keys are shallow and laptop-like, the hinges are the part that fails first in the low-star reviews, and it’s not an ergonomic keyboard in the split sense; it’s flat. If your problem is wrist pain at a desk, this is the wrong ProtoArc. If your problem is that typing on a tablet screen is slow, this is the right one.

The XKM01 combo adds a slim wireless travel mouse to the XK01. It lists at $80 and usually sells for $62. Whether the mouse is worth the roughly $20 premium depends on whether you already own a small mouse; most people do. If not, the combo is the cheaper way to get one.

What the low-star reviews actually say

We read the one- and two-star reviews across all five listings. The pattern is unusually consistent for a peripherals brand. For the EM11 and EK01 Plus, the complaints are about adaptation, not failure: “felt awkward,” “returned after three days,” “my accuracy dropped.” Genuine defects (a dead scroll wheel, a key that stopped registering) show up but at rates that look normal for the price. For the folding XK01 and XKM01, the failure story is mechanical: a hinge that loosened or a fold that stopped waking the keyboard after a year of daily travel. Treat the folding boards as a two- or three-year purchase if you fold them every day.

The other thing the reviews confirm is that ProtoArc’s customer service replaces units readily, which matters more for a brand at this price than a longer spec sheet would.

FAQ

Is a vertical mouse actually better for your wrist?

For many people, yes, because it removes the forearm twist of a flat mouse; for some it changes nothing. The honest test is two weeks with a $25 EM11, which is why we’d buy that before any combo.

Does the EK01 Plus work with a Mac?

Yes, over Bluetooth or the dongle. The key legends are Windows-style; the command and option keys work but are labeled as Windows and Alt.

Which ProtoArc is the newest?

The EM11 Pro mouse and the Plus versions of the EK01 and EKM01 are the current designs. The XK01 has been sold for several years, which is why it has the most reviews.

Are these good for gaming?

No. They’re office peripherals: sensors, polling rates and key switches are tuned for documents, and the folding keyboards have short key travel. Buy them for work and keep a gaming mouse for games.