Kinesis Advantage2 Ergonomic Keyboard (KB600), Black top case, Cherry MX Brown Switches, QWERTY keycaps

Product Information

The only reason you are considering this keyboard (likely) is for the typing experience. You probably don't care that people spend hours lubricating key switches and testing out different keycaps for their sound qualities. You want to type without pain. The Advantage2 Quiet LF utilizes the newest Cherry MX Quiet Red stem mechanical key switches which have a linear feel, low activation force, and sound-dampening components to make them quieter than conventional mechanical switches. The MX “Quiet” Red is an ideal choice in open work environments where ambient noise is a concern. I've had several injuries to the nerves in my right arm. A lifetime of playing baseball, video games, and just generally having bad posture have led to some real issues in my right shoulder and forearm. I've had both carpal and cubital tunnel syndrome several times, but late 2017 and early 2018 were particularly bad. I could barely straighten my right arm and had to shake it out every minute or two to stop the nerves from tingling or flashing pain. I needed an intervention. The latest model makes a bunch of detailed improvements, but the basic design has been identical since the early 1990s. The on-board programmability, which has always been a selling point is much also much improved.

This allows your wrists and shoulders to stay in a neutral, un-bent position and is instrumental in preventing carpal tunnel syndrome. CTS is caused by the tendons of your fingers rubbing against the gap between your wrist bones while typing. When your wrists are bent sideways or strongly upwards or downwards that gap narrows and.. ouch! The Advantage2 was the best keyboard I have had so far. With QMK, it was powerful and highly customizable as well. However, I was still missing a couple of things from the Moonlander MK1 that I wish the Advantage2 had:True Split design. The Moonlander could be adjusted to your shoulder width, providing another level of ergonomics. Many people play games on their computer. This is not a gaming keyboard without rebinding many keys. For example, it is incredible uncomfortable and unnatural to rest your left hand over WASD like you would do for most games. The keywells are working against you for most of default key configurations. While the thumb clusters open up some potential for extra functionality and the ability to save off layout profiles is really nice, this keyboard doesn't fit the requirements for a good gaming keyboard, at least as I understand them. Sound

The thumb clusters are such an obvious improvement once you get used to them, that is seems impossible that there are keyboards without this feature. The thumbs are the strongest and most mobile fingers and yet on a traditional keyboard both thumbs only hit one miserable key. The Advantage2 may look big, but it actually has a smaller footprint than most keyboards because we eliminated the numeric 10-key so you can place the mouse closer to your body, reducing painful “over-reach”. The Advantage2 features low-force Cherry MX Brown tactile mechanical key switches, the rubber function keys (found on the original Advantage) have been replaced with Cherry ML low-force, tactile mechanical key switches, and our signature home row keys are in the new Kinesis Blue. The keyboard surface is concave and the key wells are tented to an optimal 20° angle which elevates the thumb side of the hands to reduce the forearm pronation typically caused by flat keyboards.So the Advantage is best in class, though the class has a size of 1 unless you want to build your own keyboard. I guess that means it's worth it? Verdict One question I had in mind was whether Bluetooth would introduce any lagging. But it works surprisingly excellent. The keyboards wake up from sleep immediately, and you barely feel any latency. It works like it's wired. There was only one issue that I've seen recently. I restarted macOS, and I couldn't type because Bluetooth was disabled. Somehow, plugging a cable into my Advantage360 also didn't work out. I wasn't sure whether it was a Firmware issue or a limitation of ZMK. I'll update the blog post if I find out the main reason. Advantage2 vs Advantage360 If the Keypad LED will not illuminate, the keyboard is not getting power. First try plugging the keyboard in to a different USB port on the computer. If that doesn’t solve the problem, try a different computer if you have one available. On a traditional keyboard, the keys that need to be reached by bending your index fingers laterally (e.g. G and the H key) are very awkward to press. The Advantage does not eliminate this awkwardness altogether, but just sliding the finger sideways places it at the optimal angle to press sideways, making it into more of a poking motion which feels much more natural.