Kinesis Advantage2 Ergonomic Keyboard, Black

Got this keyboard about 4 months ago and figured I’d give my thoughts on it. So far it has been incredible! The first 2 weeks of using it were awful and because I wasn’t a touch typer before I had to learn that which was rough. I would practice typing after work everyday for about 30min-1 hour and after about a month I felt comfortable using it as my main keyboard.

Since then I haven’t looked back. This keyboard is extremely comfortable!

Ergonomically this keyboard is fantastic, I would highly recommend this keyboard to anyone who types a lot or does not like using a mouse.

Un diseño fuera de serie en la búsqueda de un teclado ergonómico que reduzca las dolencias y malestares de quienes pasan muchas horas tecleando textos. Sin embargo, lo devolveré, porque en mi opinión, dado su diseño curvo, las teclas tienen una posición inusual, por no decir extraña, por lo que se tiene que reaprender la posición de las teclas para llegar a dominar este teclado. Tengo 50 años y empezar de nuevo significaría una preocupación, más que un apoyo.

This might sound extreme, but I think this keyboard literally changed my life. I say “think” because I’m not sure what could have been.

I am a software engineer. Needless to say, I spend a lot of time at a keyboard. Over the years (I’m 39 by the way) my hands and wrists have progressively got worse. I would hear cracking, and constant aching in my hands and wrists. I just assumed that was par for the course with my job. As time went on, it got worse, and I decided to look into keyboards. I’ve had the split wrist ergonomic keyboards in the past and I liked them, but I thought I would look into something else.

After reading tons of reviews, looking at and seriously considering every crazy keyboard style out there. I looked at all the start ups, oldies, etc.

I had some criterion:
– Nothing but the best ergonimics
– mechanical keys
– programmable

I finally settled on the Kinesis Advantage 2.

Setup was as expected. Now that’s because I was already aware that there are KVM switches often have compatibility issues for keyboards like the Kinesis. This prevents you from being able to use the keyboard input on the switch. I have a KVM switch (IOGear Miniview DVI 4 port USB KVMP Switch). When reading the reviews from both companies, I knew it wasn’t going to work, but I already had a workaround. Basically, because your keyboard has the multimedia controls (like a lot of other of your cool keyboards) and some other advanced features, KVM switches don’t recognize them. That doesn’t mean that you will have any drivers on your windows PC (or Mac/Linux/etc) or anything like that. It’s just a keyboard to everything else in the world… but your KVM switch. This problem was easily solved by using one of the standard USB connections on the switch. I just have to push the button on the switch now. I also hooked up a standard keyboard for the rest of the people on this planet that don’t know how to use my keyboard… so I just use that to actually control the KVM so it’s really fine in the end. If you are planning to use a KVM switch have a look at the Kinesis web page, they have identified some that do work, sometimes only in a partial manner.

As any other review of the Kinesis will tell you, it takes time to get used to. Plan on that. I spent a lot of time on Type Racer practicing in my down time. I completely stayed away from standard keyboards for about 2 months (mostly). I made a lot of mistakes and made a lot of mistypes, hitting double keys, etc. It was obvious from the start how much better the ergonomics were.

I was able to easily program some macros into the keyboard. As I mentioned, I’m a software engineer. There are a lot of patterns that I type many times a day, I can do this with a single keystroke now. So far, I haven’t found a need for it yet, but the keyboard has different layer settings so if I’m switching between editors that have different auto completion features (i.e. how {} and () brackets are written out and tabbed… developers know what I’m talking about).

The Cherry keys are all they are cracked up to be. It’s my first mechanical keyboard set so I don’t really have much to compare them to, but the keys are wonderful. They are clicky, but not too bad. People I work with have not mentioned much about it so I assume that it is not too bother some.

Now, on to the real reason you would buy this keyboard. The ergonomics…

As I mentioned, it was obvious immediately how much more comfortable this keyboard is. I’m not sure exactly at what point it was, but my wrist pain went away… and I’m talking about a 2 months… probably less. I didn’t have any diagnosed carpal tunnel or anything like that, but the pain was constant.

It’s also important to note that I have reduced shoulder and neck pain because my arms are in a more natural position as well.

I carried my keyboard back and forth to work gladly every day until I got one for my work. At that price my work wanted a doctors note, which I gladly went for.

At this point, I have had the keyboard almost a year. I will now switch between “normal” keyboards and the Kinesis pretty easily enough. It literally becomes painfully obvious how much better the Kinesis is after typing at a “normal” keyboard for more than 5 minutes for me now. My wrists will start to hurt almost immediately and I think that I’ve been doing this all my life.

I’m seriously considering switching to Dvorak now that I have one at work and one at home. I was thinking that it might help me separate my brain more from the “normal” keyboard so switching would be easier. I did get the Dvorak version for work to plan for this and will likely buy the keys for my home keyboard.

Have a search on Youtube for a review on the Kinesis Advantage 2. There is a very good one that is about about a 15 minute in depth review of the “Human Keyboard”.

Pros:
– Ergonomics
– Program-ability
– Ergonomics
– Build quality
– Ergonomics
– Actually smaller than it appears in pictures.
– Ergonomics

Cons:
– KVM Switches… but a lot of other high end keyboards will suffer
– It’s completely different from all other keyboards (but that’s why your buying it right?) so switching between “normal” keyboards can be awkward, but it’s not as bad as I expected.
– Fatter and taller than a “normal” keyboard but slightly shorter. It might not fit well in those desk drawer keyboard trays.
– could be considered loud, but nothing louder than any other mechanical keyboard.

In the end, this keyboard does exactly what it says, every other review I read is spot on. If you are serious about your ergonomics, are experiencing pain in wrists and shoulders. I’m not saying this is going to cure you… but it might.

In conclusion, I “THINK” this keyboard changed my life, because I will hopefully never know, but I was quite certain that I was developing some long term chronic problem with my wrists and hands. As of a year later, I don’t worry about this nearly as much.