Kinesis Advantage Review: Long-Term Evaluation

Closing Thoughts: Advantage, Kinesis

I spent more than a month typing on the TECK before moving on to the Kinesis Advantage. The initial learning curve with the Advantage wasn’t as steep for me, and while part of that may be the similar orthogonal key layouts, I think the layout on the TECK requires more effort to learn. I don’t know that anyone can really declare either keyboard as superior, but every user is likely to prefer one more than the other. I happen to be lucky in that I got a chance to try out both.

My initial thoughts were that the TECK and Kinesis are really just different takes on the same idea—mechanical ergonomic keyboards. After returning to the TECK to do some additional use, however, I’m now convinced that the TECK requires more effort to learn, and in fact if you stop using it for a month or two and return you’ll have to retrace some lost ground. Today for instance, after numerous attempts, I managed to get no better than 55WPM on the TECK in any of the typing tests—15 to 20WPM off of what I was doing back when I finished the TECK review. On the other hand, I pulled out an MS Natural and was able to get good results within a few minutes.

A big part of the difference is in the key arrangements; TECK changes a lot more relative to the standard keyboards, whereas the Kinesis layout puts a bunch of stuff on your thumbs but otherwise leaves most keys where you’d find them on other keyboards. Maybe it’s just personal preference, but the center column of Start, Delete, Tab, Backspace, and Enter on the TECK doesn’t work nearly as well for me as the thumb pad arrangements on the Kinesis. On the other hand, I generally had a better time with the cursor keys and document navigation keys on the TECK, and while it can cause some issues at first, I think moving Shift up to home row is an ergonomically sound idea.

There are other aspects to consider as well. The TECK is definitely more compact than the Advantage, even with the palm rest attached; without it, the TECK is positively diminutive in comparison. The Advantage also has a few additional features like USB ports, macro recording/playback, and built-in key remapping. None of these are “must haves” in my opinion, but they’re all potential perks that make a good product just a bit better.

I know that I’m not a very good study in “typical” computer use—I have several desktops that I switch between, plus laptops come and go almost weekly. That means I tend to like things that don’t mix it up too much, at least in the keyboard arena (these two keyboard reviews notwithstanding), and in this case the layout of the Kinesis Advantage simply works out better for me than the TECK. It also costs more, but the good news is that both companies offer money back guarantees. If you’re looking for a good ergonomic keyboard, there’s at least the potential to give both of them a try and then keep whichever one you like the most. The Kinesis Advantage will set you back $299 for the model I reviewed, or $325 for a model with Cherry MX Red switches; the Advantage Pro bumps the price up to $359 but you also get longer macros and a single-action foot switch. The TECK rings up at $248 (plus shipping and such), so about $50 less than the base model Advantage.

There’s still one more keyboard that I’ve got waiting for some serious attention: the ErgoDox via MassDrop. I almost cringe at the thought of having to go through “keyboard rehabilitation” yet again, as just poking around at it is enough to let me know that yet again there’s a completely new layout to come to grips with. I suspect by the time I’m done I’m still going to end up back with the Kinesis as my favorite of the bunch, but there’s something cool about a keyboard that you can build on your own if you want, with the design released under the GNU GPL v3. The MassDrop option isn’t currently available, but if enough people express interest in it I’m sure it will open up again. Now pardon me while I go cry a bit before unplugging this Kinesis and starting in on a full review of the ErgoDox….