I've tried 4 split keyboards. Which is best?

In this video, I compare 4 split mechanical keyboards: The Moonlander Mark I, The Voyager, The Glove80, and the Kinesis Advantage 360 Pro. Hopefully, this video will give you a better idea on which of these keyboards would be best for you.

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:59 - Keyboards overview
2:20 - Questions to ask yourself
3:02 - Kinesis Advantage 360 Pro
5:29 - Moonlander Mark I
7:34 - The Voyager
9:42 - Benefits of small layouts
11:26 - The Glove80
11:55 - Gaming on the Glove80
13:36 - RSI problems
15:27 - Homerow mods on QMK vs ZMK
17:11 - Bluetooth
17:40 - Final thoughts and recap
18:48 - Outro

[tuures.]

0:15 Youch, I didn't expect to be so mercilessly called out to start off this video!

[daanw]

I was just looking for an ergonomic keyboard for like 50 bucks, now I'm looking at a video on keyboards about 10x that price ... ffs

[darcsentor]

Long time suffer from RSI here. What helped for me a lot was getting the monitor height right, the neck/shoulders can put lot of pressure on the nerves in your arms, which leads to wrists pain. Did a lot of yoga and Alexander technique which helped a lot too. Best mouse I have found so far is a contour mouse, they help put your wrist in a more neutral position. Keyboard wise I’m really loving the 360, but I’m using a 36 key layout on it, the reduced finger movement and stretching has reduced my pain levels to the best ever. Tried the flat split keyboard but can quickly feel a flare up coming. The key wells and tenting on the 360 are awesome. Hopefully one day I’ll try out the glove 80. Keep up the great content 😊

[joshuawagner]

I think one of the main resons the Kinesis brand does well is that they are in corporate accounts. I needed to get ergo and my employeer was only setup with a few brands - I just ended up on the Kinesis Adv Pro. I really wanted the Glove80 but it was not in any of my options. I had the same experience as you - the day I switched my RSI was gone. It was amazing. It has given me my life back.

[Munch_]

I was hoping there would be a sale on for the Voyager, Black Friday n’all.
I have a glove 80 but it’s a bit of a ‘statement piece’ whipping it out in a coffee shop. 😂

[chrome]

Oryx is the reason why I got my first split keyboard as the Voyager, I think it is trully underrated and the team keeps updating it giving us more features. (Also I work in a hybrid model so portablity is really important to me)

[HellSpawnRulerOfHell]

12:33 Just use ESDF :p
I use ESDF on 'normal' keyboards tho.

[shrugalic]

As for gaming, having used keyboards like these for 15 years for work and games, in my experience nothing beats reconfiguring every game from WASD to ESDF (or the Colemak equivalent in my case). Yes, it is a bit of a PITA and takes an extra 10 minutes to do, but it is super comfortable.

I only use the left keyboard half when gaming, and put the right half further back, so the mouse can be in the most ergonomic position. When chatting in game I have to reach a bit further back with my right arm, but that's fine, also there's often voice communication via Discord or the like.

BTW on my non-gaming computers (Macs) I use either a trackpad (Apple's) or Trackball (Elecom Deft Pro) to have some variety, I think it helps with RSI.

[traal]

I use the non-Pro Kinesis 360. It's simply amazing. I had horrible RSI problems 25 years ago, but getting a Kinesis contoured keyboard cured my problems basically overnight, and they never returned. And the Kinesis 360 is even better and more comfortable. It just works out of the box, it has no Bluetooth that can malfunction, and it has their easy to use point-and-click configurator program. If you want to have maximum RSI protection, I don't know of any better physical design.

[bobblah]

I have the original kenesis advantage, moonlander, and a 36 keyboard. Sounds like your RSI symptoms were similar. When I try anything besides the advantage my RSI flares up, also Im just not as productive for some reason. I want a split keyboard for traveling. The glove80 sounds promissing but curious how close it "feels" to the advantage. Not sure how to describe it but the moonlander just doesnt feel right to me and could never get the hang of it.

[felixperezdiener]

This video could not have come at a better time for me! Looking forward to watching

[Aethid]

Biggest thing I have ever done to help my RSI was to get a Logitech MX Ergo trackball.

[christopheanfry]

I think you’ve convinced me to try the Glove80. I want to make the transition to split keyboards. I like the design of the voyager but it might be too difficult as new in this area. Thank you great video!!

[Ground-Spam]

I believe you are using magnetic USB connecters, do you have a brand/link to the ones you've found that works well? I was lost looking at some poor reviews amongst the 10s of clones listed.

[americoperez]

I found that the biggest helper for my RSI was to switch over to a trackball mouse, particularly the Logitech Mx Ergo Plus. Being able to have the mouse angled to reduce pronation was a god send with this mouse.

[trololoev]

Glow 80 look hard to blind typing, all keys are same and same size, it look like 360 is better if you try to learn blind typing on them.

[SepulvedaBlvd]

Thanks for adding a new video over the long weekend, I love this topic! I like your reviews because you are a programmer like me so you appreciate larger numbers of keys. For me, the main step in getting rid of my RSI was getting an Evoluent Vertical mouse. I tried some fancier ones and cheaper ones, but none of them worked for me. There are two topics that I've never seen mentioned in any video comments or forums:
1. I like the fact that Oryx allows you to program the LED colors for each key, because I like to change these per layer. For instance, I have a gaming/number key layer and when I use this it highlights "easf", as you mentioned, on the left hand, while creating a 9 number layout on the right hand. Each of my layers have different color coding which is the main reason I haven't switched over to the Glove 80. The rainbow fade is pretty, but not utilitarian.
2. Why is it that contoured keyboard users that use the Voyager don't get RSI? Well, I think that it is because the columnar layout on the Voyager is more vertically staggered and closer to matching people's actual finger lengths than the Moonlander was. When you lay your fingers down flat on it, your main 4 digits line up more accurately with the keys and so you don't need to cup your fingers anymore. Because of this, I've come to a theory that if manufactures measured the finger lengths and made different sizes of keyboard for different sizes of hands, that would make flat keyboards like the ZSAs totally acceptable.

[Cruzylife]

Got my glove 80 because of ur recommendation I love it. No more RSI

[atanas-nikolov]

I am to get the glove80 at some point, but I wanted to experiment with something cheaper and with fewer keys. I almost went full 34-36, but my pinkies have been trained for flexibility, so I went with a Sufle Choc instead (60-ish keys, kinda like the Voyager). I also like that it is very easy to make it a gaming keyboard.

For anyone reading this in EU (even worldwide, but EU for convenience) mechboards co uk are currently having one of the cheapest prebuilt preorders I've seen for such keyboards (thx to Black Friday). If you like the voyager, Sufle Choc is pretty much the same, only with more thumb keys. Corne Choc is 42 keys, and they even have Ferris Sweep (34 keys). Sadly, only wired versions, and no rgb, but at least they are a cheap entry into the niche and I'm pretty sure they have decent resale value.

[VincentJGoh]

I've had a Kinesis Advantage for so long. Like, this one that I'm typing on now might be 15 years old. We've got 4 of them in the house (2 people, and I had one for work, and one that's really REALLY old). They're extremely reliable. I'm inclined to go towards the Kinesis not just because the customer service is great, but you pay a bit more and you get something that will work for a long, long time. My per-year cost for these keyboards is so low.