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Comment by Luc | Hacker News Reader

FINALLY real key switches for the F-keys. I have been making do without them for at least 7 years now, since they gave out after only a couple of years on my Kinesis Ergo Elan.

Still using the same old plastic moulds with the weird off-centre label I see.

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Where do you see that? The photos look like the same rubbery things they are using in V1?

It's in the description, "Long-time Advantage users will rejoice to learn that we’ve replaced the mushy, rubber function keys with high-performance Cherry ML switches that offer the same low-force and tactile properties of the MX Brown.". Great change but I guess I will not drop 350$ just for that ;)

I beta tested the Advantage 2. They replaced the rubber keys with mechanical ones using the same size for the switch.

Anything else that's diff? I almost never use my f keys do its not a big deal for me.

The firmware with the ability to update it and do a lot more crazy stuff with the macros etc.. I'm not a heavy macro person but do a decent amount of remapping and liked that. Also the stuck shift/modifier keys has been fixed.

If you currently have one, are happy with your setup and don't really use the f keys it might not make as much sense to do an upgrade. If you need another unit, have killed your current unit, or want to make the switch I would recommend this over the previous models.

Frustratingly I just had a new one ordered for a new job. I can't wait for the pre-order, I need one now :(

The stuck modifier key issue I didn't know was universal, but is annoying. I'm surprised they can't do a firmware update for that? Does it really need a new model to fix it after all these years? I've had the stuck modifier issue from an advantage from 2008.

The problem is that the previous version did not have firmware that could be flashed and I'm guessing that they had other micro controller issues. In all honesty if you run into this issue once a day you are probably running into it a lot. I currently have a classic and a advantage and it's not a huge deal. The difference between having a advantage 1 vs advantage 2 is much smaller than the difference between having a non advantage (well style keyboard) versus something else.

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