I'm not a mechanical keyboard guy. I much prefer something like the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic ... but it always made me sad that that style of keyboard didn't have more competition.
The enthusiast keyboard scene seems to be mostly mechanical and I kinda want something that feels more "in-between" what I think of as a heavy mechanical and lighter laptop thing...
Not all mechanical keyboard switches have the same feel. The advantage uses cherry brown, which is quiet and requires relatively low force.
There is another advantage to the cherry browns (or mechanical keyboards in general)... they last a LOT longer. I've had my main work Kinesis for 4 years. The key strokes feel the same today as the day I got it. I would burn through an MS natural 4000 at a rate of 1/year; the spacebar & alt/ctrl keys would become too sticky after.
I feel that my UHK keys require less force than the Natural.
My Natural has a bit more prominent click points (which require more bundled force at a certain point) but an overall "stickier/mushy" feeling (to be fair, I hadn't cleaned it a lot :)).
My UHK keys feel more springy and one might not particularly notice the click point but I still get good tactile and auditory feedback.
It took me about 2 days to get comfortable with the new keys. Overall the UHK feels smoother and less strenuous.
I hope you can make some sense out of the above, otherwise please feel free to ask for clarification :)
Some TRON heritage lives on in the Esrille NISSE and the Keyboardio Model 01, although they don't feature Topre switches.
Unfortunately I was not happy with it at all. For some reason I ended up getting hand fatigue. It's probably a combination of usually typing with my wrists on my desk and a habit of bottoming out, and switch type. But I ended up boxing the keyboard back up.
1) Switches can make a huge difference and there are WAY more choices than often implied. Seems almost everyone references 3 types but there are more. I go for a non-clicking, extremely short trigger threshold style because I have typed on laptop keyboards for 20+ years and the light touch is what I know. Specifically, I'm using Cherry RGB Speed Silver.
2) Get a wrist rest. You probably never needed one before but if you have a mechanical with a normal depth of case, it makes a huge difference if you can't adapt easily.
And don't compromise on your layout. If you don't like ergo don't get one. If you NEED certain keys, get them. There are tons of choices out there, many more than you see listed on popular sites or stores. Sometimes you have to partly build them. It's not very hard. There are plenty of kits that don't even require soldering.
In the end I'm running a GK64, with the aforementioned switches, and I've never been happier with a keyboard.
I want an ergonomical keyboard with quiet action. Ideally it would combine the feel of the old Thinkpad keyboards with the ergonomic layout of an ErgoDox keyboard.
I personally like Matias Quiet Click switches for a good feeling, quiet switch. But the keys and keyboards from Matias have a deserved reputation for being finicky.
I have a Matias Ergo Pro - which I otherwise like - but once in a while keys on the left half will chatter until the board is unplugged. https://matias.ca/ergopro/pc/
Also, to add "chickletness", there are XDA and G20 keycap profiles, which are, AFAIK, especially popular to put on "ergonomic" splitted boards.
Cherry MX Brown switches are normally recommended for very light activation pressure and "super-fluid motion". That is an option available.
You can order parts for yourself, make it yourself, and everything. It is opensource hardware, built around the "teensy" opensource controller. But it ends up cheaper just to buy the keyboard unless you want to build something custom.
While it sports up to 32 custom layers, it does lack a dedicated hardware module for a mouse. It is completely programmable.
I only mention it because I love mine.
IMHO Dampened Cherry Red switches configuration is almost as good as Topre if not better.
The ability to program it has been the killer feature for me, I have a layout that works absolutely perfectly for me! f.e. dual function keys! I have ' set as dual function key so if I hold it is Shift, if I just tap it is ', in place of usual Caps Lock location I also have Shift, having moved both Cmd/Win keys to usual Shift location. Home row Shift has improved the typing comfort so much! I also remapped function keys and made many other tweaks.
Also have alt/ctrl mapped with dual key feature to z/ctrl x/alt and ./alt //ctrl, this way all modifier keys are clustered together and easily accessible. I don't think I can ever go back! the mind did get used to switching between the two layouts though, so thankfully I can still use the laptop keyboard on the go :)
For anybody interested you can have a look at their configurator https://configure.ergodox-ez.com/keyboard_layouts/new
I wanted to use dual function keys, but as soon as there is one such key on the keyboard, I feel a delay for all the key presses. It is ok for the dual function key (the firmware needs to wait to decide a tap or hold), but not for all the other keys. So I avoid using this in my layouts.
Maybe this has changed recently? I have not tweaked my layout for about 6 months.
I tried one, but I believe that's the Bluetooth-only version that never quite seemed to work right on MacOS. Pity MS didn't make a wired version.