The Kinesis Advantage, Unicomp Space Saver, and Das Keyboard, two years later | Hacker News Reader

The Kinesis Advantage, Unicomp Space Saver, and Das Keyboard, two years later

jseliger.com

30 pointsjseliger17 comments

He discusses aging and longevity of Kinesis keyboards; I can contribute a bit here.

I presently own two Kinesis Advantage keyboards; one I got in 1999, the other in 2000. The one from 1999 has run since then with absolutely no issues, and I have not been gentle on it in the least. The keys are still accurate and responsive, and the only trouble I've ever had with it is when I spilled a bit of water into it (it dried out and everything was fine).

The other Advantage hasn't quite been perfect: one of its keys drank a bit of soda early in its life, and since then it's been problematic. More recently, another keyswitch started to die, either being unresponsive or bouncing badly (3-10 detected keypresses for one actual keypress). I sent it back to Kinesis and they replaced basically every key on the keyboard (replaced the left and right main panels and the left F-key panels; the top right panel was fine). The cost for this repair was $80.

Now I have basically one brand-new and one 11-year-old Kinesis, which gives me an opportunity to feel how they wear over time. The new keyboard takes slightly less force and the keys bottom out more crisply, but on the whole I'd say that typing on the new keys has not made me at all dissatisfied with the feel of the old ones; in fact, the one with the older switches is on my desk at work, and I use it at least an order of magnitude more than the one with the new keyswitches.

On the whole, my experience with the Kinesis has been excellent. Comfortable to type on, amazing position for the modifier keys, respectable longevity, and excellent customer service will keep me a Kinesis customer for the foreseeable future.

Interestingly, my two Kinesis keyboards were also purchased in 1999 and 2000 respectively. One is a Classic and the other is a Professional since the Advantage didn't exist yet.

Both keyboards are still going strong with very heavy usage. Like you, one of mine drank som soda several years ago. I disassembled it, cleaned it as well as I could, and reassembled it and it's still doing great to this day.

People look at me funny when the see the AT connector on the keyboard attached to a PS/2 adapter, attached to a USB adapter but I wouldn't trade my Kinesis keyboard for anything at this point.

As for the Unicomp models, I recommend them highly. I've one set up like the old Sun keyboards for *nix use. I had used the original IBM Model M's and the Customizers are as close as it gets to the genuine article.

I'm very much a fan of buckling spring, positive keyclick switches with the famous tactile feedback. There is absolutely no uncertainty that a key has been engaged and one of the effects is that you don't use as much pressure or resort to the temptation to mash keys; it could help prevent RSI. If you're a touch typist they are fantastic.

The only real downside to me is the noise they make; it's fine if you're in your own office but in an open workspace I doubt your colleagues will appreciate the noise-- in heavy coding mode they sound a bit like warfare.

I have a Unicomp Spacesaver that I've been using for the past several months. I love it, and the RSI I had from before I started using it seems to have diminished significantly (although I have changed a bunch of other variables). It is even hard to go back to the built-in keyboard on my 13" Macbook Pro (so mushy).

People often comment that the Unicomp is loud, but no one has complained. More like "that's legit."

I love my Unicomp. I have a cheap membrane keyboard though, for when the wife is trying to sleep.

There is a huge difference between Cherry MX Blues and Cherry MX Browns. [1] The amount of sound they make drastically differ, and they have very different amounts of tactile feedback. Even if you gave somebody who knew nothing about mechanical keyboards a Filco Blue and a Filco Brown, they would definitely be able to tell the difference.

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1. http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Cherry+switches+and+b...

Spot on. I'm surprised he likened it to a 'Canon vs Nikon' debate. Transitioning from membrane to mechanical is the biggest difference though... Love my Cherry Blues.

Yes. The Kinesis keyboard has a speaker that makes a noise when you press its cherry brown keys, though, so that might be what's confusing him. I was confused when I first played with one -- "this doesn't sound like brown to me".

I don't care much for the long travel distance or noise of mechanical springs, but I absolutely love the layout of the Kinesis Advantage. I got my Advantage in 2004 as a gift from a friend concerned about my wrist pain (his entire family of excessive typers has used them since the mid-nineties). I have never experienced discomfort since, and though I can't directly attribute it to the Advantage layout, when I try to use a flat keyboard for more than an hour I experience considerable strain.

My ideal keyboard would have the Apple chiclet mechanisms in an Advantage layout, but unfortunately that chimera is unlikely to ever exist.

FWIW, it seems that keyboard comparisons always leave out Topre keyswitches, which are absolutely amazing. They make a nice noise, are super-durable, and don't require you to bottom-out to get the key to register. Combined with the lower "weighting" on the keys pressed with your weaker fingers, and it's really easy to type for hours and hours with no discomfort.

The thing about Topres is that they're a bit rare. They're also quite pricey.

I did get one for use at work, though, and love it. I like it because it's a good combination of tactile and still quiet. Mine has variable weighting on the keys, which is a mixed bag. I guess some of my fingers are stronger than they otherwise would be - I find myself bottoming out keys with my left pinkie occasionally.

I came here to post just this. When put in combination with a choice of alternative keyboard layout, they're a great way to feel smug about lesser keyboard users. But also, it's as if they took all the other kinds of keyboards, fixed all their downsides, and made the key action better than you could imagine. The variable weighted keyboards are great for programming, and the uniformly weighted versions are only slightly less great.

Does anyone game with a mechanical keyboard? My only reservation is that I may have to keep my normal keyboard on standby to play games.

I'm using the Das Keyboard Ultimate at home. Have played a few pc games (both FPS and RTS games) without any issues.

Keyboards with Cherry black switches are apparently recommended for that use case:

http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=leopold,tenkeyles...

I use a Das Keyboard Ultimate with RTS games just fine. Most top players use keyboards with the Cherry MX black switches though.

I wore out the 'S' key on my model-M; does that count?

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