https://www.amazon.com/KINESIS-Advantage360-Professional-Erg...
^closest I've found, but $$$
My main contenders ended up being:
- Glove80
- Advantage360
- ZSA Moonlander
- ZSA Ergodox
- Various alice layout KB's (not full split. ex: Keychron K15)
- Custom building some sort of sofle or dactyl - ZSA recently came out with the voyager which looks essentially like a wired 65% sofle.
Edit: A Dactyl with a trackball would be pretty sweet too. They seem to be getting a bit easier to buy now too.
I've also tried the Kinesis Freestyle 2... I'm much less of fond it, it might just be the worst keyboard I've used (especially relative to its price). Its switches are bad, even by the standards of membrane switches—to get keypresses to reliably register I have mash the keys so forcefully that it ends up being louder than the mechanical Ergo Pro. The keycaps are small, with a texture that's unpleasant to the touch. The cable that joins the two halves is proprietary, and the cable that comes out of the box is too short at 9", the 20" cable costs 20% of what the keyboard does and is still too short to fully utilise the split. The USB cable isn't detachable. Something about the way the right half is laid out makes it difficult to get your hand in position to use it. The Escape key's really out-of-the-way, as is the Fn key. Though, it does have a lot of macro keys.
I recently found a Gemini III P20028 which is nearly perfect except it is missing a “Command”/Windows key.
I also have an Apple Extended II which is my daily driver at a desk. And I have one of these Unicomp’s which I enjoy as well. I used to use IBM Model Ms, and like their switches almost as well as Alps.
For my own comfort, I’ve found switches to be more important than split. I’ve used Cherry and clones, and they really aren’t in the same league in terms of tactile response as Alps or buckling springs. It’s too bad they’ve become synonymous with “mechanical” keyboards.
I’ve liked the idea of many of the minimalist keyboards, but always want a full number row, dedicated Esc, brackets, Pipe, etc. I thought the Ergo Pro would be that, but when switches started double registering after only a few years, I grew cold to it. I have 30+ year old keyboards that are working great, anything modern and hundreds of dollars should do the same.
I’ve always wanted to try a Kinesis, but it would have to be so much better than what I have to justify double the price that I can’t really justify the price. After 20+ years of keyboarding nearly every day and finding boards that don’t give me pain, I have no reason to try at that price.
My first mechanical was a tenkeyless Max Keyboard Nighthawk. It sold me on the TKL size, and backlighting. It also has a USB hub, which is very convenient for mouse dongles and headsets.
For several years I used a Kinesis Advantage at work. I never loved it, but it sold me on having my preferred layout (Dvorak) in hardware, rather than configuring it in the O/S. I also liked having a backspace under my left thumb.
Not long after I got a Kinesis Gaming Freestyle Edge RGB at home. Even better than the Advantage, I could program an arbitrary layout (and lighting) in hardware. And because it's split, I can program the left spacebar for backspace.
When I got tired of the Advantage, I bought a System76 Launch, a compact TKL with a split spacebar. This sold me on hot-swap switches. I generally like light tactile switches like the Cherry MX Brown in the first three keyboards, but it's fun to put clickies on some of the keys, and very light linears on the pinkie modifiers.
I guess the point is that as your list of must-have features grows, the set of candidate keyboards shrinks. There aren't many programmable RGB keyboards with hot-swap switches, a split spacebar, and a USB hub. What are your must-haves?
Since then, I have switched to Mistel split keyboard which have the exact feel as any other qwerty keyboard and I haven't looked back (though I did rebind some of the keys, like the arrows for example, to match the vi movement keys).
I'm interested in keymouse (keymouse.com) but frankly don't feel like dropping a bunch of money on another experimental design. So I've got two Mistels for both my daily drivers and will likely continue with that brand as I've been very happy with the quality.
The Model 100 uses MX-style switches and has some small design improvements here and there. No complaints on my end, but I haven't put it through as much torture as my Model 01.
ETA: Which Mistel did you get? They look interesting.
That said, I eventually ended up getting "The Platform" for tenting my Moonlander. And while the tenting is collapsible, The Platform lifts increases my keyboard height just enough that it now no longer slides under my desk with my keyboard tray.
But I prefer the tenting, so I just live with it. I just unplug my keyboard and set it aside when I need to close my keyboard tray.
I constructed myself a Miryoku inspired layout for my Moonlander. Though getting the timing right for using home-row mods is very tricky, and it is unclear to me if it is worthwhile or not.
The first one died after 26 months. Sounds weirdly specific, why would I remember that? Two-year warranty. The owner of the company was shockingly rude to me, accused me of threatening to trash his reputation if he didn't give me free stuff. I had sent him some links to times I had praised and recommended his product (they're all on here, feel free to Algolia it if you're curious).
Well, Erez Zukerman, you deserve to have your reputation trashed. The product itself is decent. Unless it randomly dies on you right after the warranty expires, in which case, fuck you.
From looking at it, the Glove80 looks to be a near-perfect layout (good thumb cluster, sculpted well, but no palm key). The switches give me some pause, but I haven't ever tried them.
It has truly spoiled me and now typing on a regular keyboard is terrible. My only complaint is that they are so big and chunky that traveling with them isn't all that feasible. So I'm confined to the crappy laptop keyboard when on-the-go.
Beyond that, there is a market for prebuilt Dactyl and similar hand-made boards.
The ErgoDox/Moonlander are in that price range and are highly thought of.
That said, if money were no object I would just get a new one every year. That's how much I loved that keyboard while it was working.