KINESIS Gaming Freestyle Edge RGB Split Mechanical Keyboard | Cherry MX Linear Red Switches | RGB | Ergonomic | Detachable Palm Support | Fully Programmable | TKL | Available Tenting

I am a remote worker and type a lot. A LOT, loads of reports, facilitation, notes, diagrams.... I really hated this keyboard initially, but after three days, I got more used to it. I began typing faster and even saw ways I can utilize the macros to optimize to daily flow. BUT, the keys are loud! I cannot be off mic during calls, which not feasible for the facilitator of a meeting or even a key participant...so sending it back. I did a lot a research and this makes sense...I would say for productivity A, just get BROWN....bluh bluh...look it up! Just consider typing noise, if it is an issue...this is not the best option. I type loud, I guess and this made me sound profoundly louder.

First thing that was a real headache is that the keyboard didnt work at all through my rather standard IO-GEAR KVM. Checking their own support, they basically say theyre not going to support KVM switches, but do list two dumb KVMs that do work, both of which are VGA based, which is a non-starter for me. Getting told Im out of luck for support with KVMs with a ergo keyboard (most often used for work applications) is pretty crappy. So, I ended up getting a generic USB switcher, which then shows a second failing on this keyboard, it takes between 7 and 9 seconds to start up, which is really annoying every time I switch devices. Second thing is that the build quality seems really cheap for how expensive this keyboard is. All plastic construction. The tabs that hold the wrist guard on dont hold it very securely; just fine if its flat on the table, but moving the keyboard a bit and it can easily pop off. The flap holding the extra cable for the tether cable pops off if I move the keyboard around even a little bit. To be clear, the keyboard feels pretty sturdy, but its just way lower quality than keyboards that cost half the price or less. Additionally there are no tilting (not tenting) flaps at all. I got the tenting kit too, and I wont fully review that here, but it isnt great either. I prefer my keyboard slightly tilted up at the back, and there is no way to achieve that with this, even with the tenting kit. So far I havent really used this keyboard much. Ill have to update my review on how it feels to actually use it, which Im hoping with make up for the shortcomings thus far. This keyboard was pretty expensive after all, and it would be a shame if I didnt like it. Though the experience of install and setup, and immediately being confronted with such serious shortcomings is really unfortunate, and doesnt really bode well. Update: On the ergo side Ive figured out that I can take the pads off the wrist wrests. They are held on with velcro that is glued down. Annoying to pull the velcro up and cleanup the goo, but its fine. Honestly now, I can use the tent kit and it doesnt feel awful, and without the pads the wrist rests actually are long enough to be useful. Before the bulge on them was too far forward making it feel like my hand was always sliding off it. So with this bonus Im a bit happier with it... But it still takes my feelings on it from really closer to a 1.5 up to about a 2.2 stars... So leaving the review unchanged for now. Will update if my feelings evolve.

On-the-fly macro-recording, key-swapping, and multiple profiles are fantastic! This keyboard sets the bar for all other keyboards (and peripherals). Special off-keyboard buttons enable profile-switching (windows/mac mode), macro-recording (frequent text, low-security passwords, app-and-o.s.-independent ad-hoc actions), and keyswapping (swap windows-key/alt-key ... swap quote-markers, replace an infrequently used key with something more convenient... remap some awkward reload/grenade gaming key with something closer). All of them are: Macro => Z => 1234 => Macro (record a Z macro). To remove: Macro => Z => Macro (no macro)... Same with remap: remap/z/x => remapped. remap/z/z (z-to-z => no-remap). Quick guide is printed on back/bottom of the keyboard, so you can recover if you mess something up. Major point is that _all_ of these actions are _trivial_ to perform in-place ... its literally uncomplicated and quick to make a macro or something in any app, for any purpose, and go to town with it. Configuration is stored via onboard USB-style memory (ie: Special+F7 => your USB keyboard is now also a USB-Drive), and `./settings/macros.txt` is inspectable, backable-uppable, transferrible, etc. It really allows an incredible and flexible ease of configuration, customization, etc. Updates are basically `cp update.zip => USB-Keyboard` and reboot it. Wow! I wish all devices (eg: fancy mice) used this same mechanism for configuration inspection and updates. ...and then on top of it all, its a mechanical, split, semi-ergonomic keyboard with crazy glowy LED lighting. Wow! The most fun one Ive found is like a heatmap of what recent keys youve pressed... abcdefg => only those keys are lit up, and they slowly fade out. Truly a cool hacker-typer-feeling. Wow! Potential negatives or cautions are: with great power comes great responsibility. Be careful because you can get yourself into a messed-up state that youll have to scratch your head a bit to recover from (ie: Macro a => bbbb means its tricky to type an a anymore unless you can figure out which key has the macro and you _might_ lose other macros that youd recorded until you can figure out how to inspect / repair / remove them). If you record a macro, it plays back as an unstoppable force... the letters will spew out whether you want them to or not. Overall, even though its somewhat expensive, its an incredible value, and incredibly thoughtful device that Im incredibly happy with after only a few days with it. Definitely going to be bragging about this one and advocating other people to buy it, its really like a Keyboard 2.0 and will make you re-think what a keyboard should be!

Ive worked in IT and software dev my whole life so Ive been gradually refining whats important to me. Up until recently, the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard has been my go-to, but the unreliable membrane keys and 2 year shelf life made me search for more. I cant use a non-split or rotated keyboard without serious strain in my wrists and arms. I also need a properly positioned wrist rest and optimally have adjustable tenting. With the tenting accessory, this checks all the need boxes. The RGB is beautiful, subtle, configurable, and easily turned off at a button press. The cable between the halves is properly cable managed and extendable for your needs (even if the very nice braided wire is a bit thicker than my preference). The sound and feel of the switches is incredible. There are macro buttons and remapping and profiles and more that I havent even scratched the surface on. The only things I wish this had (which are HUGE asks) are are rotary encoder for things like volume, thumb clusters / layers like a QMK firmware, and low profile switches. But when it comes down to it, Im obligated to build my own custom keyboard at that point (which Im working on). Just some comparisons, it sounds and feels like a DasKeyboard (which I cant use because they dont split, but I love them otherwise). Its as comfortable to type on for my weird ergo membrane keyboards. The Cloud 9 Gaming keyboard just like this that has built-in tenting and a rotary encoder sounded hollow and resonated springs and vibration if you brushed up against keys, like nails on a chalk board - this one sounds like an actual high-quality keyboard. Ive tried to type on an Ergodox EZ but without properly angled wrist rests angled with the tenting, it caused more strain than helped with ergonomics (again, building something custom to fit me better but still). In any case, I could stop my keyboard journey here and be completely happy. Thanks for making such a great keyboard I can pick up at a store like this, Kinesis!

I like this keyboard. The included wrist rests are nice, though I wish lift kits were included. I bought the lift kit separately and have them set at 10 degrees; they work nicely. The build quality feels decent. Not being someone who owns a whole ton of keyboards, its hard for me to comment on this; but in my opinion, the keyboard feels OK. Not cheap, but not super solid. Feels like a typical mid-range name-brand mech, but at a high price. This is OK, since the higher price is reasonable given the fact this is one of the view split mechs on the market and a good one at that. The customization software is fairly intuitive. I have left space set to access the FN layer, which is customization, just like the standard layer. This allows for handy remaps like space+ijkl for arrow keys and leftspace+rightspace for backspace, allowing me to stay on home row more often. You can also set up macros. Everything is saved to the board as far as I can tell. I wish all keyboards had two spacebars and layering functionality. Its amazing what a simple feature can open up as far as convenience goes. All in all, a really nice keyboard. Ill probably get one for work too at some point. Keep in mind that the spacebars are a non-standard size (3.5 I think), so finding alternative keycaps for them might be tricky. 8 month-later update: I still like the board. I got the wristpads and lifters that are sold separately, and like them. My only real complaint with this keyboard is the stabilizers. I believe these use cherry stabilizers, which are noisy and make the stabilized larger keys feel a little mushy and less-satisfying.

I got this because I have been experiencing more issues from having my arms angled inward to type. I work as a software engineer and have been switched to full-time from home, so buying 1 keyboard I could use for work and for play (I have a gaming PC) was necessary for me to alleviate my pain. First, the good: This 100% helps the shoulder. I needed to move the two halves further apart than a simple split would do, so I went for this as a test, mostly, hoping it would help, hoping I wouldnt need to go even further up the price chain, and hoping it would be enjoyable to type on. It most certainly is. Anyone who does regular computer usage and suffers from having their hands so close together will almost guaranteed feel relief from using this. The whatever: I dont think its exceptionally different to type on than my former Logitech G910 but I am NOT a keyboard Enthusiast like some people. I do sometimes hit keys I dont mean to (usually its the period when I hit the space bar). I have short fingers. Its not a huge issue. The keys arent too loud but feel good to type with. I can tell when Ive fully pressed a key at least 95% of the time. Sometimes I make mistakes which I do not think are the keyboards fault. The bad: I really dont like the approach for managing macro keys. I get the point of it, to have it all on-board in the keyboard, but. The approach of mounting and ejecting the drive sometimes confuses Win10, and it fails to eject, or gives me an error after appearing to eject correctly, always leaving me wondering what just happened. I am carefully following the provided directions, but it seems not very user-friendly. Im guessing power users might be more ok with it. It begs the question, for this price point, do they expect power users? I use this on a USB switch so I can swap it between my work macbook and my PC. I experienced a very strange issue where an area of the right half of the keyboard was not working properly (a single press of the m key would type a series of letters, for example). I found it really clunky to figure out how to reset the thing (internet sleuthing to find an answer, their site/documentation is not as easy to navigate as Id hoped), and then to actually reset requires finger gymnastics of holding down 3 keys and plugging the keyboard in again. I dont know a single person who plugs a keyboard into the front port of a PC, so for anyone on a desktop/not a laptop, you are going to have to contort your body around to hold 3 keys down while plugging something in anywhere. It was a pain. I have no idea why it happened, it just was borked after waking up from sleep one time. If this happens too much, or at a time when Im trying to hop into a work meeting, this will probably make me buy a new keyboard from another brand. Overall, Im glad I bought it because pain = no work. I needed a split keyboard. Its good for that. I can type a lot without lots of struggle or errors. I dont love the macro key support. The process to mount it, set it, save/eject, is slow and clunky if youre hoping to configure a lot of macros or edit/tweak what youve done. The idea of doing it all without software is fine, but again feels outdated or hyper specialized to me. Average people will expect to have a software interface (which is provided, and I use), not just handle everything from keystrokes alone. I feel like someone whos that into macros for gaming is going to get a higher priced keyboard, or a keypad specifically for that, anyway.

I bought this keyboard in desperation after I started experiencing severe pain in my wrists and fingers from constantly typing on regular keyboards or my laptop keyboard. Im a big guy (6 ft 4) with monster hands, so the idea of a split keyboard to keep my arms in a more natural position was extremely appealing. I was wary of spending so much, but decided to take the risk. Took a few days to get used to the keyboard being split in half, but my wrist pain has pretty much vanished within 2 weeks. I cant possibly recommend this product enough, this plus an ergonomic sideways mouse has made work and just general computer use significantly less painful. The programmable displays are gorgeous, the Cherry MX Red keys respond perfectly, and the interface for custom mapping of the keys is easy and intuitive to use. 5/5 for functionality, 5/5 for ergonomic use, my one and only complaint is that the tenting kit (which allow you to angle up the keyboard) is an absolute necessity to keep your wrists in proper position, and at the price tag this keyboard is at should be standard. The fact you have to pay extra for an essential component for the keyboards intended use (ergonomic typing) is a bit outrageous.

I got this to replace a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard that was failing. Id been wanting a mechanical keyboard for a while, and this Kinesis was basically the closes I could find to ergo in a mechanical keyboard. Ive not been a PC gamer in years (and years and years), but I am a software developer and having absolute assurance of when a keypress registers helps me avoid typos. The way this keyboard stores settings by emulating a USB flash drive is unique to say the least. Ill be honest, RGB lighting isnt a priority but its neat and some of the profiles like rain or responsive are really cool. I doubt Ill use the software too much, but it is nice that it requires no install onto my computer (you just run the portable EXE file, which downloads from their website in a 7 MB ZIP file). I didnt realize it lacked the Windows Application Key (the key thats usually to the right and opens the right-click menu on a PC). But I can use the alternative Shift-F10 keystroke for that and its rare enough that I dont think Ill care about the omission of that key. I dont believe the top-left key (with the Kinesis logo) does anything by default, but I used the software to reconfigure it to act as Escape (using a macro that only runs that one keypress). The sound takes some getting used to, but then again thats precisely why I purchased a mechanical keyboard :)

Programmer here, writer of design docs, etc. Not a gamer. My old Microsoft Natural 4K encountered some coffee one day, and I had to get another ergonomic keyboard. This was one of the few ergonomic & mechanical keyboards on the market; one of the extremely few from a reputable company. I chose the Blue variant, along with the lift kit, etc. This keyboard is very nice. I do miss the curvature of the MSN4K, but other than that, it provides almost the same experience. The feedback provided by the Blue keys is much nicer than most of the membrane keys on the market; I dont regret purchasing it at all. I did have a customer support issue (PEBCAK, turns out), and their Twitter rep was very helpful. I appreciate that, a lot! The RGB system is mostly tacky, I found a reasonably pleasing pattern. I havent gone deep into the macro system: its not something I care about generally speaking. I do note that the split design is a bit funky, I have to adjust both sides of the keyboard just so, or I wind up with a host of illegible characters. The primary ergonomic issue with this keyboard is the location of the arrow keys; my hands have to force down to manipulate the arrows. Ive appropriately remapped my editors to handle key actions, but its pretty frustrating having keys that arent sustainable to be regularly and at speed. I anticipate that this will be my daily driver for a long time.

Working from home all day then turning around and gaming most nights on the same computer with a normal keyboard pretty quickly leads to pretty severe shoulder and back tension issues. Bought a pair of these keyboards to improve the ergonomics of our day to day lives, and man what a life saver they have been. Within a day or two we were both totally used to the split keyboard layout and our backs and shoulders stopped hurting at the end of the day. Would highly recommend to anyone who uses a computer many hours a day. Well worth the investment. Pros: + Ergonomics + High quality materials, real cherry switches, nice thick wrist rests that hold up over time and dont sag when the keyboard is angled with the optional accessory (see cons below) + RGB lighting is nice, if a bit limited on options + Programmable keys are awesome, and being able to create macros on the fly without needing to open the software is a nice touch + Multiple profiles can each have separate lighting and macros assigned to them Cons: - Updating the keyboard is a bit of a convoluted mess. You have to hit specific key combinations in specific orders, download and rename files to specific naming conventions and put them in specific folders. Its manageable to anyone whos tech savvy and their website has pretty thorough instructions, but it just seems like a royal pain compared to most things that are just Would you like to update your software? Yes/no - The layout of the home, end, page up, page down, insert, print screen keys are VERY different from a standard keyboard. As a programmer, it is taking me a long time to re-learn the positions of these keys that I use ALL THE TIME. - Media controls are mapped to the F keys plus the FN key, so you pretty much need two hands to use them (FN is the far bottom left key, for reference) - The software is a bit clunky. Programming more complex macros can be accomplished, but it has a decent learning curve. The RGB options are pretty limited compared to other software out there like Corsairs iCue. - The tenting accessory (sold separately) is honestly just trash. I reviewed it separately, but TL;DR it wont stay standing at its highest setting. - Both the Red and Brown switches are definitely not silent. Even after painstakingly putting rubber gaskets on every single key on both keyboards, they are still loud enough to hear several rooms over with the doors closed when you are really typing (80+ WPM). This isnt Kinesis fault, thats just mechanical switches for you, but its something to be aware of if you are used to typing on a membrane keyboard (much quieter).