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

I will admit my shame, and I own 4 of these keyboards. Two of them are the previous edition, and the others are the RGB model (Cherry MX Brown and Cherry MX Blue). I used to be a software engineer and now working as an engineering manager. I thought I would type a lot back then until I became a manager. When you are a software engineer, you think more and type less, but being a manager is all about typing when you create user stories, documentation, email, answering questions, finding out solutions, etc. Now, I type even more, and I appreciate an ergonomic keyboard like this. I have used many keyboards out there in the market, partly because of my passion for keyboards. As the keyboards are the only physical object you interact with within your daily software development life, it becomes something you enjoy with. I even had my company buy one for me for the office as I was using my Kinesis Edge keyboard there. I explained all this background so that you can see where I am coming from for my review. I dont care much about gaming, and interestingly enough, this keyboard is mostly advertised as a gaming keyboard. It is more than a gaming keyboard. It is a typist, software developers, engineering managers, and all sorts of occupations keyboard that involves a high amount of typing. I used to have mild anxiety about the mistakes I was doing while typing since it was more than reasonable and was affecting my work. It is frustrating when you cannot translate your thoughts into code while you are in the flow because of the mistakes and backspaces you have to do while doing it. Once I got used to using this keyboard, the number of errors considerably reduced partly because of the clear separation of my left and right hands. They no longer run into each other. It also trains my brain to use both my hands as effectively as possible. Previously, it was my right hand doing all the traveling over the keyboard, whereas my left hand was just scanning a few keys. It is the case anymore. The other significant benefit is the posture it puts you in. You can adjust both parts as comfortably as possible. You can want to tilt your one keyboard as it is more suitable for your posture, go ahead and do it. You just have to experiment with this keyboard to appreciate the benefit of it genuinely. I can explain all the small benefits that add up to major ones, but I believe it is self-evident even by merely looking at the keyboard. Using the RGB keyboard has two significant benefits for me than the old version: 1. I could not distinguish the key prints due to blue light due to my eyes condition. It was honestly a horrible choice for the backlight color. The simplest and most effective option would be white color, but I think it is too simple of a color for gamers. 2. When you tilt the keyboard, I realized it becomes partially harder to see the letters on the keyboard. What I do is to color the keys that I use quite regularly, such as print screens, etc. with different colors to find them when I need them quickly. This has been working quite well for me. TBH, coloring each key with different colors for quickly seeing them, is the only benefit I appreciate in RGB keyboards. I dont care about the lighting effects, especially in the professional office environment. I used to hear some metallic echo sound in the previous edition of this keyboard, but it seems they have fixed that problem in this newer RGB model, or my ears simply stopped hearing them. Either way, I am okay. The other significant design change with this keyboard is the new palm cushion. I admit that the previous model was horrible, and I stopped using them entirely after the weird feeling and texture it has that I started realizing. I had been waiting for the new palm support since the time I saw it on Twitter and ordered two of them for my older keyboards, and it was a lot better than the previous generation. The major drawback of this keyboard is its price. It is not reasonably priced, I believe, but almost all of the premium keyboards are not reasonably priced these days. The good thing is that though you buy these keyboards once and use them for years without any deterioration in their quality. So, they are mostly long-time investments, but they make it so appealing, you sometimes cannot resist upgrading to their newer versions when they come out. Regardless, this is my review of this keyboard, and I hope it helps.

I got tendonitis from work due to typing on a great mechanical keyboard that was unfortunately straight. This two piece set up with tenting has really solved that issue, and I don’t get pain from typing anymore. I will say that the forwards-backwards angle is not quite ideal. I use maximum tenting, and when that happens, the front of the keyboard is a bit too high compared to the back (it’s very flat, and I would prefer it slope down a bit towards the front, since the tenting already lifts it up quite a bit off the table). My solution was to stick little felt furniture pads onto the bottom of the keyboard to create that slight slope.

Im 33 years old and i started to game again about 2 years ago - but when I picked up some of my more favorite games, twitch shooters, i was getting a lot of pain in my wrists. I was using a Corsair K95 and a SteelSeries mouse. Switching to this keyboard and my new mouse alleviated most of the stress and it makes sense because my desk is really non-negotiable in terms of changing. Its a bit pricey but its also good for FPS gaming because you can put aside the other half of the keyboard and you dont have to go purchase a smaller form factor keyboard, i have huge fingers and i dont need a tiny little keyboard. I recommend this to both people looking for relief as well as enthusiasts as it has solid RGB lighting, a sidearea on the left hand of extra keys to program - super cool and handy, easily customizable and programmable macros... onboard software - which is great when you are like me and utilizing a switch between two computers - the preferences are onboard so it works across platforms. As I write this review I realize there are more and more things I like about this keyboard, if you have the extra cash - go for it - you will not regret it. I will retract a few stars because of the premium aspect of the niche product id like a steel body option. It just makes sense especially if you are going to travel with it. I do appreciate the thick woven cable insulation but definitely do not particularly like all the plastic material for the body.

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.

I got the Brown key variant, and I have to report that it comically loud. This would be good for (1) deaf people and (2) stage plays where you need a loud keyboard so that the audience can hear the typing. Anyone you live with will hate this noise. And if youre listening to music, youll hear this through the music. Its unfathomable to me that there are key variants that are even louder than Brown. Its a lot of money to spend on something that is so annoying. If you were on a conference call, this typing sound would be RIDICULOUS; coworkers would mock you / know every key that you press. How awkward would that be during a tough conversation (e.g., performance eval)? I dont want to find out. Im ordering a bunch of other keyboards to compare, including a different one with the Red Quiet switches. Ill report back. Hopefully I find a better one and can return this noisy thing. Glare: If you have a window in front of you and you have this keyboard at arms length, the keys are difficult to see. There is great glare on them and its difficult to read the keys in daylight. Presumably it would be better in a dark room, but Im mostly using the computer during the day. keywords: silent quiet noisy loud click clack sound glare Update (May 2021): I am returning this due to the sound and glare. The Kinesis Freestyle Pro with silent switches is quieter, though the space key is still loud. The Freestyle Pros keys are easier to see, because the letters are printed in white and better withstand glare.

I write for a living, and I play a lot of games, so Ive been hunting for a good ergonomic mechanical keyboard (in MX Brown, please) for a long while. I finally got my hands (heh...) on one of these and yeah, this is exactly what Ive been after. Its comfortable, easily customizable (uses Cherry Profile keycaps), and tactile in all the ways I want it to be. My hands are very thankful for the ergo assist, and the gamer in me loves being able to move the right side away for left-hand keys and right-hand mouse. Even the wrist-rests, usually the first thing I take off on a keyboard, are wonderful to use. The closest I can get to a complaint is the software that runs the RGB is more than a little barebones compared to the iQue software my old Corsair K70 used. This is a *fantastic* board. Highly recommended!

I bought this keyboard for business. I am not a gamer. I love the fact that its corded, as I have a habit of dropping wireless items on the ground. I love that it feels solid, not flimsy. This would travel better than longer keyboards, since it would fit into most bags. The colors are gorgeous, but lets continue on functionality. I studied and the Cherry MX red keys are supposed to be both quiet and tactile, allowing me to enjoy typing 70WPM. Thats what the experts say. Well, I enjoy the typing, but it is certainly not a quiet keyboard. Im keeping it anyway, hoping that folks on Zoom meetings wont notice or hear the clicking. One more thing: I either hit the right key combo in error, or it happened on its own, but one of the keys remapped. The letter k stopped typing k and instead was typing o. This cannot be resolved through Windows keyboard troubleshooter. It happened 1 week after my purchase and, with much exploration, I found the answer taped to the underside of the keyboard. Press 3 keys together (I forget which) to restore factory defaults. This cleared the problem. Heres the thing, though: My first stop was Amazon help. The person was helpful, but it took too long. Naturally--hes supporting a million products and is counting on knowledge articles. Its not his baby. Secondly, both he and Google encouraged me to download an app that works with the keyboard. I couldnt download it. To download, they want you to type the model # into a field. They even tell you where to find the model #. Well, I typed it and the page told me it was wrong, and would not let me go further. This is still an open issue.

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 done a lot of research to find an ergonomic setup that fits my lifestyle. I do a lot of typing and gaming on my computer, and I needed a keyboard that could transition from both seamlessly. I was using a cheap mechanical keyboard before that left my hands useless. I love mechanical keyboards and wanted to find an ergonomic version that also had a backlight. The Kinesis Freestyle Edge RGB keyboard was my answer, but it might not be yours. The split design allows for more natural hand placement, ideally relieving unnecessary strain from your hands and wrists. I have wide shoulders, and the split design allows for a more ideal placement that better fits my frame. As far as mechanical keyboards go, the Edge is on the quieter side. I did opt for the quieter brown switches because I wanted softer key presses, but you can get one with the louder and more tactile blue switches if that fits your style better. The brown switches arent completely quiet, and you do get some sound, but it isnt as loud as some of the cheaper mechanical keyboards out there. This keyboard comes with nine programable macro keys that can be easily adjusted on the keyboard or through the official software. You can save two different profiles, which is nice if you share a computer with someone else or if you need nine extra macro keys. I dont have much use for the macros except for media keys at the moment, but setting them up was very simple. The RGB profile can also be adjusted easily through the software. Any changes you make to this keyboard whether it be macros, profiles, or RGB is saved to the keyboard directly. If you switch to a different computer, all your profiles and macros transfer with the keyboard. Its nice to not have to have another account to access your preferences or lose them if your computer wipes. I love this keyboard and have been daily driving it for nearly three years without any issues. My only complaint with this keyboard is that it doesnt come with the lift kit. Kineses offers a separate kit which isnt necessary, but I do recommend it getting one. I used the keyboard without the kit for about a week before giving in and buying one. There was nothing wrong with the flat setup of the keyboard, but I use my computer too much and needed the additional ergonomics. The lift kit offers a more natural position for your hands, and I honestly cant go back to using anything else. The keycaps are nice. They are very soft to the touch, but you can customize your keyboard with third-party caps if they fit MX switches. Be mindful of the measurements. You might have trouble finding spacebars that fit this board. If you have a mac, Kinesis offers a separate kit to change your command keys. Unfortunately, the kit is an additional $28, and you have to install it yourself. The installation is very easy, even if you have no prior experience. The Freestyle Edge is an adequate keyboard for gaming. The keys are responsive and easy to press, but the function keys are a bit out of reach for me. I often had to stretch to hit these keys, and my performance suffered. Games where I needed to press these keys more often would also tire my hands out more quickly. This is possibly a personal problem for my short stubby fingers, but it is something to keep in mind. Games that dont require the function keys are fine. I could play for a lot longer before feeling any discomfort. I still recommend taking regular breaks and doing stretches keyboard this wont fix the issues completely. For people who play and work a healthy amount, the Freestyle Edge is a fantastic solution. So is it worth it? Honestly, this keyboard is a bit pricey for what you get. I bought it because I liked the style and the RGB and didnt mind the tax for both options. But if you are on a budget and only need the ergonomics, there are better options. The Kenisis Freestyle Edge has made a huge difference in my setup, and I do not regret my purchase. I understand that this keyboard isnt for everyone, but for those interested, you can buy it on Amazon.

My previous keyboard was a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard. I wanted a mechanical keyboard for a while. I cannot use the regular keyboards as it hurts my wrists. Since I work from home I use this keyboard about eight hours per day. I also bought the lift kit to help angle the keyboard. I only use the white light on the keyboard, so I can see it in low light at night. You can turn off all the lights with the press of one button, and the lights turn on with a one button press. You can use the keyboard with the lights off. The only issue I do not like is it does not have an integrated keypad. I wish Kinesis would come out with a matching keypad. I see a lot of keypads on Amazon, but the keys just do not look like it matches this unit. It did take a little getting used to for the placement of the special keys (arrows, home, end, etc.) but I got used to it after a while.