Kinesis Advantage2 Quiet LF Keyboard - Contoured Ergonomic US Layout Keyboard Equipped with Cherry MX Quiet Red Mechanical Key Switches and the SmartSet Programming Engine - Black

TL:DR the Kinesis Advantage 2 LF (KB600LFQ) is a phenomenal keyboard for anyone spending significant time typing. It's a solid investment in your work comfort and overall hand health. If you're on the fence about purchasing, I highly recommend giving it a go. As someone sat at a keyboard all day writing and programming I have tried many different keyboards with both standard and ergonomic layouts. The Kinesis Advantage 2 LFQ (Low-Force, Quiet) keyboard is the best so far. The biggest selling point for this keyboard is its ergonomics. The Kinesis Advantage 2 LF features a key well design that comfortably accommodates your hands and fingers in their natural resting position, which drastically reduces the strain typically associated with long periods of typing. The key wells are split and angled for a more natural position for your arms, wrists and hands. Additionally, the keys are highly responsive and don't require much force to activate, leading to reduced hand fatigue and a more enjoyable typing experience. One feature this keyboard has that the newer 360 models lack is a piezo speaker. This speaker creates a key click sound on key actuation so you can hear when the key is activated. It's a small detail but helps to avoid "bottoming out" the keys which is a common cause of pain in your fingers from typing. I bought this keyboard because I suffer from RSI, it's not a cheap keyboard but for me the keyboard enables me to keep working pain free. If you are suffering from RSI do seek expert advice though, RSI is a catch all name for a variety of different symptoms with different causes, what works for some may not work for others. The keycap profiles on the Advantage 2 is fantastic with the home row being a different shape so your fingers can quickly recognise where they are on the keyboard without looking. Sadly these keys are made of ABS plastic, giving them a sticky feel. They are pretty thin and wear out quickly getting a very smooth and shiny texture. You can buy replacement PBT keycaps direct from Kinesis, they aren't quite the same profile as the originals but they do feel nicer to type on and should not wear out. The keyboard sounds very hollow which is a real shame, I feel kinesis could have improved on this and with the Cherry Red silent switches it could have been a very quiet keyboard. There are various discussions online on how best to reduce the sound on these keyboards, I personally haven't tried any of them yet though. The Advantage 2 also has powerful programmability with Kinesis own Smart Set system, offering the ability to customise every key to suit your specific needs. It's possible to program it from the keyboard itself switching key positions and recording macros which is useful if your IT department limit the control you have over your PC, but you can also mount the keyboard as a USB device by using a key combination where you can create more powerful customisations such as "mod tap" keys where if you tap the key it performs one action and if you hold the key it performs another. For example, on my keyboard I have the Caps Lock key mapped to Ctrl when it's held down and Esc when tapped. The keyboard has two layers per layout, but supports many custom layouts which you can activate using a keyboard shortcut. It takes a little while to adjust to having come from using a regular keyboard but I was back up to typing at around 90 wpm within a week. The instruction manual that comes with the keyboard provides some useful guidance. If you buy this keyboard, do make sure you read the instructions. This is by no means a cheap keyboard, but given it's programability, and potential to prevent repetitive strain injuries, I believe it's a worthwhile investment. The Kinesis Advantage 2 LF (KB600LFQ) is a phenomenal keyboard for anyone spending significant time typing. It's a solid investment in your work comfort and overall hand health. If you're on the fence about purchasing, I highly recommend giving it a go.

I have bought the Kinesis Advantage 2 Quiet LF and I also own a Kinesis Advantage Pro with brown keys. The linear switches are in my opinion better suited for this keyboard. I am a heavy CAD user, AutoCAD, Microstation, C3D, OpenRoads, scripting, programming, etc. I am also suffering from RSI and I noticed a vast improvement since using this keyboard. Since I've got it, I switched to a modified Dvorak layout and found it more comfortable. This keyboard is a tool, and like any tool it requires time to adapt and configure, there is a learning curve and some frustration involved, but once getting used to it one can work longer and less stressful. I highly recommend getting a foot pedal, I have a hacked version as Amazon does not have the Kinesis one in stock and importing one to the UK is prohibitive. The foot pedal allows access to a modified layout on the fly. There are enough detailed reviews of this keyboard on the internet so I won't repeat that here. One overlooked feature is the included speaker, I was a hard hitter and always bottomed out, since turning it on helped me to be a "softer" typist. Use the ASCII files to configure the keyboard and have them saved somewhere safe. In CAD the use is limited without proper configuration, this keyboard is great for typing but in CAD we have one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse, the split layout of this keyboard is less CAD friendly unless tuned for application. Read the manual, it is mandatory to be able to get the maximum of this tool. What I do not like is the function row keys, they could use normal switches since getting there requires a bit of move, in CAD and programming we use these extensively and the small ones are hard to hit. Use of a pedal allows re-mapping to the number keys, but on some occasions it requires the use of the dedicated ones. It is big and hollow and sometimes has echo, especially when working from home in a quiet room. I cannot use it with my Contour Rollermouse, due to size of both, i have to hack something together to get them to play together. Expensive, but any mechanical keyboard is nowadays, if it is ergonomic add some extra. Kinesis has a great customer support, always happy to help. Going back to a laptop keyboard while travelling is annoying at least. If you care about you hands and need them on a keyboard get one and get used to it.

Definitely helped my carpal tunnel pain. Maybe another keyboard also would've helped, but I can't think of one that could've done as good a job as this one. The quiet keys were worth it in my opinion. They are indeed quiet, but they also actually feel better than my old, non-quiet mechanical keyboard, especially for quick repeated key presses. Perhaps the Kinesis clicky switches feel even better though, who knows. The best part for me was learning how easy it is to set up a new layout or macro, with the app. I'd say the worst thing about the KA2 is the fact that I have medium-to-small size hands and so reachability isn't quite perfect. I'd give the reachability a score of 87/100 - it's good, but it would be nice if they released, for example, 3 different sizes of keyboard (?). Anyway, it's a huge improvement from using a normal keyboard. And I don't think it's hard to learn at all. You get such an advantage from having Space and Backspace on your thumbs - even if you keep making mistakes at the start you can instantly backspace them away without hassle. In fact, I didn't use to touch type before this keyboard, but... the layout, the thumb clusters, the spacing and most of all the straight matrix of keys make it so easy to learn that I thought why not? I even ended up creating a completely custom layout, and I'd say it only took about a week or two before I managed to get a passable speed (just under 40wpm). I mean, I'm not that fast, even now, but it's not like it's the keyboard that slows me down. The important thing is that it's fun and pain-free, so I don't have to worry about speed anyway!

super keyboard. not easy to start but ergonomic of kinesis is top. i am very happy with it.

I got the silent red version. First of all, my review is by no means saying this is a bad keyboard. To be honest, this is a great keyboard, but at this price tag people naturally have very high expectations. I will just comment on things that are kind of unexpected to me. Surprises: The keypad switch is a BIG undersell! The product description just says the keypad key turns your right key well into a numpad, but it actually activates a whole new second layer, and you can customise all keys on this layer as well! I cannot imagine that Kinesis just brands this as "hey, in case you still need the numpad, you can find it here" instead of "you have a whole secondary layer that you can customise, and we just happen to preset the numpad on some keys for you". I programmed the backspace key into second layer shift (my CapsLock works as backspace anyway) and as a Vim user, I programmed HJKL as arrow keys so I don't need to reach the actual arrow keys. Also, I mapped operators (-, =, [, ]) to UIOP which is really efficient. Let's be honest, these keys are awkward to reach, especially when coding with this keyboard, but with a second layer, it is much more efficient than you think. Note that you can change almost any key to keypad shift or keypad toggle to activate the second layer. Now about the two missing stars: This keyboard is designed for medium to large hands. My right pinky had trouble reaching the P key, and if I moved my hand up to reach it, then my right thumb would be at the upper bit of the space key. Those large keys (space, enter, backspace, delete) don't have stabilisers so it can be hard to actuate if you are not pressing right in the middle. Of course, after some getting used to this is not much of a problem, but for me, it would be ideal if the pinky column is further down, and the thumb cluster is moved up a bit. Cherry silent red switches. I am using it in an office environment and MX brown is simply too loud. It is very quiet for sure, not louder than rubber domes and my colleague can just take a nap next to me without complaining. BUT, silent reds are very scratchy. I don't have a problem with it being mushy since I use O-rings on my other keyboards and this level of mushiness is quite acceptable, but silent reds are probably the most scratchy in all the switches I used. I have keyboards with Gateron and Outemu reds and they feel much smoother. I really do hope Kinesis can give us more options on switches. Cherry may have good browns, but in my opinion they simply don't produce the best reds and blues.

I have postoponed getting this keyboard a lot because of the price, but I should have gotten it sooner. It has saved my career and well being. I used to need to wear an orthosis brace at night and needed to stop working because my wrist was hurting so bad. Now, while the discomfort is not completely gone, this makes a world of difference. I recommend fighting through the break in period and also customizing it to your preferences. The most important step, in my opinion, is to change the keys to your liking. My setup looks nothing like what the default is for the pecial keys. Also, make heavy use of the macros to get rid of those weird hand movements. The plastic quality is not the best but that hardly matters when it does what it's supposed to do well.

Over the years I toyed with Goldtouch Go, Microsoft Surface and intermittent periods with prolonged use of plain Apple Magic or MacBook ‘chopping board’ keyboards Wrist and finger pain led me to investing in Kinesis Advantage as well as learning to touch type and switching away from QWERTY to Colemak layout My pains are largely gone now that I have made the changes, and while I will not be certain which of change contributed the most, the Advantage is wonderful Yes, some may find it plasticky, but personally I can glance past the plastic and get enjoymeny from working with a device reminiscent of Star Trek Yes, it could be wireless, but the really important thing is that the connection is reliable. The only issues I had were with a dodgy USB A-to-C adapter. Firmware upgrade procedure is a delight for a software engineer to see, and worked without trouble. Only used with a Mac and had no issues. Note that I am writing this review after only 2 months of use I give 4/5 for ergonomy because I imagine a more vertical design that further reduces the dreaded forearm supination. I understand it is a hard design problem with tradeoffs such as making the enclosure too bulky. I wish Advantage also had an off-the-shelf Colemak variant. Failing that, I plan to progress to blank letter keys over time. I love how thumbs are put to so much use, and boy can they do a lot of work. As a former musician I like idea of using a pedal for modifier keys, and might give it a go at some point. So far I have had no use for key mapping and macros. Whatever mapping I needed I put into Karabiner Elements on my Mac. Let me stress, however, that all the above are minor points in my assessment when compared to the improved typing health I have noticed and the way it makes me feel positive about my occupational longevity (I am a software engineer).

This is a phenomenal keyboard. They keys feel solid and are not too noisy (though noisier than modern keyboards so probably you can't use it in a room where somebody is sleeping). If you don't type properly, you'll have to learn, but it'll only take a few days - I used an online typing tutor. You can map keys around at the hardware level which is really useful if you are a programmer or if you just want to have certain keys in convenient positions (for example, if you don't use the Windows key, you can map it to something else like Alt). The documentation is pretty good. The keyboard works with Windows, Mac, Linux, and OpenBSD and no extra drivers are needed - I imagine that it'll work with other OS's too. It is pricey, no doubt, but if you have wrist problems, I think it is worth the money.

I received the keyboard after waiting for weeks, and the package is missing the hands rest cushions... Disappointing...

Avant, je n'arrivait pas de taper sur un clavier sans regarder les touches. Car avec dix doigts sur un clavier standard, mes mains commençait à faire mal au bout de dix minutes. Avec ce clavier ergonomique, je peux écrire pendant des heures sans douleur. Et ma vitesse d'écriture a plus que doublé ! Seul conseil : prendre la version silencieux (LF), car il est beaucoup moins bruyant que la version de base.

As a programmer, having on of these is a must. It's really good and helped me get rid of the pain in my hands

My typing speed was averaging at 60 wpm with a peak of 75. Now i'm averaging at 80 wpm with a peak of 100 wpm. My wrist are no longer sore and I enjoy typing again.

I was so excited when this product arrived at my house! I'm obsessed with good design and ergonomics, and this product did not disappoint. I was looking for something that would have absolute minimum impact on my fingers because I had tendonitis and pre-osteoarthritis from overwork. With this product, it feels very good to type, and I love the quiet cherry red keys. I read some reviews that said cherry red felt "mushy: but to me they feel awesome!! I love low-impact on my body. It warps my mind and makes me realize everything I've been doing wrong with typing. It also makes a fun parlor toy to show off to friends when they come over. None of us have ever seen anything like it before--even the nerdy tech guys in my family! I find the thumb keys the most difficult to relearn, though I know there are options to reprogram the way you want it--I haven't done that yet. I normally type 100-120 WPM on a traditional keyboard, but I'm super slow with this one as I get used to the curved keys and new thumb position keys. It's a great product for anyone who is serious about ergonomics--knowing as well that ergo is highly personal and it's important to find the right products that feel great and work for YOUR body and workspace setup.