Kinesis Advantage 360 Pro

6owners with an opinion

40%of verdicts positive

2/1positive/negative since 2024

0happy after 3+ years

Praised for ergonomics and comfort; criticized for reliability.

What people wrote

Likes it

Some research on this topic http://edgarmatias.com/papers/hci96/ On OS X you can achieve this with Keyb, Karabiner Elements, etc. It's also easy to do with a programmable keyboard with ZMK/QMK. I've set up my Kinesis 360 Pro this way, being symmetrical means I can access every key easily. Hardware support for sticky keys also helps quite a bit.

Recommends it

I have a similar story. Bought a Kinesis advantage II at the time and it provided at best some solace. Started lifting weights and all pain was completely gone within two weeks. Not saying it will work for others but it’s at least worth trying. PS I ended up sticking with the kinesis, now on a 360 pro. Hands down the best keyboard I’ve ever seen or used. I recommend both deadlifts and kinesis :)

Neutral

Don't have a moonlander but I actually did this with my advantage 360 pro. I did not remove the switches but I made them no-ops. The whole left-most and right-most columns of the keyboard are completely unused for me. If you travel with the keyboard a lot maybe its an issue since its extra weight/space, but if not I don't see it really hurting much.

Doesn’t like it

I have had an advantage, advantage pro, advantage 2, and an advantage 360 pro. The 360 comes close but it’s a miss for me. I really don’t like the omission of the function keys, and the switches feel muddied compared to the ones on the previous advantage keyboards. If they fixed those two things and added another 1-2 keys to the thumb cluster, I think that would be the ultimate keyboard for me.

Doesn’t like it

I've both the Moonlander which uses QMK and Kinesis Advantage 360 Pro which uses ZMK. The Advantage 360 Pro occasionally has Bluetooth connection problem that drive me crazy, which often requires unpairing and re-pairing. (I've contacted support and they point out a firmware for you to reset stuck light and another for resetting completely, but it just doesn't solve me problem.) I often thought ZSA chose to not support wireless because of this. I chose the wireless version of 360Pro not primarily because of wireless, but because of the use of ZMK (which allows similar level of programming comparing to QMK.) eventually, the way I solve the Bluetooth problem is just to use its USB connection. P.S. I have 2 360Pro, one at work. On top of the connection problem I mentioned above, there's also another pairing problem which I need to switch between them. Often, but not always, I need to unpair and re-pair again. It seems they aren't expecting people to have multiple 360Pro?

Doesn’t like it

Would you say not having ortholinear keys is a big difference for ergonomics? I don't think there is much proof in terms of scientific studies that column stagger is better (column stagger is usually preferable over ortholinear), so can only really give my personal experience. I strongly prefer column stagger, I can still type row stagger and sometimes use my laptop's keyboard when I travel, but all these lateral movements feel awkward now. I've also been eyeing the Kinesis Advantage 360 The 360 is really nice (I have a 360 Pro), but I'd order it somewhere where you can return it easily (eg. Kinesis themselves). For me, the Gateron Browns in the 360 are quite a large regression compared to the Cherry Browns in the Advantage2. The Gaterons are smoother, but their actuation point is way lower. Gateron specs say 2mm, but it's closer to 3mm in practice. This makes typing on the 360 quite tiring for me. So it's mostly collecting dust currently (I am using the Advantage2 and the Model 100 most of the time). But this is really personal, some other people do like the Gateron switches. I wrote up a short review of the 360 Pro here: https://danieldk.eu/Posts/2023-04-15-Advantage-360-Pro.html

Neutral

I have several KA2s (office, home office, spare) and the 360 Pro (I first had a non-Pro because I prefer wired, but the firmware still had annoying bugs). + Variable split is very nice. + Higher tenting degrees than the 20 degrees of the KA2. + Great firmware (ZMK) out of the box. + Really good build quality. + User-replaceable battery. - The Gateron Brown switches are mediocre. They are not to spec and the actuation points are closer to 3mm than 2mm. This makes it much harder to type without bottoming out and doesn't permit the lighter touch you can use with the Browns or Silent Reds in the KA2. - The two halves always connect through Bluetooth, but sometimes the right half cannot find the left half, especially after flashing. You usually have to power cycle both halves several times to get them to connect again. - The Pro (in contrast to the non-Pro 360) comes with mediocre ABS keycaps. I replaced them by a Kinesis PBT blank set, but this adds another $50 or so to the already steep price. - The optional palm rests are too high. - Cannot be used on your lap. The keyboard I still love the most is the Kinesis Advantage2 with a KinT controller (for QMK). If the split distance and tenting degree of the KA2 are acceptable, I'd recommend people to buy the KA2. If you do get a 360, I'd recommend you to go through Upgradekeyboards.com and get it with a different switch type.