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Keyboards · Kinesis Advantage

Kinesis Advantage360 Professional

6owners with an opinion
100%of verdicts positive
0/0positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for ergonomics and comfort; criticized for ease of use and software.

What people wrote

Likes it
> I'd miss the Esc key in the upper-left When the keyboard lets your thumb reach 2-3 buttons each, you get to use the thumb more, which allows using the pinky finger less. (Which is nice, since the pinky finger is weaker than the thumb). I find it quite nice to use my thumbs for Tab/Esc/Space, Backspace/Enter/Delete.
Likes it
No, you can comfortably rest your palms on the wood with your fingers on the home row and you either don't tough or just barely rest the joint of your thumb on the fun keys. To actually press them, you have to consciously press down with that thumb joint (sounds a bit awkward, but really becomes second nature immediately). It's extremely comfortable and ergonomic. Wells on the Keyboardio are pretty shallow; nothing like a Kinesis. (I'm a Model 01 user since 2017 and currently typing this on a Model 100, resting my palms on the wood).
Neutral
And then there is the annoying interference. Sometimes, my AirPods would constantly drop out during a video meeting, until I switched off my Magic Keyboard/Trackpad. Or in some environments, the sculpt would only work reliably if I put the dongle on a USB dock or cable right next to the keyboard. I hate Bluetooth. Luckily the base 360 is wired. Though no QMK (and obviously no ZMK), though smartset is pretty ok to. Especially now that they have more than two layers, would love it if they backported that to the Advantage 2.
Likes it
The keyboard's firmware is very flexible- you can remap all of the keys, and also do things like "mod tap" or "layer tap"- for example, when I tap the backspace key (one of the thumb buttons), it sends a backspace. If I hold the key down, it puts they keyboard into a layout where I can more easily access the symbols used commonly in programming. I have the delete key (which is next to it in the thumb cluster) act as an extra Ctrl key when held down. https://zmk.dev/docs/behaviors/hold-tap
Likes it
people don't understand the typing on the lap thing. I can use the keyboard in a variety of different positions (including lying down), and my wrists never come in at a strange angle. I'd love bluetooth, but have two separate units in the 360 doesn't really work for me...I guess I could make something like their bridge that's a little more sturdy and adjustable.
Likes it
I’ve been enjoying this keyboard a lot as well. Unfortunately, it seems to randomly keep waking up my MacBook every several minutes and the only fix I’ve been able to find is to manually turn the switch off when I’m done using the computer. I’m also not a huge fan of having to charge both sides individually although so far the battery life seems quite good. I don’t move my computer often and use a dock so it would be nice to be able to just leave it plugged in without worrying about battery, but doing that requires both sides to each have a cable plugged into a power source.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
The F-keys won't be useful for me. Reaching them would require me to move my palms. After using split keyboards for some time, I came up with a setup that only uses 3 rows, and relies on layer switching (mostly using the thumb clusters) to quickly access any keys. Maybe on a highly curved keyboard like the Kinesis hitting F-keys would be just a matter of bending your fingers more, and not a matter of moving your palm though.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
the lack of F-keys is baffling. The vertical real estate is non-issue on a desktop, you win nothing by getting rid of the F-row. the lack of "]" and "\" keys is a deal-breaker for non-English layouts. The moment you have more letters in the alphabet than 26, you have to readjust your typing habit for the other language. In the world of fully-custom DIY keyboard that's way too much to compromise on for a high-end keyboard
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
The way many of these keyboards work with layering makes it a functional requirement rather than a choice. For the (very) premium price, I would rather they include the additional keys and let me decide if I want to utilize layering. I have enough low-utilization keys that I want always accessible without any impediment. My desk is not space constrained such that an additional physical row or two of keys is going to make my workspace unusable. If I choose to embrace layering and never use the F-keys, fine. However, if I want to only ever utilize 12 keys and do some monstrous chording setup, also an option.
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
If my Sculpt dies and I can’t replace it (a useful thing to know is they have a 3 year warranty, in the UK at least, so when a key inevitably fell off my last one I was able to get it replaced for free! I didn’t realise the warranty was this long previously and just bought another), I might try the Logitech K860. Looks nice, though I’d rather not have the num pad. This Advantage360 looks pretty great but I wonder how easy it will be to ship to the UK, when I last looked into these more bespoke keyboards it was a bit of a hassle and increased the price significantly.
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
This looks excellent, but I was hoping for something other than Bluetooth. I have sworn by Logitech wireless accessories for years because of their integrated wireless which presents to the OS as a regular USB device driver, so I can use the accessories in BIOS, during OS installations, etc without any hassle. I also like the Logitech USB dongles because I find the Windows Bluetooth keyboard support to be very much a second class citizen, with slow performance and the keyboad noticeably lags both randomly and when the system is under load, unlike a USB device. This got me wondering if there was some solution for this, such as having a Bluetooth keyboard communicate with another piece of hardware that replayed the inputs as USB. Or perhaps Windows has upped their game in the couple of years since I last tried a Bluetooth keyboard? I know on Mac it just works (tm) but sadly I cannot escape Windows at work at the moment.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
I don't understand why they got rid of the F-keys. The keyboard is a beast; no one is using it for portability. Why make it smaller by losing a row of keys? (Do the opposite — add another couple of rows, for kicks! Moonlander adds a column [1]) Same for Bluetooth — I don't get the attraction — when are you taking your giant keyboard away from your desk? If you never needed to plug it in, that would be slightly better, but it still needs to be charged. Even if it's only a few ms of extra latency, what's the upside? This is more idiosyncratic, but I put a Magic Trackpad in the center of the Advantage2 [2] — highly recommended — so losing that center piece is worse for me. 1: https://www.zsa.io/moonlander 2: https://twitter.com/max_sixty/status/1144236070369988609