And, for now at least, while this board might not be perfect, if I was talking just hardware, this would probably take the crown as the best physical form for me. This bit of historical context is essential to understand the lineage of the Advantage360, evolving from the Kinesis Advantage2 keyboard that they only released a few years back. I really, really appreciate that and you can even turn them off in the firmware if you don’t like them.

I found it very ergonomic to have the Ctrl key on both sides of your keyboard, and depending on which ctrl key combination I use, I use the opposite Ctrl key. I’ve been alternating days on the 360 and the Moonlander boards, and find the flatter profile of the Moonlander thumb area seems to suit me better. The all-new Advantage 360 features our patented Contoured keyboard design now in a fully split form factor for even more ergonomic adjustability. Coding on Kinesis was just such a pain in terms of usual keys - braces et all: weird, up down arrows: weird. The moment I put my hands on the Kinesis Advantage2, I knew it was something I would use for years to come.Productivity is greater than with any other keyboard, leading to its popularity with intensive users all over the world. I did not jive with something about the curvature + layout, even though I could touch type at a good speed. Second, the thumb keys on the Advantage2 had unique, taller keycaps for the Ctrl, Alt, Cmd/Win keys. If you are using the keyboard with the backlighting on (a major power drain) the batteries should last for a full work day or two. I'm convinced they used such a weird placement of some things like that to prompt/goad people into exploring the built-in remapping.

Over the years our users have clamoured for an open-source option for their Advantage so for those folks, the Pro will be a welcome sight. Thanks to ZMK, both half units work together (one works as a primary, the second as a secondary), and they work wirelessly communicating with each other. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Having been an Advantage user now for a decade, having the thumb clusters is certainly an upgrade over standard keyboards, but they also feel like they could use some design attention.

However, it's something I use daily, sometimes up to 8 hours, and I think purchasing and spending this kind of money is OK if it's part of your daily job. The Advantage360 hardware is a solid upgrade over the Advantage2, which itself was more of an incremental improvement over the original Advantage. Separating the keywells, positions the arms at shoulder-width to keep wrists straight and perpendicular to the home row to reduce abduction and ulnar deviation. The 360 does have macro key which you can map to common function keys if you really don’t want to layer the function row. Now to get things up and running, you switch each half on, generally left first as that is the master.

They do also offer a base Advantage 360 that is wired and the two pieces are connected with a usb-c cable. The Advantage360 Pro comes with ZMK, an open-source firmware that allows you to customize every keycap. In the hobbyist scene, the vast majority of keyboards are flat—even within the split ergonomic niche. As powerful as the ZMK software is, and it is very powerful, it’s not accessible to the average Joe.If you have watched any of my other reviews on YouTube, or here you will know that a good portion of them cover keyboards. Functions keys are located in the number row and accessed via the Fn Key for reduce reach and enhanced portability. If you pay attention to builds and commentary on them after completion a lot of people begrudgingly dislike the Dactyl Manuform layout because it is uncomfortable for them and awful to type on.