Kinesis Advantage 360: 2 Years In

In December of 2023, due to carpal tunnel, I switched from my Happy Hacking Keyboard setup to a Kinesis Advantage 360. It’s been two years and change, and I haven’t looked back. Well, kind of.

The first few days were extremely frustrating, with my WPM dropping to a new low of 23, and I would be lying if I didn’t think of returning it.

It took me a few months to learn the new layout and get my typing speed back up to where it was before, but eventually recovered. My carpal tunnel practically disappeared in a few days, so the switch was already worth it.

However, the frustrating lack of Linux support for the Kinesis software, combined with occasional left-side disconnects during gaming, made me look around for alternatives earlier this year. So, this month, I bit the bullet and switched to a Glove80 with Plum Blossom 45gf Silent Linear switches.

I was worried that the learning curve would once again be high, but since the layout editor is easy to use (browser-based, halleluja), it was effectively zero. Not only was there no learning curve, but within a few days of use, I beat my own WPM of 97 on Monkeytype (English 60 sec). Yeah, I know I’m not a fast typer.

My overall impressions a weeks in is that it’s pretty damn great! I like that it is wireless with multiple Bluetooth profiles, it has a nice online configurator (yay, macros), I like that it came with a bunch of extra keycaps, and I love having dedicated F-keys again. Since it’s so light, I was worried that it would scoot across my desk, but that’s not an issue, especially when combined with a desk pad. The only thing I don’t really like is that the F and J keys don’t have bumps on them, but that same complaint goes for the Kinesis. After a while, my fingers learned the right place to rest, but it’s still nice to have them to anchor.

So, even though I’ve moved on from the Kinesis, I still use a customized version of its layout on the Glove80. Hopefully, this keyboard will last me at least two years, as the Kinesis 360 did.