- #KINESIS FREESTYLE 2 ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD FOR MAC#
- #KINESIS FREESTYLE 2 ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD PLUS#
- #KINESIS FREESTYLE 2 ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD WINDOWS#
It can be an ergonomic powerhouse with outrageous angles and built-in palm rests – or just a nice narrow keyboard that leaves plenty of space to move your mouse. In some ways, the Kinesis Freestyle is the ultimate ergonomic keyboard, simply because of its vast configurability to match the individual user. They’re also relatively quiet, which is good news for anybody who works within earshot of others and wants to remain popular. They have a pleasantly light, airy quality – not mushy, but not too stark either. They are easy to press without being jarring when you reach end-of-travel. I like the feel of the Freestyle’s keys better than any other board I have ever used, with the possible exception of the Advantage itself.
Though the Freestyle uses relatively inexpensive rubber-dome keyswitches, they are specially designed for low-force typing and work nicely. I’d grown rather fond of the easy-actuating clickety-clacking keys, and was apprehensive that the Freestyle might not live up to its more expensive cousin’s standards. When I ordered the Freestyle, I was fresh from the Kinesis Advantage, which uses high-end mechanical keyswitches. Most standard keyboards, and even certain ergonomic keyboards such as the MS Natural 4000, have keys that are rather mushy and – worse – difficult to press. Good, easy key action is an underrated but vitally important feature in any keyboard, particularly if you don’t have the hands of a weightlifter. I can always remap the Browser Home key to something else – maybe an extra Alt key! Typing action And what do you not want to do above all else when filling out such a form? Leave the page and lose your work – which is exactly what the Home key will do to you, and has already done to me more than once when my finger failed to find Tab correctly.ĭespite these problems, I like the layout overall. When filling out a form online, what key do you hit repeatedly? Tab. Worse than useless because the key is located right next to tab. Useless because I rarely load my homepage at all while working I do everything with tabs and Firefox’s built-in search box. My most major problem with the layout is the presence of the special Browser Home key on the left, which is worse than useless to me. With the Freestyle, I can no longer one-hand Windows-M to minimize all windows, something I do a lot while working.
#KINESIS FREESTYLE 2 ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD WINDOWS#
A mild personal gripe of my own is the lack of a Windows logo key on the right.
#KINESIS FREESTYLE 2 ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD FOR MAC#
Users of the Freestyle for Mac will find this particularly annoying. For some reason, they’re placed in such a way that it’s almost impossible to press one without moving your whole hand.
One element of the layout that often brings complaints is the positioning of the Alt keys. At first these keys didn’t seem all that useful, but I’ve actually found them quite handy and I’m starting to use them more.
#KINESIS FREESTYLE 2 ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD PLUS#
It has dedicated keys for copy, paste, and other commonly used functions – plus an extra Delete key. While the Kinesis Freestyle may be missing some familiar keys on the right, it compensates by adding some new ones on the left. It works just like a typical laptop, though, so you ten-key folks have probably already experienced it. Not being much of a ten-keyer, I can’t comment on how easy or difficult this is. If this describes you, you’ve got two choices with the Freestyle: Purchase a separate standalone numeric keypad, or learn to use the ten-key overlay on the main part of the board (activated with the FN key at the lower left). This allows a narrower footprint, but might be an obstacle to those who do a lot of ten-key. The Freestyle is missing a dedicated set of keys found on most standard keyboards – the numeric keypad. Each practically creates a new keyboard, so let’s go through them one at a time. Kinesis offers several different kits to configure the Freestyle the way you want it. The split design also allows you to get exactly the wrist angle you want, and to vary your typing position if desired. Really big guys may even want to consider the wider version of the Freestyle, which can split up to twenty inches. This variable split eliminates the need to scrunch your arms inward, and also accommodates different shapes and sizes of users. On the basic model, you can split them up to eight inches, which is the length of the cord connecting them. The outstanding feature of the Kinesis Freestyle is the separation of its two halves (“keying modules”). After reading over the basics here, you might want to check out what’s new in my article on the new version. Update: Kinesis has upgraded this model to the Freestyle2. The Kinesis Freestyle keyboard used in this review