
The Kinesis Advantage, Unicomp Space Saver, and Das Keyboard, two years later - jseliger
http://jseliger.com/2011/07/17/further-thoughts-on-the-kinesis-advantage-unicomp-space-saver-and-das-keyboard%e2%80%94two-years-later
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kwantam
He discusses aging and longevity of Kinesis keyboards; I can contribute a bit
here.

I presently own two Kinesis Advantage keyboards; one I got in 1999, the other
in 2000. The one from 1999 has run since then with absolutely no issues, and I
have not been gentle on it in the least. The keys are still accurate and
responsive, and the only trouble I've ever had with it is when I spilled a bit
of water into it (it dried out and everything was fine).

The other Advantage hasn't quite been perfect: one of its keys drank a bit of
soda early in its life, and since then it's been problematic. More recently,
another keyswitch started to die, either being unresponsive or bouncing badly
(3-10 detected keypresses for one actual keypress). I sent it back to Kinesis
and they replaced basically every key on the keyboard (replaced the left and
right main panels and the left F-key panels; the top right panel was fine).
The cost for this repair was $80.

Now I have basically one brand-new and one 11-year-old Kinesis, which gives me
an opportunity to feel how they wear over time. The new keyboard takes
slightly less force and the keys bottom out more crisply, but on the whole I'd
say that typing on the new keys has not made me at all dissatisfied with the
feel of the old ones; in fact, the one with the older switches is on my desk
at work, and I use it at least an order of magnitude more than the one with
the new keyswitches.

On the whole, my experience with the Kinesis has been excellent. Comfortable
to type on, amazing position for the modifier keys, respectable longevity, and
excellent customer service will keep me a Kinesis customer for the foreseeable
future.

~~~
imbriaco
Interestingly, my two Kinesis keyboards were also purchased in 1999 and 2000
respectively. One is a Classic and the other is a Professional since the
Advantage didn't exist yet.

Both keyboards are still going strong with very heavy usage. Like you, one of
mine drank som soda several years ago. I disassembled it, cleaned it as well
as I could, and reassembled it and it's still doing great to this day.

People look at me funny when the see the AT connector on the keyboard attached
to a PS/2 adapter, attached to a USB adapter but I wouldn't trade my Kinesis
keyboard for anything at this point.

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wyclif
As for the Unicomp models, I recommend them highly. I've one set up like the
old Sun keyboards for *nix use. I had used the original IBM Model M's and the
Customizers are as close as it gets to the genuine article.

I'm very much a fan of buckling spring, positive keyclick switches with the
famous tactile feedback. There is absolutely no uncertainty that a key has
been engaged and one of the effects is that you don't use as much pressure or
resort to the temptation to mash keys; it could help prevent RSI. If you're a
touch typist they are fantastic.

The only real downside to me is the noise they make; it's fine if you're in
your own office but in an open workspace I doubt your colleagues will
appreciate the noise-- in heavy coding mode they sound a bit like warfare.

~~~
dlevine
I have a Unicomp Spacesaver that I've been using for the past several months.
I love it, and the RSI I had from before I started using it seems to have
diminished significantly (although I have changed a bunch of other variables).
It is even hard to go back to the built-in keyboard on my 13" Macbook Pro (so
mushy).

People often comment that the Unicomp is loud, but no one has complained. More
like "that's legit."

~~~
aidenn0
I love my Unicomp. I have a cheap membrane keyboard though, for when the wife
is trying to sleep.

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dvdhsu
There is a _huge_ difference between Cherry MX Blues and Cherry MX Browns. [1]
The amount of sound they make drastically differ, and they have very different
amounts of tactile feedback. Even if you gave somebody who knew nothing about
mechanical keyboards a Filco Blue and a Filco Brown, they would definitely be
able to tell the difference.

\------------------------

1\.
[http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Cherry+switches+and+b...](http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Cherry+switches+and+boards)

~~~
jrockway
Yes. The Kinesis keyboard has a speaker that makes a noise when you press its
cherry brown keys, though, so that might be what's confusing him. I was
confused when I first played with one -- "this doesn't sound like brown to
me".

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epistasis
I don't care much for the long travel distance or noise of mechanical springs,
but I absolutely love the layout of the Kinesis Advantage. I got my Advantage
in 2004 as a gift from a friend concerned about my wrist pain (his entire
family of excessive typers has used them since the mid-nineties). I have never
experienced discomfort since, and though I can't directly attribute it to the
Advantage layout, when I try to use a flat keyboard for more than an hour I
experience considerable strain.

My ideal keyboard would have the Apple chiclet mechanisms in an Advantage
layout, but unfortunately that chimera is unlikely to ever exist.

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jrockway
FWIW, it seems that keyboard comparisons always leave out Topre keyswitches,
which are absolutely amazing. They make a nice noise, are super-durable, and
don't require you to bottom-out to get the key to register. Combined with the
lower "weighting" on the keys pressed with your weaker fingers, and it's
really easy to type for hours and hours with no discomfort.

~~~
SamReidHughes
I came here to post just this. When put in combination with a choice of
alternative keyboard layout, they're a great way to feel smug about lesser
keyboard users. But also, it's as if they took all the other kinds of
keyboards, fixed all their downsides, and made the key action better than you
could imagine. The variable weighted keyboards are great for programming, and
the uniformly weighted versions are only slightly less great.

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cookiecaper
Does anyone game with a mechanical keyboard? My only reservation is that I may
have to keep my normal keyboard on standby to play games.

~~~
jrockway
Keyboards with Cherry black switches are apparently recommended for that use
case:

[http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=leopold,tenkeyles...](http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=leopold,tenkeyless&pid=fc200rlab)

