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You Should Buy a Split, Mechanical Keyboard

20 Oct 2024 - Daniel Sherwood

My main keyboard for many years was a Microsoft Ergonomic 4000. I’m sure you are familiar with it: a large plastic frame, a bit of a “hump” in the middle that separates two sections of keys. A classic ergonomic keyboard. It served me well for many years until I noticed that some keys had lost their action. I did a little bit of research and learned that this meant the entire keyboard was broken. Most non-mechanical keyboards use a membrane with a raised “bubble” under each key. To fix a keyboard which operates from this mechanism, one would have to change the membrane for the entire keyboard. This did not seem like a worthwhile activity; time to move on to a mechanical keyboard! It turns out there are many kinds of mechanical keyboards. My immediate considerations were:

1. Layout
   • Conventional vs Split
2. Key-switches
   • Brown / Blue / Red / any other color of the rainbow
3. Aesthetics
   • It should look nice

I decided to focus on the layout first and go with a split/ergonomic mechanical keyboard. This greatly lowered the number of keyboards that met my search criteria. The top 3 that caught my attention were:

1. The Glove M80
2. The Advantage 360
3. The Voyager

The Glove M80 seemed to be the most highly rated keyboard of the three. I read that users experienced a cessation of wrist pain after using the Glove M80. The drawback for me was that the keys were literally soldered to the board, meaning that the ability to change out individual keys-witches was lost. This was one of the primary reasons I wanted a mechanical keyboard. The Advantage 360 also was highly reviewed. But it seems like a relic from 90s corporate culture. It’s a massive brick! I just couldn’t get excited about it. But then the Voyager …

… well, you can see by visiting the website that it has some slick marketing. The keyboard is split, the keys are re-programmable, and the key-switches can be replaced easily when they fail. I would have never dreamed in a million years that I would pay so much for a keyboard, but the Voyager is what I chose. I chose the “Kailh Chocolate Brown” key-switches because they are the loudest keys I thought my spouse would tolerate (Hey, some people like loud cars, I like loud keyboards). And you can tell that the Voyager is beautiful.

I have owned the keyboard for a solid 9 months now, and I absolutely love it. The keyboard is a joy to use. The Voyager not only has programmable keys but also programmable “layers”. I can tap or hold a specific key and transform every other key on the keyboard. This level of customization has been both freeing and confining. When I initially got my keyboard, I found that the default layer did not have a “delete” key mapped. So I couldn’t login to my work Windows PC. I moved some keys around, and hilariously thought that doubling up “shift” and the “space” keys would be a good idea. I would tap to trigger “space” and then hold to trigger “shift”. Ooo boy that was a mistake. So many sentences started with an extra space and no capital letter. I thought that I would eventually get the rhythm of it but after 8 months I just couldn’t make it happen. I guess this is why I didn’t progress in piano a kid. So here I am, re-mapping my keys to be more sensible.

Which brings me to the main drawback of this keyboard: I cannot use any other keyboard. I am used to having my hands 16” apart, my wrists angled, typing out spaces and activating layers without thinking. A normal keyboard is now confining and uncomfortable. I can never go back. This is the danger of a programmable, mechanical, ergonomic keyboard. You are trapped for life.

But you should totally buy one!