KINESIS Gaming Freestyle Edge RGB Split Mechanical Keyboard | Cherry MX Linear Red Switches | RGB | Ergonomic | Detachable Palm Support | Fully Programmable | TKL | Available Tenting

Key feel is really atrocious for a mechanical keyboard. Feels mushy and cheap.

I bought this keyboard Used-Like New directly from Amazon. It was in as-new condition when I received it, and initially the board worked well. However, after 6 months the keyboard prompted me to update to new firmware. This update scrambled the board, rendering half of it inoperable. Despite working with Kinesis tech support and attempting several hard resets and manual firmware re-installs, the board remained unusable. **Then I learned that because the board I had purchased was pre-owned, there was no warranty coverage.** They will honor warranties for refurbished products they sell through their own website, but not through Amazon or other sellers. So, desipite Kinesis techincal support acknowledging that it was most likely a manufacturing problem, I was not eligible for a replacement and I now have a very expensive paperweight. Buyer beware: unless there is a active problem with your board, I would avoid any firmware updates. While it worked, I loved this keybaord. Echoing what others have said, the (sold seperately) risers are a must-have to enjoy the true ergonomic benefits. Just take care if, like me, you prefer to avoid unnecessary manufacturing waste by purchasing pre-owned products -- buy from the KINESIS website or YOU WILL HAVE NO WARRANTY COVERAGE.

First thing that was a real headache is that the keyboard didnt work at all through my rather standard IO-GEAR KVM. Checking their own support, they basically say theyre not going to support KVM switches, but do list two dumb KVMs that do work, both of which are VGA based, which is a non-starter for me. Getting told Im out of luck for support with KVMs with a ergo keyboard (most often used for work applications) is pretty crappy. So, I ended up getting a generic USB switcher, which then shows a second failing on this keyboard, it takes between 7 and 9 seconds to start up, which is really annoying every time I switch devices. Second thing is that the build quality seems really cheap for how expensive this keyboard is. All plastic construction. The tabs that hold the wrist guard on dont hold it very securely; just fine if its flat on the table, but moving the keyboard a bit and it can easily pop off. The flap holding the extra cable for the tether cable pops off if I move the keyboard around even a little bit. To be clear, the keyboard feels pretty sturdy, but its just way lower quality than keyboards that cost half the price or less. Additionally there are no tilting (not tenting) flaps at all. I got the tenting kit too, and I wont fully review that here, but it isnt great either. I prefer my keyboard slightly tilted up at the back, and there is no way to achieve that with this, even with the tenting kit. So far I havent really used this keyboard much. Ill have to update my review on how it feels to actually use it, which Im hoping with make up for the shortcomings thus far. This keyboard was pretty expensive after all, and it would be a shame if I didnt like it. Though the experience of install and setup, and immediately being confronted with such serious shortcomings is really unfortunate, and doesnt really bode well. Update: On the ergo side Ive figured out that I can take the pads off the wrist wrests. They are held on with velcro that is glued down. Annoying to pull the velcro up and cleanup the goo, but its fine. Honestly now, I can use the tent kit and it doesnt feel awful, and without the pads the wrist rests actually are long enough to be useful. Before the bulge on them was too far forward making it feel like my hand was always sliding off it. So with this bonus Im a bit happier with it... But it still takes my feelings on it from really closer to a 1.5 up to about a 2.2 stars... So leaving the review unchanged for now. Will update if my feelings evolve.

I type faster and make less mistakes with this mechanical keyboard. The split design is comfortable (despite a wrist injury) and the satisfying sound says, “I am getting Lots Of Work Done.” It is great except for one thing: the illuminated keys don’t live up to the advertising. I wanted the illuminated keys because the keyboard is on a drawer under the desk, resulting in much of the keyboard being in shadow, plus I do have to look at the keys when using special characters such as “%” or “{“. The special characters that I need to light are exactly the characters that do not light. The photos that Kinesis uses to sell this keyboard misrepresent how the illumination of the keys actually looks. One of those photos is attached. Also attached are more photos—two showing how the keys look when illumination is on, and the other showing how the LED is positioned under the key cap. After this investigation I’d be surprised if ANY mechanical keys available today can be made to illuminate both characters because parts of the mechanical key (metal and otherwise) are opaque, and the light can’t get around those parts to illuminate the second character. Maybe a design change for future keyboards would be adding a second LED light for the other half of the key. Cool if that circuit were activated by the “shift” key… So the choice seems to be either crisp/accurate/more fun mechanical keys that don’t illuminate completely, or mushy/membrane keys that do illuminate completely. Next Ill try an LED light strip to stick on the underside of the desk above, and turn off the keyboard lights.

Lets get this straight: Right now, the Kinesis Freestyle Edge is the best relatively-conventional ergonomic keyboard you can buy. No exceptions. Yes, its expensive, as keyboards go. But it is tentable, adjustable, programmable, comes with your choice of three types of Cherry mechanical keyswitches (not cheap Chinese knock-offs) and actually useful palm rests. Its solidly constructed and has the good key feel youd naturally expect from Cherry switches. It is customizable in many ways, almost all of which can be done right on the keyboard itself, but if you prefer to do it from a configuration application, Kinesis has you covered there as well. (The Smartset app, available for MacOS or Windows, does everything you can do directly from the keyboard as well as a few things that you cant.) The Edge RGB adds fully addressable RGB backlighting, for the loss only of the Scroll Lock key which honestly NOTHING EVER USES ANY MORE ANYWAY. Like the Caps Lock key, I dont know why it still even exists on modern computer keyboards. Its no longer relevant, and its no pain whatsoever to lose it. I mentioned MacOS above. Yes, you can use this keyboard with your Mac. To do that, youll need to do two things: 1. Youll need to order and install https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B085PWG291/, a set of four replacement keycaps for MacOS. 2. To make the keyboards actions match the new key caps, youll have to remap four keys, swapping the left and right Windows keys with the left and right Alt keys. ALT on the PC and ALT/OPTION on the Mac send the same key code, and WIN on the PC sends the same key code as the Macs COMMAND key, but their positions on the keyboard are swapped. Remap each WIN to ALT and likewise each ALT to WIN, and youre good to go. (This is easier and less confusing to do from the Smartset app.) Every time you run it, the Smartset app will also check to see if your keyboard needs any firmware updates. YES, THIS KEYBOARD GETS FIRMWARE UPDATES. Updating firmware is simplicity itself: Copy the update to the keyboards firmware folder, unplug the keyboard, plug it back in, and thats it. DONE. Your grandmother could do it, after you show her how the first time. So what makes this better than all of those $20-$60 ergonomic keyboards? Well, bluntly, theyre all cheap, dumb crap with no adjustment, no programmability, and with cheap, bad membrane switches (and usually with even cheaper screen-printed keycaps). Theyll wear out quickly under heavy use, and theyll never approach the key feel or tactile feedback of a proper mechanical key switch. Why is tactile feedback important? Because it prevents you from damaging your hands by hitting the keys harder than you need to. So if you have any semblance at all of RSI issues, and you want to protect your hands and wrists, buy this keyboard. Seriously. Im not kidding here. Your hands and wrists will thank you forever. UPDATE ====== Since writing the above Ive bought a third of these, for use with a work-issued Mac. If youve ever typed on a recent Mac keyboard, you know why. The first two are original-version Edges, one with Red switches, one with Brown. For the RGB I went back to the Reds because I think I slightly prefer them. All three have silicone damper rings installed. I personally give the RGB color control on the Edge RGB a resounding meh. I do NOT like the changes to the keycaps; shifted keys are upside down, which is to say, the shifted character is BELOW the unshifted character, not above it or to its right. This can be confusing. I have never seen any other keyboard do this, EVER, and it is a BAD IDEA. It doesnt even work well with the illumination, as the light is mostly blocked from the shifted character. Kinesis should change it back. Since they are standard Cherry keycaps, you could of course work around this by replacing the keycaps with a more conventional set of backlight-compatible Cherry keycaps. But on a $200 keyboard, you shouldnt HAVE to.

I got this because I have been experiencing more issues from having my arms angled inward to type. I work as a software engineer and have been switched to full-time from home, so buying 1 keyboard I could use for work and for play (I have a gaming PC) was necessary for me to alleviate my pain. First, the good: This 100% helps the shoulder. I needed to move the two halves further apart than a simple split would do, so I went for this as a test, mostly, hoping it would help, hoping I wouldnt need to go even further up the price chain, and hoping it would be enjoyable to type on. It most certainly is. Anyone who does regular computer usage and suffers from having their hands so close together will almost guaranteed feel relief from using this. The whatever: I dont think its exceptionally different to type on than my former Logitech G910 but I am NOT a keyboard Enthusiast like some people. I do sometimes hit keys I dont mean to (usually its the period when I hit the space bar). I have short fingers. Its not a huge issue. The keys arent too loud but feel good to type with. I can tell when Ive fully pressed a key at least 95% of the time. Sometimes I make mistakes which I do not think are the keyboards fault. The bad: I really dont like the approach for managing macro keys. I get the point of it, to have it all on-board in the keyboard, but. The approach of mounting and ejecting the drive sometimes confuses Win10, and it fails to eject, or gives me an error after appearing to eject correctly, always leaving me wondering what just happened. I am carefully following the provided directions, but it seems not very user-friendly. Im guessing power users might be more ok with it. It begs the question, for this price point, do they expect power users? I use this on a USB switch so I can swap it between my work macbook and my PC. I experienced a very strange issue where an area of the right half of the keyboard was not working properly (a single press of the m key would type a series of letters, for example). I found it really clunky to figure out how to reset the thing (internet sleuthing to find an answer, their site/documentation is not as easy to navigate as Id hoped), and then to actually reset requires finger gymnastics of holding down 3 keys and plugging the keyboard in again. I dont know a single person who plugs a keyboard into the front port of a PC, so for anyone on a desktop/not a laptop, you are going to have to contort your body around to hold 3 keys down while plugging something in anywhere. It was a pain. I have no idea why it happened, it just was borked after waking up from sleep one time. If this happens too much, or at a time when Im trying to hop into a work meeting, this will probably make me buy a new keyboard from another brand. Overall, Im glad I bought it because pain = no work. I needed a split keyboard. Its good for that. I can type a lot without lots of struggle or errors. I dont love the macro key support. The process to mount it, set it, save/eject, is slow and clunky if youre hoping to configure a lot of macros or edit/tweak what youve done. The idea of doing it all without software is fine, but again feels outdated or hyper specialized to me. Average people will expect to have a software interface (which is provided, and I use), not just handle everything from keystrokes alone. I feel like someone whos that into macros for gaming is going to get a higher priced keyboard, or a keypad specifically for that, anyway.

I got this and a vertical mouse and together they have alleviated my severe forearm pain. This keyboard allows me to not have my wrists bent out at 45 degree angles all day and night. Now I can have then in front of my shoulders (well, a little inside because theyre also lifted and tilted). As a bonus, the many many macros let me store common work commands that is used and saves a lot of keystrokes.

Can anyone help with bringing back the lights? Factory Settings? Thank you. my KINESIS GAMING Freestyle Edge RGB Split Mechanical Keyboard (MX Brown) is not responding. The lights are all off. Can anyone help with bringing back the lights? Factory Settings? Thank you Thanks

Tried this because its rated best by WireCutter. I have a (cheaper) FreeStyle at work. I love the backlighting and that you can control the colors. Its nice that you can pick the Cherry MX switch you like best, but most people will have no idea which to pick. I chose brown as I use it for typing only. I think the brown is too loud for office work and unfortunately the reds are just as loud (silent red on the Pro model are really silent which is weird in a different way). I think the brown takes a little too much force to type compared to the FreeStyle. But the Cherry MX does provided a crisp feel missing on cheap keyboards. Oddly the keyboard layout is different/worse than the FreeStyle. The FreeStyle has larger ESC and Delete buttons. And as with all Kinesis keyboards, I really miss the numeric keypad. Also the built-in wrist rest is nice but it slopes down too much for my liking.