finished 2022
Finding the End Game Keyboard
The quest to find the best ergonomic keyboard to not destroy my wrists on long days of writing and programming
I've bought a lot of keyboards. Each one was supposed to be the last one I needed. Here's the order I went through them and what made me move on.
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2019
SteelSeries Apex 5
I'd just graduated and had a programming job. Still doing a bit of PC gaming too, so I went with reds. It was my first keyboard that wasn't whatever came in the box.
It was way too big though. Full size with the numpad and everything, and it took up most of the desk.
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2020
Ducky One 2 TKL, Cherry Blacks
Once I had money coming in and was writing a lot more, I dropped the numpad. The TKL felt right straight away.
The Blacks didn't. They were super stiff and my hands got tired after a few hours. That was the first time I thought about a keyboard in terms of what it was doing to my hands rather than how it looked.
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2020–2022
Varmilo 80, Nordic rune keycaps
So I went looking for switches that were easier on long typing sessions. This was also around when I got really into keycap design, which is its own rabbit hole.
This one lasted the longest, about two years. It ended when my wrists started giving me problems at the gym and I couldn't really pretend the typing had nothing to do with it.
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2022–2024
Mistel Barocco MD660
First go at ergonomics. Splitting the board apart worked so well that I bought a second one for the office.
That lasted about two years as well. Then the B key got me. On a split, B sits on the left half, and I'd always hit it with my right hand. Two years in I was still reaching for it on the wrong side and it annoyed me every single time.
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2024
ZSA Moonlander
Then I saw it. It was magnificent and scary. Ortholinear, fully programmable, thumb clusters, tenting. Sounds great, but I was still new to the ergonomics world and it was a whopping $500 AUD for one keyboard.
I read reviews for three months before I sunk the cost and bought it.
It took me about four months to get used to it. In that same stretch I also learned Colemak-DH, which sounds like a lot, but it was on purpose. I wanted my brain to tie Colemak to the split and normal QWERTY to a flat laptop keyboard, so I could still sit down at any machine and type fine. It worked.
Once my speed came back I started messing around with layers. I started with four. I'm now maxed out at nine, all doing something different. I also swapped both boards over to silent tactiles, since they're hot swappable.
And yes, I bought a second one for the office. Same as I did with the Barocco.
I don’t think I type any faster than I used to. But it’s hella more comfortable, and I can type all day without my hands complaining at the end of it.
That’s the thing I was actually after the whole time. I just didn’t know it in 2019, when I thought the problem was the size, and then the switches, and then the keycaps, and then the layout.
That’s why ZSA’s keyboards are the end game for me. They’re the most comfortable thing I’ve ever typed on.