By Chris Scott Barr
Improving keyboard design seems to be about as challenging as building a better mousetrap. Sure, we see new keyboards all the time with tiny changes here and there, but always they have the same overall look and feel. Every now and then a new strange one will make its way onto the market, only to be forgotten a few short months later. The only one that’s really stuck around in any manner is the split-keys “ergonomic” style. Well the Kinesis Advantage keyboard takes that design to a new level.
I can’t really say too many bad things about a keyboard I’ve never used, but I do have some concerns. The biggest glaring one is that the rows of keys are situated directly above one another, rather than being slightly offset. I suppose that one might get used to it after a bit, but it seems like it would be counter-productive. I won’t pretend to know the science behind these things, but if that were the better option, wouldn’t all keyboards have their rows line up? Another big problem is the price, which is $300. There’s no advanced technology hidden inside of these things. It’s the same as any other keyboard on the market, only with the keys situated differently. Slap a small premium on it to recoup the money you spent researching and designing the thing. $280 is not a reasonable markup for essentially a redesigned $20 keyboard.
