Like most people, my interest in ergonomic keyboards started because of pain. When the job you need to do, and enjoy doing every day, comes with pain, spending hundreds on a keyboard is a small price to pay.
Where my split keyboard journey started
I'm not a beginner to ergonomic split keyboards. I started my journey with a Logitech ERGO K860. It was a great introduction to the split form and significantly reduced my pain. It shifted my posture into a more natural position.
From there, I went down a rabbit hole. I explored many different keyboards: I tried a Moonlander, a Glove80 and many others. At the same time, I discovered QMK, and since I knew enough C to get by, it really opened up the range of keyboards to choose from. I realized that with QMK you don't need that many keys, because you can create layers, chords and more.
I settled on the Crkbd (Corne) keyboard. It has only 36 keys, and that was just enough. I was really happy with it and used it for 8 months.
Five years on the Kinesis Advantage2
Then I discovered that the Kinesis Advantage2 can run QMK with the Stapelberg mod. It was a bit funny: spending hundreds of dollars on a keyboard just to take out its controller and replace it with another one.
The Kinesis keyboard is great, with its concave shape and columnar layout. Combined with QMK, that made it my favorite keyboard for a long time, about five years. I could type on it for hours without a hint of pain.
Then I discovered the Dygma Defy
But then I discovered the Dygma Defy, and I loved it! The build alone is incredible, with a very solid frame. The Kinesis Advantage2 feels empty in comparison: it's just a plastic frame, and you can feel it. Also, because of the concave shape, the keys are very tall and feel "shaky", whereas the Defy feels extremely solid.
Kinesis definitely addressed this in the Advantage360, the latest keyboard they released, but the Advantage2 still feels off to me in comparison, despite using it for so long.
Premium from the moment you open the box
Everything about the keyboard is high quality: the keycaps, the switches, even the box it comes in. When it arrived, I was extremely impressed with the packaging. It comes in a bag made of really high-quality fabric with a zipper, and the bag holds the keyboard along with the tools and cables you need.
I haven't felt this excited opening a package since my last Apple device. It had a similar, premium feeling.
The lighting
I love the lighting design. Walking into my room and seeing the keyboard lit up underneath makes me excited to start using it. I think this may be the feeling car guys get when they install lights underneath their car.
Thumb keys that do real work
It also has an extensive thumb cluster. After using the Kinesis Advantage2, with its many keys per thumb, I couldn't use a keyboard without thumb keys. Our thumbs are extremely underused on standard keyboards: a single key for two fingers.
I have so many uses for my thumb cluster. I use it for:
- Shortcuts for my clipboard history
- An app I use frequently (Obsidian)
- Backspace and space
- Deleting the last word and moving forward one word
- Enter and tab
- The prefix for tmux (a programmer thing)
- A shortcut to open Raycast
And much more. My thumbs do way more than just press the spacebar, and they make working with a computer much more enjoyable.
Built-in tenting
It comes with built-in tenting underneath the keyboard, which is really cool. You don't need to order a separate tenting kit or anything. Whoever designed this and fit it neatly into the keyboard's base is really awesome!
Dygma's videos and community
Aside from the product itself, the community they've built and the content they produce are incredible. I love watching their videos, and if you're a keyboard enthusiast, I highly suggest watching them. They cover everything from hand pain to reviewing switches and much more.
Bazecor
I've always been comfortable writing C to program my QMK keyboards, so I was a little nervous about having to use a new firmware tool to program this keyboard. However, I was very surprised by the quality of Bazecor. I was able to easily move most of my QMK features to my Defy with their firmware.
The UI is very intuitive. Whether you're a beginner or experienced, I think you'll have no issues setting it up for most custom cases.
My search for a better keyboard started with pain, and it took me from the Logitech ERGO K860 to a 36-key Corne and five years on a Kinesis Advantage2 running QMK. The Dygma Defy is now my daily driver. Its solid build, the thumb cluster that does far more than press the spacebar, the tenting built into the base and how easy Bazecor made it to bring my QMK setup over all add up to a keyboard I look forward to using every day.