Davkol - no matter what argument anyone gives you, you can probably think up some "reason" why it doesn't apply. It's obvious that you own an original Ergodox and are fond of it. I'm sure it's a great keyboard. In reality, the Infinity is a more advanced design with more features (disclosure - I have an Infinity with Matias Switches). If you don't need the additional features, that's great. You already have a keyboard that works for you. For those that don't have an Ergodox, the Infinity is probably a good option.
The same-price arguments stinks. It smells Razer to me. The important part is what cost how much. You can keep something at "the same price"… by making cuts in quality, for example. Massdrop's ErgoDox [Infinity] has had quality problems for sure: specifically, mechanically poor-quality interconnection was reported after a last years drop. I've previously had problems with their cases too.
There is a big difference between having production issues and deliberately cutting quality to save on cost. There is no evidence that the USB port issues had anything to do with cutting costs. MD replaced the PCB of anyone who had issues, and the problems seem to have been isolated to the first batch. The price didn't go up for the second batch, which didn't have the issues. The first batch was delayed significantly because of production issues, but the second batch was quite on time, and I'm going to guess that batch 3 will be on-time as well.
It appears that the lower cost of the Ergodox Infinity was due to MD producing a much larger order of preassembled boards. They were able to offer a wide range of switches and standardize everything else, saving on cost.
And what are those extra features?
Screens. That doesn't make much sense to me. We're talking about an ergonomic keyboard designed for touch typing, so that you don't have to look at it… but a screen is only useful, when you do look at it. Meanwhile, one drop was significantly delayed, because the relevant parts weren't available. It also severely affects backward compatibility with ErgoDox cases (although Idk if they would be easier to use otherwise). Just keep it simple!
Ditto for backlight. As someone has pointed out, primates including humans sure do love shiny objects. That doesn't mean it's practical.
I like the screen. It makes it easy to tell what layer I'm on. With that said, it's not required, but I'll take it at the same price.
Same thing for LED support. I don't use LEDs on any of my keyboards, and I run Matias Switches on my Ergodox Infinity, so there aren't any shine-through keycaps available, but I know that a lot of people like them, and there doesn't appear to be a cost associated.
Matias support. I've seen original ErgoDoxen with Matias switches too; it needs a little bit of extra work, but it's doable. Thus, we're talking about only a tiny advantage.
A big advantage for anyone who wants it to work out of the box without any modification. The nice thing about the Infinity is that it supports both Matias and Cherry/Gaterons right out of the box. You just order it from MD and you get a kit that works as-is. I still have a half-finished ALPS64 project laying around because I don't have a compatible plate.
Furthermore, the Infinity requires significantly less assembly to get it working than the classic ergodox. You just solder in the switches, assemble the case, put on the keycaps, and you're done.
Ergodox EZ is great for people who want a preassembled Ergodox, with the disadvantage that it only comes with a limited selection of switches (common Gaterons). The injection molded case seems nice, and the tenting option is killer.
If you want to modify it significantly (80-key etc...), you might want to use the legacy Ergodox design and order piecemeal.
Firmware with NKRO, media keys, GUI keymap designer etc. That's complete nonsense—they're not unique to Infinity. Massdrop had designed a webUI, that generated source/hex files for a relatively early version of Ben's firmware back in 2013, but they stopped supporting it (and it's mostly broken now). That version of Ben's firmware indeed didn't support media keys properly and was limited to 6KRO. However, Ben added/corrected both features as well as others later—without any reaction by Massdrop. Then a TMK port came around, now there's QMK (a TMK fork) as well… and I've seen someone make a GUI for that. I don't have any experience with it though.
None of these things work out of the box on the original Ergodox - you have to hack to get them working. I've used the web configurator on Input Club's website, and it's super easy to use. Once I had everything working, I built my own firmware (so I could get a custom LCD Image), but I still use the keymaps I built with the configurator.
In short
- If you want something with no assembly required and a warranty (and a cool case/tenting kit), get the EZ.
- If you want something that's easily configurable, has some extra features (which may be useful to you), and supports a good number of switch options out of the box, get the Infinity
- If you want to modify everything, build an Ergodox from parts.
I know that a lot of people on here have issues with MD, but I've ordered a number of things from them, and haven't had any problems. A few drops have shipped a late, but that's just a consequence of ordering custom-made stuff. If you don't want delays or production issues, wait for the second drop when the kinks have been worked out.
