Author Topic: Anyone try a Kinesis Freestyle Pro?  (Read 7837 times)

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Offline Gerk

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Anyone try a Kinesis Freestyle Pro?
« on: Sat, 14 July 2018, 19:30:02 »
Shipped back a pair of Matias Ergo Pros today (kinda sad about that as I really love the hardware but the firmware has issues) and decided to pull the trigger on a Kinesis Freestyle Pro.  I've never been a fan of the ergo dox type layouts with thumb clusters, etc, I just want a split/tentable board with good switches and most of the keys in the expected positions ... so this one looks like a good match for me.  It was a toss up between this one and one of the edge gaming boards ... but I went with the Freestyle as it seems to match more with what I'm looking for (I really don't want backlit keys, etc).

My current daily driver at home is a Microsoft Surface board, which is not horrible.  I like the layout (I was always a fan of the Microsoft ergo keyboards) but the speed it goes to sleep makes me crazy and the switches are not ideal ... and my daily driver at work is still an older Matias Ergo Pro (which is way beyond warranty) that makes me a little crazy -- it ghosts in keystrokes quite often.  So kinda hoping that this mechanical Kinesis split board will get the job done for me.  I really like the look of the reprogrammer software for it as I'm sure I can come up with some good stuff for the macro buttons ...

Anyone tried one out yet? 
Rosewill RK-9000RE (reds) | Das Keyboard Model S Professional Silent (browns) | Leopold TKL (browns) | F21-7D "Mechanical Keyboard" (Blue Alps) | Filco Majestouch TKL (blues) | Goldtouch V2 x 2 | Matias Ergo Pro x 2 | Kinesis Freestyle Pro (browns) | Kinesis Freestyle Edge (reds)

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Anyone try a Kinesis Freestyle Pro?
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 14 July 2018, 21:16:57 »
It's all about High tenting.. Nothing else matters..!!

Offline Gerk

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Re: Anyone try a Kinesis Freestyle Pro?
« Reply #2 on: Sat, 14 July 2018, 21:26:46 »
It's all about High tenting.. Nothing else matters..!!

No, it's really not.  I see you're still here :P  I'm just waiting for 5 other users to tell me to just buy an Ergo Dox and that staggered layout is terrible.  Some things never change I suppose...
Rosewill RK-9000RE (reds) | Das Keyboard Model S Professional Silent (browns) | Leopold TKL (browns) | F21-7D "Mechanical Keyboard" (Blue Alps) | Filco Majestouch TKL (blues) | Goldtouch V2 x 2 | Matias Ergo Pro x 2 | Kinesis Freestyle Pro (browns) | Kinesis Freestyle Edge (reds)

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Anyone try a Kinesis Freestyle Pro?
« Reply #3 on: Sun, 15 July 2018, 07:40:45 »
It's all about High tenting.. Nothing else matters..!!

No, it's really not.  I see you're still here :P  I'm just waiting for 5 other users to tell me to just buy an Ergo Dox and that staggered layout is terrible.  Some things never change I suppose...

Yes it is, It's all about High tenting.. Nothing else matters..!!

Offline Gerk

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Re: Anyone try a Kinesis Freestyle Pro?
« Reply #4 on: Sun, 15 July 2018, 07:43:08 »
Now I remember why I stopped posting here.
Rosewill RK-9000RE (reds) | Das Keyboard Model S Professional Silent (browns) | Leopold TKL (browns) | F21-7D "Mechanical Keyboard" (Blue Alps) | Filco Majestouch TKL (blues) | Goldtouch V2 x 2 | Matias Ergo Pro x 2 | Kinesis Freestyle Pro (browns) | Kinesis Freestyle Edge (reds)

Offline gorbachev

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Re: Anyone try a Kinesis Freestyle Pro?
« Reply #5 on: Mon, 16 July 2018, 00:57:52 »
I have the Freestyle Edge, which is more or less the same keyboard.

The only complaint I have is that it's too large. The keys on the top left (esc) and right (backspace/delete) corners are too far. You'll have to move your hands to reach those buttons, unless you have gigantic yeti hands. A co-worker of mine who has the same board remapped the esc key to one of the macro buttons on the left to get around the issue.

Build quality is solid, the tenting kit works flawlessly. Custom software is to record macros, change lighting effects, remap keys is good enough.

Offline Gerk

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Re: Anyone try a Kinesis Freestyle Pro?
« Reply #6 on: Mon, 16 July 2018, 10:51:12 »
That's good to hear.  Ya the esc key placement is a bit odd, but I've gotten used to it from using the Matias Ergo Pro keyboards, and it's in roughly the same place.  Good idea to remap it to one of the nearer keys though.  I really like the approach of onbaord key mapping that goes with the keyboard, so when I take it back and forth between my work and home machines it keeps it's settings.  Really looking forward to playing with this board.  I'm hoping it's the keyboard I've been waiting for. 

If the Ergo Pros had updatable firmware I would have probably stuck with them (that is if they could get their firmware issues sorted out).  I was told yet again today from a vendor "The new batch of Matias Ergo Pros should have the firmware issues fixed." ... funny enough I heard the same thing for the last 4 (5?) batches ... the other quote I heard from the vendor today when talking about this keyboard, which is something that I've said recently myself is "Sorry Steve." (he's one of the Matias guy's that I've been working with).  If this board does what I hope it does it seems like the same sort of layout but finally done (mostly) right.  Not sure I'm a fan of the addon attachments for tenting (I really do like the way the Ergo Pro deals with this, feels super solid), but I will have to see.  At least with the VIP attachments you have a (small) choice on the tenting angles.  The best one I've seen for this to date though was the Goldtouch V2.  Too bad the board itself sucked, because the angle adjustment mechanism is awesome :)
Rosewill RK-9000RE (reds) | Das Keyboard Model S Professional Silent (browns) | Leopold TKL (browns) | F21-7D "Mechanical Keyboard" (Blue Alps) | Filco Majestouch TKL (blues) | Goldtouch V2 x 2 | Matias Ergo Pro x 2 | Kinesis Freestyle Pro (browns) | Kinesis Freestyle Edge (reds)