Follow-up: the Glove80 after six months

A handful of people have reached out to me directly since my last post on the Glove80, which was a sort of in-depth “first impressions” type of post. It happened often enough I decided it’s time to preemptively answer the question: ok, first impressions were good, but how has it been using the Glove80 since?

If you’re just curious, or looking for the quick answer: if anything, I’ve only become a bigger fan.

The Glove80 is not only the most comfortable keyboard I’ve ever laid my hands on, it wins by such a wide margin it doesn’t feel right for any other keyboard I’ve used to even call itself “ergonomic.”

I say this in part because (as I mentioned last time), most other so-called ergonomic keyboards tend to be a mishmash of ostensibly ergonomic features bolted onto an otherwise ordinary keyboard, rather than an actual fully-considered ergonomic package.

They’re split, but their palm rest is terribly positioned; or, they offer some positioning, but either too little, or so much it’s counterproductive.

The Glove80, in stark contrast, feels like every aspect of the keyboard was carefully considered, and all work together harmoniously.

Six months later

Not much has changed since the original post; for the most part, I still maintain the same pros and cons. (I have grown a bit more fond of the rainbow RGB lighting effect, though, even though the lighting is not very customizable.)

As you can see from the image at the top, I did eventually find Choc v1 keycaps that I liked from Chosfox and added them, which I think ups the visual appeal of the board. There’s no shine-through, but I don’t mind.

There actually are more Choc v1 switches on the market than I realized at the time of writing, but that won’t do you any good unless you’re handy with soldering. That’s a nit that won’t matter for most people, but if you’re the kind of nerd who likes obsessing over such hardware details, it’s a minor drawback. I do wish the Glove80 was available with more switch options, though; the browns are good, but not great.

The price tag remains somewhat high, but I still contend it’s a better value than most similar products, being an all-in-one package with no extras or up-sells.

MoErgo’s store/website hasn’t gotten much better. The Glove80 does seem much more popular now, though. Back in October, there wasn’t much out there about the Glove80; now, it seems like tons of people have discovered it and blogged about their experiences.

That’s a lot of nits, but I will call out one major benefit I think I underestimated before: the scooped keys.

Initially, I thought the scooped-out keywells were a little bit of a gimmick, or at least, a mostly unimportant nice-to-have—partially because they didn’t really feel all that new or different to me, coming from previous ortholinear keyboards.

I now realize that a massive amount of the comfort of the Glove80—and the discomfort of other keyboards—comes directly from palm position. When your palms rest lower than the keys, that’s unavoidable tension in your wrists from being constantly angled upwards. (With other keyboards, I tried to fix this tension with tenting, with mixed results. I now realize most of the time, tenting only helped move the problem around, not solve it. I don’t find myself really needing much if any tenting with the Glove80.)

It’s astounding how much better it feels to type when your hands are actually in a comfortable, neutral position at all times.

The scooped keywells are the feature that allows you to have your palms up higher, and the difference is one I feel on a daily basis.

RSI update

Back in October, I was still dealing with some lingering repetitive stress injury (RSI) issues, from months of using less-than-ideal keyboards (probably in less-than-ideal ways; that Moonlander Platform add-on really lets you shoot yourself in the foot, ergonomically). However, I’m happy to say the RSI issues I was experiencing at the time have all but disappeared.

Six months ago, when I started using the Glove80, my pain was bad enough that I wore a wrist brace on each hand every day.

It recently occurred to me that I haven’t needed to wear them in so long, I don’t even know where they are.

Ergonomics are, of course, an intensely personal thing. Every body is different. But if you ask me, there’s no better keyboard out there for typing comfortably, in a way that works with your body’s natural movements.

Would I recommend the Glove80?

After six months of daily usage, I can happily say I’d recommend the Glove80 to anyone looking for the ideal ergonomic keyboard, and willing to invest the time and effort into learning it.

That second part is important, because the Glove80 will take a lot of time to get used to if you’re not already familiar with split and/or ortholinear keyboards.

If you’re coming from a similar-ish board, like an Ergodox or Moonlander, the learning curve should be fairly minimal; you’ve already put in your time. But if you’re used to standard keyboards (and especially if you’re not good at touch typing, or have your own weird way of hitting the keys), be prepared for a few aggravating weeks of adjustment.

Getting over that hump takes a lot of dedicated time, exertion, and determination. You’ll hate it. You’ll barely be able to get through a sentence for the first week or two. It will completely suck suddenly being terrible at something you used to be pretty good at.

My advice is: stick with it anyway. Pick a down week where you aren’t up against the wall on deadlines, and force yourself to do all your typing on the new keyboard. Don’t use anything else, and when you find yourself thinking something is awkward or suboptimal, remap the keys to better suit you.

If that’s not you—if you’re just fine using the keyboard you have already, and aren’t experiencing any pain or discomfort—it would be hard for me to sell you on switching.

Or, if you feel like you just need a split keyboard without all the other features, another option might be better for you (like the UHK, or a Kinesis Freestyle model).

But if you’re somebody who spends a lot of time typing; you feel that you physically need to make a change; and you’re willing to invest the time and effort into your future wellbeing: the Glove80 is my enthusiastic first recommendation.