I wasn’t looking for the Freestyle Edge or any keyboard from Kinesis. From what I’ve read they tend to be on the larger side and with my smaller hands I didn’t feel they’d be a good fit for me. But after seeing the listing for one brand new for $80 I figured it’d be worth a try. The model number of the keyboard I purchased is KB950-BRN. It’s the Kinesis Freestyle Edge with Cherry MX Brown switches and an 80% layout. It is programmable via the proprietary SmartSet software or text files on the drive when the keyboard is mounted (more on this later).

When the keyboard arrived I started using it immediately. I didn’t have a tenting kit, so I used it flat on my desk for a couple of weeks. The first thing I noticed was that with the large palm rests the keyboard was very comfortable to type on. After a couple of weeks I bought the tenting kit which cost $35. It improved the comfort of the keyboard. The angle of the keyboard and the palm rests felt perfect for my hands.

I was able to use the SmartSet software to customize the layout according to my needs. I knew it wouldn’t be as powerful as software like Vial and QMK so this wasn’t a disappointment for me but is a limitation.

This keyboard is BIG. Before switching to this keyboard I was using a full-size keyboard with a 104-key layout. I thought switching to the Kinesis would free up some space on my desk but it took up as much space, despite having fewer keys. Positioning the two halves at a comfortable width meant it took up more space than my full-size keyboard. I had almost no space for my mouse and had to move my right hand further to the right to use it. This is due in part to the columns of extra keys on the outside edge of each half of the keyboard.

Additionally with the palm rests the keyboard is about 10" deep. About 2.5" inches of that space is for the function row keys and the "header" area above them which only contains the logo, the small layout/mapping buttons, and the indicator lights. The palm rests themselves are also very large.

The keyboard is well constructed but it’s all plastic and sounds hollow and cheap. The palm rests are plastic as well and there is nothing in the keyboard to dampen the sound or add weight. The keyboard feels light for being so large. The Cherry MX Browns feel good but didn’t make it sound any less cheap.

Neither of the two cables are detachable. The cables feel a little unmanageable. They are very nice heavy braided cables, but they feel too heavy and stiff for the plastic body of the keyboard and often cause the halves of the keyboard to slide around on the desk. Inside the left half of the keyboard there is a place to stow excess cord for the cable connecting the two halves. It only allows for three different lengths of cable to be stowed. The result is excess cable on my desk.

The keyboard also has LED backlighting but I never used it. I turned it off when I set up the keyboard and forgot about it.

The layout is a typical QWERTY layout with staggered columns. The only real difference is the split spacebar and the extra columns of keys on the outside edge of each half. I like the split spacebar and was able to program the left half to be the function layer shift key. This opened up a lot of possibilities, more on this next.

On the left side there are 2 extra columns with macro keys and I never use them. The escape key is very far away from the home row and is unreasonably large. I remapped Capslock to Escape so this wasn’t an issue for me. On the right side there is 1 extra column with Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End keys, as well as the right arrow key for the arrow key cluster in the bottom right.

The SmartSet software that comes with the keyboard allows for programming on MacOS, Windows, and, with Wine, Linux as well. It’s driverless software. Press a couple of keys on the keyboard and a drive will be mounted containing MacOS and Windows apps along with some configuration files. You run the application from the drive to configure the keyboard. Mappings and layouts can be edited via plain text files on the drive.

The first thing I noticed when using the SmartSet software is that there is only one layer in the SmartSet software - the Function layer. By default the function row keys double as multi-media keys on the function layer. Any key without a function layer mapping will default to its normal layer mapping if used on the function layer. In both layers you can remap any key on the keyboard.

While the function layer did allow me to define alternative mappings, it has some odd behavior. Regardless of how a modifier key is defined, hitting it will return you to the normal layer, even if the modifier key itself is defined on the function layer! This means I cannot use modifier keys with other mappings on the function layer. I had to work around this by only defining function layer mappings for keys that I typically didn’t use with modifiers. This was the biggest limitation of the software for me.

The keyboard also has the concept of layouts, which are different than layers. Layouts can only be changed by cycling through them using the small "Layout" key on the right half of the keyboard.

The Kinesis Freestyle Edge is more ergonomic and comfortable to type on than a typical keyboard. Even with all its faults I may still keep it as my primary keyboard. For being a budget split keyboard it works well. If you want a keyboard that has a premium high-quality feel or powerful programming capabilities this is not the keyboard for you. If you are looking for an entry-level split keyboard and want to remap some keys this keyboard is great!