https://danieldk.eu/Posts/2023-09-03-Glove80.html

Daniel de Kok

Home Bio Research Software Blog

Review: Glove80 Ergonomic Keyboard

Sep 3, 2023

Tags: keyboard, review

Glove80 black

Review tl;dr: get this keyboard if you want ultimate comfort. There
is an initial learning curve, but your hands will love you for it.

Background

For over 10 years or so, I primarily used Apple keyboards, switching
back and forth to a Microsoft split keyboard in periods when my
wrists felt uncomfortable. In a brush with a more severe wrist pain
over a year ago, I decided to take my hand and arm health more
seriously.

After going through a slew of ergonomic keyboards^1, I discovered the
Kinesis Advantage2, which was a revelation. Like most ergonomic
keyboards, it is split, tented, has thumb keys, and the keys are laid
out in columns to avoid lateral finger movements (so-called column
stagger). However, what set it apart from other keyboards were the
superbly comfortable key wells. The Advantage, like its inspiration,
the Maltron 3D keyboard, has its keys arranged in concave bowls,
so-called key wells. This puts your fingers in a more natural
position, puts keys closer to reduce finger travel, and makes it
possible to reach keys by moving fingers along their natural arcs.

Once the honeymoon phase with the Advantage2 was over, I also had to
be honest about its shortcomings: the split and tenting degree are
fixed - making it impossible to tailor the keyboard to your own
physical characteristics such as your shoulder width. Also, even
though the thumb cluster has many keys, I could only comfortably
reach two thumb keys per hand without moving my hand.

I was looking forward to the Kinesis Advantage360 Pro, since it
solves some of the issues with the Advantage2. It supports three
different tenting angles and is a truly split keyboard. However, the
Advantage360 Pro was quite a disappointment. The keyboard, which is a
hefty 650 Euro, was plagued with Bluetooth issues, the Gateron Brown
switches were tiring for me, and Kinesis didn't improve the thumb
cluster. I switched back to my Advantage2 after a while and the 360
Pro was collecting dust.

That could easily be the end of my ergonomic keyboard journey, but
then I found the Glove80.

What is it?

The Glove80 is an ergonomic keyboard that is developed and
manufactured by MoErgo. It has many ergonomic features, including:

  * Variable split, so that you can put the halves in line with your
    shoulders. This avoids bending the wrists outward (ulnar
    deviation).
  * Tented halves to avoid pronation.
  * Thumb clusters, with six keys each. This makes it possible to
    move some hard-to-reach keys that require uncomfortable pinky
    stretches to the thumbs (e.g. Backspace and Return).
  * The keys are arranged in key wells, putting your hands in a more
    comfortable position, reducing finger travel, and you to reach
    keys by moving your fingers along their natural arcs.
  * Palm rests to avoid tiring your arms. In contrast to wrist rests,
    they shouldn't reduce blood flow.
  * Low-profile and low-travel Choc v1 switches to reduce the
    distance fingers have to move to press keys.

Glove80 white

Other feature of the Glove80 are:

  * Open source ZMK firmware, which allows changing the keymap and
    behaviors.
  * Per-key RGB lighting.
  * Various extension options, such as GPIO headers and attachment
    points for sidecar modules.

I have used the Glove80 for two months when writing this review. That
is a fairly short time for reviewing a keyboard. However, I have used
other contoured keyboards before, so I could skip the initial
learning curve and have used the Glove80 full-time during that
period. I am not ergonomics expert, so this review describes my own
experiences end is not health advise.

Throughout this review, I will use the Kinesis Advantage2/360 Pro as
the main points of comparison, since the Advantage line is the
closest competitor to the Glove80. Also see my Kinesis Advantage 360
Pro review. I will go through various aspect of the keyboard, namely
purchase and packaging, the key well, thumb cluster, tenting
mechanism, palm rests, build quality, switches and keycaps, innards,
and the Glove80 ecosystem.

Purchase and packaging

The Glove80 can only be purchased through the MoErgo site. As of
writing there are no regional distributors. The price includes
shipping, however VAT/import taxes are not prepaid and must be paid
by the receiver. The ordering process itself is smooth, but I noticed
that people generally struggle with two issues: (1) if you are not
familiar with Choc v1 switches, choosing the right switch can be
overwhelming (see Switches and keycaps); (2) letting the buyer pay
duties adds uncertainty about how the Glove80 is handled by customs
and what delay the customs process adds. It would be great if there
was a fast shipping option (at extra cost) with prepaid duties (like
DHL Express), which would streamline the process. Alternatively, the
the purchase process could be simplified by offering the Glove80
through regional distributors (e.g. for the EU or US). All in all,
the process is much more involved than purchasing a Kinesis
Advantage, which I can order now and get delivered tomorrow.

The Glove80 arrives in a pretty compact box, which gives a hint of
how flat it is for a contoured keyboard. The package contains the
halves, a USB-C (keyboard) to USB-A (host) cable, additional keycaps,
material for customizing the tenting level, tools to remove the
keycaps, and a quickstart guide. Everything is very nicely packaged
and the box can be re-used as a travel case in larger backpacks. I
would have preferred if the Glove80 came with an USB-C to USB-C
cable, since my laptop doesn't have a USB-A port.

Glove80 packaging

Key wells

I was expecting the key wells to be similar to those of the Kinesis
Advantage and Dactyl Manuform. However when I started using the
Glove80, the key wells felt quite different. One thing that
immediately struck me was that the keys in the pinky column are
easier to reach. I inspected the pinky column and noticed a striking
difference compared to other key well keyboards. The left photo below
shows pinky column of the Kinesis Advantage2. The pinky column is
raised compared to the ring finger column to account for the shorter
length of the pinky relative to the ring finger. The right photo
shows the pinky column of the Glove80. Even though the Glove80's
pinky column is raised compared to the ring finger column in the
upper rows, the height converges to to that of the ring finger column
in the lower rows.

Kinesis Advantage pinky columnGlove80 pinky column

When you look at your hands opened, you can see that (at least for
most people), the pinky is much shorter than your ring finger.
However, when you clench your hand into a fist, your pinky is barely
shorter than your ring finger. So even though the Kinesis Advantage
takes your hand's anatomy into account better than flat keyboards
(which only shift the pinky column downward if you are lucky), the
Glove80 takes it a step further, taking into account the relative
length of your pinky as it curls up.

Hands relaxed and clenched

Another noticeable difference is the outer index finger column. On
the Kinesis Advantage, the curvature of the key well and the height
of the keycaps block an easy lateral index finger movement to the
outer column (see the upward arrows in the close-up of the Advantage
key well below). You have to slightly raise your index finger to land
on the keys of the outer column. For me, lateral index finger
movements are quite awkward, so having to raise my finger adds some
stress. The outer index finger column column of the Glove80 is also
on a strong curvature to reduce finger travel, however the keys on
the outer column are not raised compared to the home column of the
index finger. As a result, you can make a smooth lateral move to the
outer column, almost pressing the key by simply moving your finger
towards it.

Kinesis Advantage index columnsGlove80 index columns

One thing that I loved about the Advantage when I first got it, are
the arrow keys on the bottom row. Since I use vi bindings in many
applications and the Colemak-DH layout, I don't have access to the h/
j/k/l motions which are on the home row in QWERTY. The arrow keys on
the Advantage can be reached by curling up your fingers. I find this
more comfortable than putting the arrow keys on a layer. However,
using the bottom row could get a bit tiring after a day's worth of
programming. I did not observe the same issue when using the bottom
row on the Glove80. The difference becomes apparent when using the
keyboards side-by-side: when curling up to press the keys on the
bottom row of the Glove80 you can press the keys in the same motion.
On the Advantage, the keys have to be pressed more towards the Z
axis. As a result, pressing a key on the bottom row of the Advantage
is a movement that consists of two motions: (1) curl up the finger to
reach the key; and (2) press the key in a different direction to
actuate it.

An aspect of the key well that worried me prior purchasing the
Glove80 was that the keycaps use a uniform profile. The Kinesis
Advantage uses a strongly sculpted profile, which I liked a lot,
since it guides the fingers to the keys and in some cases emphasizes
the key well effect. However, this hasn't been an issue at all. The
key well of the Glove80 is clearly designed to work well with uniform
keycaps. I have come to prefer this aspect of the Glove80 - the
strong profile of the Advantage keycaps make the columns very ragged,
whereas the uniform profile of the Glove80 makes it easier to slide
along the columns.

Summarized, MoErgo has clearly made many improvement to the Glove80
keywell compared to other key well keyboards. The design seems to be
focused on letting your fingers do as little work as possible and
allowing it them to follow their natural motions.

Thumb cluster

The Glove80 breaks the tradition of the orthogonal/matrix-style thumb
clusters that were initially introduced by the Maltron 3D keyboard
and also used by the Kinesis Advantage, ErgoDox, and Moonlander. It
is well-known that most people can only reach two two thumb keys on
the Kinesis Advantage without moving their hand. In the left picture
below, you can see me trying to press the outermost lower thumb key
of the Advantage, but I cannot really press it without accidentally
pressing the corner of the middle key as well. I cannot reach the
upper keys at all.

Kinesis Advantage thumb clusterGlove80 thumb cluster

I am surprised that Kinesis didn't redesign their 30 year-old thumb
cluster with the Advantage 360. I guess that they didn't want to risk
upsetting existing users .

The Glove80 uses a design that is more similar to modern ergonomic
keyboards like the Keyboardio Model 100 or the SplitKB Kyria, where
the thumb keys follow the natural arc of the thumb. The thumb cluster
on the Glove80 is three 1U keys wide and has two rows. The second row
is raised compared to the first row to make it easier to use the
second row without pressing keys on the first. In the right picture
above, you can see me pressing the outermost thumb key of the
Glove80. Since the cluster follows the thumb arc, I have no issue
pressing the key without accidentally hitting the middle key. Like
the Kinesis Advantage, my thumbs rest on the inner thumb keys without
any effort.

I cannot reach all the keys on the Glove80 thumb cluster without
moving my hand (I am not sure if I am supposed to with average male
hands). But I can fairly comfortably reach four keys (the full first
row and the innermost key of the second row), which is double of what
I can reach on the Advantage. This opens up new possibilities, such
as moving shift away from the pinkies, adding additional layer-taps,
or perhaps a capsword key (great for typing constants in many
programming languages). Given the arc layout and the different row
heights, I expect that the thumb clusters works great for both small
and large hands.

Tenting mechanism

The Glove80 uses stilts in the form of M4 studs, nuts, and feet as
its tenting mechanism. The feet have rubber bumpons to ensure that
the keyboard does not slide. The Glove80 comes with an assortment of
extra studs of different lengths, additional nuts, and additional
feet. The idea is that you can screw in the stilts as deep as needed
and in that way get the exact tenting degree that you prefer. Setting
up tenting took me 30-60 minutes the first time. Partly because I had
to find the most comfortable tenting angle, but mostly because
setting up the stilts is quite finicky. Setting up tenting is much
more work than the simple 3-angle mechanism of the Advantage 360,
which you can configure in literally seconds.

Glove80 tenting mechanism

The issue that I had with the tenting mechanism of the Advantage360
is that I could never find the right tenting angle, so I would often
switch between different settings throughout the day. With the
Glove80 I could set the tenting to the angle that feels most
comfortable to me. So, the Glove80 trades off the short-term
inconvenience of setting up the tenting mechanism for more long-term
comfort. Of course, if the Advantage360 has an angle that works for
you, it is less effort to maintain tenting on the 360.

If you have a Glove80, I'd strongly recommend you to buy additional
nuts that have a nylon (or other plastic) locking mechanism from your
local hardware store. You can lock in the tenting solidly using such
locking nuts. It also makes it much easier to recover the exact
tenting degree if you remove the stilts (e.g. for travel). These nuts
only cost a few cents each, so I hope that MoErgo will consider
providing them with the keyboard in the future.

Nyloc nuts

Palm rests

I do not have much to say about the palm rests. Even though the
Glove80 palm rests do not have soft padding, they feel as nice as the
palm rests of the Kinesis Advantage. I always use the palm rests, so
that I don't have to hover (which I find tiring). The palm rests can
be disconnected from the keyboard, which is handy if you want to
reduce the size when traveling or when using very large tenting
angles. The palm rests are easy to remove and reattach using their
thumbscrews.

Switches and keycaps

The Glove80 uses low-profile Kailh Choc v1 switches. Outside a small
number of Dactyl models, this is the first contoured keyboard to do
so. There are many different types of MX-compatible switches, but the
majority of MX switches actuate at 2mm and have a total travel of
4mm. Most Choc v1 switches have a shorter travel of 3mm and usually
actuate at 1.5mm. The use of Choc switches and low-profile keycaps
allows the Glove80 to be very close to the table at its lowest point.
MoErgo states that the low profile of the Glove80 was a design goal
to make it possible to maintain neutral tilt with a variety of common
office desks. I do not find this argument very convincing, since a
good ergonomic setup should have a electronically height-adjustable
desk. If you don't have such a desk, you should arguably buy it
before getting an ergonomic keyboard. But it can be a benefit for
people whose employers only issue standard desks.

Kailh Choc v1 switches

Besides the lower profile, I have found that the shorter travel and
actuation distance makes typing more effortless because your fingers
don't have to travel as much compared to MX switches.

As of writing, MoErgo offers the Glove80 with four different switch
types. Choosing a switch is probably one of the most overwhelming
aspects of purchasing a Glove80. The Glove80 does not support
hotswap, since it is hard to make hotswapping reliable with the
curved flex PCBs in the key wells. This makes the switch choice a
long-term commitment. Switch choice is very personal, so if you have
doubts about what switch would work for you, it is best to get a Choc
v1 switch tester. This is my take on each of the switch options:

  * Brown: tactile switches. These switches are pretty gritty/
    scratchy, even compared to Cherry Browns. If you are used to
    Cherry Browns or other MX tactile switches, Choc Browns may seem
    like a logical choice, but I would recommend you to get a switch
    tester to see if you find the grittiness acceptable.
  * White: clicky switches. I don't have experience with whites. One
    thing to be aware of is that in Choc Switches (like Kailh Box
    switches), the click is generated by a separate click bar. This
    means that the click is decoupled from the actuation mechanism
    itself. On some Choc clickbar switches, this leads to the issue
    that the actuation can be before or way after the click, and that
    they are useless as a feedback mechanism. I asked around on the
    MoErgo Discord and someone reported that their White Chocs don't
    have this issue. Oh, and you probably don't want to use clicky
    switches around other people or on video calls. They click...
    loudly.
  * Red: linear switches (50gf). Can't say anything negative about
    Choc Reds, they are great. If you prefer a lighter switch, go for
    Pro Reds.
  * Pro Red: linear switches (35gf). These are very light and less
    tiring than Red switches for some people. However, the spring
    force is so light that some people have accidental actuations
    (from anecdotes this seems to be a minority).
  * Unsoldered: this option allows you to solder your own switches
    and opens up the full range of Choc v1 switches. You need some
    soldering experience for this option, since you probably do not
    want to destroy a keyboard this expensive.

I think the main attraction of Choc switch line-up are the linear
switches. They feel great and there is a large variety of spring
weights, which should please both light and heavy typists. For this
review, I used the Glove80 with Red and Brown switches. If I'd
purchase another Glove80 in the future, I would probably go for Pro
Red switches or solder Pink (20gf) switches.

MoErgo designed a custom keycap profile (MCC, MoErgo Choc
Cylindrical) for the Glove80. These keycaps use a cylindrical profile
which make it easy for your fingers to slide along the columns. The
Glove80 comes with semi-translucent white POM keycaps. Black keycaps
can be purchased as an add-on, but the black keycaps are not
translucent and block the RGB lighting. The keycaps feel great and
they can be rearranged when you use an alternative layout (such as
the German QWERTZ or the Colemak-DH layout), since MCC is a uniform
profile. Some people may dislike that the homing keys don't have
bumps, but I have found that the key wells guide me to the right
finger positions.

MCC keycap profile

Each switch is accompanied by an RGB LED. The RGB LEDs can be used
for effects, though this will drain your batteries very quickly. I
always leave them disabled, since I never look down at my keyboard
anyway. However, the Glove80 has a nice feature where if you press
the MoErgo/Magic key, the RGB LEDs will be used to show the battery
status of the halves, the active layer, and information about the
Bluetooth profiles.

Status LEDs

One thing to be aware of is that ZMK does not currently support
per-key RGB LED control. Though this affects all ZMK keyboards and
might be added as a feature in the future.

Build quality

Much has been said about the build quality of the Glove80 in prior
reviews, especially in comparison to the Advantage 360. The first
thing that becomes immediately apparent when you take the Glove80 out
of the box is how extremely light it is. It is said that people
associate light with cheap, but the plastic feels very solid/durable.
My Advantage360 had scuffs after using the palm pads a few times,
whereas my Glove80 still looks completely mint after two months of
use. The lighter weight doesn't cause the keyboard to slide more
easily since the 6 stilts with bumpons provide a lot of friction. The
lightness of the Glove80 is nice when traveling. I took the Glove80
with me for a two week trip and the added weight to my backpack was
barely noticeable.

One point of criticism that can be leveled at the build quality is
that some of the seams are not completely flush as can be seen in the
photo below. The seams look tight enough for this to be purely an
aesthetic issue.

Glove80 seams

The key well construction of the Glove80 improves over that of the
Kinesis Advantage. The Advantage uses three plastic layers: the
bottom case, the key well itself, and the upper case. The key well is
screwed to the upper case (and in the Advantage2, a generous amount
of glue is added). This feels a bit fragile - when you press the keys
hard (for example when replacing keycaps), you can feel the key well
and its attachment points flex. I have always been a bit worried that
one of the key wells would break under pressure. The Glove80 is
different in this respect, since it only consists of two layers. The
key well is part of the upper case, which makes the key well feel
more solid.

Innards: microcontroller, battery, and firmware

Both Glove80 halves use an nRF52840 as part of a Raytac MDBT50Q
module with a PCB antenna. Both halves run the open source ZMK
firmware, which is one of the most extensive keyboard firmware
options besides QMK. Unlike QMK, ZMK is primarily focused on wireless
use through Bluetooth LE. When the left half is connected through
USB, the keyboard presents itself to the host computer as a USB
keyboard, however the halves will always communicate through
Bluetooth LE. People who prefer to use a keyboard fully wired may
find this problematic. In most scenarios this shouldn't be an issue
since Bluetooth LE uses encryption and I have found the connection
between the halves to be rock solid. In my use over the last two
months, the halves have never disconnected and I never had any issues
connecting the halves when they were turned back on or when flashing
new firmware.

Both halves use a battery with 500 mAh capacity. I have only charged
the battery once when I got the Glove80, besides incidental charging
when flashing new firmware. The battery drains very quickly though
with RGB effects enabled (within a few hours at most). If you like to
use RGB effects it is better to power the halves through USB. The
batteries are user-accessible, so they can be disconnected when the
keyboard is only used wired.

The ZMK firmware used by the Glove80 is a recent ZMK version with
some Glove80-specific patches. The keymaps and behaviors can be
edited by hand and built as any regular ZMK firmware (or with Nix).
However, most people will use the online layout editor. The editor
offers some standard keymaps (QWERTY, Colemak-DH, Kinesis-like,
etc.), but the real power comes from defining a custom keymap. The
online keyboard editor works well for most customizations (changing
keys, adding layers, etc.). If you want to change behaviors, there is
the possibility to add your own custom behavior snippets. The
behaviors can then be used in the keymap using the &custom key type.
This is where the limitations of the editor become apparent, the
custom behaviors are not parsed, so the &custom keys become
stringly-typed from the perspective of the editor. This is not an
issue for the vast majority of users who just want to remap some
keys, but I hope that the editor will parse custom behaviors in the
future for those who like to define custom behaviors for home row
mods and their ilk.

Keymap editor

When changing the keymap, a new firmware with the keymap has to be
flashed to the keyboard. For layout changes it normally suffices to
flash the left halve, but both halves need to be flashed for new
firmware versions. Flashing the halves is pretty straightforward.
Once you are done with your edits, you can ask the editor to build
the firmware and after some time the firmware is automatically
downloaded. The firmware can be flashed to a halve by putting the
halve in boot loader mode using a shortcut (Magic + Esc for the left
halve, Magic + ' for the right halve). The boot loader will expose
itself as a USB mass storage device with the FAT filesystem. Dragging
the firmware to the drive will flash it.

One nice touch is that the firmware is a single file. The
Advantage360 Pro uses a separate firmware file for each halve and it
is oh-so-easy to flash the wrong firmware to a halve , which
requires a full keyboard reset to fix it. The method that the Glove80
uses for this is clever. The UF2 firmware format consists of blocks
and each block has a metadata header. The metadata can contain a
board family identifier. The boot loader is supposed to ignore blocks
that do not have the board's family identifier. The Glove80 halves
use different identifiers. So the firmware is just a concatenation of
the left halve and right halve firmwares, but the left halve ignores
the right halve's UF2 blocks and vice versa.

Hackability & ecosystem

I haven't tried any of the Glove80 expansions, but there are a fair
number of expansions available. For users of language-specific
layouts, MoErgo sells additional keycap sets. There are also sets for
macOS and assorted symbols. The Glove80 tripod mounting plate
provides alternative mounting/tenting options using camera tripods
and clamps. MoErgo is also working on a travel case for the Glove80.

The Glove80 has has M2 anchor points for sidecar modules. As far as I
am aware not many modules exist yet. Though someone has used it to
mount Orbital trackpads to the Glove80. Each halve also exposes 6
GPIO pins on the logic board, which could open up the keyboard to
other useful extensions. Using the GPIO pins voids warranty though,
so it is not for most people.

Glove80 has an active and helpful community on the MoErgo Discord.
The MoErgo Discord is also frequented by MoErgo staff. There are also
channels about hardware and ZMK mods.

Traveling with the Glove80

One issue of switching to an ergonomic split keyboard is that you can
lose all that comfort when you are traveling. I have found that most
hotels and apartments do not have desks and chairs with the right
height to work comfortably. In such cases the most ergonomic solution
is often to put the keyboard on your lap. This works great with
'monoblock' keyboards like the fixed-split Kinesis Advantage2.
However, putting the two halves of a truly split keyboard on your lap
is not very stable.

We recently traveled for two weeks and I wanted to take the Glove80
with me since it is lighter and more compact than the Advantage2. I
finally found a great solution in the bean bag recommended by Ben
Vallack: put the bean bag between your legs, then put each halve on
your legs such that the outer stilts are on your legs and the inner
stilts dig into the bean bag. The bean bag gives the keyboard
stability and a small amount of tenting. Since the halves are less
separated than on a desk, I angle the halves slightly inwards for
best comfort.

Portable Glove80 using a bean bag

For this trip I transported the Glove80 in its original box, which
fits in my Ortlieb cycle backpack. I hope to try the planned Glove80
case in the future, since it should remove a fair bit of volume
compared to the cardboard box.

Verdict

There is no perfect keyboard, but the Glove80 does come awfully
close. The Glove80 pulls key well keyboards out of the local optimum
that they have been in the last 30 years or so. The key wells feature
significant improvements over the competition and the thumb clusters
feel much more natural. The continuous tenting mechanism, mounting
options, and the generous number of (reprogrammable) keys make it
possible to tailor the Glove80 to your own preferences. If you want a
keyboard that is extremely comfortable and are willing to go through
the learning curve of adapting to a column stagger key well keyboard,
you can't really go wrong.

I hope that MoErgo can streamline the purchasing process in the
future. In particular, it would be nice if the uncertainties around
customs handling and shipping times could be removed. For everyone
deserves to get their hands on this great keyboard.

tl;dr:

Positive:

  * Superbly comfortable key wells, thumb cluster, and palm rest.
  * Tenting can be micro-tuned to your preferences.
  * Choc v1 switches make typing very light.
  * Bluetooth connectivity is very solid.
  * Great GUI editor that provides the functionality needed by most
    users.
  * Lightweight, so nice for travel, especially once the travel case
    is available.
  * Good choice in switches.
  * Extensible through the sidecar mechanism and GPIO headers.
  * Nice and helpful community.

Negative:

  * Tenting mechanism can take some time to set up and it would be
    nice if the keyboard came with additional nuts to lock in the
    tenting.
  * Some seams in the construction are not very tight.
  * The switch choice can be overwhelming without prior experience
    with Choc switches.
  * The order process is very streamlined, but gives a lot of
    uncertainty around how duties and shipping are handled.

Rating: 5/5

 1. Ergonomic keyboards that I have experience with are: Kinesis
    Freestyle Edge RGB, Keyboardio Model 100, Ferris Sweep, SplitKB
    Kyria, Moonlander, Kinesis Advantage2, Kinesis Advantage 360,
    Kinesis Advantage360 Pro, and Dactyl. -