ZSA Moonlander Recommendation

Relatively recently, I started learning more about keyboards, specifically ergonomic-mechanical keyboards, and decided to splurge on a rather expensive¹ one: the ZSA Moonlander. I will waste no time with explaining the largely uninteresting reasons that I looked into and recommend you try out an ergo-mech keyboard, and will instead simply say: if your hands hurt while typing fast and you do so for many hours at a time, you should really consider one, it’ll make your life a lot nicer.

Now, there are many keyboards in this category, which all promise similar things with regards to the ergonomic benefits. I am fortunate to have had the very excellent Professor Bill as one of my professors in college, who has successfully evangelized me about these keyboards; thanks to him, I was able to try out two keyboards: the Kinesis Advantage2² and a very ancient custom-build of the ZSA Ergodox EZ.

The First Two Keyboards

I no longer have the Kinesis Advantage2 for a photo, so here’s the two ZSA boards:

It took a very long time to get used to typing on both; surprisingly, I think moving from staggered -> ortholinear (that means the keys are in straight columns) was harder for me than Qwerty -> Colemak, but very worth it in terms of comfort. To make a boring story short, I eventually came to prefer the Ergodox EZ over the Advantage2 for the following reasons:

• Overall sturdier build: not made out of a weird, plastic hardshell
• It’s a split board: I found the Advantage2 to not be wide enough for me
• Much quieter: the Advantage2 is very loud to type on (probably because I bottom out keys when I type, which resonates the whole shell)
• Easier to transport: I can’t fit the Advantage2 into a backpack

However, I was disappointed largely with the remapping, sound, switches, and the thumb placement. Reaching the thumb positions was uncomfortable (my hands are too small for them), I could still hear clack, clack, clack on Zoom call recordings I was on, the switches were the same smooth plastic that sucks on stock MacBook keyboards, and I couldn’t remap the keys to a hardware Colemak layout (invaluable with Windows machines or devices where you can’t switch to it in software). It also wasn’t backlit, which isn’t a huge deal given I almost never look at keys while typing but it feels like the bare minimum for any “serious” keyboard.

The ZSA Moonlander

I eventually decided that if I wanted to seriously resolve my issues with the Ergodox EZ, I would need to switch to something less frustrating. Since the Ergodox EZ was already quite along the way to being what I was ultimately looking for, I decided to spring for the Moonlander (especially after I read some other glowing reviews about it), which is basically its successor.

The Moonlander has resolved nearly every issue I’ve had with the other board. I got mine with Cherry Quiet Reds and it’s extremely quiet, even when bottoming out; the only noise you can hear is the very quiet click of the keyframe against the board surface. (It’s possible to change the switches, so someday I might even spring for some quieter ones or put rubber rings on the stock ones.) It’s got excellent remapping support, the thumbs are way closer and can be angled if they’re still not comfortable, the backlight is bright and has endless customization options, and the keycaps feel really good to type on. It even comes with all the cables you need plus a travel carry case!

More deserves to be said about the remapping since it’s really good. You can customize almost every aspect of the board’s firmware from the GUI, which saves you from ever learning QMK. I have been completely able to ditch Karabiner Elements since this keyboard can do everything it’s capable of, but in hardware, which is magical. I use a layout kind of inspired by DreymaR’s “Extend”; their website is a really valuable source of general keyboard wisdom I recommend (you should consider using Extend if you don’t already!). For RGB-theming maniacs, you can even change the colors, but I’ve personally got no interest as the stock lighting themes are already good.

My only gripes with the board are that the number keys don’t have sub-labels on them for what symbol they make when Shift-ed, and that the little rubber feet for tenting often don’t work super well (to raise the board, I often end up propping up the board with a book), but they sell a mounting kit which addresses the latter of my two complaints and the former is very minor given that you shouldn’t look while typing (plus, for other non-English languages the symbols vary a lot).

Recommend?

For most people? No. The vast majority of people have no problems with a stock laptop keyboard or the basic Apple Magic board. I don’t think they would use enough of the Moonlander’s functionality or be able to stand the retraining period long enough to not grow insanely frustrated with the board.

For anyone doing lots of computer work (typing)? Absolutely yes. It’s a great, incredibly durable, highly customizable board. Even if you change nothing about it from stock, it’s still a better keyboard out of the box than basically anything else in its price range. While it’s an expensive price to many I would say that the cost of carpal tunnel treatment plus the convenience hardware-Extend provides me is well worth the money, especially when you consider how many years this keyboard will last before needing repairs.

Also, their customer support is top-notch. They shipped it from Taipei to Denver in a little under four days which is absurdly fast, and then helped with a bunch of questions I had about getting SysRq to work on Linux embedded hardware. It’s refreshing to see a support team staffed by people who actually know what their audience is.