While the Kinesis Freestyle may be missing some familiar keys on the right, it compensates by adding some new ones on the left. It works just like a typical laptop, though, so you ten-key folks have probably already experienced it. Not being much of a ten-keyer, I can’t comment on how easy or difficult this is. If this describes you, you’ve got two choices with the Freestyle: Purchase a separate standalone numeric keypad, or learn to use the ten-key overlay on the main part of the board (activated with the FN key at the lower left). This allows a narrower footprint, but might be an obstacle to those who do a lot of ten-key. The Freestyle is missing a dedicated set of keys found on most standard keyboards – the numeric keypad.
Each practically creates a new keyboard, so let’s go through them one at a time. Kinesis offers several different kits to configure the Freestyle the way you want it. The split design also allows you to get exactly the wrist angle you want, and to vary your typing position if desired. Really big guys may even want to consider the wider version of the Freestyle, which can split up to twenty inches. This variable split eliminates the need to scrunch your arms inward, and also accommodates different shapes and sizes of users. On the basic model, you can split them up to eight inches, which is the length of the cord connecting them. The outstanding feature of the Kinesis Freestyle is the separation of its two halves (“keying modules”). After reading over the basics here, you might want to check out what’s new in my article on the new version.
Update: Kinesis has upgraded this model to the Freestyle2. The Kinesis Freestyle keyboard used in this review