About thirty years ago, I used a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard at home, and I loved it. The problem was that I was spending hours typing at home ergonomically, and then spending hours at work typing the ‘normal’ way on a conventional keyboard. All the other conventional keyboards felt wrong, and it was difficult to adapt on a daily basis. Eventually, the home keyboard died, and I replaced it with a conventional keyboard. I fondly remember the ergonomic keyboard, but not how it was breaking my typing skills.
Today, my work computer is a cheap corporate-grade laptop with no numeric keypad, missing modifier keys, and no TrackStick. Constantly switching between the keyboard to the annoying trackpad is like using a rowing machine all day long.
Here is my rant. Why do Web developers think is is OK to release Web apps/sites without keyboard shortcuts for common actions? If the Tab key does not get you there, it requires another annoying pointer move. To clarify, I am talking about the million-dollar grade ‘enterprise’ Web applications.
This was a very good read for me. I won’t be able to afford a mechanical keyboard, but I got a pretty good idea of what it can do from your experience.
For the record: I currently use a Ducky 10 keyless (cherry brown) that replaced worn out (key labels worn away) Filcos I’d been using for decades. I also played around with Azerons (two models), but I found gaining muscle memory on them difficult. My hands aren’t bad enough (yet) to need them.
Web searching sent me to your blog article a month ago (July 2025), and I almost bought the UHK given what you (and others) wrote about them. However; a Win 10 to Win 11 upgrade intervened, and I managed forget I was interested in a UHK.
Seeing your post here today reminded me I wanted to do this. Before I take the leap … Do you (or anyone else) use UHK arrow keys? I imagine the layers on the UHK60 would make arrows kinda clunky. While the UHK80 has arrow keys, it’s larger size and non-optional wrist rests put me off some. But I was leaning toward the 80 for arrow keys.
Oh! Another question … how do you like the track point? I notice you have a mouse next to the keyboard.
I have removed both of the modules – I do not use the 3-button module or the trackpoint module. I tried using them, but I gave up on both.
And, it’s amazing that my tiny blog often shows up in web searches! Sometimes when I want to learn about a thing, I search for it and I find my own blog posts. lol
I do use arrow keys on the UHK, and one of the mods I did was to switch the arrow keys to vi arrow keys – hjkl – so I don’t have to translate between vi and “not vi.” My arrow keys are mod+[hjkl], so it’s a natural fit.
I made a few other changes too, and I find that I like my current setup.
Both the mod and space bar are mod keys if held, and space if touched. Both of the “case buttons” are space bars, so I can still have a repeating space if I want one. The top left key does escape if touched, ~ if shifted, and backtick if held for 0.2 seconds. This was the best I could think of, for a missing escape key. As a Unix user, I had to have a ‘press to escape’ and I still wanted shift-~, and 0.2 seconds is pretty short to get the `.
Another thing I did was to move around some of the other keys – if I kept hitting a chord to do a thing, I made that chord do that thing.
At this point, I really don’t like using a regular keyboard. I’m pretty attached to my UHK60.
Great ideas for the arrow keys. I can imagine that working fine. I was skeptical of the trackpoint, but I’ll probably buy it (and the 3 button module) so they’re around if ever they seem like a good idea.
Thanks for mentioning Esc. That’s giving me pause. I use it a lot; way more often than arrow keys. I’ll have to think through your solution. Maybe bind ` to Esc and 0.2 seconds for `. Hmm. That might work.
I’m looking at the photo of your keyboard put together, and the only moved/replaced keys I see are CapsLock → Mouse and bottom row Alt and Super keys. Did I miss any?
Thanks also for mentioning chords. I need to pay more attention to the UHK’s programmability. I’ll still buy it, but I’ve some homework to do.
Semi off-topic, how’s Linux’s support for steelseries mice (or programmable mice in general)? I’ve bound Esc to a mouse button in windows, but I wonder whether that’s doable in Linux.
Honestly, with my escape/tilde/backtick “fix,” I think it works quite well. The only time it gets annoying is when i have a lot of backticking to do. works absolutely fine for escape and tilde and for the occasional backtick. I could also put the backtick on a layer, like mod, but this allows me to switch between the UHK and a regular keyboard for basically the same keystrokes.
At this point I am starting to find it difficult to use a regular keyboard, because i have gotten so used to the UHK.
I bought a nocfree lite black for about $300. Significantly less than the UHK keyboards. I enjoyed using it until I needed the ` key, and then I realized the mod key was only on the left side. It meant chording and a stretch (bad). I went back to my 80 key board and eventually bought the UHK 80 because it has the keys I normaly use, so I can take my time learning how to use it. It arived a few days ago, and it’s been a bad experience.
The box was in good condition, and everything I ordered was there. Yay! Then the trouble started. The manual is a joke, but it at least shows that the halves need to be pulled straight away from each other. On plugging it in using the the UHK USB cable, I heard a USB connect sound (win 11), but the keyboard didn’t light up, and the pc didn’t receive any key inputs. I tried different ports on the pc, a reboot or two, and win 11 eventually popped up 3 small temporary windows telling me 3 devices had just disconnected: my old keyboard, mouse, and the uhk80. After much FAFO and 4 dead USB ports later, I learned that the UHK 80 + UHK cable had electrical issues (produced random disconnect) that I fixed using an old Ducky keyboard cable. Since then the UHK80 been working like a regular keyboard for about 1 day.
Their configuration software probably works fine, but I’m not psychic, and there’s no real manual. Experimentation is required, and I’ve lost my appetite for UHK experimentation. They badly need a real manual.
Yes, they have a forum, and there are videos. Both intended for UHK fans. I’m looking for something I can go to when I have a question. That doesn’t exist. I feel like I bought a troublesome and expensive mechanical keyboard that could be great but isn’t.
I’m keeping the UHK in the hope that it’ll live up to its potential. The nocfree expericence was so much better than UHK in comparison, but it lacks the right/left duplicated function and mod keys that the UHK has.
I misremembered $300. In August I paid $244 for the NocFree (linear, black) with some extras, and the current price looks the same.
Maybe you meant the UHK 80? it cost around $600 with extras (key cluster and trackball).
Is it worth the money? It’s hard to put a price on not injuring yourself while typing. For me, it is worth it, if it works.The NocFree didn’t work, strictly speaking, as I use the ` key all the time in markdown docs, and I wasn’t willing to spend time trying to make it work. But, its a nice 60 key board, and the split reduces how far my fingers move. I’m keeping it for use while traveling, which it seems perfect for. The UHK has all the keys I need and it’s split, so it strictly speaking works (after anxiety and damaging my pc). And, mostly, the UHK seems really well built (it feels like Filco, solid). But, they fail as a company to provide documentation. It’s a collection if incomplete pieces that might possibly cover everything, if one were able to find and read them all. For $600, I expected more.
