Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 14:03:16 -0800 From: Gary Karp Subject: Maltron/Kinesis I am a Maltron owner, and had the chance to live with a Kinesis for two weeks. Here is my comparative review. Disclaimer: While I made a point to spend enough time with the Kinesis to adapt, I have been using the Maltron for almost two years, so recognize that I remain habituated to it. I also have large hands, and know that this is a factor in what feels comfortable. I will try to take that into account in these comments. I will reveal at the start that my preference is for the Maltron, and I was tremendously relieved to get back to it. I find it much more comfortable. The Kinesis has the keys positioned far back in the unit. It makes you either sit much closer - not always possible - or to reach forward farther, which is how it felt to me, a definitely ergonomically undesirable position. (Take a deep breath and relax.) The thumb keys are much higher than the others on the Kinesis, tending us to extend the thumbs. Contracting the thumb muscles interferes with the strength and free movement of the other fingers. I recently evaluated an RSI-injured Kinesis user, and observed that she did this as a matter of habit. The lower rows of the Kinesis, containing the arrow keys, are angled away from the body. This makes you bend the fingers back toward you, an action that involves additional muscles and tendons to perform in order to bend the upper digits and pull them backwards. The Maltron never requires this, and I like the position of the arrow keys in the thumb groups on the Maltron. There are a number of key position issues. While I recognize that the Kinesis allows reprogramming of the keys, it still means the effort, and either changing keys around (with the little hook tool they provide) or having to remember the changes. In particular, Kinesis has space and return on the right hand. I often wanted to keep my right hand on the mouse while pressing return, and didn't like having to reach across. Space is on the right and Return on the left on the Maltron. The ctrl/opt/alt keys (command for the Mac) are all on the thumbs on the Kinesis. I prefer having the command key at each pinky on the Maltron, since most modifier-key combinations are best done with two hands anyway. One thing that can't be reprogrammed on the Kinesis is that the only way to get an Enter key (as compared to Return) is to first hit the button for keypad mode which uses alpha keys for numeric keys. I often need to Enter rather than Return, so this drove me nuts and made me perform more mouse clicking. The Kinesis F-keys are small with little travel distance. The Maltron uses the same keys as all others for them. I have macros in all of them, and preferred the normal keys. The Kinesis deserves credit for its foot switch option, and I prefer its location of the apostrophe. I also like the larger, angled middle thumb keys which I wish Maltron would do. It also seemed that I had to flatten and flex the hand more on the Kinesis. It just never got comfortable for me. Hard to say what that has to do with needing more time to adapt or the size of my hands. The shift keys on the Maltron are double-height, compared to the smaller Kinesis keys which also troubled me. Yes, the Maltron is ugly. Don't let surface appearance stop you from considering it. It is lightweight so seems cheap to people. Also fluff. What does a circuit board and a bunch of keys weigh? It has been higher in price, but word is that they are going into production and cutting it in half to around $400. Mine was paid by insurance, so price should not stop anyone from choosing the ideal keyboard for their needs with coverage. Some people need more relief from pronation than either keyboard can provide, and also the ability to adjust the width of each half for shoulder width, not possible with these fixed designs. I like the scooped approach, and find it comfortable. Having used the Maltron, I was able to type pretty easily on the Kinesis being adapted to the concept. The shape of the keys gives such a tactile sense of location that I can type with my eyes closed, getting a break from eyestrain! Much harder on non-scooped designs, regardless of tenting. Well, there it is. Now all the Kinesis devotees can flame me! ------------- Gary Karp Onsight Technology Education Services Ergonomics consulting/evaluation/tools 1510 Eddy Street, Suite 1511, San Francisco, CA 94115-4185 415/749-1983, gkarp@sirius.com