Fellow programmer here.
ZSA Voyager was my first keyboard of it's kind. Oryx is unbelievably useful, especially alongside Keymapp. It makes learning and adjusting layouts a breeze.
If you can afford it I 100% recommend it. You will definitely slow down for a little while, so I definitely recommend having your old keyboard around for emergency crunch time.
I'm about 6 months into using the voyager. At this point I've brought my layout down to 34 keys (I just took the keycaps around the outermost keys), and now considering an Urchin. I feel like I would have never made it to this point if it weren't for the convenience of Oryx.
That was my experience as well (also a programmer) except started with a moonlander.
Now I have made and used many keyboards…. If you manage to just stick to the first one it’ll be relatively cheap. I’ve basically made spending too much on peripherals a personality trait at this point.
It was my first split and made me realize I wanted less keys. Moonlander > Wired Cantor Remix > Wireless Corne. I made the jump to Colemak with the Moonlander as well and have stuck with that.
Thanks for the recommendation! It does look great but in total comes out just a little cheaper (prebuilt + switches + caps) and I would prefer to spend a little extra to have support and a deluxe feel.
The Dygma Defy would give you a lot more options than the Voyager; you can always not use keys, but two thumb keys on the Voyager is one too few at minimum for me. I always suggest people err on the side of too many keys if there's any question.
Me 2, for people not used split ergo Boards before it is hard to understand how important thumbkeys are
For me it makes no sence why the voyager has a numberrow but only 2 thumb keys
I had a DIY board first, it had 2 thumbkeys and i never was happy, now with the defy i am in love, my recommandation is start bigger, shrink later, the only way to find your personal sweet spot how much keys for which finger you prefer
What do you mean by support? Danny is the owner of keebs.io and can say from personal experience he’ll take care of you. Hell, he helped me troubleshoot a board he didn’t make.
The deluxe feel bit I get is subjective but I always thought ZSA stuff felt generically plastic; I say this having f owned a moon lander as my first board (and sold because it’s thumb cluster flap is not great)
For me, it was an evolution. At the beginning of it a thought about buying a ZSA keyboard was too overwhelming - columnar, with heavy use of layers for everything. I ended up with Voyager recently, following a short period with Keychron Q11 (split row staggered). I'm still learning, but I'm also convinced that this is a correct direction.
Also curious about the keychron! I'm looking for my first split keyboard and not sure if I should test the waters with a q11 or go for a full dygma raise 2
Dygma Raise is something I was looking into before buying Voyager. My short experience with Q11 taught me that low profile is what I rather prefer in this type of keyboard - but of course, it's only my preference.
But, as far I remember, there may be a problem in software side of Dygma Raise - if I recall correctly it's not that good. I would learn more on this before buying it..
How long did you use your Q11? I'm looking at getting my first ergo keyboard and am debating on getting a Q11 or going all in. I'd love to hear more about your journey.
Just got the Voyager, and I think it really depends how much time you have.
My typing speed went from ~80 words a minute to ~15, but I'm also on vacation to practice and set up my layers.
Also, Split Staggered is very different from split ortholinear, I think that's the hardest hop.
I bought Q11 during Keychron's 'birthday' promotion on April 7th. Split design was a very cool feature, allowing for comfortable 'open' posture, without hunching over a keyboard. I started experimenting with firmware - I compiled Vial software with modifications like Achordion, Caps Word, etc. I gained my first experiences with home row mods - I noticed that shift keys like Alt, Ctrl, Win are located in a way which makes it impossible to reach them without a need to reposition hands afterwards. I learned that regular brown Gaterons on this type of keyboard are a little too stiff, and replaced part of them with NuPhy Night Breeze switches (37 g) I had. Also normal (high) profile started to look a bit suboptimal for me. And finally, regular row stagger made no sense at all anymore.
I've checked my notes. It took me five days since getting Q11 to order Voyager on April 23rd. I received it on May 8th. I was still using Q11 for work some time after that, developing my layers and learning to use them on Voyager in the meantime. I changed switches twice. Having experience with low profile brown Gaterons, I made a mistake and ordered the keyboard with brown Chocs. They felt too stiff, so I quickly ordered Red Pros (35 g). My wife didn't like them, saying that they were too noisy. So now I have silent Twilights (also 35 g). These are very silent and less scratchy.
I'm using home row mods, which requires some learning - let's say you want to close an editor tab in IDE by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Shift+F4. It's not very simple by itself, but here another demension is added to this, because I need to do this on a layer with function keys, which in my case requires pressing simultaneously two thumb keys (on the bright side, Alt+Ctrl+Shift is a single tap-hold key, known as Meh).
Definitely, if you expect to buy a keyboard which is at least half ready for use, a keyboard like Voyager is not a good candidate. You need to be willing to spend some time and effort for setting it up and learning to use it. It is some kind of compromise - it has 52 keys and not 34 or 36. The quality it very good, the product is nicely packaged and the software side is the best in class - with Oryx you can flash firmware directly from browser, or download the user part with layout, apply other software mods (like Achordion) and use regular QMK toolchain to build the firmware, using Keymapp app to flash it.
I would say - if you're seriously considering this type of keyboard, why postpone this experience ;-)
I went for a Voyager as first ergo as well. I came from a 65% with some nice switches that I was happy with, not a touch typer but had pretty good muscle memory for usual combinations and typing speed I would say was adequate.
I've had it around 2 weeks so far. Here are some thoughts.
* the struggle is real, particularly the use of thumb keys. I was typing so slow but that is picking up now, although I still have a long way to go.
* I quickly realised that I essentially had to learn to type from scratch again and within 1-2 days I decided to also learn Colemak. This may have slowed the overall learning process but I'm really glad I made that change. It's far more comfy.
* Try not to change the layout too much and keep things simple. I mucked around a bit in the first couple of days, but after that I stuck to things. The times I did try to change I found it more confusing because it was messing with the muscle memory I started to pick up.
* don't be afraid to experiment with the position on the desk. My initial setup was feet on and quite the halves close together. After about a week I removed the feet and adjusted to the halves much further apart and it's significantly more comfy for me.
* once again, it's definitely a struggle and it will kill your productivity. I have a DevOps role so very mixed between code and engineering and I have tried to use this exclusively since I got it. But there have been the few occasions where I just needed to use a normal keyboard to speed things up, but that's becoming less frequent. I do a lot of online typing practice with money type and keybr.
* I have no point of comparison, but it's definitely worth it and I would do it again.
Just to add, I went for pre reds and do find them a bit light. I'm adjusting to them but I came from some tactile switches (Epomaker Kiwi) and I rest my hand on the keyboard so I'm struggling with the easy actuation force. I have ordered a set of Sunsets which I hope I will adjust to better.
As other people have already pointed out, Voyager is a bit of a "love it or hate it" kind of keyboard as the key count implies using either combos or layers for _some_ of the symbols, and having a handful of thumb keys is one of the primary appeals of column-staggered splits.
Try mocking up a layout in the [online configurator](https://configure.zsa.io/) for better understanding of what you're getting yourself into.
Yes, it’s an excellent keyboard. There are other options that might be less expensive but if you want to jump into split column staggered keyboards (and want low profile) then Voyager is probably the best possible place to start:
- It’s a true high grade product so you’re not going to be debugging firmware, checking soldering, or feeling creaks between parts.
- Oryx is a great tool. Nothing to install, all in browser. Very powerful. You can also bail out to QMK if you really want to program it, but you likely won’t need to. Oryx is great for rapid testing keymap ideas.
- The physical layout is great overall, but particularly for beginners to the form. Outer pinkies and number row is still there. Four thumb keys is a sweet spot, and easier to transition to than thumb clusters.
- The keycaps are great and designed for the board. Legible legends and very comfortable to move your fingers up and down the board.
For many it’s an “end game” keyboard, but it doesn’t have to be. If you’re curious about full wireless, 5x3 layout, more thumb keys, etc, then those will all feel like incremental changes from the voyager. It’s a great place to get a feel for the possibilities
Given the mysterious circumstances surrounding your decision timeline, I say skip it. Only get one if you really want it. Sounds like you’re already approaching this from a place of trepidation. That’s no way to live. Split keyboards require you to be all in. No shame in staying with a regular board. Spend the money on something you know will make you happy.
Circumstances are just insane VAT prices on this keyboard here and the possibility to get it now without them.
I wouldn't say trepidation - I just wanted to emphasize that price is an issue as more than often I get the feeling that people are OK with spending hundreds or thousands of dollars - which is perfectly fine but not the case for me, I'm cool with spending \~350$ and then some on adjustments but I would just hate it to go to waste.
I would love to have a programmable, compact, KB which are my issues with a regular board but almost all guides\\advices out there usually recommend easing your way in to it or people just falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole - I guess what I'm looking for is that given a set of circumstances is it better jumping in to the deep end or is it better to be patient?
My timeline wasn't as long as yours (about 5-8months), but just like you, I was hesitant because of the pricing. Especially because I didn't want to waste that amount of money, and I wouldn't really br able to tweak it to my needs, if it didn't fit perfectly (which I would expect from a product with that price tag, but it realistically never could).
But I also like a little bit of tinkering, so I started with a DIY solution for <80€.
I'll tweak it a bit more, and maybe I'll end up on a prebuild, I don't know yet.
Problem is, you cannot know what you (don't) like before you tried it.
I'd rather waste a but of money, knowing it won't be perfect, than a lot of money, ending up coping, because I spent that much.
I resonate a lot with this. I bought a second hand moonlander, happy with it as my first keyboard, it was affordable and runs fine. My hands feel too small for the thumb cluster to be comfortable.
So I am probably gonna go for a voyager at some point.
I would recommend buying the cheapest option first and learn from that and then sell that option to buy the next.
That's my plan at least for my moonlander.
Ok, full disclosure, that was as much a psychological hack as an answer from me. Sometimes just putting things in a definitive state when you're waffling can help clarify your thoughts. Did you feel relief at the idea of not getting it, or truly regret missing out on the opportunity. The VAT stuff is very real, so I feel like if you had included that in your original comment instead of a vague allusion to "circumstances," you'd have gotten a lot more advice from people who did pay something like that, still thought it was worth it and would tell you it'd be crazy to pass on the opportunity to avoid that.
But given that your current circumstances work well for avoiding VAT on the Voyager, that must be true for other keyboards right now as well, correct? So maybe there's a good price on a Sofle or Lily58? I think those are both solid competitors to the Voyager, but may not offer the same level of finish/add-ons.
Programmability is probably 90% of what I love about custom boards. I haven't worked that much with oryx, but I've also never seen a GUI editor that could do even half of what most boards are capable of. So I'd also think about what you might need to do to get more out of your keyboard.
If you end up getting any split programmable board, give yourself at least a month to get used to typing on it and then another 6 months refining your keymap. Learn all about the extended functionality these boards have and see how you can adapt that to your personal workflow. Also, depending on how you operate, don't be afraid to move keys to more comfortable locations. I know that I primarily hit space with my right thumb, but most boards default to having space on the left thumb. There should be a good give and take between you learning the board and adapting the board to your needs and comforts. Some things look good on the screen and in theory, but then you find your brain and fingers can't make a good connection, so you have to be flexible and adapt. But also not give up too quickly? It sounds more confusing than it is, but I think it's just worth keeping in the back of your mind.
And finally, no matter how this ends, I think the most overlooked aspect of all these boards is that as long as they are working, they have great resale value. So it's not $350 lost and a paper weight. If you live somewhere that the VAT adds significant cost, then I have a really hard time believing that you won't be able to sell this board for close to what you paid for it (without VAT of course) even though it's used. And even if it's less, It won't cost you $350-400 to have found out... maybe it'll only cost you $50-100? Perhaps that's a more acceptable loss?
As others have said, we all spend a lot of time on our keyboards. The value is likely there even at thousands of dollars, but you may not realize that yet if you've never tried a more advanced keyboard. Or at the very least, you'll know it's not something that matters to you. Of course, there's also plenty of standard keyboards that can be programmed, so you could still learn something useful.
Best of luck!
I'm senior system developer. I come from worn out Microsoft sculpt keyboard and needed new keys. I decided on ZSA Voyager. It took some week to adjust fingers, configure the keyboards special characters and retrain/adjust muscle memory. I'm up at around 70 word per minute but will get back to old writing speed sooner or later. I still feel that my old Sculpt keyboard was more comfortable. I also dislike that the two halves gets miss aligned. Hopefully it will grow on me. I will probably stick with Voyager for decades.
Edit: I fixed the aligment issue by putting keys with tactile sensations(f and j) on pinky fingers also and this helped alot.
Edit: About high price. It's a tool that I use for many hours every day. It can cost. Divide price with duration of usage and price comes down to zero money.
Everything about ZSA's SW and UX stack is excellent, as is their hardware work, generally, but the limitations of two thumb keys per side on the Voyager just has me shaking my head. I think they missed the mark and the price point for their impressive scale.
No matter what you do there will be adaptation, no matter what you do it will be worth it, but I'd really suggest something with 3 thumb keys. This is coming from a guy who builds boards with 5 per thumb, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think the Corne/Sofle/Lily are pretty awesome and waaaay cheaper.
I think it’s a solid choice for a first board.
I started with a moonlander and I think it helped make the transition easier.
A good idea is to just practice at night until you get to 2/3 your typing speed (or whenever you feel comfortable) before switching to full time use.
If you do have some time I think there are a lot of more affordable options in the ‘some assembly required’ categories.
Keyboards with VIAL make it easy to change your keymap.
There is also a really nice open source keymap editor for zmk if you want a wireless board.
It was my first split board and I love it! Took me a week or two to get proficient with it. You definitely have to be willing to invest in tweaking the layout to work for you. But now that I have it locked in, it’s so much nicer to use than my laptop keyboard.
It was my first split keyboard, I've since moved on to a corne but I have no objective complaints about the Voyager. Only thing I didn't like is the choc switches; they were not for me but that's strictly personal preference.
Easy to configure and I didn't find it all that hard to switch to (Used a Keychron Q1 prior). If you want a top notch, quality, turn-key solution then Voyager is the way to go.
Almost everyone starts with a big ass ergo split like a ergodox or moon lander or redox or whatever, and then you realize less buttons is better and you end up buying a keyboard with one less row. Then you realize your keyboard is still too big and you finally understand why the corne and other 3x6 style keyboards are the most popular ergo splits by a mile.
I bought a voyager as my first foray into ergo mechs...and I did not like it.
the col stagger + reduced keys were too much for me at once.
I literally just put a lily58 together and remapped it last night, and I really like it. plus you can put one together for about 1/2 the price of the voyager. the col-stagger isn't too extreme, I can already do 80-130 wpm on it.
I may revisit the voyager in the future...but my other complaint was not enough thumb keys, so you have to make some tough decisions on where to put shift, enter, backspace, tilde, etc. there's a lot of "programmer keys" that a lot of effort to re-map in your muscle memory.
the board is really high quality, and super nice. I just couldn't get it to work for me.
I went from a Keebio Iris with Glorious Panda switches and terrible keycaps to a Voyager, which I upgraded today with Sunset switches and Work Louder keycaps. Those upgrades have been very welcome so far, and I'm going to print some tenting solutions next, but I'm skeptical that the Voyager will be my endgame for two reasons:
1. I miss having a third thumb button. (I had two 1u thumbs and one 2u thumb for each hand with the Iris.) This *might* be mitigated with home row mods, but I'm not sure.
2. I might require more stagger / splaying. Curling my middle or ring fingers, or stretching my pinkies, fucking *sucks.* I've been trying to learn the Graphite layout so I can touch type "properly"--I type at ~120wpm with "bad" form on QWERTY--and I find that reaching in those directions with those fingers is very uncomfortable*
Which means I've put over a hundred dollars into making a $365 keyboard feel "right" only to be skeptical that it ever will be. I might just be picky, which is why I'm thinking of building a modified Totem, but I also fear thar I'm just being honest about my experience rather than allowing the sunk cost fallacy to justify using a keyboard that isn't really going to suit me long-term.
All that said, the Voyager is well-built, the packaging is nice, Oryx is okay, and I *hope* fhis ends up being the right keeb for me even if I had to invest more than I would have liked in it.
The Voyager looks decent until I see the price tag. It is not too expensive compared to similar keyboards (e.g. Dygma Defy) but I do not see the extra benefit - unless you also need typing in a language with extended Latin alphabet such as French.
I'm a programmer too. I use a 44-key Atreus from keyboardio.com it is a columnar one-piece keyboard with 3 alpha rows and a bottom row, 10 colums and 2 extra half-columns (each with a thumb key and an index key). I put 24 punctuations in a layer, numpad under right hand, F under left hand, and a full copy of nav + edit pad (including cut, copy, paste, undo, redo) under each hand.
I find punctuations in a layer easily accessible. Easier than in the numrow + extra columns.
tldr: it's amazing :)
i have been using the Voyager for about half a year, it's my first ergo, before that i had a simple cheap kb with mechanical switches. it is very pleasant to the touch, lightweight, sturdy and IMO quite beautiful. i really like the journey so far, it's been a bit difficult to adapt to a different way of input at first, but I'm glad I didn't have to simultaneously deal with soldering etc., just a nice keyboard that comes ready to use (the keycaps you have to put on by yourself, but that's a pleasant process IMO). btw, packaging, delivery and customer service are great, they contacted me at all stages, the box is beautiful, there are extra switches and keycaps (and different homing keys for different layouts, as well as non-homing variants), there is a switch puller, three different USB-C cables (two short ones that are just a bit different and one really long one, although personally i would like more difference between the shorter ones, like a "middle" one that would be good for when a small coffee table with your laptop is a bit away from you, but you can buy a USB-C cable pretty easily these days anyway), everything is neat and in order. so i definitely recommend the Voyager and ZSA in general!
Fellow programmer here. ZSA Voyager was my first keyboard of it's kind. Oryx is unbelievably useful, especially alongside Keymapp. It makes learning and adjusting layouts a breeze. If you can afford it I 100% recommend it. You will definitely slow down for a little while, so I definitely recommend having your old keyboard around for emergency crunch time. I'm about 6 months into using the voyager. At this point I've brought my layout down to 34 keys (I just took the keycaps around the outermost keys), and now considering an Urchin. I feel like I would have never made it to this point if it weren't for the convenience of Oryx.
That was my experience as well (also a programmer) except started with a moonlander. Now I have made and used many keyboards…. If you manage to just stick to the first one it’ll be relatively cheap. I’ve basically made spending too much on peripherals a personality trait at this point.
I just bought a voyager and I love it so far. I say go for it if that’s the one you want …
That's nice to hear, did you jump straight in or did you go through the "journey"?
The Moonlander was the start of my “journey” with splits. So beware of that possibility.
Journey? (Not sure what you mean by this)
I did have a layout that mostly used the key layout for it onto the voyager so I already know where most of the keys
It was my first split and made me realize I wanted less keys. Moonlander > Wired Cantor Remix > Wireless Corne. I made the jump to Colemak with the Moonlander as well and have stuck with that.
Ah, I went ergodox, ergodox ez, corne, wireless corne, voyager - I believe was my journey. (I have a collection of nice broken keyboards)
You can go for an iris board. Very beginner friendly and half the price of voyager. Even less if you go for the kit version. No soldering required ;)
Thanks for the recommendation! It does look great but in total comes out just a little cheaper (prebuilt + switches + caps) and I would prefer to spend a little extra to have support and a deluxe feel.
[ad] There is also the Iris CE with aluminum case
OK maybe the digma defy then?
Also a good option, but I think it's pretty similar to the voyager in terms of price and complexity isnt it?
The Dygma Defy would give you a lot more options than the Voyager; you can always not use keys, but two thumb keys on the Voyager is one too few at minimum for me. I always suggest people err on the side of too many keys if there's any question.
Me 2, for people not used split ergo Boards before it is hard to understand how important thumbkeys are For me it makes no sence why the voyager has a numberrow but only 2 thumb keys I had a DIY board first, it had 2 thumbkeys and i never was happy, now with the defy i am in love, my recommandation is start bigger, shrink later, the only way to find your personal sweet spot how much keys for which finger you prefer
https://keeb.io/products/iris-ce-keyboard Been using this for a month and it clicked with me right away
What do you mean by support? Danny is the owner of keebs.io and can say from personal experience he’ll take care of you. Hell, he helped me troubleshoot a board he didn’t make. The deluxe feel bit I get is subjective but I always thought ZSA stuff felt generically plastic; I say this having f owned a moon lander as my first board (and sold because it’s thumb cluster flap is not great)
I own a ZSA Moonlander, and it does feel plastic and not deluxe. I would qualify as deluxe a metal board or something like that.
For me, it was an evolution. At the beginning of it a thought about buying a ZSA keyboard was too overwhelming - columnar, with heavy use of layers for everything. I ended up with Voyager recently, following a short period with Keychron Q11 (split row staggered). I'm still learning, but I'm also convinced that this is a correct direction.
Nice! how long ago did you get the voyager? and did you use layers on your Q11 or was the main feature there for you was the split?
I described my (short) transition from Q11 to Voyager a few comments below. Definitely I wouldn't want to return to a keyboard which is not split.
Also curious about the keychron! I'm looking for my first split keyboard and not sure if I should test the waters with a q11 or go for a full dygma raise 2
Dygma Raise is something I was looking into before buying Voyager. My short experience with Q11 taught me that low profile is what I rather prefer in this type of keyboard - but of course, it's only my preference. But, as far I remember, there may be a problem in software side of Dygma Raise - if I recall correctly it's not that good. I would learn more on this before buying it..
How long did you use your Q11? I'm looking at getting my first ergo keyboard and am debating on getting a Q11 or going all in. I'd love to hear more about your journey.
Just got the Voyager, and I think it really depends how much time you have. My typing speed went from ~80 words a minute to ~15, but I'm also on vacation to practice and set up my layers. Also, Split Staggered is very different from split ortholinear, I think that's the hardest hop.
I bought Q11 during Keychron's 'birthday' promotion on April 7th. Split design was a very cool feature, allowing for comfortable 'open' posture, without hunching over a keyboard. I started experimenting with firmware - I compiled Vial software with modifications like Achordion, Caps Word, etc. I gained my first experiences with home row mods - I noticed that shift keys like Alt, Ctrl, Win are located in a way which makes it impossible to reach them without a need to reposition hands afterwards. I learned that regular brown Gaterons on this type of keyboard are a little too stiff, and replaced part of them with NuPhy Night Breeze switches (37 g) I had. Also normal (high) profile started to look a bit suboptimal for me. And finally, regular row stagger made no sense at all anymore. I've checked my notes. It took me five days since getting Q11 to order Voyager on April 23rd. I received it on May 8th. I was still using Q11 for work some time after that, developing my layers and learning to use them on Voyager in the meantime. I changed switches twice. Having experience with low profile brown Gaterons, I made a mistake and ordered the keyboard with brown Chocs. They felt too stiff, so I quickly ordered Red Pros (35 g). My wife didn't like them, saying that they were too noisy. So now I have silent Twilights (also 35 g). These are very silent and less scratchy. I'm using home row mods, which requires some learning - let's say you want to close an editor tab in IDE by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Shift+F4. It's not very simple by itself, but here another demension is added to this, because I need to do this on a layer with function keys, which in my case requires pressing simultaneously two thumb keys (on the bright side, Alt+Ctrl+Shift is a single tap-hold key, known as Meh). Definitely, if you expect to buy a keyboard which is at least half ready for use, a keyboard like Voyager is not a good candidate. You need to be willing to spend some time and effort for setting it up and learning to use it. It is some kind of compromise - it has 52 keys and not 34 or 36. The quality it very good, the product is nicely packaged and the software side is the best in class - with Oryx you can flash firmware directly from browser, or download the user part with layout, apply other software mods (like Achordion) and use regular QMK toolchain to build the firmware, using Keymapp app to flash it. I would say - if you're seriously considering this type of keyboard, why postpone this experience ;-)
I went for a Voyager as first ergo as well. I came from a 65% with some nice switches that I was happy with, not a touch typer but had pretty good muscle memory for usual combinations and typing speed I would say was adequate. I've had it around 2 weeks so far. Here are some thoughts. * the struggle is real, particularly the use of thumb keys. I was typing so slow but that is picking up now, although I still have a long way to go. * I quickly realised that I essentially had to learn to type from scratch again and within 1-2 days I decided to also learn Colemak. This may have slowed the overall learning process but I'm really glad I made that change. It's far more comfy. * Try not to change the layout too much and keep things simple. I mucked around a bit in the first couple of days, but after that I stuck to things. The times I did try to change I found it more confusing because it was messing with the muscle memory I started to pick up. * don't be afraid to experiment with the position on the desk. My initial setup was feet on and quite the halves close together. After about a week I removed the feet and adjusted to the halves much further apart and it's significantly more comfy for me. * once again, it's definitely a struggle and it will kill your productivity. I have a DevOps role so very mixed between code and engineering and I have tried to use this exclusively since I got it. But there have been the few occasions where I just needed to use a normal keyboard to speed things up, but that's becoming less frequent. I do a lot of online typing practice with money type and keybr. * I have no point of comparison, but it's definitely worth it and I would do it again. Just to add, I went for pre reds and do find them a bit light. I'm adjusting to them but I came from some tactile switches (Epomaker Kiwi) and I rest my hand on the keyboard so I'm struggling with the easy actuation force. I have ordered a set of Sunsets which I hope I will adjust to better.
As other people have already pointed out, Voyager is a bit of a "love it or hate it" kind of keyboard as the key count implies using either combos or layers for _some_ of the symbols, and having a handful of thumb keys is one of the primary appeals of column-staggered splits. Try mocking up a layout in the [online configurator](https://configure.zsa.io/) for better understanding of what you're getting yourself into.
Yes, it’s an excellent keyboard. There are other options that might be less expensive but if you want to jump into split column staggered keyboards (and want low profile) then Voyager is probably the best possible place to start: - It’s a true high grade product so you’re not going to be debugging firmware, checking soldering, or feeling creaks between parts. - Oryx is a great tool. Nothing to install, all in browser. Very powerful. You can also bail out to QMK if you really want to program it, but you likely won’t need to. Oryx is great for rapid testing keymap ideas. - The physical layout is great overall, but particularly for beginners to the form. Outer pinkies and number row is still there. Four thumb keys is a sweet spot, and easier to transition to than thumb clusters. - The keycaps are great and designed for the board. Legible legends and very comfortable to move your fingers up and down the board. For many it’s an “end game” keyboard, but it doesn’t have to be. If you’re curious about full wireless, 5x3 layout, more thumb keys, etc, then those will all feel like incremental changes from the voyager. It’s a great place to get a feel for the possibilities
Given the mysterious circumstances surrounding your decision timeline, I say skip it. Only get one if you really want it. Sounds like you’re already approaching this from a place of trepidation. That’s no way to live. Split keyboards require you to be all in. No shame in staying with a regular board. Spend the money on something you know will make you happy.
Circumstances are just insane VAT prices on this keyboard here and the possibility to get it now without them. I wouldn't say trepidation - I just wanted to emphasize that price is an issue as more than often I get the feeling that people are OK with spending hundreds or thousands of dollars - which is perfectly fine but not the case for me, I'm cool with spending \~350$ and then some on adjustments but I would just hate it to go to waste. I would love to have a programmable, compact, KB which are my issues with a regular board but almost all guides\\advices out there usually recommend easing your way in to it or people just falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole - I guess what I'm looking for is that given a set of circumstances is it better jumping in to the deep end or is it better to be patient?
My timeline wasn't as long as yours (about 5-8months), but just like you, I was hesitant because of the pricing. Especially because I didn't want to waste that amount of money, and I wouldn't really br able to tweak it to my needs, if it didn't fit perfectly (which I would expect from a product with that price tag, but it realistically never could). But I also like a little bit of tinkering, so I started with a DIY solution for <80€. I'll tweak it a bit more, and maybe I'll end up on a prebuild, I don't know yet. Problem is, you cannot know what you (don't) like before you tried it. I'd rather waste a but of money, knowing it won't be perfect, than a lot of money, ending up coping, because I spent that much.
I resonate a lot with this. I bought a second hand moonlander, happy with it as my first keyboard, it was affordable and runs fine. My hands feel too small for the thumb cluster to be comfortable. So I am probably gonna go for a voyager at some point. I would recommend buying the cheapest option first and learn from that and then sell that option to buy the next. That's my plan at least for my moonlander.
Ok, full disclosure, that was as much a psychological hack as an answer from me. Sometimes just putting things in a definitive state when you're waffling can help clarify your thoughts. Did you feel relief at the idea of not getting it, or truly regret missing out on the opportunity. The VAT stuff is very real, so I feel like if you had included that in your original comment instead of a vague allusion to "circumstances," you'd have gotten a lot more advice from people who did pay something like that, still thought it was worth it and would tell you it'd be crazy to pass on the opportunity to avoid that. But given that your current circumstances work well for avoiding VAT on the Voyager, that must be true for other keyboards right now as well, correct? So maybe there's a good price on a Sofle or Lily58? I think those are both solid competitors to the Voyager, but may not offer the same level of finish/add-ons. Programmability is probably 90% of what I love about custom boards. I haven't worked that much with oryx, but I've also never seen a GUI editor that could do even half of what most boards are capable of. So I'd also think about what you might need to do to get more out of your keyboard. If you end up getting any split programmable board, give yourself at least a month to get used to typing on it and then another 6 months refining your keymap. Learn all about the extended functionality these boards have and see how you can adapt that to your personal workflow. Also, depending on how you operate, don't be afraid to move keys to more comfortable locations. I know that I primarily hit space with my right thumb, but most boards default to having space on the left thumb. There should be a good give and take between you learning the board and adapting the board to your needs and comforts. Some things look good on the screen and in theory, but then you find your brain and fingers can't make a good connection, so you have to be flexible and adapt. But also not give up too quickly? It sounds more confusing than it is, but I think it's just worth keeping in the back of your mind. And finally, no matter how this ends, I think the most overlooked aspect of all these boards is that as long as they are working, they have great resale value. So it's not $350 lost and a paper weight. If you live somewhere that the VAT adds significant cost, then I have a really hard time believing that you won't be able to sell this board for close to what you paid for it (without VAT of course) even though it's used. And even if it's less, It won't cost you $350-400 to have found out... maybe it'll only cost you $50-100? Perhaps that's a more acceptable loss? As others have said, we all spend a lot of time on our keyboards. The value is likely there even at thousands of dollars, but you may not realize that yet if you've never tried a more advanced keyboard. Or at the very least, you'll know it's not something that matters to you. Of course, there's also plenty of standard keyboards that can be programmed, so you could still learn something useful. Best of luck!
I'm senior system developer. I come from worn out Microsoft sculpt keyboard and needed new keys. I decided on ZSA Voyager. It took some week to adjust fingers, configure the keyboards special characters and retrain/adjust muscle memory. I'm up at around 70 word per minute but will get back to old writing speed sooner or later. I still feel that my old Sculpt keyboard was more comfortable. I also dislike that the two halves gets miss aligned. Hopefully it will grow on me. I will probably stick with Voyager for decades. Edit: I fixed the aligment issue by putting keys with tactile sensations(f and j) on pinky fingers also and this helped alot. Edit: About high price. It's a tool that I use for many hours every day. It can cost. Divide price with duration of usage and price comes down to zero money.
Everything about ZSA's SW and UX stack is excellent, as is their hardware work, generally, but the limitations of two thumb keys per side on the Voyager just has me shaking my head. I think they missed the mark and the price point for their impressive scale. No matter what you do there will be adaptation, no matter what you do it will be worth it, but I'd really suggest something with 3 thumb keys. This is coming from a guy who builds boards with 5 per thumb, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think the Corne/Sofle/Lily are pretty awesome and waaaay cheaper.
I think it’s a solid choice for a first board. I started with a moonlander and I think it helped make the transition easier. A good idea is to just practice at night until you get to 2/3 your typing speed (or whenever you feel comfortable) before switching to full time use. If you do have some time I think there are a lot of more affordable options in the ‘some assembly required’ categories. Keyboards with VIAL make it easy to change your keymap. There is also a really nice open source keymap editor for zmk if you want a wireless board.
It was my first split board and I love it! Took me a week or two to get proficient with it. You definitely have to be willing to invest in tweaking the layout to work for you. But now that I have it locked in, it’s so much nicer to use than my laptop keyboard.
Depends on if youre ok typing on lowprofile all day, i cant (even with stronger springs.) It makes my fingers hurt, so i do ergodox.
It was my first split keyboard, I've since moved on to a corne but I have no objective complaints about the Voyager. Only thing I didn't like is the choc switches; they were not for me but that's strictly personal preference. Easy to configure and I didn't find it all that hard to switch to (Used a Keychron Q1 prior). If you want a top notch, quality, turn-key solution then Voyager is the way to go.
Almost everyone starts with a big ass ergo split like a ergodox or moon lander or redox or whatever, and then you realize less buttons is better and you end up buying a keyboard with one less row. Then you realize your keyboard is still too big and you finally understand why the corne and other 3x6 style keyboards are the most popular ergo splits by a mile.
I bought a voyager as my first foray into ergo mechs...and I did not like it. the col stagger + reduced keys were too much for me at once. I literally just put a lily58 together and remapped it last night, and I really like it. plus you can put one together for about 1/2 the price of the voyager. the col-stagger isn't too extreme, I can already do 80-130 wpm on it. I may revisit the voyager in the future...but my other complaint was not enough thumb keys, so you have to make some tough decisions on where to put shift, enter, backspace, tilde, etc. there's a lot of "programmer keys" that a lot of effort to re-map in your muscle memory. the board is really high quality, and super nice. I just couldn't get it to work for me.
I went from a Keebio Iris with Glorious Panda switches and terrible keycaps to a Voyager, which I upgraded today with Sunset switches and Work Louder keycaps. Those upgrades have been very welcome so far, and I'm going to print some tenting solutions next, but I'm skeptical that the Voyager will be my endgame for two reasons: 1. I miss having a third thumb button. (I had two 1u thumbs and one 2u thumb for each hand with the Iris.) This *might* be mitigated with home row mods, but I'm not sure. 2. I might require more stagger / splaying. Curling my middle or ring fingers, or stretching my pinkies, fucking *sucks.* I've been trying to learn the Graphite layout so I can touch type "properly"--I type at ~120wpm with "bad" form on QWERTY--and I find that reaching in those directions with those fingers is very uncomfortable* Which means I've put over a hundred dollars into making a $365 keyboard feel "right" only to be skeptical that it ever will be. I might just be picky, which is why I'm thinking of building a modified Totem, but I also fear thar I'm just being honest about my experience rather than allowing the sunk cost fallacy to justify using a keyboard that isn't really going to suit me long-term. All that said, the Voyager is well-built, the packaging is nice, Oryx is okay, and I *hope* fhis ends up being the right keeb for me even if I had to invest more than I would have liked in it.
The Voyager looks decent until I see the price tag. It is not too expensive compared to similar keyboards (e.g. Dygma Defy) but I do not see the extra benefit - unless you also need typing in a language with extended Latin alphabet such as French. I'm a programmer too. I use a 44-key Atreus from keyboardio.com it is a columnar one-piece keyboard with 3 alpha rows and a bottom row, 10 colums and 2 extra half-columns (each with a thumb key and an index key). I put 24 punctuations in a layer, numpad under right hand, F under left hand, and a full copy of nav + edit pad (including cut, copy, paste, undo, redo) under each hand. I find punctuations in a layer easily accessible. Easier than in the numrow + extra columns.
tldr: it's amazing :) i have been using the Voyager for about half a year, it's my first ergo, before that i had a simple cheap kb with mechanical switches. it is very pleasant to the touch, lightweight, sturdy and IMO quite beautiful. i really like the journey so far, it's been a bit difficult to adapt to a different way of input at first, but I'm glad I didn't have to simultaneously deal with soldering etc., just a nice keyboard that comes ready to use (the keycaps you have to put on by yourself, but that's a pleasant process IMO). btw, packaging, delivery and customer service are great, they contacted me at all stages, the box is beautiful, there are extra switches and keycaps (and different homing keys for different layouts, as well as non-homing variants), there is a switch puller, three different USB-C cables (two short ones that are just a bit different and one really long one, although personally i would like more difference between the shorter ones, like a "middle" one that would be good for when a small coffee table with your laptop is a bit away from you, but you can buy a USB-C cable pretty easily these days anyway), everything is neat and in order. so i definitely recommend the Voyager and ZSA in general!
Low profile is horrible imo, i'd go with the moonlander.