ZSA Technology Labs, the makers of the excellent ErgoDox EZ Shine and the Planck EZ today introduced their latest ergonomic keyboard titled The Moonlander Mark 1. The company claims this is a result of over three years of R&D, incorporating feedback from customers and the general keyboard community as a whole on what they wanted from the ErgoDox EZ and other such split, ergonomic keyboards. The Moonlander Mark 1 boasts features including a thumb cluster that can be positioned to better suit your hand size/shape, tilting and tenting of the two keyboard halves for better ergonomics, a wrist rest (on each half) that automatically angles with tilting/tenting, hot-swappable switches with Cherry MX and Kailh BOX switches to choose from out of the box, and enhanced portability with the ability to fold the wrist rest (wing) and just plug in the left half via Type-C connectivity to use as a game/macro-pad.

The Moonlander Mark 1 continues the design scheme of the ErgoDox EZ and Planck EZ in having columnar keys, is available in black or white colors, and with ten switch options at checkout. Fully open source firmware is available here as well, for both programming the keys and layers of functions and also the RGB LEDs for backlighting of every single key. There is a first-party configurator available as well, with Windows, macOS, and Linus support without any special drivers needed. The keyboard also has status LEDs on board and, as the name is befitting here, uses audio buzzers to beep out status feedback if desired. The wings and thumb clusters are optional, and come in the package that also includes a carry case. Going for a significant $365 from the dedicated product page (shipping included), the company also offers a no-questions-asked 2-year warranty to help sweeten the deal.

ZSA Technology Labs, Inc. is the company behind the Ergodox EZ keyboard that we had taken a look at in great detail, and appreciated a lot. It was a retail take on the open source Ergodox keyboard concept which, until then, was available as a kit or pre-assembled by artisans in low numbers, and was not a mass-market product. One could argue the Ergodox EZ is still not a mainstream keyboard, but it certainly made things much more accessible via options to choose from for a pre-assembled keyboard, as well as a powerful, GUI-based configurator for those wanting easier firmware access and control.

In that same vein, the parent company has now introduced the Planck EZ which, as the name suggests, is based on the 47-key Planck keyboard design. Designed in conjunction with Jack Humbert, the creator of the Planck, the Planck EZ aims to be a simple, complete, portable, mechanical keyboard built with layers and ergonomics in mind. The Planck EZ goes a bit further with adding in not only multiple switch options, but also backlighting and a buzzer that can also be controlled to play 8-bit tunes from the keyboard- definitely a first in my books! The Planck EZ is up for pre-order now beginning at $180, with an estimated shipping date in June 2019.

The ErgoDox EZ Shine remains one of the most impressive keyboards I have laid my hands on even to this date, and it appears that the company has not been resting either. They introduced new switch options following that review, re-worked their graphical configurator, and then decided to adopt the replaceable switch functionality that enthusiasts were asking for- something that allowed end users to customize the keyboard from a hardware basis by having the exact switch on the exact position one wanted to complement the already rich software customization.

Today, ErgoDox EZ announced their new pre-assembled keyboard the ErgoDox EZ Glow. It builds upon their "change-it-yourself" model by retaining switch customization and adds in backlighting such that the LEDs are on the PCB and not part of the switch itself. It is 2018 after all, so the Glow uses RGB LEDs that also have full QMK support for static and dynamic lighting effects. In order to get this to fruition, the company worked with Tai-Hao to get new doubleshot-injected keycaps in white or black to support the two color schemes, and in the same custom profile to allow user configuration as before. Not all the keys are backlit, as seen in the images below, which makes sense given only those with legends on the keycaps need to be so. The ErgoDox EZ Glow is up for pre-order at $299, with shipping beginning November, 2018.

ErgoDox EZ is a startup company that sells a pre-assembled ErgoDox, two-piece ergonomic keyboard. Wetook a look at the "Shine" variant earlier this year, and were left impressed by it despite the high price tag. At the time, the only switch options came from Gateron since Cherry was not able to satisfy the needs of smaller companies and Kailh still had a question mark regarding quality control. Six months on, things have changed drastically to where they now offer switch options of only Cherry and Kailh including the (still rare) Cherry MX Silent Red and the new Kailh Speed switches- a direct response to the Cherry MX Speed (silver) but with their own unique take on them.

The new Kailh Speed switches come in four options named Copper, Silver, Gold and Thick Gold with shorter actuation distances as expected but now with the option of tactile and clicky switches as well. In fact, the Kailh Thick Gold also offers a clicky feedback on the downstroke as well as upstroke. You can get more information via Ergodox EZ themselves here. Pricing is the same irrespective of the switch chosen.