Right then, $339.. not much room to move around before you hit this elephant in the middle. There are retail options in some Australian shops as well at the moment, but everyone else has to rely on the Zergotech web shop to buy the Zergotech Freedom. This clearly shows that the company is quite new to the scene, which indirectly also means they don't have the volume margins to bring about a lower price. So this high price tag is not that much beyond the BOM and man-hours put into the design, manufacturing, and firmware for the keyboard, I bet. It in itself does not help convince one to shell out the cash for one, but perhaps does add some context to help justify why this keyboard costs about ten times as much as some entry-level mechanical keyboards.

What does justify things more, however, is the actual keyboard design itself. It is not your typical OEM keyboard nor an AliExpress special, but one that has so much going on both inside and out. The split keyboard layout already has the competition start in the triple digits, and ergonomic split mechanical keyboards tend to be similarly priced, or higher in some cases. There are definitely more budget-friendly options that aim to tackle this very use case, so if the pricing here is a deal-breaker for you, do be aware that you don't have to dismiss your hopes immediately. For others who have read through the entire review and are impressed enough with the feature set of the Zergotech Freedom, however, do read on.

Whether it is the sliding palm rests, semi-orthogonal key layout, deliberately chosen placement for modifier keys, or layers that are color-coordinated and allow for lots of one-handed functions, Zergotech has shown they did their home work and lots of research on ergonomic human-computer interface design. There are so many small things here that add up symbiotically to make for a very good typing experience over longer sessions while, importantly, reducing the entry barrier of going from a more standard keyboard design to this one. At the same time, I do wish some things were different, and it feels like a few compromises were made. Zergotech is already working on a version 2 that aims to address some of these while adding new features, such as hot-swappable switches, so keep an eye out for that if you think you can wait. If you can't wait, there are far worse ways to spend the money considering the Zergotech Freedom makes for years of healthy, efficient typing.