Dygma Raise review

Greatest Costs At the moment: Dygma Elevate

Most of us spend a whole lot of time on our keyboards, however they won’t be serving to us by way of posture or hand well being. Dygma is an organization that specialises in unorthodox typing units designed to maintain your digits working, even when your typing calls for are excessive.

One such product is the brand new Elevate, which not solely splits in half but in addition tilts at a pointy angle to vary the strain in your wrists. So, is it one thing that may assist preserve your arms pain-free or will it induce complications from having to relearn the essential rules of utilizing a keyboard? 

Design & Construct

• Prime quality elements
• Many configuration choices
• Cut up building and tilting stands
• Mechanical keyboard with programmable backlights

As any good chef will let you know, the primary chew is with the attention. With that in thoughts, Dygma lays out a veritable feast earlier than you even get to the keyboard itself.

Opening the packaging reveals a set of bins that comprise the elevating equipment that you simply screw into the underside of the Elevate, an enhancement equipment with keycap removers, ‘O’ rings you need to use on every key, plus a cleansing material. Then there’s the attractive padded and fur-lined case through which the precise keyboard itself resides, together with the braided cables and ‘Neuron’ adapter it’s essential connect it to your laptop. All of it seems and feels premium.

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The Elevate presents an fascinating design, with two separate halves of the keyboard you could plug into one another to make a extra customary structure. The halves should not precisely the identical measurement, with the left aspect measuring 153.8mm and the correct a barely bigger 177.3mm. That is primarily because of the H and Y keys jutting out a bit of bit, attributable to the truth that keyboards should not designed to be precisely symmetrical. Go on, take a look at yours now, you’ll see that the keys don’t line up above one another, they’re staggered.  

An anodised aluminium key plate holds all the things in place, with prolonged palm rests to make issues comfortable. Mine is Atlantis Blue, however there are a selection of different colors accessible: Daredevil Purple, Egyptian Gold and Royal Purple every with the selection of black or white key caps and palm pads. You get two pads within the field you could stick onto the areas beneath the keyboard, which provides to the relaxed really feel you get when utilizing the Dygma Elevate.

The pads can be eliminated, washed and caught again on, so that you don’t want to fret in regards to the aesthetic changing into tatty after some use. 

The 2 halves of the keyboard lay flat on a desk, with no changes to tilt them upwards. Clearly, the elevating equipment provides some elevation, however solely sideways, so the typing floor can really feel a bit of low for those who’re used to tilting up the again of a keyboard. It’s a small factor, however I wish to have had a technique to regulate this manually. 

You’ll must screw the elevating equipment onto the bottom plates of the keyboard (all the things is included), which then provides you the choice to tilt the separate items to angles that fit your most well-liked typing place. 

As this can be a mechanical keyboard, there are switches underneath the PTB double shot keycaps, all of which will be configured when ordering the Dygma Elevate. My evaluation pattern got here with Kailh Pace Copper switches, however there are one other eight you may select from together with varied Cherry MX variants and Gateron GT Professional 2.0, with solely a most of $26 added to the fee typically.

Should you favor to make use of your personal or have a favorite set, then the Elevate is hot-swappable with any switches that use 3- or 5-pin switches with an MX stem. 

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Illumination comes from RGB lights and LED strips underneath the keys and key plate that shine brightly and in a variety of colours. These will be configured by way of the accompanying software program (extra on that later) with the flexibility for particular person keys to be highlighted in several tones. 

The 2 halves join by slotting them into one another with the assistance of inner magnets, it’s match and really straightforward to rapidly repair in place or take aside. Because of the separate sections, there are USB-C ports on each, with the included cabling permitting you to route them by way of the Neuron connector so that they solely take up one port in your laptop. 

Keyboard really feel and typing expertise

• 60% structure with programmable thumb keys
• Cut up keyboard helps with arm and chest alignment
• Tilted place takes a whole lot of getting used to

Wanting on the keyboard it’s instantly obvious that there are some things lacking. As this can be a brief structure, you received’t discover a number-pad on the Elevate, nor (extra sadly) are there arrow keys. No less than, not devoted ones. Beneath the cut up space-bar there are two ‘layer’ keys that help you entry the particular characters and options which are defaulted to the second and third layers (type of like superior Shift keys), though extra layers will be arrange within the software program.

So, urgent down and holding one will immediately make the ESDF keys glow, reworking them into a short lived set of arrow keys. Whereas that is initially fairly off-putting (I exploit arrow keys rather a lot it seems), you may rapidly regulate to the characteristic, with the added bonus that you simply don’t have to vary your hand place to navigate by way of paperwork. 

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That is vital, as a lot of the design ethos behind the Elevate is for environment friendly and ergonomic typing or common keyboard use. As a typical keyboard, it’s responsive and comfy to make use of. The suggestions from the keys is strong with out being too clacky, and the journey feels sufficient in order that you realize you’ve pressed the important thing however don’t discover your fingers sitting too excessive.

Should you’re a touch-typist like myself, it’s possible you’ll discover the primary few hours a bit disorientating, as you attempt to hit the space-bar or different keys in that area with various success. Keep it up although and it is best to discover that you simply get again as much as full pace very quickly in any respect. 

After all, as soon as familiarity with the structure is achieved, it’s time to tug the keyboard aside! 

The cut up mode is the primary main change with regards to typing positions. The precept is that your shoulders are extra open once you separate the totally different sections, which ought to assist with pains in that area in addition to with the neck. Admittedly it does really feel bizarre at first, however I used to be stunned how rapidly I adjusted to the brand new angles and was in a position to sort at a quick pace as soon as extra.

It’s additionally a good suggestion to attempt angling the halves in order that they don’t sit within the conventional straight line {that a} regular keyboard calls for. This will take strain off of your wrists and loosen up the again and shoulders. It was curious how instantly I felt a distinction in how the muscle mass had been getting used. Fortunately, the positioning can simply be tailor-made to your private choice, making it a simple technique of testing orientations to see which is probably the most snug to make use of.

There’s undoubtedly some trial and error right here, but it surely’s fairly enjoyable experimenting.

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As somebody who suffers with a set of typing associated maladies, I did discover that utilizing the Elevate within the cut up configuration was most likely my favorite and seen that my shoulders didn’t ache as a lot as they often do after a protracted day. There’s additionally various scope by way of how far aside you may place the 2 segments, because of the beneficiant size of the cables. So if you need you may place a mouse or trackpad within the hole you may. Cups of tea are additionally an choice, simply don’t spill them on the keyboard.

After all, with a reputation like Elevate, there’s the final mode to discover the place the 2 sides are tilted upwards to kind a type of tent. That is achieved by way of the 4 legs beneath. You pull these out from their fundamental flat setting, then unfold the arms and push them within the notches within the base. Sounds a bit sophisticated, but it surely’s extremely easy and solely takes a couple of seconds. There are 4 notch choices, every one rising the angle of the lean. These go from a slight 10-degree slope as much as a pointy 40-degree incline. 

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I discovered the decrease settings fairly snug to make use of, with the angle seemingly taking a bit of strain off my wrists. This modified although as I elevated to the upper angles, the place I discovered it uncomfortable to carry my arms up, even with the help of the palm rests. I do have a couple of points on this space although, with a protracted historical past of shoulder issues and arthritis, so this might simply be my very own private alignment somewhat than the keyboard. 

Software program and programmable options

• Bazecor software program suite
• Create totally different layouts and coloration schemes
• Programmable macros
• Superkey characteristic

Alongside the spectacular variety of methods you may bodily adapt the Elevate to your preferences, the software program that accompanies the keyboard is the place you may actually tweak issues to an nearly ridiculous diploma. 

The Bazecor title of the suite would possibly sound like a villain from the Wheel of Time, however there’s nothing monstrous about it. As soon as it’s downloaded and put in in your PC or Mac you’re taken by the hand by way of the varied methods you may configure the keyboard. 

Every thing is specified by a logical method, with visible cues making it clear familiarize yourself with the instruments on provide. There’s additionally a variety of excellent tutorial movies on the Dygma web site that take you thru the capabilities of the Elevate. 

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First up there’s the important thing modifying part. Right here you see a map of the board with all the present keys. You possibly can choose from totally different layers, of which there could be a most of 10! If you wish to add particular options to any key then simply click on on it and also you’ll then be capable of choose the varied mixtures of keys that you simply need to set off once you hit it.

Alternatively, if there’s one you don’t use very a lot, you may map it to a different one from the complete sized keyboard displayed on the web page. As an illustration, I seemed on the second layer of my setup and located a key that wasn’t assigned. So I chosen it, then put within the mixture for a screenshot and assigned the important thing a selected coloration to remind me. Then, each time I switched to layer two, the important thing would mild up pink and instantly take a screenshot when pressed. Very useful. 

For extra advanced duties there’s the macro choice. On this menu, you may configure or dwell document macros that may paste in a preset textual content to a doc or full a sequence of instructions to perform a process. Once more, the programming is visible and easy to familiarize yourself with, making this a really highly effective and usable characteristic. 

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There’s additionally one thing referred to as Superkeys the place you may assign as much as 5 instructions to any key. These are then accessed by a mix of faucets and holding down that specific key. For instance, you may map a macro to a key, however it’ll solely set off for those who faucet the important thing then instantly faucet once more and maintain it down.

There are 5 attainable actions you need to use to set off the important thing, and whereas they might take a bit of studying, the smart implementation by Dygma signifies that it’s not exhausting to grasp them rapidly. You possibly can at all times confer with the Bazecor software program to remind your self which keys are mapped and what instructions they are going to execute. 

Alongside this, the software program lets you improve the firmware for the keyboard, in addition to tweak all the final settings to a powerful diploma. 

Value & Availability

Should you’re used to selecting up any outdated keyboard as long as it’s low-cost, then the Dygma Elevate most likely isn’t for you. It is a premium product by way of and thru, and that’s not solely mirrored in its high quality but in addition the value. 

On the Dygma web site, the baseline configuration begins at $419 (approx £345) and you’ll improve varied options for added prices. It ought to be famous although that the choice switches and different upgrades are all cheap, with the most costly variant solely including $26 (approx £21) to the ultimate invoice, so that you’re not being inspired so as to add a great deal of extras on high to get the configuration you need.

Out of the field, the Dygma Elevate is able to go and has all of the options talked about on this evaluation. 

Within the mechanical keyboard world, there are additionally different choices, such because the OnePlus Keyboard 81 Professional, though that lacks any backlighting, can’t be cut up and doesn’t include palm rests. It does price much less, at $219/£249, in order that’s one thing to think about. Should you simply desire a fundamental ergonomic keyboard with a curved typing floor, then the Logitech Wave Keys can do the job for $59.99/£69.99.

There’s additionally the Really Ergonomic Cleave keyboard, which doesn’t cut up or elevate however does characteristic an angled positioning of all of the keys which might take strain off your wrists. It’s absolutely mechanical and configurable and can set you again $299 (approx £247).

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Do you have to purchase the Dygma Elevate?

Paying high greenback for a keyboard won’t be excessive on lots of people’s checklist of priorities, however in an age the place shelling out almost a grand on a telephone isn’t uncommon, I’d say investing in a top quality keyboard that you may use on daily basis for years is one thing price severe consideration.

The sheer degree of flexibility and customisation accessible within the {hardware} and software program makes the Dygma Elevate one of the versatile and fascinating merchandise I’ve reviewed in a very long time. Even after a couple of weeks with it, I saved discovering new issues it may do to make my typing life a bit simpler.

It does really feel a bit of intimidating at first, and relearning to sort can fry your mind for a couple of days. I additionally didn’t get on that effectively with the steeper inclines within the tent place however you would possibly.

I’ve discovered the structure, nice software program expertise and tutorial movies imply that somewhat than being overloaded with options you’ll by no means use, the Elevate is sort of a precision device that may flip the common-or-garden keyboard right into a powerhouse management centre to your laptop. Extra importantly, my arms felt much less painful than they often do once I use my conventional outdated keyboard for a full day’s work. And you may’t put a worth on that. 

Specs

• 64(ANSI model) / 65(ISO model) mechanical switches and 4x low-profile mechanical switches (hot-swap sockets for Mx switches and 4x Kailh hot-swap sockets for Choc switches.)
• PBT double-shot keycaps (English US and UK) and high-end laser-etched ABS OEM profile keycaps for sprint and non-English languages.
• Customizable RGB LEDs on the keycaps and 60 LEDs for the underglow.
• Atmel tiny 88 U-CN Keyscanner Microcontroller
• Sonix Sled 1735 LEDs Microcontroller
• Annodized aluminum Key plate
• Atmel ATS AMD 21G18A-U ​​Neuron Microcontroller
• Splittable chassis
• Elevating equipment for angling two keyboard sections (between 10 and 40 levels)
• USB-C
• Neuron interface solely requires single USB-C slot on PC
• Programmable by way of Bazecor software program suite
• 315.63 mm x 201.76 mm x 33.6 mm.
• 895g