Glove80 Keyboard

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

Glove80 Keyboard is announced in 2022-02, on kickstarter. From a startup company MoErgo. First batch of actual keyboards came out in 2022-12.

2023-01-19 got it today. First impression, fantastic, super light, elegant.

glove80 keyboard 20230126 599-s35
glove80 keyboard.

80 keys total.

glove80 keyboard 20230122 bgwqR-s35
press the lower left button (the magic key). The 2 green rows shows battery status.
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glove80 battle station 20230129 wPNhG 4032×3024

Video Review

Xah Talk Show 2023-01-29 Glove80 Keyboard Review

Contoured keywell (Bowl-Shaped Surface)

The keys form a overall concave bowl-shaped surface, so that your fingers dip onto the keys. No bending up the wrist, and the contoured keywell fits the different lengths of fingers.

glove80 kbd 20230119 left 182-s70
Contoured keywell, fits different finger lengths. 20230119 left 182
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glove80 kbd 20230119 896

Thumb keys

The thumb keys, fixed many problems of traditional keyboard. Thumbs are powerful, and all the modifier keys such as Ctrl Alt ❖ Window ⌘ command are now right under your thumbs. Also, the Backspace is right there, one of the most frequently used key. No more twisting your right wrist or moving hand to hit the top right of keyboard.

In comparison to the Kinesis Advantage2 Keyboard, the glove80 is a better design of the thumb keys. Better physical design, and better default functions on them.

In particular, Shift is placed on the thumbs, available for both hands. (instead of the pinky on traditional position) Also, you have Ctrl Alt for both hands.

For Mac users, the keyboard comes with extra keycaps labeled and Option , and you can program them via firmware or easily set it up via MacOS. [see Mac: Swap CapsLock Control Option Command Keys]

glove80 kbd 20230119 l thumbs 308-s67
glove80 kbd 20230119 l thumbs 308
glove80 kbd 20230119 right thumbs 694-s67
glove80 kbd 20230119 right thumbs 694

Low Profile

This keyboard is engineered to be very low profile, so that the keyboard base does not add much height to the keys.

glove80 kbd 20230119 thin profile 333-s67
Low profile of the keyboard. Note the height of key D.
glove80 vs kinesis adv2 2023
Glove80 vs Kinesis Advantage2 Keyboard , Height comparison

USB Port and Power

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glove80 USB port

Removable Palm Rest

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glove80 no palmrest 20230126 4032×3024

To remove the palm rest, just unscrew it at the back. Those are thumb screws, you can twist it to screw. No need screwdriver. Very easy to remove and screw back on.

glove80 kbd back 202301 CDWhw
back 202301 CDWhw
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Palm Rest

Adjustable Feet for Tenting

To ajust tenting angle (rasing the middle of keyboard), just twist the feet. Excellent design. (by default, it's tented about 8 degrees.) It comes with extra long screw feet if you want it really slanted.

glove80 feet 20230127 9022-s1000
glove80 feet 20230127 9022

The MoErgo (Magic) Key

The lower left corner key with the MoErgo logo is the “magic” key. It is a key for selecting bluetooth device and show battery status, and other keyboard config.

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glove80 magic key 4032×3024

Show Bluetooth Connection Status

Press the MoErgo key. (lower left key on left-hand-side)

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Glove80 Status Lights

The 4 keys on the left of thumb indicates 4 Bluetooth profiles:

 Shift Control
Bksp Delete Alt

The Alt indicate USB wired connection.

glove80 bluetooth keys 2023-01
glove80 bluetooth left thumb keys 2023-01

Color meaning:

Connecting to Bluetooth

you can connect up to 4 bluetooth devices.

To connect:

Reset Bluetooth

Key Switch Used

key switch is

Battery

Show Battery Status

To show battery levels, press the lower left key on left part.

glove80 status lights 20230127 4522-s1000
glove80 status lights 20230127 4522-s1000 4032×3024

Battery Life

Assuming lights off, and the device is switched on 24/7 the life is around 3 weeks on left hand and 3 months on right.

Charging Battery

Each hand has a battery.

To charge each part, just plugin the USB-C to USB-A cable.

According to the manual, charging time is 3 to 4 hours.

Backlight

Turn on backlight
press MoErgo+t
Change hue
press MoErgo+e or MoErgo+d
Change brightness
press MoErgo+r or MoErgo+f
Change saturation
press MoErgo+w or MoErgo+s
Turn on flashing effect
press MoErgo+g
Change flash speed
press MoErgo+q for faster, MoErgo+a for slower

It's full RGB. you can set it to white light by changing the saturation.

glove80 backlight keys 2023-02-06 3jC6x
glove80 backlight keys 2023-02-06 Adjust speed, saturation, hue, brightness.
glove80 backlight rainbow effect
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Backlight brightest setting
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Backlight with low brightness setting

Glove80 Keyboard Layout

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Base Layer
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Lower Layer
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Magic Layer

Keycaps

The keycaps are custom designed by MoErgo.

Changing Keycaps (Add Mac Command Option Keycaps)

WARNING: Be very careful when pulling the keycaps, you may pull out the key switch and damage it. Choc switch keycaps are very tight. When you pull a keycap, be sure to use the bundled wench to hold down the switch under it.

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glove80 pull switch

Firmware

The firmware is open source ZMK. https://zmk.dev/

Programing the Keyboard (Create Custom Key Layouts and Key Macros)

The programing keyboard is tedius. (but other keyboards with bluetooth and power of zmk isn't doing better.) Also, you need to register an account (if you don't want to register an account, you can use the web configurator to generate .dtsi file (devicetree-source-include file) then use your local compiled ZMK software to generate a firmware file. See ZMK doc for detail.)

For detail on how to do it, see the manual. But here's an outline:

Configure and Create a New Firmware File

  1. To program the keyboard, goto https://my.glove80.com/ (do register an account there.)
  2. Configure the key layouts on the website.
  3. Click the button to generate a firmware file for the layout you created. The file name ends in .UF2. Browser will ask you to save it.

Copy the file to left-hand-side

  1. Turn on both keyboard parts (press the button on the back)
  2. Connect the left-hand-side keyboard to computer by the USB-C cable.
  3. Press Magic+Escape (on your current layout, if you moved them) to put the left-hand-side in bootloader mode. Now, a drive will show up on your operating system. On Microsoft Windows, it shows up as E: drive.
  4. Copy the uf2 file into the drive. Drag and drop it.
  5. After the copying is done, the drive disappears.
glove80 2023-03-17 211754
glove80 2023-03-17 211754
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glove80 2023-03-17 211809

Copy the file to right-hand-side

  1. Turn on both keyboard parts (press the button on the back)
  2. Connect the right-hand-side keyboard to computer by the USB-C cable.
  3. Press Magic+' (on your current layout, if you moved them) to put the right-hand-side in bootloader mode. Now, a drive will show up on your operating system. On Microsoft Windows, it shows up as E: drive.
  4. Copy the uf2 file into the drive. Drag and drop it.
  5. After the copying is done, the drive disappears.

Load the New File on left-hand-side

  1. Turn off the keyboard (press the button at the back)
  2. Hold Magic+e and turn on the keyboard. (on your current layout, if you moved them)

Load the New File on right-hand-side

  1. Turn off the keyboard (press the button at the back)
  2. Hold PageDown+i and turn on the keyboard. (on your current layout, if you moved them)

Now, your keyboard is using your new config, on both keyboard parts.

Xah Layout

Unboxing

glove80 kbd 20230119 box ZY88h-s999
glove80 kbd 20230119 box ZY88h
glove80 kbd 20230119 box 546-s999
glove80 kbd 20230119 box 546

In the box is also:

glove80 extra 20230127 9136-s1000
glove80 extra 20230127 9136-s1000 4032×3024

Glove80 Manual

Conclusion

At over $300, it's a bit expensive, however, you don't have much choice, if you want a bowl curved surface keyboard. They are all above $300. If you want bluetooth in addition, they are above $400.

Best points:

If you never had ergo keyboard, this is a major step up. It fixed all the baggage of the mechanical Typewriters we are inherited with. [see Keyboard Design Flaws]

If you already have ergo keyboard experience, here's the better parts:

Things that may not suitable for you:

Where to Buy

Contoured Keywell Keyboards

Xah Keyboard Guide