There are many extended reviews of the Kinesis Freestyle Edge on Amazon, YouTube and elsewhere. I will share my perspective and perhaps cover some topics others have not mentioned.I am not a gamer and purchased this keyboard for other reasons. I spend a lot of time at my computer typing documents and emails, editing photos, and doing various tasks to manage my life. I have a high-end custom laptop, use two screens, and wanted a keyboard to match. The keyboard I used for many years was a standard HP KU-1156 that came with HP desktops at the time, purchased from eBay for $12. I liked its membrane keys but they could have been better. I had some minor wrist problems and was interested in an ergonomic corded keyboard with backlighting, that matched as closely as possible the layout on a standard 104-key unit like the HP keyboard, with a numeric keypad on the right. I wanted ergonomic for the reasons mentioned above, backlighting since I generally work in low light to have improved screen visibility, and a corded design so I didn’t have to worry about charging. I am used to a standard layout and at age 70 was unwilling to learn Dvorak or work with a linear key layout or ditch the numeric keypad that I often use.The bottom line, before I go into other details is that I like the Kinesis as I currently have it configured. After much work, some modifications and learning its programming (fairly easy), and spending way too much money, I have a keyboard and separate numeric keypad that meet my needs. It is comfortable to use and ergonomic, reasonably quiet, has some useful shortcuts I made by programming the function keys with short macros, and it does the job. I give it only 4 stars since I could not buy it with the keys I wanted, Cherry MX Silent Red, it didn’t come with an integrated numeric keypad so I had to purchase a separate one, and I had to replace the number and symbol keycaps and they are still not ideal (see discussion below). Other negatives are the high cost and the very annoying fact the for an ergo keyboard you have to separately purchase their tent kit to actually make it ergonomic.I looked at many alternative keyboards but all were lacking in one way or another. Late in my search I found the Cloud Nine Ergo FS but it was large, included an integrated/non-removable wrist pad that at the time I did not think I wanted, and came with red, brown, or white Kailh mechanical switches. I had determined that if I had to go the mechanical-switch route, which I would have liked to avoid, that I wanted the Cherry MX switches. Some reviewers said the keycaps were cheap. I had already purchased a Kinesis and decided I would stick with it, but if I had found the Cloud Nine first, I would have tried it.Other keyboards I considered were:Adesso Tru-Form 150.3 –inexpensive (perhaps cheap as some reviewers said), came with membrane switches (which I would have preferred) but some keys stuck for some users, inadequately bright keys, and not as high an overall rating as the Kinesis.Perixx – one of the models was not backlit and the other one got too many bad reviews.Nulea – backlighting did not penetrate the key symbols but rather went around them.ProtoArc EK01 – battery operated so backlighting set to time out after 30 s.Further comments on the KinesisSince I had only limited experience with mechanical switches (I would have preferred a membrane switch keyboard if I could have found one), I purchased a Griarrac Cherry MX Switch Tester, which is an array of nine different Cherry MX switches on a single base. Great idea to give me an initial impression. Based on that I would have loved the MX Silent Red, which Kinesis sells with one of their keyboards, but annoyingly it is not available on the Freestyle Edge, so instead I tried the MX Red. The problem I had with the reds, and maybe I would have adapted with time, was that I made many stutter/double key strikes. I purchased a second Edge with the Silver keys, similar to the red but with a 1.2-mm pre-travel and 3.4-mm total travel, vs the 2.0 mm/4.0 mm on the Reds. Comparing the two, I preferred the Silver and returned the Red. The reduced travel mostly reduced my stutter problem, though three months later I am still not fully adapted, but getting there. Taking a typing test, I am at about 60-65 wpm with about 97% accuracy.As I mentioned the Edge comes without an integrated keypad. With its software you can configure a keypad area in the right half of the alpha keys, and then turn it on and off as needed, but I did not want to deal with that nuisance; I often use the keypad. So, I researched keypads on Amazon and the two best options for me turned out to be the Kinesis Freestyle 2 and the Kinesis USB Numeric keypads. Of course, neither came with backlit keys and neither came with the MX Silver. The Freestyle 2 came with membrane switches and the USB Numeric with MX Black. I purchased both and neither was the ideal solution. After a trial, I returned the USB and settled on the less expensive Freestyle 2.My other issues with the Freestyle Edge MX Silver was the keys were too noisy, and the keycaps for the numeric and symbol keys made no visual sense. To ameliorate the noise issue, I purchased Litorange Silicone 500PCS 40A Clear Universal O-Ring Switch Dampers. They are 0.06” thick and on most keys, I have chosen to use two of them. Some of the large keys such as the space bars posed a further problem since they are supported by the MX Silver key and also dummy posts at each end. I found that I had to play with the O-rings to get the posts to stop ringing when pressed. I typically tap the left space bar on its right end and the right space bar on its left end. I found that for those inside ends I needed to leave them alone, i.e., no O-ring spacer and to use only a single spacer on the outside ends. That has mostly solved the problem, though I may further try some lubrication in the future.The keycaps were another issue. The problem is that the LED that illuminates the keys is at the top of the keycap so for the numeric keys, if they inscribed them in the usual way the number would be below the symbol near the middle of the key, and therefore poorly illuminated. On their prior-version Freestyle Edge they addressed this issue by putting both the number and symbol at the top with the number on the left. On the newer “improved” model they chose to put the number on top and the symbol beneath. This is both counter intuitive since one is used to pressing a shift key to key the upper character and not the lower one, and problematic since the small symbols are then poorly illuminated and difficult to make out. So, I ended up having to purchase the old-style key caps and replace the ones I had, another extra cost on an already expensive keyboard.Next there were the matters of palm rests and tenting. On the newer “improved” keyboard it comes with thick palm rests. They have a silky lovely feel, but they are so thick that when I used them it put my wrist too high and I felt like I was reaching down to find the keys. I tried removing the palm rests (I have never been a palm-rest user) but found that it did not work well, especially when I wanted to tent the keyboard. I removed the pads and put them under the adjacent edges of the separate keyboard to raise them to test out the tenting concept. I liked the tenting, so I ended up having to purchase the Lift Kit (AC910) that gave me a more stable lift, and the option for three different elevations; I ended up using the 10o setting. Other than having to pay for it, I was pleased with the design and its stability, though some other reviewers have suggested it is insubstantial.Finally, what to do about the palm rests? They worked reasonably well with the pads removed, but I decided a small amount of padding would be useful. The older version of the keyboard had a more minimalist wrist pad, not as sexy, but much more functional. Those were still available, but again I had to purchase them like I had to purchase the older keycaps.The final cost of my customized ergonomic keyboard came to:Keyboard $224Keypad $ 36Lift kit $ 36Extra Key Caps $ 15Old-style palm rest pad $ 12O-rings $ 11Switch tester $ 20TOTAL $ 354Yes, that is an embarrassing amount and 30x what my prior HP keyboard that was entirely functional, cost me. I’m happy with what I have but it was crazy expensive. I wish I could have found another solution.More about the keysPhoto 1 shows the keyboard from the typist’s view point. It illustrates how I have chosen to illuminate my keys which is easy to do with Kinesis software. Virtually unlimited options are possible though I avoided all the dynamic ones with changing colors. Because of the way the RGB color selection works, white is the brightest color, but I preferred a color besides white for my primary keys so I selected green which is another bright, but not the brightest option. I then used white for the numeric keys so that the symbols would be most readable and some contrasting colors over on the right for the Home/Del/End keys and Prt Sc keys and on the left for the macro keys that I programmed, so they would stand out as those are the ones I use most often. I also used the programming feature to reassign some keys from the Freestyle standard to make them work better for me.Regarding illumination levels, the Freestyle does not have a brightness control per se. Rather you select the RGB combination of colors and that will be the effective illumination level.Photo 1 illustrates my keyboard layout and colors as seen from my typing position. It shows the old-style numeric keys that I purchased, with the number and symbol side-by-side. I think Kinesis could have made both the number and symbol larger than they chose to, so that is another minor annoyance. The square brackets keys “[ and ]” and the back slash “\” I kept as the originals since I don’t often use them. In actuality the shifted symbols on those keys, “{ } |” are dim and hard to read since they fall below the LED illumination zone. The photo does not properly illustrate their dimness; with an light on in my office they are very difficult to make out. Photo 2 shows the complete keyboard and separate numeric keypad, also illustrating the older-version palm-rest pads that I purchased.ProgrammingOne of the strong points of this keyboard is the programming. I did not purchase it with that in mind, but it turned out that reassigning some of the key positions, since they were not identical to the standard 104-key design makes it work better for me. I had no idea how or why I would program the macro keys (seemed like a gamer option) but it turned to be moderately useful. For example, one thing I often do in Win-10 is go to “Bluetooth & Other Devices.” I was able to program the number-1 function key to do that in one key stroke. Not a big deal but a small convenience. I have made two other short macros and suspect in time I may discover others to map. This can be done directly from the keyboard once you “mount it” or with their software app for more extensive work.Customer SupportThis was good. I had numerous pre- and post-purchase email interactions with customer support (they are not available by phone) and they were reasonably prompt in reply and helpful. I would have hoped they would have simply given me the old keycaps as a courtesy instead of charging for them, since they are not even an option on the website. I only accidently discovered their availability since I watched a YouTube video review of the older style keyboard and saw that they were used at one point in time.Summing upWhat I would like to see improved is:1. Offer this keyboard with membrane switches or Cherry MX Silent Red switches.2. Include the tent kit as part of the purchase price.3. Offer a choice from two keycap styles for the symbol keys – the old style with side-by-side symbols and their newer style.4. Improve the older style keycaps by using larger symbols. There appears to be adequate space to make the symbols at least 50% larger.5. Offer the older style and newer plush palm support pads as options.6. And the most useful improvement, though this would be a major redesign, would be to offer a Freestyle Edge with integrated keypad.I am happy for now, with my Freestyle Edge. If feels like a quality product that I hope and expect will last for years. But, I’m not sure it was worth the $354 price tag and substantial investment of time. After spending many hours on Amazon and on the internet, I could not find what I wanted – a backlit ergonomic membrane keyboard with cable (not battery power) and an integrated keypad. I’m amazed that such an option is not available. The Cloud Nine came close, and as I said, if I ran across it earlier in my search, I might have ordered one of those to test out. For now, I will enjoy and live with my Kinesis and will see how it grows on me with time.