My previous post explained my journey with keyboards that lead me to the Dygma Raise 2. It is now time to write my actual review of this awesome keyboard!

The purchased configuration

First, let’s talk about the configuration I chose for my Dygma Raise 2:

• Color: white (to change my usual black keyboard)
• Language: English UK (ISO keyboard layout)
• Switches: Kailh Box White (clicky, the closest to cherry MX Blue)
• Wireless: Yes (low latency radio frequency and bluetooth)
• Tenting: Yes (ability to raise vertically the keyboard, see the screenshot)
• RGBW Underglow: No
• Extra keycaps: Yes: dash ISO
• Extra switches: No

Mandatory picture (sorry, the quality isn’t great):

My review

The one bad thing

Before talking about the all the great things about this keyboard, let’s address the main issue I have with it. Well, not really with the keyboard itself, but with the extra keycaps I’ve purchased. You may have noticed that I purchased some extra “dash” keycaps. “Dash” keycaps all have a dash on them, as shown here.

I’ve purchased those because the layout I use is azerty, not qwerty. And Dygma does not offer azerty layout. That’s fine because I know the layout enough to not look at the keys. So I thought that the dash one would be perfect, avoiding people looking at the key and not understanding why the “q” was typing an “a” (dash might be confusing too, but for other reasons :P).

So why am I not using them? Because these extra keycaps are the only thing in my order that wasn’t of good quality. What do I mean by that? The keycaps are not all of the same size and height. And I mean for each line. Each line has a different form to adapt to the finger placement, but all keycaps of a line are normally the same. They were not in the extra keycaps I received. Some were a bit larger than others, others were a bit taller… Not by much, but enough to be annoying (and that defect is clearly visible, not just a sensation). The good news is that the default qwerty keycaps don’t have this problem and are perfectly the same.

I was greatly disappointed by that (specially for their price)… I couldn’t use them so I decided to use the default qwerty ones. Again, that’s not really an issue to type for me as I don’t look, but still frustrating. I need to contact them about that, as I’m hopping it is just bad luck and not the case for every dash extra keycaps.

The good

Otherwise, everything is great. The Kailh Box White switches, indeed, are close to cherry MX Blue and while I can feel a small difference, I like them as much as the cherry MX blue. The clicky noise is lovely as well, for me at least, maybe not for people around me :P.

The keyboard can be connected by a cable or wirelessly (as I bought that option). In case of wireless connection, you can either use the low radio frequency which require to connect a small dongle via USB, or connect the keyboard via bluetooth. On my desktop, I use either the cable connection or the wireless radio frequency (mostly to use the battery and not charge them 100% of the time). On my laptop, I use the bluetooth connection.

I’m also planning to connect it via bluetooth to my phone as it can be connected to multiple devices and you can switch from one device to another by using some keyboard shortcuts. It is great to switch quickly which can be extremely useful at times, for example to switch to my phone to type a long text message and then connect it back to my computer. Monitoring the battery level of the 2 parts is accessible via a simple keyboard shortcut so you can avoid bad surprises. A nice touch :).

Even though the keyboard is a split keyboard, you can still connect the 2 pieces together and use it as a 1 piece 60% keyboard. Why would you do this? Well in case of limited space while traveling or using it on your lap. Also a good way to start with a split keyboard by first having it one piece to get familiar with it before separating the 2 pieces.

I started with a small gap between the 2 pieces and now I’m using it with the 2 pieces widely apart, each being in front of my shoulders, meaning my wrists are naturally aligned with my forearms. The gap is big enough to put my mouse between the 2 pieces. I find it relaxing that way, but you can use it the way you like :).

I also love the traveling case, classy and robust, perfect for protecting the keyboard on the move. It is big though and thicker than my laptop so you need space when bringing it with you.

Even though I purchased the tenting option, I’m not using it yet. I didn’t want to risk the change being to big on day one, so first I move little by little the 2 pieces apart, now that they are at the “right” position (to me), I may start testing the tenting, again little by little. Not sure if I will like it or not, but that’s supposed to be better for my wrists too so at least I’m going to give it a try.

Finally, the configuration software (bazecor) is simple to familiarize yourself with. Lots of helpful indication to avoid searching online and be autonomous quickly. It was also package as an AUR package so installing it on Archlinux took one command line and a few seconds. Only disappointing part of it is that I can not configure it via bluetooth even though it is supposed to be possible. It works while connected via RF or cable though.

My current configuration

You can configure multiple layers on the keyboard (not sure if 9 is the maximum of if you can add more) to manage different layout and shortcuts depending on your needs. In my case, I’m using “only” 3 layers (at least for now).

layer 1 (default)

The default layer is my layer 1, which is mostly a default azerty keyboard:

The main differences with a “normal” azerty keyboard are (notice that the usual “big space bar” is splitted into 4 keys here):

• the left space on the left part: space when tapped, but super (the window key) when hold. Main reason is that I use super+number to switch workspace in i3wm (my window manager) and this is more “thumb friendly” than the usual place between the control and the alt keys
• the “back space” below the space of the left piece: shortcut for control+backspace to delete one word instead of one character with “just backspace” (which is still there at the usual top right place)
• the right space of the right piece: space when tapped, altgr when hold. Same reason as the super on the left, it is more thumb friendly at this place as altgr is very useful for an azerty keyboard
• The blue keys, from left to right: when tapped: left, down, up, right (vim motion <3). When double tapped: home, page down, page up, end
• the green button of the left piece: switch to layer 2 permanently (meaning until I switch back)
• the green button of the right piece: when hold, activate layer 3. When clicked activate layer 3 for 1 key (meaning after pressing one key in layer 3, go back to layer 1).

layer 2

• The top number keys becomes the F1 to F12 keys
• zqsd are used for arrows (like wasd in qwerty)
• on the left side, special keys (the one in white in the picture) stay the same, all letter keys are inactive (“No Key”)
• on the right side, the yellow keys are moving the mouse cursor and the purple ones are either left/right click or mouse wheel scroll. I’m not using them much yet but I need to practice to leave the keyboard even more if possible
• Blue keys on the right of the mouse ones are the usual insert, home, page up, del, end page down. Not using those much because double tapping the blue keys of layer one do the same thing
• Blue keys bellow are the arrows again. I have them twice so I could use them with both hands which can be useful for different game hand positions
• Green button of the left side goes back to layer 1
• Green button of the right side goes to layer 1 as well

I feel that the layer 3 is under used, but I believe I’ll put more useful shortcuts there with time.

Layer 3

• The 3 yellow keys are my shortcuts for screenshots, from left to right: ask for selecting an area of the screen to screenshot, screenshot of the current window, screenshot of the entire screen(s)
• The blue key allow switching to another bluetooth device (if multiple are connected at the same time)
• the green one will show battery level of the 2 sides
• the white one toggle the keys led (eg: if I want to save battery)
• “TRANS” means transparent, meaning the key will do what it is supposed to do in the default layer

Conclusion

As said in the intro, I really love this keyboard! Passed the dash keycaps deception, everything is perfect and the switch has been fast and painless. Initial configuration took a couple of hours but after that I only changed a couple of minor things in a couple of minutes each time thanks to the great configuration tool.

I still have to try the tenting thing, but even without that I already feel a difference by having my shoulder, forearms and wrist aligned so mission already accomplished.

While the dygma raise 2 is expensive and not everyone can afford buying a 500$ keyboard, I don’t regret the investment. I’m hopping it will last as long as my wooting one. I used my wooting one for 7 years (and could still use it as it works still perfectly), so if this one is as good and last 10 years, it would be a 50$/year investment, which wouldn’t be that bad considering the amount of time I spend typing on it per day :). Yes, I know, it is a poor attempt to rationalize such a crazy investment… :D.

Feel free to ping me if you have any question about it :-).