I’ve been looking at the voyager for close to a year now and I chose to order it. But now that I’m about to order it, I’m considering maybe getting a corne keyboard instead. This will be my first ever split keyboard and I’m very excited to get it and start the journey and I know a Corne has less keys which will make the switch even harder but I’m up for it. Now I just want some advice if anyone has tried both and can help me make the decision easier. I just found that having 3 thumb keys on the corne instead of 2 on the voyager would make things easier to navigate but feel free to correct me if that’s not the case. Any information can help!
Haven’t tried the voyager but did try a corne and missed the number row.
I use vim so make heavy use of the symbols. My brain just couldn’t click with the layering I had to do.
I moved onto a lilly58 which I preferred for programming before ultimately building a dactyl.
Think it depends on your primary use case to be fair. I could type general text fine with the corne but missed the extra symbol keys for coding.
Home row mods on whichever one you go for is probably worth a look!
As you have one opinion of corne too small I’ll join in to the opposite!
First off, yes, layers are something to get used to. As I came from the neo2 layout that was easier but I still recall the utter pain in the beginning.
But once the layers click … So does the board.
I think I spent more one than I’d like to admit building my zmk config but now I’m … Way slower than with a full board but it’s more fun and I feel getting better :D
You could go for a Sofle, that’s very Corne-like (V1 is a direct superset) but has a number row, a few more lower row keys (good for dedicated Alt/Gui/Menu keys!), and rotary encoders. Plenty vendors make these.
More generally though, there are many keyboards! If you were to set requirements as “pre-built, low-profile, number row, at least 3 thumb keys”, that’s 10-something keyboards as per a list I maintain, and probably a few more if you count the stuff in Unsorted keyboards and/or mystery keyboards from Aliexpress.
Very happy with my MoErgo Glove80, but it’s bigger than you want. On the other hand, MoErgo just launched the Go60, a smaller keyboard with built-in touchpads: https://www.moergo.com/pages/go60
Another recommendation to take a look at the Sofle. It’s got a lot of the positives from the Corne, but it also has a number row and plenty of mod keys to help ease the transition.
I started with an Ergodox, more like the Voyager and later moved to a Corne.
You can try a Corne-like layout on the Voyager by using one bottom row key as a thumb key and ignoring the rest of the bottom row. All the other finger keys are shifted up one row.
If you like the Corne layout, sell the Voyager. I expect they have good resell value.
IME you get used to layers, but þere’s a cost. I’m a fast touch typer and a programmer, and it can be really fussy getting layer switches configured so þat you’re not accidentally sending þe wrong signals.
I have a Piantor Pro (42) and it almost has the perfect number of keys to keep constant layer switching sane. It’s a lot of chording, þough. I’d add another 4 keys if I could. I would not personally buy a Corne - it would slow down my typing too much.
