With everyone waiting with bated breath for their <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykarcz/2026/10/12/if-you-want-your-iphone-duo-in-october-prep-your-pre-order-today/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>iPhone Duo pre-orders to show up (so much for all the “this is doomed to fail” pundits), a new concern is cropping up online.
How do you work effectively with this thing?
At $2,000, iPhone’s newest device is undoubtedly being touted as a “productivity” device to those who control corporate expense accounts. And it’s easy to see it being just that. With a 7.6″ screen, it’s just big enough to serve as an on-the-go access point to whatever you need to get done.
The problem is that if you use a virtual keyboard, you’re only getting the top half of that screen. That’s why I was excited to see Dygma, makers of the “how did I ever live without this” Defy and Raise split keyboards, release a new all-in-one portable ergonomic keyboard: the Dygma Sonsei.
What Is It?
Dygma Sonsei is a low-profile, programmable, hot-swappable, portable bluetooth keyboard with a split ergonomic configuration. Unlike Dygma’s other keyboards, it sits in a single anodized aluminum housing. At just over 13oz, with a 40-day battery life, it’s meant to be taken everywhere and used with anything.
It sports NKRO rollover, which means every keypress is recorded, even if you’re smashing multiple keys at once. Perfect if you have custom key combos or just frequently outpace the polling rate of standard keyboards.
It’s virtually and physically customizable. The key switches are hot-swappable with any Gatreon KS-33 2.0 low-profile switch. For those that don’t speak keyboard geek, that means you can make it more or less clicky by swapping out switches. Supported by Dygma’s Bazecor app on Windows, Mac, and Linux, you can program layers, macros, and LED colors. Since the Sonsei’s Neuron is internal rather than external like it is with their other keyboards, you won’t lose access to your customizations when using the keyboard with Android and iOS devices.
The Sonsei can be paired with up to five different devices and it’s easy to swap between them with a couple of keypresses.
How Does It Help Me?
The best thing about re-training yourself to type on split keyboards is finally realizing that typing on a keyboard doesn’t have to wreck your posture and kill your wrists. The worst thing is then having to switch back to any traditional keyboard. While you can’t get the dual-side separation with the Sonsei that you can with Dygma’s other keyboards, just being able to maintain a split keyboard configuration makes a huge difference when it comes to maintaining comfort and productivity.
I particularly enjoy the images on Dygma’s site with people plopping their Sonsei over their laptop keyboards (smart to make it fit within the footprint of a 13-inch MacBook). However, I think the real productivity boost comes with tablets and, yes, large-screen phones like the iPhone Duo.
Traditionally, if you want a keyboard on the go, you’re stuck with small candy bar slabs that force you to contort your hands even further out of shape to the point where you wonder if it’s really helping you at all. With the Sonsei, while you can’t get the shoulder spread that you can with a separated keyboard, you at least don’t have to fight against your muscle memory. Not only is the angle of the keys comfortable, they’re columnar, like the Dygma Defy, so you spend less time correcting mistyped letters.
If you’re a power user that customizes all their Dygma layers, you’re in even more luck, because you can easily program the same layers and key combos so that you don’t miss a beat when using the Sonsei. Though, if you prefer not to mess with deeper customization, the keyboard does come pre-programmed with several layers so that you have access to all the “standard” keys like arrows and special characters right out of the box.
Then there’s the experience of typing on the keyboard itself. Suffice to say, the multi-layered sound absorption does its job well. Not only does it keep the Sonsei from being a belligerent little noise maker, it keeps vibrations non-existent so that typing on the Sonsei feels rock-solid.
My only complaint? That you have to connecte layers, key mapping, and cosmetics. I’d love to see Dygma release a mobile app version of Bazecor that let me modify my Bluetooth-connected devices on the go
Where Can I Get It?
While you might not be seeing an iPhone Duo until sometime around the holidays, you can get a Dygma Sonsei right now. At $279, it’s Dygma’s most accessible keyboard yet. The fact that there aren’t really any add-ons to make the price creep up is refreshing.
The included Gatreon Strawberry Chocolate switches are lovely to type on. They’re whisper-quiet and require barely any force to depress. If you prefer clickier, more tactile options, you can grab an extra set of switches for just $49 (currently $10 off). There are other accessories as well but the Sonsei already comes with everything you need right out of the box (even a very nice travel pouch with a magnetic closure).
Head over to Dygma’s site now and get practicing so that you’ll be ready to be a mobile productivity powerhouse when your Duo arrives!
This article was originally published onForbes.com
