I said I would not jump straight in and order the next UHK version given the delays of the previous ones and the initial teething problems. But I did it anyways. UHK80 ordered, albeit only one this time!
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It is absolutely worth every penny. I didn’t plan on ever leaving my UHK60 but this thing is a massive upgrade
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Have you had your hands on it?
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I’m one of the beta testers so I’ve been using it as my daily driver for the last month
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Good to hear.
Have my order in so hopefully it will actually ship this year.
Then what do I do with two UHK60s 
??
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Donate them to a pair of wrists in need of course!
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Are the palm wrests detachable? I’ve found that they do me more harm than good.
I’ve grown so used to not having a function row that Ifind it weird when on my laptop with the extra reach. Also arrow keys etc are muscle memory now (so much so I trip myself up a bit when not on my UHK). It looks like a great keyboard, but for me I still feel my end game has been reached. Never say never though.
The palm rests aren’t detachable.
I’ve been testing the UHK80 as well. I admit, it felt a little weird using the new 80% layout at first, but I got over it in a few days. The physical key placement is pretty much the same. The only real difference being the two extra thumb buttons and the size changes to Fn, Mod, Space, right Shift and right Control. Basically, it’s just the UHK60 with a better thumb cluster, one extra top row, and two extra columns on the right.
You can just import your old UHK60 config and leave it as it is, if you want. Agent will auto-fill the new keys with defaults, but it doesn’t change what you’ve imported otherwise. And of course, you know you can always change the mapping of all 30 new keys.
I don’t think I made any real changes to my base layer, and I actually still find myself using a lot of the same layer switching for the F-row, etc. as I did on the UHK60 quite often.
Overall, I have to say, it’s better to have 30 new keys & not need em, than to need em & not have em… 
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That’s a shame, erognomics wise the palm rests are deal breaker for me. I have my keyboard about 10cm (4") from the edge of the desk, so the palm rest will mess that up pretty hard.
A keyboard build for everyone is build for no one, so fair play
Batteries need to go somewhere.
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That is not the most conceiving argument. The optional batteries need a place in the non-optional palm rests.
Also wireless is IMO just a nice-to-have feature. I happily live with a wire when the rest is to my liking. That includes displays and RGB leds, which are nice but not needed. There are keyboards which run on a CR2032 for about a year (without lights), and this battery barely takes up any space.
Here another nice solution where to put the batteries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UXsD7nSfDY
I am in the same boot as Euan. For me a keyboard with built in palm-rest will not be usable in 99 % of the cases and therefore is a dealbreaker indeed.
For an 80 % keyboard that might be a bit less problematic from a market point of view, because many use standard keyboards relatively far on the table (which I never understood why you would place it so far away that you want/ need a palm rest at all). But one misses some potential buyers for sure.
For a potentially smaller columnar staggered/ symmetrical keyboard, be it 40 % or 60 % or even 80 % size, more people will be using it without palm rests, because they care about ergonomics and therefore are much more likely to type with floating hands and having the keyboards close. For that reason I hope an UHK which will fit that bill will become available one day.
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I also previously preordered the UHK60 V2 and just recently preordered the UHK80. Based on the most recent blog post and conversations in this forum, it appears UGL is doing things a lot differently with this release in comparison to the V2 preorder (opened much closer to the assembly process, more active beta testers, etc), so although I’m sure there could still be unexpected delay, I am feeling optimistic the UHK80 release will be a lot smoother in comparison to the V2 release.
Does it begin?.. the “to late January” added
" We have stock, and new orders ship in a week, except the following products, which are expected to ship from late November to late January."
I saw that as well. I personally think that still tracks with their blog post: The final parts needed for the first 1000 units are in transit and assembly is expected to soon such that the first units can begin shipping by late November. They also mention assembly being the bottleneck and that they are able to assemble a hundred or so weekly, so based on how many preorders have been placed since announcement, I think it’s reasonable that they believe it will take them until late January to assemble and ship every unit preorder to date even if there are no supply chain delays.
Let’s hope you are right and that it is not the V1 and V2 pattern.
I am quite surprised on this new release. Well done @mlac. Wireless connectivity was the second most important criteria on my wish list. Better firmware was my 1st but now price is most important. For now I am fine with moonlander and my zmk keyboards.
Here’s to hoping! 
I own the UHK60 V1, and I still see no reason to upgrade. I’ve set the arrow keys to hjkl as “VI mode”, and it’s functioning flawless.
The only factor that could prompt me to upgrade would be the availability of an ortholinear version.
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