Most robotic hands and grippers rely on actuators with large gearboxes andforce sensors for controlling gripping force. However, this might not be idealfor tasks that require the robot to interact with an unstructured and unknownenvironment. In this paper, we introduce a novel quasi-direct-drivetwo-fingered robotic hand with variable impedance control in the joint spaceand Cartesian space. The hand has a total of four degrees of freedom,backdrivable differential gear trains, and four brushless direct current (BLDC)motors. Motor torque is controlled through Field-Oriented Control (FOC) withcurrent sensing. Variable impedance control enables the robotic hand to executedexterous manipulation tasks safely during environment-robot and human-robotinteractions. The quasi-direct-drive actuators eliminate the need for complextactile/force sensors or precise motion planning when handling environmentalcontact. A majority-3D-printed assembly makes this a low-cost research platformbuilt with affordable, readily available off-the-shelf components. Experimentalvalidation demonstrates the robotic hand's capability for stable force-closureand form-closure grasps in the presence of disturbances, reliable in-handmanipulation, and safe dynamic manipulations despite contact with theenvironment.