Revisiting the Leopold FC660M

So I got bored and decided to play with my other keyboards which I have been neglecting. One of them is the Leopold FC660M. Those who followed my blog will know that I am not exactly too enamoured by the Cherry MX Clears on the Leopold FC660M. I love their tactility but not their stiffness. As I also have a Cherry MX Blues Armageddon Stealth Raptor, I decided to play with the keycaps by swapping them around. Based on my experience with swapping keycaps on my Topre keyboards, I know that the keycaps plays a part in the feel of the keyboard. I figured I have nothing to lose. I was bored after all hehe.

The result is what you see above. Not perfect and not all the keycaps are an exact match. What I did not expect however, was an improvement made on BOTH keyboards after I had finished switching the keycaps. If you remember, one of my complaint of the Leopold is that the keys are hard to see with the gold-lettering on the white background. They are also stiff on entry and very stiff when bottoming out. The ABS keycaps of the Armageddon are not exactly that much better legibility-wise but it is an improvement. The biggest improvement however, is in its feel. I was caught by surprise how great these feels on the Leopold. The Armageddon keycaps are lighter (more flimsy actually) and also a bit taller than the original keycaps. In one stroke, it solves the problem of the stiffness and fatigue on your fingers. I mean the stroke is still stiff but not as stiff as before. It actually changes the character of the keystroke quite a bit. These are lighter on entry and because it is taller, the stiffness on bottoming out is also much lessened. Is it perfect? No but I sure as hell can live with it. Now even typing is a pleasure. Also because it is taller, the tactility is even more pronounced which is a real delight. I think ABS keys have been given an undeserved reputation. Maybe the lettering quality may not be as good but in terms of feel it is not necessarily worse than a PBT.

I really enjoy typing on the Leopold FC660M now. Initially I was thinking of using soft landing pads or o-rings to solve the stiffness problem. I was also thinking of lubing the stem to further smoothen the entry when typing. I may still do them but as it is now, these are really great to type on. At times I even enjoy typing on them more than the Topre. Never thought I'd say that.

P.S. I forgot to say something about the swapped keycaps on the Armageddon. The Leopold keycaps actually improved the feel of the Armageddon. Where previously the typing experience can be a bit wobbly, the new keycaps tighten up the experience. If anything, the keys are even more clicky than before making it quite enjoyable to type on. I still prefer the Cherry MX Clears though.

The Holy Grail (or is it?)

Yep. It finally arrived.

Initial impressions. Very light keyboard. Key feel is typical Topre. Better than the Realforce 86U. It's definitely more "thocky". Is it more "thocky" than the Leopold FC660C? I'm not too sure about that. It's a different kind of "thock". I still prefer the "thock" of the Leopold. It's more crisp and the "thock" is deeper. The HHKB Pro 2 keycaps are also slightly lighter than the Leopold which offers a bit more resistance which I like. When typing fast, the "thock" on the HHKB Pro 2 is very pleasurable and I can see why people get addicted to it. Still preliminary impressions though.

I've configured the DELETE key to be BACKSPACE by flipping on the SW3 DIP switch and changed some keycaps to highlight the location of the cursor keys. The current keyboard arrangement is throwing me off a lot and I think it will take some time before I get used to it.

Did it meet my expectations? Not really. I mean, it did not disappoint me but it does not feel like what I thought it would feel like either. I guess I just have to give it more time.

More impressions later.

UPDATE 1 : I'm slowly but surely adapting to the keyboard. My typing speed has increased by at least 10 wpm and I'm slowly familiarising myself with the new layout. I've actually taken out the orange keycaps to wean myself off them. What I'm struggling with though, is the effort that I have to exert to hold the FN key to trigger my often used keys like the cursor keys, the PGUP / PGDN keys and the HOME / END keys. It's taking its toll on my fingers. In short, finding them is fine but to trigger them is becoming a problem.

I'm slowly getting a hang of the keyboard and I now find the typing experience to be at least equal to the Leopold FC660C. The HHKB might even be a bit superior. Overall I find the experience to be quite different. The HHKB has a very nice "thock" and less of the "thunk" that the Leopold has. The keycap quality is also excellent with big letterings on a beige background. All the keys are fine except maybe for the DELETE key which I've made into my BACKSPACE. That one has a bit of a "ping" on the upstroke which I'm not particularly thrilled with.

My biggest bugbear is still the layout and although it is a lot better now, I keep getting tripped by the location of the BACKSPACE key which is a row lower than what I'm used to and the CTRL key which is now 2 rows above where it used to be. I'm ok with the location of the cursor keys even though it was my biggest worry initially. I also keep forgetting to press the FN key in order to trigger the DEL key.

I hope I can adapt.

In short, the keyboard feels fine (if not fantastic) but the layout is driving me nuts. I can't help but wish the keyboard was a TenKeyLess. It would have been perfect.

UPDATE 2 : Is there a break-in period for keyboards? I don't know but the "thock" on the HHKB is becoming more and more prominent the more I type on it. Maybe it's all psychological but that "thock thock thock" is damn addictive. I just want to keep on typing. At times I feel it to be superior than the Leopold. I still type faster on the Leopold but I attribute that to my familiarity with its layout. The HHKB still trips me up at times.

Both the Leopold and HHKB are a pleasure to type on and you can't go wrong with either. Depending on my mood, my preference will swing from one to the other. Overall I still have to give the edge to the Leopold due to its more conventional layout.

One thing I noticed, the more I type on the HHKB, the worst I become when I go back to my other keyboards. My fingers seem to remember the position of the BACKSPACE and other keys on the HHKB. Takes me awhile to get myself acclimatised back to the other keyboards.

Realforce 86U Keyboard Modification

I've been trying to put a few of my keyboards up for sale. I've not been successful. Nope. None at all. Only got 1 query and after that nothing. Nada. Zilch. This is quite depressing. I know where I'm from, not many people are into keyboards. But what I'm experiencing is pretty bad. I do stuff like these all the time. I would buy and sell stuff to try them out. Usually I will be out of a little bit of money. I take that loss as some sort of rental for me to try out the product. This is expected. On very rare occasions, I can even make a little bit of profit. On the whole though, I have no problems selling. Unfortunately I can't do that with keyboards. This is turning out to be a really expensive hobby (if I can't get rid of them). Looks like that HHKB keyboard I recently ordered will be the last one for awhile.

One of the keyboards I've been trying to sell is the Realforce 86U. If I can't sell this, I'm very tempted to modify it into the silent version. Although with modification, I know its resale value will plummet even further. It may not even turn out as I expected. But you'll never know if you never try.

I intend to get some soft landing pads to modify the keycaps on the upstroke. The modification does not look to be very difficult and there is no soldering involved which is great because I sucked at it. Actually I've never done any soldering in my life! Lol. The modification will just be a bit tedious as it involves removing the bottom plate and the individual keys to insert the pad. We'll see how it goes.

Wish me luck!

Dilemma

I've been playing with all my keyboards these past few days, putting them through their paces. I really really like the Leopold FC660C. It is a very nice compromise between a tenkeyless and the small form factor. I've gotten used to the size and it no longer feels cramped. The keyboard is more or less perfect except for 2 things. The redundant INSERT key and the poor gold laser-etched lettering of the keycaps. I don't think they can do anything for the INSERT key and to be honest, I can't think of anything to replace it with. They can of course do something about the keycaps. Something like the Topre produced dye-sublimated PBT keycaps. However I do worry that it will change the character and feel of the key. The current original keycaps are perfect except for that ugly laser-etched gold letterings. I did not realise how much keycaps play a part in changing the feel of the keyboard. I get to experience these first hand when swapping keycaps among the various compatible keyboards. I guess there is something to be said about manufacturers fine-tuning the keycaps to the keyboards.

Now to the dilemma.

I don't know if I should get the Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2 (or HHKB for short) as I am more than happy with the Leopold. I'm very tempted to get another one in either the same colour (I like black!) or one in another colour. Not that I'm afraid that the HHKB would be a disappointment but the character and key feel will be different from the Leopold and I'm afraid that it will not see much use. My plan is to settle down with 1 or 2 keyboards and sell the rest. Either get 2 Leopolds or 2 Leopolds and 1 Cherry MX for gaming.

But the HHKB Pro 2 is the "supposed" holy grail of keyboards and if I don't get it, I will always be left wondering. And being the OCD person that I am, it will tear me to pieces. It's very likely that I will get it anyway just to satisfy my curiosity. That is why I bought the Leopold FC660M with Cherry MX Clears on impulse. Just to satisfy my curiosity. Some people will say just get the HHKB and if you don't like it, it is easy to sell away. I don't know where they come from but where I'm from there isn't a big pool of people who are into keyboards. So chances are I will be stucked with them. That's not a good thing. Currently I'm trying to sell off 4 of them but have not gotten a single bite.

Oh what the hell, I'll just get it. I've been into worse and more expensive hobbies before. Keyboards in comparison seem to be very tame.

UPDATE 1 : The will is still strong. Manage to resist the urge to buy immediately. The absence of dedicated cursor keys in the usual inverted "T" layout is a real turn off. I realise I use them constantly. I tried to simulate the HHKB FN cursor keys combo with my current keyboard but it feels really awkward because I will automatically try to use my 3 middle fingers to press the cursor keys. It's just not possible.

We'll see how much longer I can hold out. Wish me luck!

UPDATE 2 : I've utterly failed. :(

Lego Colours

So the extra keycaps I ordered for the Leopold FC660M with the Cherry MX Clears have arrived. PBTs with laser-etched letterings. They looked quite nice. Not as nice as the PBTs with dye-sublimated letterings though. I've put them on as you can see in the pictures below. A friend commented it looks like Lego.

Possible keycaps.

What I eventually went with.

So what do you think? Too much? Or should I go for any other colour combination?

Topre Type Heaven 104

So I bought this today. The Topre Type Heaven 104. I'm typing this post with it now. Reason why I bought this? Well, those who followed my blog will remember that I bought some orange key caps which I've used in the Leopold FC660C. However I discovered that I much prefer the original keycaps of the Leopold. It has a more "thunkier" and softer feel which I'm simply in love with. As far as I'm concerned it has the nicest feeling Topre switch of them all. I can't help but type on them even when I have no reason to lol.

So now I'm left with a complete set of unused PBT dye sublimated orange keycaps. This is where the Topre Type Heaven comes into the picture. When I was using the orange keycaps on the Leopold, I fell in love with the orange keycaps on black chassis colour combination. I thought I would buy a cheaper Topre keyboard with a black chassis to use them on. Initially I thought of the black Realforce 87U but they are much too expensive. Although I prefer a Tenkeyless keyboard like the Realforce 87U, I thought it doesn't hurt to try out the less expensive Topre Type Heaven. I also get the chance to use all the orange keycaps since it comes in a full set.

Out of the box, I didn't really expect much from the Type Heaven, what with it coming with ABS keycaps and all the videos on YouTube showing it to be a lot more clackier and noisy than those which comes with PBTs like the Realforce, HHKB and Leopold. I guess I shouldn't be so biased. The Type Heaven really surprised me. The keys are noisier and clackier no doubt, but it is actually really really nice to type on. I think if this was my first Topre keyboard, I think I would have stopped there. It has that Topre feel, in fact it feels "Topre-ier" than the Realforce 86U. Maybe its because of the uniform 45g keys weighting? I don't know. All I know I love typing on them. I put this second to the Leopold typing experience.

This brings me to a dilemma. Should I change them to the PBTs? After much thought, I said, "The hell with it." I did buy it to use with the orange PBTs. And if I don't like it, I could always change back to the original keycaps.

So do you like it?

As for the feel, it is less clackier and noisy than the original keycaps. I never thought I'm going to say this but I actually prefer the clackier and noisier original keycaps. But these are not too bad themselves. Reminds me of the feel I got when I was using them on the Leopold. The original Leopold keycaps still feel the best. These comes a very close third. I put this just, oh so so slightly less than the original Type Heaven keycaps. I guess you can't really trust those YouTube videos. They cannot convey the feel when you are typing. Just the amount and type of noise that they make. Even then, they are not accurate. Some feel louder and some feel softer even when they are exactly the same keycaps and keyboard. All I can say is that the original keycaps are really not that loud. I would have no qualms using them in the office. Now that I've put the orange PBTs on them, they are even quieter (well maybe not as silent as those S-types) but seriously, you will have no problem with them in the office.

I'm going to make this my primary keyboard. They are really very nice to type on. I'm a happy camper.

Next stop. The Holy Grail of keyboards. You guys know which one I'm talking about hehe.

UPDATE 1 : I've changed back the keys to the original ABS keycaps. I don't know what they did but I can pretty much confirm I prefer the feel of the original keycaps. They are a bit more clackier but not by much. The clack also does not have a sort of "ping" that the orange keycaps can have when typing fast. The feel is also slightly heavier than the orange keycaps which can be a bit too light at times. It is also a bit more "thunkier" but not at the level of the Leopold which has an excellent level of "thunkiness" which I just adore.

UPDATE 2 : You know what? After typing with the default keycaps for awhile, the keys are actually not as clacky as I thought. In fact I now feel that it is actually less clacky than the orange keycaps although the orange keycaps sounds deeper yet do not feel as thunky as the originals. I don't know if that makes sense.

Something old becomes something new again

Those who have been following my blog knows that I have a notebook, a ThinkPad T530 which I have not used ever since I got the HP Chromebook 14. It happens today that I decided to boot it up and lo and behold, I was greeted by that famous ThinkPad keyboard quality. I have forgotten how good that keyboard was and how pathetic the HP keyboard is by comparison.

I am typing this post with it and I can tell you that it has been a great pleasure. I'm typing up to speed in no time. Wide spacing between keys. Big keycaps (for a notebook) and with backlight to boot! This is how a notebook keyboard should be. I dare say it can be at times even better than some of the external keyboards I've purchased recently. This easily beats the cheap rubber dome Microsoft keyboard that I was using previously before I got crazy with mechanical keyboards. And that Microsoft keyboard was a full-size keyboard to boot.

Further Impressions on the HP Chromebook 14

Time to give further impressions on the HP Chromebook 14, now that I have lived with it for a while.

I still hate the keyboard with a passion. I don't know why in other reviews they say the keyboard is good to quite passable. I find them very hard to type on with its shallow keys and non-tactility. I guess I've been spoiled by my Topre keyboards.

Display-wise I'm just OK with it. It's something that I can live with for the price.

Sound is also passable. It's relatively loud enough for me that I can do away with external speakers.

The touchpad is also tolerable. There are no multi-touch gestures but it is on the whole responsive and do not get in the way while I'm doing stuff.

Performance-wise I am more than happy with the HP. It does not slow me down at all with any tasks that I put it through, whether playing FHD videos on YouTube or editing documents or general web browsing.

Currently I have my Leopold FC660C keyboard attached to it to compensate for its poor keyboard. I have also attached a mouse to do the navigation onscreen. I still prefer the mouse over any touchpad. I do not miss the use of multi-touch gestures. I still find the mouse faster.

So that's it. I'll add on if I find anything new. Ask me any questions you may have and I'll try my best to answer them.

UPDATE 1 : Want to hear something funny? Now that I'm using the HP with an external keyboard and mouse, I'm actually wishing that the HP is a tablet instead of a notebook. I wish it had the retractable stand of the Microsoft Surface or Surface Pro so that I can prop it up while using the keyboard and mouse. I also find myself wanting a touchscreen on the display.

So why not just use an Android tablet? I do after all have a Nexus 10 with QuickOffice already installed and that is a lot more capable than what is provided by Google Drive. The thing is, I've tried attaching the Nexus 10 to a mouse and keyboard. But when you actually use it, you find that a lot of things that you are used to on the Chromebook are missing. The way you navigate the Nexus 10 is also very different and it straight away reminds you that it is really geared towards touch and gesture-based input. Chrome OS on the other hand basically invites you to use the keyboard and mouse. I can't put my finger on why that is. It just is. You are a lot more productive in Chrome OS.

The other issue is that Chrome OS comes with a fully functioning Chrome browser. Or rather IT IS the Chrome browser. Chrome on Android, on the other hand, is a lot more limited and you are restricted in many ways, on what you can actually do. Most websites also do not scale very well. It is fine for consumption but the minute you try to be productive, a lot of things fall apart. I guess this is the same problem that the iPad faces.

Leopold FC660M Cherry MX Clear

Just received this today from Qtan keyboards. I'm typing this post on it. Shipping only took 4 days which is very fast. Usually items shipped from China will generally take 2 weeks to more than a month when the shipping is free or cheap. The shipping for this is quite reasonable.

This was an impulse purchase. Before I got into Topre switches, I actually wanted to try the Cherry MX Clears after buying the Armageddon Cherry MX Blues. I almost bought the Browns instead of the Blues when buying the Armageddon. I liked the Browns a lot but felt that they were kinda shallow. More research points to the Clears being a deeper version of the Browns but with more tactility and equally as quiet.

I did not expect the Clears to be so stiff especially when bottoming out. Other Cherry MX switches gets quite hard when bottoming out but the Clears due to their stiffness towards the bottom makes it less likely for you to bottom out hard.

Initial impressions of the keyboard itself.

It has the exact same layout as the Leopold FC660C. Not as well built but generally still very very good. Somewhat lighter and it also comes with gold letterings but this time on white keycaps. I got this in white because the Leopold FC660C in black was hard to see with its gold lettering on black keycaps. I thought this would be easier to see but I find this even harder to see with the gold lettering on white keycaps. Damn.

A visual comparison of the Leopold FC660M and its cousin, Leopold FC660C.

Typing on individual keys gets an average feel and feedback. But once you start typing proper it's actually not too bad. I like the tactility and I prefer it over the Armageddon's Cherry MX Blues. I still have to get use to the stiffness. The Buckling Springs are not as stiff on entry as these are. My fingers are also more fatigued on these. Due to the stiffness I am having problems pressing the left shift key which I use my left pinky to trigger but due to the stiffness, I'm not pressing it hard enough which results in more mistakes being made.

I'm still quite conflicted on the Cherry MX Clears. I like the way it types but I'm making way too many mistakes primarily due to the hard to see keys and tripping on the left shift key. Its stiffness are also killing my fingers. I hope I get use to this fast.

Sigh.

I think I am meant more for Topre.

UPDATE 1 : I'm still adjusting to the keyboard. Typing is not too bad now. The stiffness is still there but I'm slowly but surely adjusting to it. Typing speed is much improved. The tactility is very very good. I just wish it is not so stiff on entry and on bottoming out. I think my fingers will be fingers of steel at the rate I'm going.

UPDATE 2 : I have found a way to type comfortably on this keyboard. The key thing is to type softly without bottoming out. Due to the stiffness towards the end, this is easily achieved. This will definitely take some getting use to. I'm so used to bottoming out especially when typing fast that I don't know whether I will be able to adjust. We'll see how it goes. One thing is for sure. This definitely makes for a very different typing experience. Very unlike the other Cherry MX keys that I've tried.