Here’s my mini review of the realforce 87u 45g, 55g & variable silence.
If you’ve been here for a while, you know that no matter what the review says, keyboard is still very personal just like music.
It might be useful to know what the reviewer’s preferences are, and if they align with yours their review might be a useful datapoint.
My personal preferences are light switches, fast debounce and tactile feedback. Oh and I like to bottom out (naturally for MX I prefer brown).
I got the 87u 45g first and I like it quite a bit. However the slower debounce (compared to MX) and the up clack annoy me. Also the thock isn’t as prominent as video you see on youtube with the Leopold FC600C or HHKB. However I like it enough to keep it side by side with my MX-brown QFR.
When someone mentioned that the 55g doesn’t suffer as much of a slower debounce, I was quite excited. But after I got it, I found that it isn’t true at all. I don’t have scientific data to back it up but I feel no difference between the two in that regard. However the up clack is not as loud as the 45g, maybe because I bottom out so hard on the 45g and the 55g has more resistance. It’s similar to when I type on the mx-clear board. It’s fighting back when I try to bottom out verse for mx-brown I floor it every single keystroke.
Overall the 55g is not an improvement for me compared to the 45g.
Next I got a variable silence. I would have gotten it instead of the 45g as my first topre if not for the fact that it was quite a bit more expensive a while ago (now it’s only $235) and the possibility that I could dental mod the 45g.
Now the variable silence is a very good topre for light switch lover. It’s effortless to type on and the up clack is almost non-existent. However the down side is that the thock is also gone. Personally the up side outweighs it. If there is a way to keep the thock but not the up clack that would be my ideal topre keyboard (sans thick keycaps!).
Hey, I just read this, and I like your review and I agree with your findings. However, you cannot use the term "debounce" to describe a Topre switch. The phenomenon and feeling that you are describing regarding the upstroke on your Topre keyboard is not "debounce", since Topre uses an electro-capacitive system that avoids bounce and the need for debounce. Simply put, there is no bounce, because there is no metal on metal contact in the Topre switch. That is the great benefit of the Topre switch, and that is what separates Topre from being "just another rubber dome", as many of the unenlightened masses wrongly assert.
Bounce and debounce are terms used to describe what happens when two metallic surfaces meet in an electric switch. The signal can "bounce". Bouncing is the tendency of any two metal contacts in an electronic device to generate multiple signals as the contacts close or open; "debouncing" is any kind of hardware device or software that ensures that only a single signal will be acted upon for a single opening or closing of a contact.
The Topre electrostatic capacitive switch does not use a physical metal part to make the electrical connection, instead the electrical connection is made by capacitance. Topre capacitive switches do not physically complete an electric circuit like most other keyboard switching technologies. Instead, electric current constantly flows through all parts of the key matrix. Each key is spring-loaded and has a tiny plate attached to the bottom of it. When you press a key, you do the work of moving the tiny top plate closer to the larger plate below it. As the gap between the two plates decreases, the capacitance increases, and the amount of current flowing through the matrix changes. The micro-processor in the keyboard detects the change in voltage and interprets it as a key press for that location.
Because there is no physical contact, capacitive switch keyboards have no signal bounce since the two surfaces never come into physical contact. Signal bounce is a real problem if you want an electronic circuit with fast response time. Contact bounce can produce very noticeable and undesired effects. In a way, you could argue that the entire Topre switch is in effect a "debounce" strategy, but this would really be straining the plain meaning of debounce, because debounce is really an attempt to mitigate bounce, whereas Topre switches eliminate bounce altogether. A better descriptor would be "no-bounce".
Anyway, good review, but don't use the word "debounce" to describe Topre. You can continue to use debounce in regards to Cherry MX switches, because they need it.
