After trying MANY different keyboards with various form factors, layouts, keycap materials, keycap printing methods, and switch types, I have finally narrowed things down to a few favorites. Here they are, along with some of my reasons for liking them:
HHKB Pro 2. I like the sound and tactile feel of Topre switches. They are like weighted piano keys on a real piano. The dye-sub PBT keycaps are beautiful, and I like the dry and slightly textured touch. I love the 60% form factor, and the layout is better than any I have ever tried. Now, when I use other keyboards, I remap the keys to the HHKB/Mac layout.
RF 87u 55g. Quieter more refined and solid sound than the HHKB; excellent tactile feedback. Lacks the somewhat annoying return-stroke "clack" of the HHKB -- although I think I might want to get a Type-S HHKB someday, the RF is so much quieter I don't feel the need to get a silent RF. Moreover, the silent RF is available only as a variable weight, and I think I would prefer the all-55g or all-45g. The RF also has beautiful dye-sub PBT keycaps. I got the black version, but I replaced the alpha, number, and arrow keys with blue keycaps; all the rest are black. Looks great.
The RF also has a number of other nice features, including an embedded numeric keypad, DIP switches for several useful settings, LEDs for CapsLock and NumLock, and no dedicated Fn key -- this is a plus for me, because I prefer to set up a Fn key using software so that I can map Fn functions the way I like them and end with with no dead keys.
I've tried the RF 87u black 55g, RF 87u black 45g, and RF 87u white 55g. They are all good, but my favorite of these is the RF 87u black 55g. However, I need legible keycaps, but I like a black case, so with the black RF I would replace the alpha and number keycaps with blue or white (or even yellow or orange, which are all available on eBay).
My other favorite is the IBM XT. I like the sound and feel of capacitive buckling spring switches and the look and feel of the IBM dye-sub PBT keycaps.
These three boards rank FAR above anything else I have tried. I have yet to find a Cherry mx switch that I like; it's as if Cherry mx boards were not playing in the same league with the current leading Topre-switch boards or the IBM boards of yesteryear.
Somewhere between Cherry mx and Topre or IBM capacitive buckling spring, I would put Matias tactile/clicky switches, Alps Monterey blues, Alps orange, and NMB Hi-Tek black space invader switches.
All things considered, the RF 87u 55g black is my favorite, but I also like my HHKB Pro 2 and IBM XT keyboards.
If RF were to make a 60% board in black with the HHKB layout, steel plate, and 55g switches, I think this might be the perfect board for me.
(Typed on my RF 87u black 55g).
