Warning: I talk about golf, wine and other things that will certainly bore you for no reason.
I have been quite curious about the Cooler Master Novatouch ever since it was teased by Carter in a thread almost one year ago but as primarily a Realforce 87U (45G) user I opted not to buy it immediately … that is until I managed to catch two of these babies on sale (yea, I'm not special like you the rest of you guys, I had to pay for my Novas)
I’m quite curious to see how the Novatouch stacks up against the Realforce 87U
The Realforce 87U has a very industrial look and feel - in other word’s it’s boring and isn’t designed with appearance in mind. It’s comes in an ordinary, but well-presented cardboard box. It’s a proper enthusiast keyboard for a workplace. Also don’t forget the unforgettable “good feeling of oneness with cup rubber”.
The Novatouch is packaged in a sleek box with a nice modern touch. Aesthetically, the Novatouch looks like a regular ole tenkeyless. The Cooler Master branding is still a bit childish which quite a shame is since the Novatouch is CM’s foray into a more premium line of keyboards.
There’s also some o-rings (Wah why?) and hey a keycap puller that won’t scratch your keys (the RF 87U’s keycap puller was notorious for this – don’t use it)! There are no dip switches on the Novatouch. The 87U has dip switches, although I personally don’t use them or haven’t yet had the right opportunity to do so. There’s also no caps lock indicator but I think this makes a lot of sense – how many times have you bought a custom keyset which comes with a caps lock that ends up obscuring your light anyways?
Since I really like my Realforce 87u, I thought it would interesting to see how the Novatouch stacks up.
The Novatouch is not as large as the 87U and it’s certainly lighter. While the 87U has a sturdy fixed cable with a 3 path grommet, the Novatouch uses a nice removable micro usb cable. Despite its convenience, I always feel that removable cables introduce more break points. This isn’t really anything to dwell on though. So far, so good. This is definitely a noticeable improvement over some of the older CM storm keyboards. The overcall case and board feels solid.
The standard keys are ABS. Although I feel the logo and branding does the premier image a slight injustice, these keycaps are particularly egregious and betray the premium image the Novatouch. I know the Novatouch is designed for enthusiast that hoard aftermarket keycaps like survivalists that hoard supplies in their underground bunkers in the face of an imminently not-occurring apocalypse but still common make these keycaps cleaner.
At this point, I’m looking at my Realforce 87U which a nice but industrial looking board. It gives a sublime, premium experience straight out the box and it comes with topre keycaps (which are overall some of the nicest caps you can get … except for the abs spacebar). The Novatouch is probably feeling a bit underwhelming at this point. Well, despite how great topre keycaps are, it’s not easy to obtain a replacement set and most aftermarket topre keysets aren’t being produced anymore. I’d love a nice set of blank red topre keycaps but I can’t find that anywhere. That’s where the Novatouch starts to shine.
Putting thicker PBT keys on the Novatouch makes quite a big difference. It provides the Novatouch with a steady typing experience that the ABS keys simply don’t provide. Typing with the thicker pbt keys gives a similar feeling to typing on my Realforce 87U. The Novatouch still sounds a bit louder and I would probably still give my Realforce 87U a slight edge over the Novatouch in terms of feeling. I think this probably because the Realforce 87U is heavier, heftier and just feels more solid. The 87U is also bigger though.
There’s pro/cons and tradeoffs between the 87U and Novatouch. Arguable the perceptible quality of the 87U is a bit higher than the Novatouch. I feel that despite how industrious it looks, the Realforce 87U is still more refined and nuanced than the Novatouch.
As many of you expected, the RF 87U offers a better out of the box experience and the Novatouch offers you the Topre experience with your keycap collection that you've slowly built up across the years. I wouldn't say the Novatouch is more "future-proof" because it accepts cherry mx stems - there's simply no such thing as future proofing a keyboard. There's always going to a nice new custom keyboard or an interesting new release that will simply tip over your lack of self control.
I think I also forgot to mention that the Novatouch only takes keycaps with the cherry mx stem and not Topre keycaps but you probably already knew that anyways
If you're on a budget or you simply aren't into changing keycaps then the RF 87U is probably a better bet for you. If you've already wasted enough money on keycaps that are just taking up space then they now have a new home in the Novatouch.
The Topre industry has been relatively stagnant. For better or worse, we’ve been stuck with HHKB and Realforce. Leopold also has the 660C and Noppoo has some sort of capacitive switch model. Despite its relatively minor shortcomings (which I would probably attribute to corporate, bureaucratic meddling), nothing has made quite an impact on the Topre world as the Novatouch.
The Novatouch certainly holds its own and now that you can’t complain about the lack of Topre Keycap availability – Topre’s back baby and you should buy one!
Rant time
I always characterize Cooler Master as kind of a bang-for-the buck kind of company. You get good quality for your money’s worth. They’ve never really had the reputation as a Titleist of anything they offer. Speaking of which I tried the new Titleist blades and I think Titleist has finally reached Mizuno level of forged blade perfection.
Anyways, for PC cases:
If you want a nice elegant aluminum case, you get a Lian Li.
If you want to break your wallet you get a Caselabs.
If you want something that doesn’t break your wallet, not truly exceptional but is good bang for your buck you get a Cooler Master
Cooler Master is known for quickly implementing new designs (especially if you consider how Lian Li has been stagnant for the past 3 years or so). Cooler Master cases always reflect modern designs. If you tinker around with your PC you’ll really appreciate how their motherboard cutout is always current and there’s a lot of tiny things that Cooler Master implements correctly to make your cable management experience better. They also have tool-less hard drive bays and things like that. I remember the tool-less hard drive bays were really flimsy and hard to use. I ended up breaking a few of them trying to get my hard drive to “snap in”. These are kind of missed opportunities in what would otherwise be an exceptional steel PC case. It’s annoying certainly, but you don’t mind as much when you know you aren’t paying top dollar.
It’s a different story for the Novatouch because you are paying top dollar for this keyboard. The Novatouch unfortunately really reflects that aspect of Cooler Master and I think it’s a bit of a missed opportunity. I’m really inclined to blame bureaucracy or marketing people because Cooler Master always ends up showcasing a really nice product but then when it’s finally released it ends up as something else which has a diminished premium value.
It’s a missed opportunity.
Thorpie
I also wanted to talk about Topre.
Topre’s always has been synonymous with high quality and it’s been put on a pedestal over cherry mx. I personally don’t feel that is undeserved.
Some common criticisms of Topre:
• It feels like a rubber dome.
• It has a weird tactile bump that most people can’t gauge or get used to.
• It’s boring.
If you're somehow still reading this, I'm 100% sure this will be the part where I lose you
I liken Topre to wine tasting. When you start out, it all tastes awful and it all tastes the same. It’s expensive, it takes some time to pick up and understand. Often times you need to try various wines first before you can really appreciate what separates a good wine from the rest.
Appreciating higher standards is something very difficult.
Like wine, some people can inherently differentiate between a good wine and a bad one. Some people can’t. Ignorant people think it’s all the same. That’s something similar to keyboards. Some people think a rubber dome, mechanical or topre is all the same. Other people think Topre feels too similar to a rubber dome. Some people type slowly, some people touch type.
Your mind fools itself. I’m sure you’ve experienced something similar to this. You have some friends over that have never used a mechanical keyboard. They’ll use your keyboard and some of them will immediately realize the difference and others will think they’re typing on a regular, old keyboard until you point it out or show them a rubber dome with a mechanical side by side. It’s very odd but enlightening to see. Your mind does play tricks on you.
If you’ve tried Topre in the past and you’ve felt that it wasn’t for you. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to revisit. You might have tried it too early without developing a proper base-line first. Your tastes evolve and you might pick up on some subtleties that you wouldn’t have appreciated before.
Of course, just like how wines need to be properly paired with food, if you have particular needs and Topre doesn’t fit the bill don’t force yourself to like it.
I will say though, Topre isn't optimal for gaming.
Thanks for reading!
I really to go pack now. San Diego here I come!
