I'm interested in picking one of these up. Been sizing up an HHKB but these two come out to about the same price and I'm interested to hear what people have to say. If I'm not mistaken the Leopold is plate-mounted so the feel should be more similar to a RF than to an HHKB? The stubby rShift and the FN placement (ideally I'd like to swap rctrl and Fn) on this are the only things that are sort of pushing me away, cause I've gotten used to the poker's layout, but I'd have to get used to the placement of the Backspace (and also the stubby rshift as well) on the HHKB. My Realforce is still in the mail so I'm waiting to pull the trigger on this but I'd appreciate some insight on how it feels vs an HHKB/RF. Upside on the HHKB is that I could get it running TMK as well, but I realistically don't see me changing much of the Layer 0 layout as much as changing up the Fn layer, and I heard the media keys only work in mac?
The FC660C was my first Topre board. I liked the solid feel, but at the time, there were no keycap options and I found the stock caps unattractive. I also didn't like the in-between form factor -- I favor 60%, TKL, or full-size, but not the various twilight-zone boards that fall in between these main types. Finally, I did not like the layout of the right half of the bottom row. I ended up giving the board away.
Since then, I've owned the RF87UB45, RF87UB55, Novatouch, and HHKB Pro 2. I've installed my Silencing Rings on all of them and lubed the stabilizers and switch rails with Superlube 51010. My favorite among these Topre-switch boards is the HHKB.
The HHKB has all the features I like: 60% form factor, HHKB layout, attractive styling, superb dye-sub PBT keycaps, and Topre switches. BTW, I put 55g domes in one of my HHKBs that I use at work, but I prefer the standard 45g domes.
Yes, the media keys on the HHKB only work on the Mac, but I do not really miss them -- I usually control the volume from the system tray icon using the mouse.
Another thing people often mention is that the switches in the HHKB are case-mounted rather than plate-mounted as in the RF87U or FC660C. I like the solid plate-mounted feel of the switches in the RF, NT, or FC660C, but I also like and prefer the springier feel of the case-mounted switches in the HHKB. The case-mounted switches in the HHKB seem to be more forgiving -- more flexible -- and less tiring than the harsher unyielding feel of the plate-mounted switches in the RF, NT, and FC660C boards.