Greetings all, this is my first review and I will try to keep it short.
I recently purchased these two keyboards and have had some time to spend with both to try to describe to others who might be in the same situation I was in, which topre keyboard to pick first.
My first purchase into the torpe world was the 87u 55g uniform. I knew from the getgo that I wanted heavier keys coming from MX greens, it was an absolute necessity.
The realforce came in about a week and a half ago and while I liked it, it didnt have that topre thock that I wanted. I watched so many videos of people with HHKB's having insane thocks, particularly a video of a dude named vespersaint whom i know he is or was a big part of the mech kb community here at geekhack.
The realforce experience was very nice, but the aural experience to me was lacking.
Therefore the other keyboard that I had such a hard time deciding to buy vs the realforce was the HHKB. I bit the bullet and purchased one a few days ago. I have had it now for about 2 days.
Upon arrival the HHKB had a very light press with its 45g switches for me compared to the realforce 55g. HOWEVER, the sound that it made just made me happy. The thocks and noises are just sublime compared to the realforce. In comparison, the realforce almost seems dead. The HHKB is like hot fire to my ears.
So what did I do? Like many I swapped the domes from the 55g realforce into my new HHKB.
It took about 3 hours for me to complete since this is the first keyboard mod I have ever done, I was being extra extra careful.
It was a success and now I have a 55g HHKB. I cant say enough good about it. I thought that with the 45g in the HHKB it sounded good. The 55g made the sounds even fuller and richer to my ears. Absolutely sublime. The keypresses also stiffened up and to me right now it is my perfect keyboard.
The 55g HHKB vs 55g Realforce is a huge difference in feel and sound. If I can make one type of comparison its kind of like...
The realforce is buying a 100,000$ BMW 7 series. Its classy, elegant, refined.
However, the 55g HHKB is like a 100,000$ Audi RS5. Its lively, its got character, its enthralling.
The realforce is absolutely great, however there is something about the HHKB and 55g domes that makes it pop. I also feel like the resistance of the switches is a bit higher in the HHKB vs realforce.
The cons of the HHKB for myself are as follows :
The layout for me is going to take awhile to get used to. I initially thought that I could have a dedicated backspace + delete in one key (fn+ backspace). This is not the case. It is not bad, but I dont really understand the keyboard design. It would have been much better if delete was fn+backspace instead of fn+~. This is however more of a case of buyer beware. I didnt do enough research prior to purchasing the board. If you know what your getting then this is a non issue.
The HHKB really needs rubber feet or something. Its lack of rubber feet is really bothering me. The ones supplied and already installed are pretty worthless in my opinion. The keyboard slides all over place. The realforce is really hard to move when its on my desk. IMO, for a 250$ keyboard, this is pretty unacceptable considering keyboards 1/2 the price come with rubber feet pads all over the place.
I still have one more mod I will do in a few days which is swapping all the stems to novatouch stems for cherry mx compatibility. Hopefully I get the keyboard by this weekend so I can experiment with it.
I also currently am on the fence about lubing the board, the sound is so nice and the feel is so nice. I feel like if I lube it, it will take away some of the experience I am having.
TL;DR -- HHKB with 55g switches is godlike. If youve got the money, absolutely worth it IMO.
