Author Topic: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only  (Read 6202 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline xrayos

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 31
  • Location: VA
hmm,

has anyone tried one of these yet? I'm mainly a Mac user, but need a good keyboard. It's got Mac specific fn keys

https://www.realforce.co.jp/en/products/R2TLSA-US3M-WH/index.html


238953-0

Offline rxc92

  • Posts: 440
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 30 March 2020, 23:38:12 »
This is the first I've ever heard or seen of it, cool find there. An interesting point is that a normal R2 87 (with all plastic case) is 1.2 kg, yet this one with what looks like a brushed aluminum top (imitating Mac keyboards) is stated as 1.1 kg. Perhaps they shaved off a bit of the height? The bottom is still the same piece of plastic, however.

Offline subcat

  • Posts: 195
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 31 March 2020, 00:14:29 »
This is the first I've ever heard or seen of it, cool find there. An interesting point is that a normal R2 87 (with all plastic case) is 1.2 kg, yet this one with what looks like a brushed aluminum top (imitating Mac keyboards) is stated as 1.1 kg. Perhaps they shaved off a bit of the height? The bottom is still the same piece of plastic, however.

i can confirm that the top is plastic, these have been out for almost a year now

Offline rxc92

  • Posts: 440
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 31 March 2020, 02:09:05 »
Was its launch announced? I don’t remember hearing of it anywhere.

Offline subcat

  • Posts: 195
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 31 March 2020, 02:21:09 »
yeah, it was first reported in december 2018: https://www.4gamer.net/games/317/G031703/20181225020/


Offline Riverman

  • Posts: 430
  • Location: Seattle, WA
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 31 March 2020, 11:28:23 »
These seem to be new Mac models.  The old ones were all full size in a JIS layout.  It looks like the old full-size ones are all discontinued, replaced by a bunch of tenkeyless models in a US layout.  I love that they have US layouts now, although no US distributors, but I really like having a numeric keypad.

Offline xrayos

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 31
  • Location: VA
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 31 March 2020, 14:12:59 »
I'm thinking about buying one from amazon.co.jp and using a forwarding service. Too bad the yen/usd is not as favorable as it had been. I'm hoping this one has fixed the usb wake from sleep issue.

Offline ryahirv

  • Posts: 98
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 01 April 2020, 13:03:44 »
Fascinating - Very interested in trying one of these, particularly with the space bar and command key meeting at the normal point for Mac users (command fully taking up space below X key)

Offline ganymede

  • Posts: 8
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 22 May 2020, 01:55:17 »
I just bought one of these and it works flawlessly with macOS. Wakes from sleep, function keys operate as expected, etc. There's also a macOS version of the configuration tool available for download at realforce.co.jp.

Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #9 on: Fri, 10 July 2020, 08:39:07 »
Anyone think they'll eventually offer them in 55g?

Offline mobileb

  • Posts: 24
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 10 July 2020, 15:12:47 »
30g is pretty light, have you tried them before? I'm a Mac user and use a HHKB and FC660C. Those are 45g. I'd say the weighting on those are pretty good. Both those keyboards support a Mac mode. The one drawback with the HHKB though is it does have some issues with waking up.

Offline chrono

  • Posts: 1
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #11 on: Sun, 12 July 2020, 14:11:25 »
The PFU models have 45g uniform weighted keys: https://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/direct/realforce/detail_pz-r2tlus4mwh.html

The Realforce models have only 30g weighted keys. I bought one last year and it's my favorite topre board so far. A bit of a curve to get used to the low key weight but now that I'm comfortable with it, I really enjoy typing on it.

Offline Riverman

  • Posts: 430
  • Location: Seattle, WA
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #12 on: Mon, 18 January 2021, 15:18:29 »
I just bought one of these, too, but one of the new full-size 30g gram models, an R2SA-US3M-WH.  It really is light compared to the Realforce RGB I have at work, but it's enjoyable to type on, even if it's not very tactile.  I'm considering replacing the domes with BKE ultralights someday, though.  I'm using it with a Mac Mini, and I have no issues with it.  The Mac/F key swap button is the greatest feature for me, since when I work from home, I have to remotely log in to my work PC, and the software we use makes heavy use of F keys.  This is replacing a Das Keyboard 4 Mac version, which was very nice, but sounded very rattly and pingy, and of course comes with cheap lasered ABS keycaps.

Offline typo

  • Posts: 1676
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #13 on: Mon, 18 January 2021, 22:20:20 »
Of course if I was getting this, you know my preference would be the  R2TL-USVM-WH. Although I would never get a TKL for my serious Coding board.

As Riverman mentioned can always get BKE I am typing on BKE "light" right now. Like most people, I feel that it is a nice improvement over Topre. More Tactile if nothing else. 30G is probably going to be too low for almost anyone.

Offline arobert

  • Posts: 1
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #14 on: Fri, 23 June 2023, 11:18:01 »
(This thread is a bit old but it's the most extensive one I've seen on the 30g Mac Topre so I thought I'd add my two cents here.)

Just picked up one of these in all-30g form, it's been discontinued but still plenty available on eBay direct from Japan. Impression? Absolutely buttery smooth. My first Topre was the classic 55g 87U and I loved it, but it eventually started to feel it a bit heavy in comparison to some of the ALPS boards I periodically use. I then obtained a 45g silent and found myself liking it much more, despite less tactility overall. But it still felt heavier than I expected and so the temptation to try the 30g started to develop. It took a while (300 dollar keyboards not exactly having a low threshold to order), but eventually I broke down. Now that I'm happily using it I realize the best thing about Topres has never been tactility per se but rather that smooth feeling of your fingers being firmly guided down through the whole stroke. The 30g delivers that but in a more effortless kind of way.

I wouldn't say it's too light, and I'm not the least sloppy of typists either. Actually I remember using Fujitsu keyboards at work in the early 2000's that I think were made by Topre and those were even lighter – yet still quite usable, easy to get rolling fast on without using much energy.

Offline rf86u

  • Posts: 35
Re: New Topre / Realforce for the Mac keyboard? 30g or variable only
« Reply #15 on: Sun, 25 June 2023, 20:27:27 »
hmm,

has anyone tried one of these yet? I'm mainly a Mac user, but need a good keyboard. It's got Mac specific fn keys

https://www.realforce.co.jp/en/products/R2TLSA-US3M-WH/index.html


(Attachment Link)

Do you know if the fn key on the Mac version is hardwired? as mentioned in https://github.com/pqrs-org/Karabiner-Elements/issues/2474