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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: forTruce on Thu, 22 September 2011, 22:29:58

Title: Blues vs Browns -- Filco vs Leopold
Post by: forTruce on Thu, 22 September 2011, 22:29:58
I just received a Leopold Blue board today that I bought from Rafen.  Great and speedy transaction by the way, thanks Rafen.  Anyway, I already have been using a Filco Brown board for around 2 weeks now.  I thought I would post my impression of blues vs browns and the filco vs leopold.

Blue vs Brown

I really liked the brown over rubber dome, and I really still do like them; however, blues have blown my mind.  Something about them seems a bit more reactive or precise.  It is pretty hard to put it into words, but the blues really do feel great.  The blues definitely are louder though.  A different kind of more high pitched clicky sound than the browns.  This is not a bad thing.  In fact, I really like the sound, but I can see where using the browns would be better for when you need a quieter board.
I have not had time to try the boards against eachother for certain tasks yet to see if I have a favorite for typing and a different for gaming, but once I do have a chance to try them both out enough I will post my opinions in that regard.

Filco vs Leopold

The leopold build quality and frame are very very similar to the Filco board.  Honestly, the pictures seem to make them look more different than they are in person (in my opinion).  I had thought that the leopold's corners were a bit too rounded in pictures, but, in person, they do not seem very different than the Filco's at all.
The only difference that I immediately noticed was the stabilizers.  I don't want to make this seem worse than it really is, the stabilizers aren't bad, they just have a different feel.  To me, it seems like they are just a tad bit mushier than the stabilizers on the Filco board.  They do seem to slightly change the feel of the switch type; however, it is not drastic at all.  I believe that after an hour typing on the board I won't even notice it anymore, and it is definitely not a deal breaker in any way.

Those are just my opinions on the 2 different switches/boards.  Feel free to ask any questions!

I received my first mechanical keyboard less than a month ago, and I already have 3 in my possession...and 1 in the mail.  Be careful! :)
Title: Blues vs Browns -- Filco vs Leopold
Post by: Lanx on Thu, 22 September 2011, 23:36:31
Quote from: forTruce;420259
however, blues have blown my mind.  Something about them seems a bit more reactive or precise.  It is pretty hard to put it into words, but the blues really do feel great.
prolly just cuz you're using more "senses" to type, you know just like if you ate some food blindfolded you'd get less enjoyment out of it, than if you actually saw it (and it was a nice presentation) it'd add to it, or if you were eating with noseplugs, you wouldn't know what you'd be eating actually just relying solely on taste and texture.
Title: Blues vs Browns -- Filco vs Leopold
Post by: enoy21 on Fri, 23 September 2011, 09:20:34
I am interested in seeing how you  like the Blues versus browns for gaming.    I went against the grain for gaming and selected blues on WASD.  

I'm not gaming all the time (I tend to fade in and out of gaming and play for 6 months then switch to console for 6 months).
I don't do a **** ton ( as opposed to metric ton ) of double tapping in my games (They are mainly FPS and I tend to fully press the key and fully release as far as I know at this time.)
I do like to type in gaming chat once in a while
I like the sounds of the blues from the youtube and audio clips from here

Also , the quote that Ripster posted from the Razor explanation of why they chose blues over blacks.    


I often wonder why more people don't choose the clears over browns. I mean , They have a much stronger tactile feel if the appearence of the switch means anything. So I would think the clears would be the best combination between blues and browns.  ( Non clicky tactile )
Title: Blues vs Browns -- Filco vs Leopold
Post by: itlnstln on Fri, 23 September 2011, 09:23:39
Quote from: enoy21;420378
I often wonder why more people don't choose the clears over browns. I mean , They have a much stronger tactile feel if the appearence of the switch means anything. So I would think the clears would be the best combination between blues and browns.  ( Non clicky tactile )

Mainly because they're unavailable or at the very least, hard to get.  That, and people like me prefer lighter switches.
Title: Blues vs Browns -- Filco vs Leopold
Post by: enoy21 on Fri, 23 September 2011, 11:35:13
So perhaps that's the bigger question then..... Why are they so much harder to find?    Perhaps a good business venture  (AHEM WASD)
Title: Blues vs Browns -- Filco vs Leopold
Post by: Deverica Wolf on Fri, 23 September 2011, 16:14:37
They are not hard to get from Deck, though the profile is flat and there is no Tenkeyless.
Title: Blues vs Browns -- Filco vs Leopold
Post by: N8N on Fri, 23 September 2011, 17:03:50
yeah, I didn't think I'd like the flat profile, didn't really need backlighting and didn't feel like gambling the money to find out.  So I just hacked up a perfectly good Filco :)  feels great!
Title: Blues vs Browns -- Filco vs Leopold
Post by: silverphoenix on Fri, 23 September 2011, 17:08:27
Quote from: enoy21;420440
So perhaps that's the bigger question then..... Why are they so much harder to find?    Perhaps a good business venture  (AHEM WASD)

There tends to be a much higher demand for the lighter browns, clears from what I see are almost exclusively(except deck) used in POS systems that take quite the beating in day to day use.

This is why I went ergoclear and never turned back(all be it there are differences in ergo mods, from my experience when I did the mod in a brand new kb with blue switches, using blue springs and blue's houses with contacts the keys would feel like they were sticking, but in a 2 month old black kb's housing they don't stick and have as much tactility IMO as a blue but at a different point, right at the beginning of the keypoint for me it is the perfect feeling.

On another note I can use blues for RTS like sc2 but for CSS or L4D I can't use em.