Joining the Topre Troop

[xfocus]

So I went out on a limb and bought a Realforce 87U while my Blue Cherry Filco Tenkeyless was being sent in for repairs.  You can read all about it here.  BTW, Brian at EliteKeyboards is awesome, he repaired my board in 2 days and had it sent back to me immediately.  The round trip was just over a week.

In any case, I've been typing on the topre for about a week.  I just got my blue cherry board back in today and I was excited to be typing on it again.  I'll be honest and say that I wasn't blown away by the Topre switches like I was with the change from a membrane board to the Blue Cherries.  It was to be expected but I was still a bit let down.

The Filco came in today and after opening it I slowly actuated the keys and was gitty with excitement at being able to be typing on it again.  I unplugged the Realforce and put the Filco to work.  As I started typing I heard the loud, reassuring feedback that I had sacrificed with the 87U.  But wait, something felt off.  The sound was soothing but my fingers weren't as excited as my brain to be back on the Filco.  I seemed to be typing, well slower.  I hopped onto type racer and ran 5 tests on both boards and these were my results.

Filco:  86 WPM Average, 96.7% accuracy
87U:  103 WPM Average, 97.2% accuracy

So you can see that I wasn't making a substantial amount of typos on either board but my fingers were flying on the Topre.  I imagine this is because the key doesn't actuate like it does on the Blue Cherry and I've now begun to trust that the Topre is registering each stroke.

I realize that I've been on the Realforce for a week and just hopped on the Filco, so I'm assuming if I typed on the Filco for a week solid and tried the test again the results might be skewed in the Filco's favor.  For now I'll be swapping the boards back and forth when I'm feeling frisky but it seems like the 87U is going to remain my daily driver for the foreseeable future.

I guess you could say I've become a Topre believer.

[ch_123]

It is widely regarded that Topres don't feel amazing to type on, but encourage fast and accurate typing. Problem is that I'm rather superficial when it comes to keyswitches. I can probably type as fast on my laptop's keyboard as I can on either my Model F or Filco, but I'd rather have the latter two because they are just so much more pleasant to type on (in particular the Model F).

So this leads to something of a dilemma - Topres may be built like tanks and make me type at a billion words per minutes, but if I had one, I'd probably end up going back to my usual old Model F because I'd miss the experience of typing on it. If I had to do a lot of typing for a job or something, I'd look into them, but I don't so I don't see the need. I suppose it's like comparing a Ferrari to something like an Audi...

[xfocus]

Makes sense.  The Blue Cherries are fun to type on but it comes down to what you're looking for in a keyboard. Considering I have to wrap up my current project by Monday, I'll be flying on the Topre until I can play with the Filco.

[takasta]

I"ve got a tenkeyless filco blue cherry and a 103UB Realforce. Typing speeds for me seem to be the same on both keyboards. But I have to give it to the realforce though, it's just a much more pleasent feeling to type on haha.

[mech]

My speed record is on a scissor switch board.  Mechanical boards just feel more comfortable to me, so they're my daily drivers.

[Rajagra]

My Realforce has become my default keyboard, especially when I want quietness, and my blue Cherry board is on hand when I feel like a change. But I find I'm just not making the effort to swap the boards around - the Realforce is like a pair of comfy slippers.

[rdjack21]

But I find I'm just not making the effort to swap the boards around - the Realforce is like a pair of comfy slippers.

I like that "the Realforce is like a pair of comfy slippers" I tend to agree. My keyboard swapping of late has consisted of 87U -> HHKB Pro -> MD01B0 so instead of swapping to another switch I'm just swapping around my Topre boards. But every now and then I will plug in one of my Brown Cherry boards and I find them nice to type on as well but still prefer the Torpe.