Author Topic: Decisions...  (Read 5780 times)

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Offline Acolarh

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Decisions...
« on: Sun, 04 March 2012, 13:28:21 »
Additional money has found its way into my bank account this month, so I've decided that now is the time for me to buy a mechanical keyboard.
I'm mostly leaning towards Cherry MX Brown switches, and the Leopold FC200RT/AB from EliteKeyboards is the one I'm mostly interested in at the moment. But before I go ahead and spend my money ($160 USD with shipping to Denmark) on the Leopold, I would like to get a few opinions and/or suggestions.
An alternative I've come across is this Key Cool keyboard, which looks very similar to the Leopold, but is way cheaper. Is it worth considering? ("Leopold" sounds a lot more classy than "Key Cool" though :cool:) I would also like to know if there's a cheaper way to get the Leopold (considering that I live in Europe).
I have considered others, but I always end up going back to the Leopold.

Offline mmmty

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« Reply #1 on: Sun, 04 March 2012, 13:35:17 »
Quote from: Acolarh;535045
Additional money has found its way into my bank account this month, so I've decided that now is the time for me to buy a mechanical keyboard.

Good use of your tax return money.
Keyboardless

fossala

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« Reply #2 on: Sun, 04 March 2012, 13:40:55 »
Wouldn't buying a filco from thekeyboardco be about the same price after import tax?

Offline lootbag

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« Reply #3 on: Sun, 04 March 2012, 14:01:23 »
http://www.keyboardco.com gets my vote.
Go for the Filco if you are spending 160 USD on a Leopold.

Offline Ascaii

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« Reply #4 on: Sun, 04 March 2012, 14:12:20 »
Hmm, im not sure, but maybe verkkokauppa ships to denmark.
"Mechanical keyboards are like pokemon:
you start with one, and then you wanna catch em all."

Offline Acolarh

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« Reply #5 on: Mon, 05 March 2012, 03:04:34 »
Quote from: fossala;535058
Wouldn't buying a filco from thekeyboardco be about the same price after import tax?

A tenkeyless Filco with brown switches from The Keyboard Company including shipping is £129 ≈ $200 USD. I guess it's a possibility.
I must admit I didn't even consider import taxes. From what I can read though I only have to pay the 25% VAT (also; there's a 4.5% tariff on nuclear reactors oO), which brings the Leopold from EK to $200 USD as well.
I have bought stuff from outside EU (books, electronics etc.) before without having to pay any additional fees, but I may just have been lucky.

Quote from: ripster;535050
Welcome to Geekhack!

KeyCool not so cool.  Denmark is a problem.  Have you looked at the WW Shopping Guide Wiki stickied above?  Taiwan - PChome is not a bad place to start.  I don't remember if I have something under Denmark.

Hm... My Chinese is not that good, but I've been able to find the Filco tenkeyless on PCHome at a decent price ("Cherry MX tea" is brown right?).

How is the Filco compared to the Leopold? From what I've read they are pretty similar in quality, but I really like the LED placements on the Leopold + the detachable cable...


EDIT: It appears that if I use http://shopusa.com I can get the Leopold for $195 USD + they handle import taxes etc.
« Last Edit: Mon, 05 March 2012, 03:10:37 by Acolarh »

Offline mickd

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« Reply #6 on: Mon, 05 March 2012, 03:33:21 »
If you can get the Filco from PCHome, that's my vote. I'm not sure how much shipping is to the EU but if it's $10USD like it is to Australia, you would get it for much cheaper too.

EDIT: $20USD to Europe. Still should be cheaper though ;)
« Last Edit: Mon, 05 March 2012, 03:35:51 by mickd »

Offline Human

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« Reply #7 on: Mon, 05 March 2012, 06:47:47 »
Quote from: Acolarh;535045
Additional money has found its way into my bank account this month, so I've decided that now is the time for me to buy a mechanical keyboard.
I'm mostly leaning towards Cherry MX Brown switches, and the Leopold FC200RT/AB from EliteKeyboards is the one I'm mostly interested in at the moment. But before I go ahead and spend my money ($160 USD with shipping to Denmark) on the Leopold, I would like to get a few opinions and/or suggestions.
An alternative I've come across is this Key Cool keyboard, which looks very similar to the Leopold, but is way cheaper. Is it worth considering? ("Leopold" sounds a lot more classy than "Key Cool" though :cool:) I would also like to know if there's a cheaper way to get the Leopold (considering that I live in Europe).
I have considered others, but I always end up going back to the Leopold.

Review of Keycool here. Not sure if Qtan is carry the newer batches of boards which the offset being fixed(or improved)...
http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:25768

The major different between it and Leopold should be the stabiliser(one wire(Costar) style while another is Cherry style) and also the controller and PCB(in fact Keycool is cloning Leopold FC700R(claimed by some Leopold distributor)).
« Last Edit: Mon, 05 March 2012, 06:51:16 by Human »

Offline shogrran

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« Reply #8 on: Mon, 05 March 2012, 07:15:25 »
Why is Keycool not cool? I was thinking of getting a keycool......
Razer Blackwidow Elite
CMStorm Quickfire Rapid
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

Offline HaiiYaa

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« Reply #9 on: Mon, 05 March 2012, 07:17:27 »
The problem with ordering from USA or taiwan is that you have to pay some huge customs fees

http://www.toldpriser.dk/toldberegner

That means a 100$ keyboard will end up costing 154$. I have orderd from pchome before and I had to pay 55$ in customs but when I ordered from qtan it didn't get caught in the customs
« Last Edit: Tue, 06 March 2012, 01:53:07 by HaiiYaa »

Offline tp4tissue

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« Reply #10 on: Mon, 05 March 2012, 21:56:24 »
Quote from: Acolarh;535532
A tenkeyless Filco with brown switches from The Keyboard Company including shipping is £129 ≈ $200 USD. I guess it's a possibility.
I must admit I didn't even consider import taxes. From what I can read though I only have to pay the 25% VAT (also; there's a 4.5% tariff on nuclear reactors oO), which brings the Leopold from EK to $200 USD as well.
I have bought stuff from outside EU (books, electronics etc.) before without having to pay any additional fees, but I may just have been lucky.



Hm... My Chinese is not that good, but I've been able to find the Filco tenkeyless on PCHome at a decent price ("Cherry MX tea" is brown right?).

How is the Filco compared to the Leopold? From what I've read they are pretty similar in quality, but I really like the LED placements on the Leopold + the detachable cable...


EDIT: It appears that if I use http://shopusa.com I can get the Leopold for $195 USD + they handle import taxes etc.

I thought tea was blue.

Offline alaricljs

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« Reply #11 on: Mon, 05 March 2012, 21:59:14 »
No, tea is brown, green is blue.
Filco w/ Imsto thick PBT
Ducky 1087XM PCB+Plate, w/ Matias "Quiet Click" spring-swapped w/ XM Greens

Offline Lu_e

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« Reply #12 on: Mon, 05 March 2012, 22:40:27 »
Quote from: alaricljs;536453
No, tea is brown, green is blue.

o_O are these bad translations or something? lol

Just say NO to ABS keycaps

Offline FinancialWar

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« Reply #13 on: Mon, 05 March 2012, 23:18:15 »
Quote from: Lu_e;536508
o_O are these bad translations or something? lol

hello
It's Japanese... not Chinese...

Let someone who can speak Chinese, Japanese and English help you out.

In Japanese

Brown:   茶色 (cha iro)
blue:      青い(aoi)
green:    緑 (midori)

In standard simplified Mandarin

Brown:  棕色 or 咖啡色 (literally coffee colour)
blue:     蓝色
green:   绿色
blue, green, aqua or anything similar: 青色

the Kanji/hanzi 茶 means tea and brown in Japanese however it only means Tea in Chinese. There is no such thing as 茶色 in Chinese, we use 咖啡色. Because Filco is a Japanese brand, when marketing the keyboard in Taiwan/China, they kept the Japanese colour convention.

青 means blue in Japanese, it can mean anything blue/green-ish in Chinese. however Chinese people hardly use this Kanji, we use 蓝 and 绿 for blue and green respective.

green in both languages is 绿/緑, however note the difference on the left hand side of the two Kanjis, this is due to Chinese government's simplification of that radical.

The main reason for the variation is because Kanji was introduced to Japan from China many centuries ago and obvious language evolves and there are changes in the meaning. Also both Japanese and Chinese government made simplification to the Kanji while the Taiwanese government did not.

So basically if you want to translate the colour use a Japanese dictionary (use http://www.jisho.org) instead of a Chinese dictionary when translating the MX colours, that would give you a more accurate translation.

Qualification: HSK level 3 and JLPTN4 (see my thread in off topic lol)
« Last Edit: Mon, 05 March 2012, 23:28:56 by FinancialWar »
Visit the Typing Test and try!

Offline laffindude

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« Reply #14 on: Tue, 06 March 2012, 12:35:06 »
青 is both green and blue in Japanese as well. Ao is used to decribe the sky, which is blue, and leaves which is green.

Offline Acolarh

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« Reply #15 on: Tue, 06 March 2012, 13:00:17 »
The tenkeyless Filco on PCHome with brown switches (or tea/whatever) appears to be... unavailable?

Either way you guys might actually have convinced me to get a Filco instead, and the Keyboard Company is not a bad option, since I wouldn't have to worry about import taxes etc. and it wouldn't take too long to ship from the UK to Denmark (would probably even buy a pair of Tux keys along with it ^_^).
I still really like the detachable cable and LED's on the Leopold however, but I guess I can live without it.

Any last thought on Leopold vs. Filco? (considering that the prices are approximately the same to me)
No Leopold fanbois around to influence my decision? :P

Offline HaiiYaa

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« Reply #16 on: Tue, 06 March 2012, 14:37:39 »
Quote from: Acolarh;536986
The tenkeyless Filco on PCHome with brown switches (or tea/whatever) appears to be... unavailable?

Either way you guys might actually have convinced me to get a Filco instead, and the Keyboard Company is not a bad option, since I wouldn't have to worry about import taxes etc. and it wouldn't take too long to ship from the UK to Denmark (would probably even buy a pair of Tux keys along with it ^_^).
I still really like the detachable cable and LED's on the Leopold however, but I guess I can live without it.

Any last thought on Leopold vs. Filco? (considering that the prices are approximately the same to me)
No Leopold fanbois around to influence my decision? :P

Just order the filco from keyboardco as the import taxes are huge. I had both a filco and leopold and the filco is definately slightly higher quality

And not to mention that the keyboards on pchome only come in ansi layout so you will be missing the <>\ key next to Z
« Last Edit: Tue, 06 March 2012, 14:41:30 by HaiiYaa »

Offline Acolarh

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« Reply #17 on: Wed, 07 March 2012, 14:33:59 »
Just ordered the Filco from the Keyboard Company. Thank you all for your inputs. ^^
Now I just have to wait... :roll:

Offline HaiiYaa

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« Reply #18 on: Wed, 07 March 2012, 16:58:19 »
Quote from: ripster;538071
Rest assured you have made a good choice.

It will attract sexy Danish women and the sex will be good.

Danish women are not sexy though

http://www.bangguides.com/travel/dont-bang-denmark/