I recently bought my first topre keyboard last month; which is a HHKB Pro 2. I bought it from amazon.co.jp and shipped through
Tenso. It seems that this is the only cheapest way to get my hands on this keyboard. Costed me ¥25,350(~US$208) for the board and ¥2,880(~US$24) for the forwarding fee. I didn't want to pay a huge Customs tax so I lowered its declaration value to ¥3,000(~US$25)
)
Initial thoughts and impressionsI was a bit underwhelmed. The real feels on these are not how I imagine them to be. I'm a bit disappointed. It didn't left the same impression to me when I ascended from cheap rubber dome membrane keyboards to mechanical(my first board has Cherry MX Brown), but I'm pretty sure that if this was my first board; it would feel like it was Godsend. I assumed that it would feel a bit stiff, rubbery like a toilet plunger, and the "thock" sound would be more pronounced. I overestimated topre because of all the cup rubber goodness hype. They feel like smoother and softer ergo clears. Still, I have no regrets.
Some folks told me it might take some time before I appreciate topre. So I let it grew into me... they were right.
After a month of usage cycle with other Cherry MX keyboardsTopre keyboards are really comfortable to be typed on. It doesn't need a lot of effort to type. And when you push a key - you would know that it did register, because if you push halfway - the rubber dome will compress to bottom out and easily decompresses or I would call "snap back" into place - which produces the "thock" sound when the base of the slider hits the face plate surface. Bottoming out in topre switches are gentle because of rubber, unlike with Cherry MX switches that's made from plastic.
I constantly cycle between Shine 3(MX Brown), Poker II(MX Black), and HHKB Pro 2(Topre 45g). All I could say is that there's no switch that "suck", each of them has their own unique "points" that makes them different from each other; mostly Topre.
Topre keyboards are expensiveThey are indeed expensive as a "mass produced" keyboard. But a factor for it's high price compared to usual mechanical keyboards is that its switch design is different from Cherry MX switches - that can be mass produced instantly and be bought as bulk or piece. Topre switches, however, is different; the switch comprises of the rubber dome, spring, slider, and the face plate of the keyboard case to hold the sliders. This may be one of the reason on why you won't be seeing custom(sold as kit/built from scratch) topre keyboards anytime soon.
Prices of topre keyboards may vary from where you'll get one(local retailer, forwarder from Japan, 2nd hand, etc). But if you'll compare its price to custom keyboards that costs for more than US$300; topre keyboards are not that expensive at all
TL;DR
Topre switches are awesome and expensive
BTW, replace your Topre ABS spacebars with
PBT spacebars. Organized and made possible by Matt3o.
Topre PBT Spacebar GB Thread