Looks
To me, the FC660M looks very simple and professional. It isn't trying to be a "uber leet gamer board" and uses a standard, readable, font on the keys and a very professional color scheme. The board is mostly filled aside from a blank area on the right with the insert and delete keys, right above the right arrow key; some may be annoyed by the lack of symmetry due to this new section, but I personally am not at all bothered.
Build Quality
First picking up the board, I could instantly feel the quality; the weight of the keyboard was more than I expected it to be for such a small board, which made me feel confident in the sturdiness. There is no noticeable flex at all when squeezing in the sides or when trying to bend the board. The keycaps used seem pretty quality, despite being a bit thin for my tastes (I will go more into this later when I talk about the feel). The rubber on the bottom of the keyboard keeps it in place, even when I try to push it; with the feet up, the board stays in place when typing, but not when pushed. One small annoyance is that when the dip switch to swap control and caps lock is on, the caps lock light does not turn on when it is enabled though control. Overall, the quality of the board is great and just feels luxurious.
The Feels / Sounds
Due to wanting to try out clicky cherry switches, I purchased the MX blue variant of the board. I will give more details on the switches themselves in a separate section that I will add to the review for opinionated topics. The plate on this board gives a very solid sound to bottoming out, more high pitched than on any other board that I've used; this doesn't sound odd, and actually gives a more solid sound and feel. This board also uses Leopold's "Step-Sculpture 2" keycap profile, which is pretty low profile and has flat key tops: this profile felt really weird to me at first, and still does right now as I'm writing this review; I often am missing keys and pressing on the edges of keys, which is a bit frustrating. The caps are made with PBT plastic and are relatively thin: the keycaps feel great on my fingers, but don't have a deep sound when bottoming out. The keys have a "scratchy" texture on them, which feels really good when resting your fingers on keys. This keyboard uses Cherry stabilizers, which I've never personally had a problem with, but take it how you want to.
The Layout
I'm a programmer and an avid Linux user (I use Arch if anyone is wondering), so a quality layout is fairly important for me to be productive. So far, the FC660M's layout has not had a steep learning curve coming from a standard full keyboard layout. The alpha cluster seems fairly standard, and the only key that I use that isn't part of the alpha cluster is delete, which is included on the top right of the board. Because of the included arrow keys, I already feel accustomed to the layout enough to use the keyboard for everyday use. There is a DIP switch that allows me to swap control and caps lock, which I've now found to be a very comfortable swap to make.
Opinionated Stuff
Here I'll talk about my opinion on the keyswitches. If you came here for just a review on the keyboard itself, then don't read the spoiler.
I'll begin by giving a background on the different types of switches I've used. My first mechanical keyboard had MX browns, which I enjoyed, but wanted more of a noticeable bump. Because of this want, I decided to buy a Model M and try out buckling springs, which I've had a love-hate relationship with since. I love the sound that buckling springs make, but I hate how hard they are to press down (I actually enjoy it on heavy cherry switches, but the Model M just goes down weird) and find that the tactile bump is in an awkward spot. From then, I concluded that I wanted MX blues due to them being easier to press down than buckling springs and more tactile than browns. Long story short, my addiction came over me and I bought a Cherry POS keyboard with MX clears; I hated clears at first, but after typing for a while with them, they became my favorite switch that I had used and they were the only switch that I didn't have to bottom out with.
Now to the blues in this board. As of right now, I dislike them. I haven't used the board for a while, and coming from MX clears, I guess that is a given. I strongly dislike the lightness of the switches, I keep accidentally pressing keys that I don't mean to press down, or pressing keys in a word in the wrong order. Anther thing that I noticed is that the switches feel really cheap and rattly: when I push the key down past the actuation point, and move it up and down between the bump and the bottom of the switch, I can feel plastic moving up and down inside of the switch, additionally, the switch deactivates and activates without passing the bump, which is quite annoying (other MX switches do this do, but this one feels like it is further away from the bump). Currently, I would probably go with clears or greens with my next board, but that is just my opinion and it may change with more use of this board as it did with more use of the clears. Given how odd this feels to me right now, both the keycap profile and the switches, I am currently typing at 80wpm where I normally type at around 100.
Sorry about the poor review, I'm not very good at expressing my opinions in an organized manner, and am feeling a bit under the weather today, so things may be all over the place. If I missed something or if you have any questions, please let me know.
Pictures will be added as soon as I switch to a computer with an SD reader.
