Leopold FC900RBT Bluetooth Two Tone White PD Double Shot PBT Mechanical Keyboard

Leopold FC900RBT Bluetooth Two Tone White PD Double Shot PBT Mechanical Keyboard

More than 6 months of use, a serious problem has come to the fore: there is a 'stuck key' issue. It's hard to reproduce, but a key with be logically switched even though it is not phyiscally held down. This has happened about 5 times. I'm downgrading my review to 3 stars as this seems quite a serious issue. I've not encountered anything like this on cheaper OEM keyboards except when the key was actually physically stuck.

I got the MX Silent Reds with the keyboard, my first Cherry MX switch. I've only used buckling springs (Unicomp New Model M) and purely membrane switch keyboards in the past. I've been using the Leopold for 3 weeks, and here are some thoughts. 1. Switch actuation point Coming from heavy buckling springs (65-70 cN), the very light 45 cN Silent Reds were giving me specific issues both involving the weight and the actuation point (pre-travel). I'm a touch-typist so my fingers rest on the keyboard when 'idle'. This causes the keys to be slightly depressed. Due to the shallow actuation point, the keys would accidentally actuate (usually the D key). After 3 weeks, I've learned to rest on the keyboard more lightly, and have reduced the frequency of accidental actation. However, it still occurs from time to time. 2. Typing experience In a generic sense, the weight and the actuation point has proven more favourable when actively typing. It is responsive. The shallow key travel necessitated me to make the keyboard incline shallow to mitigate stress on my hands and fingers. This is a change from my other keyboards where an acute angle was more comfortable. However, co The stability of the keyboard is impressive. It looks small and compact, and its declared weight is 1kg. However, it feels heavier, is quite solid on the desk, and doesn't move around. Stability seems to be aided by its rubberised legs. As a heavy typing user, I'm comfortable using it all day (i.e. you don't have to keep on adjusting the keyboard to sit on the desk). It seems as stable as the heavier Unicomp New Model M, which weighs twice as much. I like the simplicity of the keyboard, including the serene green LEDs. (The New Model Ms, in contrast, feature harsh and blinding blue LED lights). 3. Switch audibility My primary reason for buying this keyboard, and the Silent Reds, was for the silent operation. In so far as the switches muted actuation on both direction is concerned, it is living up to its promise. It is a very quiet keyboard. However, there is a problem with its pinging noise. Most of the keys ping rather loudly. Perhaps only 10 keys don't ping, or don't ping as much. Personally, this is not a deal-breaker, because it not audible for those who are around me; quiet operation was mainly for their benefit. Nevertheless, the pinging is quite disappointing: when you expect silent operation, you don't expect the the pinging to be the louder than the bottoming out of the switch. 4. Special features The Leopold has dip switches that allow certain keys to be swapped, some to be deactivated. To support this, the keyboard came with 2 extra keycaps to swap the CapsLock and left Ctrl key. The extra Ctrl is a stepped keycap, which was odd, but because of my accidental keypresses (including Caps Lock), the stepped keycap was more desirable. So I swapped the keycap, but not the functionality. (This has proven to be useful, but not foolproof; I use AutoHotkey to require myself to double-click the Caps Lock to activate it.) In most other keyboards, there are 2 Win keys. In this Leopold, there is only one Win key; the Fn key lies in the position of the right Win key and as a different function (mainly for Bluetooth function). You can use the dip switch to swap, but you can't get 2 Win keys going. I haven't the need to use the Bluetooth function; I bought this keyboard mainly because it was the only Leopold in mechanicalkeyboard.com that had the Silent Reds at the time. 5. New Model M comparison To make a comparison with Unicomp's New Model M is a bit weird, because it's quite a different keyboard. But I'd like to make this comparison in case someone was curious. I categorise that I do two kinds of typing: normal typing and coding. In both cases I touch-type, I don't look at the keyboard most of the time. Normal typing is when you write longer text, requires less use of the mouse. Coding, or any other kind of typing that's shorter in nature, requires changing hand positions, to hit shortcut combination, navigate by other keys, grabbing the mouse, etc. This kind of type requires that we continually have to reset our fingers to the basic typing position. This is where the Unicomp's keyboard geometry works better. The combination of its keycap profile, key spacing, and curved board geometry, make it easier to feel out the finger position without having to actually look at the keyboard itself. And although I like the Leopold for hitting so many practical functionality targets -- silent operation, type without getting fatigued, stability is top-notch -- the Unicomp would still be my preference from a strictly coding point of view. However, typing longer text in the Unicomp can get quite fatiguing.