REALFORCE R2 PFU Limited Edition Keyboard (Full, Ivory, 45G)

Although very expensive, this keyboard has proved to be my holy grail—finally attained.I already own three other mechanical keyboards (a CM Quickfire Stealth, and two different Das Keyboards) because I'm a disgusting nerd who loves PC gadgets. I like them with varying levels of affection but as someone who types thousands of words per day for work and for pleasure, I was always seeking that PERFECT experience. Those boards I already have are all equipped with Cherry MX switches, and I finally took a shot on this Topre board after hearing so many folks champion it, and boy, is it something.As someone who's always liked the Brown versions of the Cherry MX switches the best, these Topre switches fit my tastes perfectly. It has a distinct lack of 'clackiness' that you hear with the blues, but the feel of pressing in the key ends with a satisfying 'thud' when the letter is recorded. The keys also somehow feel far sturdier and more solid than the Cherry MXs—I believe this is due to the way they are anchored to the actual board. It makes it extremely hard to go back to Cherry MX switches, which feel very flimsy and wobbly by comparison. Using this board with its Topre switches gives the distinct feel of punching something that is one cohesive piece of plastic, rather than individual keys that are attached to the board by other components. It's difficult to explain—It's something that you've kinda just got to experience on your own to understand.In summary, this is the best board I've ever used, by far. It perfectly fits what I'm looking for in a typing board and it's an absolute joy to use. I now look forward to typing up reports, scripts, e-mails, etc. These are things I used to dread, now made more fun by having such a great board.The one suggestion I will make is that, due to this board's very steep price, anyone who's interested go and check out how it types in-person before making the purchase. Perhaps the way these keys feel will simply not be to your taste. For me, however, they are perfect. The price is worth it, as this is my "forever board"—ie. I will likely never replace it unless it breaks. It's that good.

I have owned too many keyboards. I've owned both custom and stock keyboards. I've even built my own and every time I've found something that I hated, until I started using this one.Here are things that I like about it.It's tactile in a way that no other switch can give you other than Topre. The combination of tactility and smoothness is something you can't get with cherry and clones. I've tried plenty of different switches. Reds, blues, browns, zealios, healios, holy pandas, different hakos, box navies, jades, etc...It's very quiet. The only sound is a very pleasing deep sound from the case and the rubber dome. There is no high pitched noise like those you often get from normal mechanical boards, even "silent linear" ones.You can remap caps to ctrl easily.It looks great. Both the white and the black look amazing. I might buy the black version and swap the caps around eventually.The keycaps are very high quality. Much better than what you get on most boards. This also contributes to the amazing sound the board makes.I've only come up with two cons since I purchased the board.The cable is not detachable. It might actually lead to longer life though since removing and connecting cables is often a source of failure on the usb plug.There are no custom programming functions or macros on the keyboard. There are things that out of the box you can change, but you can't really create your own custom stuff. To mitigate this, I've created some custom auto hot key scripts that allow me to do with this board what I used to do with my keyboards that supported custom programming like QMK and TMK. It's not perfect, but it's good enough since I love everything else about the keyboard.

I think this is coming pretty close to my endgame. I did get the 55g version before returning and getting this special edition 45g silenced. At first I thought the silenced would not be my thing as I love the 'thock' sound to be loud, but this sounds just as pleasurable and feels even better. Personally I found the 55g too heavy and the 45g is just about right for me. The feel is a smooth reverberation at your finger tips that doesn't travel up your finger as much as some clicky MX style switches do (that I am previously used to). Seeing as I bottom out my keys a lot, I do feel that it will be advantageous in the future when I am in a busier office environment (currently in a family business the keyboard 'clack'noise is no problem).Regarding the APC, I did have fun trying the different settings. Eventually I found the middle default setting (2.2mm) the best, but I did notice my typing improve with the lowest setting (1.5mm) whilst not being as fun to type on, with the opposite true for the 3mm. I know people said they don't find much difference with the APC, but I did notice these subtle variations.Overally I am really happy. I am still getting used to the topre style and I am still not as fast or comfortable typing as I am on my cherry style tactile and click switches that I use, but I feel I will get as good as them soon. Even if I don't, it doesn't matter. This keyboard just feels amazing. I will probably switch back and forth between some of my favourite cherry style switches (Zealios, Kailh box), but this does truly feel like it is almost my kb endgame.