Leopold FC900R review (Cherry MX Silent Red / "Pink")
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- Skip to 8:00 for a typing demonstration.
Get it here: mykeyboard.eu/...
Today we look at a silent keyboard! My first look at a Leopold, as well as the first video on Cherry MX Silent switches. Hope you enjoy! :)
My keyboard reviews: bit.ly/1TbOtft
My switch teardowns: bit.ly/2C1QGHz
My TOP X videos: bit.ly/2FmpZfd
My XL typing demos: bit.ly/2OoAW3w
I'm Thomas and I do videos and reviews on mechanical keyboards ranging from the most sickening modern RGB gaming keyboards to vintage hardware relics, or sometimes keycaps or keyswitches ranging from Cherry MX to Alps SKCM to IBM buckling springs and anything in between.
Follow me on Twitter for updates on my keyboard videos! / chyrosran22
The practice sentence was: "Hello my name is Thomas and I'm typing on a Leopold FC900R right now. This is a very nice and silent keyboard, I really like typing on it, even though the switches are a tad on the light side and easy to accidentally actuate."
Leopold makes their own keycaps. Quite a bit of people in the Korean mech community believe that they are of higher quality than gmk.
Not just in the Korean. Doubleshot PBT is rare especially of such high quality.
hard to get right, and so rare that many people just don't even bother looking past GMK. I wish leopold would run some experimental color schemes like GMK gb's, PBT doubleshot is by far the best keycap in my opinion.
I have GMK and Leopold caps and imo Leopold are MUCH better. I'm buying a Leopold board just to steal the caps and replace my GMK tokyo nights.
Shahzad Khan just buy a set off reddit
I own 2 FC980M and I agree. They have some of the nicest keycaps in the market. I can see why some builders would buy Leopold boards just to harvest the keycaps
Dude your voice took me off guard. I could listen to you read a damn phonebook.
He puts way too much bass in his mixing. About 90% sure that's not natural.
Yeah, look at his old videos like this th-cam.com/video/msTU-OjfCmk/w-d-xo.html
That's way more natural and pleasing. His voice doesn't need this editing.
@@TheBIOSStar I think its just how close he sits to the microphone, as well as the microphone itself. Notice how in that video it just seems like he took that with his phone, but on these he takes the recordings from an actual microphone.
@@TheBIOSStar check his q&a, he specifically said he doesn't mix his voice
@@TheBIOSStar I think he just got a good microphone and has it close to mouth.
Just picked up this keyboard after wanting a mechanical keyboard for a while and when I saw this review I knew that this one would have to be my first mechanical keyboard. And, yeah. Fantastic choice. I hate loud, RGB keyboards while liking the feel of mechanical keyboards so this is everything I like without anything that I don't. I opted with the cherrry MX black because I have hammers for hands and always hit like three keys at once when typing. Anyway this keybaord is is amazing. Sorry for the longwinded comment I just love typing on this board!
How's the rattle of the large keys (spacebar, enter etc)?
I don't really care for RGB, but I do like backlighting of some sort of black boards with black/dark caps. It just helps.
Learning to touch type helps the most.
I was waiting for that comment to arrive, as I knew it would. I DO touch type, and it's fine for typing, but typing is not the only thing I use a board for. Gaming for example is another, and when I'm gaming at night, and have my hands in the gaming position, and have to push like one, off to the side, button to open inventory or skills or character sheet ect ect, it's a pain going into default typing position just to push that one button, go back to gaming position, do what you need to do, then go back YET AGAIN to typing position and turn the fucker off... grrrr. Seeing the buttons in helps a lot then. And that's just one example. Cheers.
The touch typing comment is pretty much obligatory at this point, and I always get beaten to the punch. I get the gaming scenario for sure -- would it help to remap those keys closer to wasd so you could more easily memorize the position? Oh and here's the other obligatory comment for fun...just get good brah.
No need to get defensive, it wasn't a personal attack. Point is, having some sort of backligh on a black/dark board and cap combo helps.
I just like the looks of black case and black keycaps with white back lighting. RGB's whites arent as good as some is too pinkish or blueish which i dont like. i have a rgb board but i find myself better off with no back lighting at all.
I ended up buying a Strafe back in the day solely for these switches, I paid $80 and I’m still using it to this day. Can’t wait for your top silent switches list!
Disgusting.
@@ActaNova Corsair?
BTW Leopold definitely makes those keycaps in their own factories.
I bought this keyboard to use at work and I love it. I have the MX browns and the front labeled key caps. I love the sound and feel of the thick PBT caps.
I own two Leopold FC750r boards, one with MX clears and my current one with MX reds. They're absolutely fantastic boards, have had a crapton of liquids spilled on them, and they dry out and function a few days later just fine (just remember to let the dampening pad COMPLETELY dry if you spill anything in it!). I learned about Leopold boards since I'm a Starcraft player and they have been very popular with the Korean pros since the Broodwar days. Highly recommend Leopold if you want a good quality off-the-shelf board.
For another idea on prebuilts that come with silent switches, Xiaomi's new mech board that comes with a CNC aluminium case comes with TTC silent switches. No idea what it's like though but the case offering considering the price seems reasonable in and of itself.
I never really figured you to be interested in mechanical keyboards Lex. Btw, I love your videos, and hope you keep up the good work m8 :)
Xiaomi is chinese garbage
@@chrisitzsimple4649 the vast majority of keyboards are manufactured in China, or have the majority of the components originating there.
These are my favourite Cherry MX switches. I bought a Corsair STRAFE RGB when it came out to replace my Razer Blackwidow. Since than I’ve had a couple other keyboards, a Logitech G413 with the horrible tactile Romer Gs, a HyperX FPS with Cherry MX blues, a Corsair K63 wireless with cherry reds and a Chinese knockoff with fake Cherry MX blues. Of all of the, the STRAFE is my favourite.
eww, why cherry switches
ooo wo I don’t want to go cherry but I can’t figure out how to get good switches in a keyboard without fully revamping the whole keyboard
Zachary yep that’s how it works. :(
This is my favorite everyday keyboard (work and play) I didn’t think anything could replace my beloved Unicomp.
The key caps are incredible but they’re made by Leopold, being in the US makes it a bit hard to get a hold of the key caps. I have some other double shot pbt key caps and the Leopolds definitely feel superior. Thank you for reviewing my favorite!
This is the comment I was looking for! I like my unicomp but after typing all day at work I get pretty tired of the click/clack and noise after a while.
Do you have them in mx silents?
Almost forgot to mention love mykeyboard.eu so happy we have a Eu address for keyboard hardware that doesn’t gouge us when it comes to prices like others do in the eu
Candykeys (locatet in germany) is also not bad at all. Some keyboards are a bit more expensive, but in general its pretty fair and the support seems like to be amazing
Leopold makes their own key caps, one of the best IMO.
You can enable N key rollover with the FN key + home. It also works on usb.
I've always been fairly impressed with Leos. Spacebar aside, this board makes a pleasant sound!
4:55 Your finger took on the colour of the dampened Alps switch slider.
Chameleom
Great to see a review of cherry mx pink! Planning to ditch my MX clone board next summer lol.
they should put the locklights in the two "o"s and the one "d" in the leopold logo
This is so cool. I have the Japanese version of this keyboard under the Archiss Maestro (FL) brand with Cherry MX Clears. It feels really premium with the solid plastic case and thicker PBT keycaps. The DIP Switches are the same except for the 4th Dip Switch (on the Archiss, it is for NKRO). All in all, a banger for an office worker like me. :)
I have this in white and mx cherry red, love this keyboard !!!! Great choice
Good review as always I have a couple of Leopold boards.. and the quality speaks for itself.. good typing sound btw totally agree the spacebar needs sum tlc not as bad as the more expensive inputclub k-type though *LOL* ..
Love Leopold keyboards, I own an FC980m and a 660c, and those are arguably the best-built quality in any pre-made keyboard. Plus they have the nicest keycaps in the business, as good as those super expensive high end keycaps from GMK etc.
What's the main difference between the FC980M and the FC900R? Been wanting the 980M but they are only available in brown switch, whereas I'm looking more towards one with linear switches
Really good keyboard, I have the f660m from them. Planning to get a fc980c which uses topre.
buy bke domes too
Leopold is making a full-size Topre board? Since when? Have I just been out of the loop? I thought the only Topre board they made was the FC660C.
Bought the leopold fc750r with mx clears for work usage. The board is very nice, the clears are okay once you get used to them.
Did it come with Cherry stabilizers or Costars (dummy vs. wire-based)?
THERAZORKILLE it comes with cherry stabilizers.
OK, cool. How rattly would you say they are? Do they need a lot of lube? Also, are they pre-clipped?
I love my FC900R with Cherry MX Clears for the office, which is as quiet as Browns. I also have a white backlit Ducky One with MX Whites for evenings at home. As you mention, the Leopold lacks any bells/whistles, but I still prefer it, almost as much as my Model M. The texture and finish of the plastics are spot on. Although both the Ducky and Leopold use double shot pbt, the Leopold is simply more rewarding to touch. The keys have a nicely rough finish and perfectly tactile edges.
You know it is a high-end keyboard because the manufacturer actually printed "High End" on the label! I love it when products tell me what to think (not!). Strangely, I have never seen "Crappy But Cheap" printed on a label?
In Korea, we buy Leopold because of the key cap and sell the body secondhand without the key cap.haha
I feel like the silent red's higher scratchiness (over regular reds) contributed to it feeling like a tactile.
Can someone help recommend a good “silent” keyboard or switch? I’ve seen other reviews and they sound super quiet and the space bar sounds like someone playing tennis in the distance but not sure if they are lubed switches or whatever. Can’t find the videos again either
If I remember correctly it's because the stabs are loose and rattle. I apologize that I don't know a specific model but I would recommend going custom since you can look at different stabs and lubing methods to quiet the spacebar.
Nice! Would be interested to hear your take on silent blacks.
I suspect they'd be too stiff for me.
Chyrosran22 Yes, they are very heavy springs. I’ve actually found a really fantastic middle ground in Gateron yellows. Not silenced but super smooth.
I have this keyboard and aside from a rather odd pinging stabilizer noise, it’s very, very quiet. It’s quieter than my coworkers’ membranes. So depending on your office’s noise floor, you could go up to browns or clears if you preferred some tactility.
leopold is very nice and better ever keyboard!!so great for review!
what keyboard makes the clicks in your intro?
It's his Acer KB-101A with blue Alps
I always thought it sounded like loose blue Alps
Nice! A Leopold keyboard :)
This is without a doubt, my anti-keyboard. In fact, I've just finished soldering up Box navy's and yellow LED's on a completely gutted Drevo Excalibur. Ask me how I found out 3mm led's don't fit under OR over those clickbar type switches.. Thank god I was prophetic enough to anticipate It involving several desoldering sessions. That little combination of a solder-sucker (the cheap things with teflon tip) and a soldering iron worked out like a charm. And full kudo's to Drevo, those PCB's are THICC, and the traces held up to a lot of heat/cool cycles.
Anyway, being it's my first proper Aluminium Chassis keeb, figured I might as well go "massive room presence", and I gotta say, the resonse has been nothing short of amazing. Been getting some proper hate for it already :D (typing this comment at 2:00 am ofcourse helps the cause)
Who knows, maybe in a year time I'll do a complete 180 and build something properly stealthy without going full "membrane". For now, loud and proud suits my shovelhands quite well.
Cheers man, thanks for sharing!
I have one. It's excellent. Also looks menacing.
They say if you put the stems of an MX silent switch in the housing of a Zealio housing, it makes "MX Zilents" and is meant to be quieter. I've got them but there really not as quiet everyone makes them out to be. It shaves off fractions of a decibal if it does do that.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on Gateron silents and Zeal's silent offerings.
The tactile switches in the other board are actually Zilents ;) .
If you're looking for the most silent mechanical switches, definitely check out MX Zilents (MX Silent Black or Red stem in a Zeal or Aliaz clear housing). Typing on them is weird - they're almost too silent.
In your opinion, would you say that these would be quiet enough for an open office?
Yes.
I believe Leopold actually makes their own keycaps.
The top row of F-keys also double as media function keys when used with the FN-key
I have a Varmilo VA88M with MX Silent Red switches and I really like it. I got used to that low actuation force by using a Corsair K70 w/ MX Red switches before.
My next upgrade will be double shot SA keycaps. I hope they will arrive very soon :)
I use the white and gray version of this with blacks and i love it no matter how much people hate cherry blacks i love em
Nice review! I currently have a CODE keyboard with Mx clear switches (nordic/iso layout), but I'm not happy with it. So I'm looking for an alternative (with clear/nordic layout). Seems impossible to find though... Do you have any ideas where to look?
If you like silents then you should check out some of them with switched springs. I had a board full of em with mx black springs and they felt great
I love linear switches that feel a little bit tactile :3
like browns?
@@ahtiparviainen9077 nah, more like SKCC Greens
You can kinda get a similar feel by putting slow springs in linears, from what I've been told.
In regards to the keycaps, Leopold has their own production line.
Interesting - do they third-party them or do they have their own tooling in-house?
bro this guy has the deepest voice I have ever fricking heard
I wonder if affixing some acoustic dampening foam to the inside of the space bar could reduce the hollow echo sound it makes?
ㄹㅇ 레폴 키캡회사로 전향해도될거같은데
Great review as usual :) I must ask, are the silent reds any good in terms of smoothness? In my experience rubber dampeners can sometimes compromise the feel of the switches because the rubber can "stick" to the slider well in the housing. I've felt it on my (linearized) cream alps switches for instance. Wondering if there's a similar phenomena with silent red/blacks...
No, they don't do any of that. They're not friction-free, but don't feel scratchy or binding.
@@Chyrosran22 Good to know, thanks! Might look into these switches for a quiet office keyboard build...
@@lkjl I have the board with these switches from another manufacturer. When just out of the box there was a feeling like rubber dumpenner sticks to the bottom and like key is slower to come back to initial position. It's all gone after several days off normal office usage.
"do not remove"
Is removed
While I like the idea of silent switches, I think keyboard manufacturers are forgetting one important thing: stabilizers. Even on this keyboard the space bar is astronomically louder than any other key, and I think someone needs to develop a stabilization technique that eliminates this issue.
To be honest, I think some lubricant on the stabiliser would deal with most of the noise.
What is with those large logos? I don't know if some people feel like they want to show off their "Leopold" keyboard, but I personally would only want a keyboard which is clean e.g. has no unnecessary logo on it at all.
The Wooting for example walks the line, cause they have only a small black on black logo at the bottom.
Man, you have such a great voice 🙂
i swapped 15 switches in my keyboard on mx pink, already like them alot(rest is mx brown :S)
Do these have the new retooled sliders? If so, how would you rate them compared to the older ones, or even the vintage ones?
At the London CS:GO major I got to try out reds for the first time. They were Steelseries reds and were problematically light. I kept hitting space by mistake purely by resting my thumb on the spacebar
Yes, for the spacebar in particular it's a big problem. At the very least they could've used a stiffer switch for that one.
@8:00 Just noticed you type the Y and H keys some times with the left index, some times with the right one :)
Can't find answers to this noob question: How long does a cherry pink really last? (aside from the given 50m) Would they and how much do the pink's dampeners wear out?
Thanks!
How scratchy are the switches?
Take this with a grain of salt, but they are noticeably smoother than earlier Silent Reds. Cherry re-tooled the molds for the slider inserts, so they are a little smoother now. Lube will still make a noticeable difference, but I don't think Cherry deserve to be railed on as much as they used to (in terms of linear switches). In terms of tactile and clicky switches, they still have a long way to go, especially when we have Kailh (partially thanks to NovelKeys) beating them out in that field.
what do you guys mean by scratchy?
@@Zyzz710 When you push the switch down, it has a somewhat grainy feel. If you wanna feel what extra-scratchy feels like, take a bog-standard rubber dome keyboard and push a key down well off-center. The key will bind like crazy. That's scratchiness to the extreme.
@@TommyFenstermacher5150 yeah but it's pretty tricky to find a keyboard with retooled MX, since any branded keyboard model may have both versions
@@Aggrofool That's the issue. There's a lot of stock remaining for Corsair, Logitech, etc. that still has older switches. The only way to be certain that you will get retooled switches is to buy retooled switches and build a keyboard yourself.
What's the difference between FC900R and FC750R?
Gmk doesn’t make pbt caps btw. Those keys have a similar font tho
The injection pattern is also very similar, which is what made me wonder if it was GMK.
"Next is a soldering demonstration of me tearing out these cherries and soldering in Alps Orange." ;)
Fuck man, if anyone sold brand-new SKCM orange boards, I'd be all over it xD .
"The idke keyboard is insane"
hello fellow osu player
I have tried to leopolds. One with MX browns and one with silent reds. I have to say I do like the browns but the reds are so silent they make even less noise than my old membrane keyboard.
Which is the most like Mx Speeds, Silent red or reds?
i have this keyboard but the spacebar chatters quite a lot; it's not an INSTANT chattering but somehow i end up with either 2 spaces or stuff l ike t hat; where the second (involuntary) space is added when i enter the second word; does anybody know of any solutions? I tried this keyboard chattering fix software, i added some lube on top of the switch, added isopropyl alcohol, absolutely NOTHING worked; i have it with cherry-mx clears
can you review gmk clips with make the upstroke and downstroke silent on PCB mounted cherry switches
Ok but what about the topre switches?
this looks pretty good ;)
It would be funny if he muted the typing test, to show that they were REALLY silent
There is no need for that. Silent reds are more silent, than any other mechanical keyboard; and even more silent, than most membrane keyboards.
@@Morpheus-pt3wq he just said it would be funny tho
mechanicalkeyboards.com says the caps are doubleshot ABS, not PBT - can anyone clarify this?
What is the need for a detachable cable?
Does anyone know of a keyboard like this that comes with silent blacks? The only board I've found with them is a cherry board, and those are terrible from what I've heard. I wish the MK Typist had them but they only have silent reds, browns, and kailh whites :/
Please review a keyboard with MX Speed
Yes, I actually have one planned for within the next two months!
I do like the lack of too much sound in the keys
Hi, I have an unmodified Leopold FC660C that I can loan you for a review (as well as a heavily modified one) - if that would help in any way.
I have a Leopold with silent reds... Like it. Have a Silicon Graphics AT-101 with silent white Alps.. amazing but a little bit of off center resistence not sure if that's because it's aged or Alps silent white are just like that. Got it from a Unix admin barely touched for free. I make way less mistakes on the silent Alps. The silent reds require accuracy.
What about the stabilizers?
I think I found my next keyboard.
A Keyboard that are made from Angry German Kid who smashing a keyboard!
any good fully ergonomic mechanical keyboard ? preferred with microsoft ergonomic keyboard layout .. i can't find anything that makes me happy ;)
Freestyle Edge Split Gaming Keyboard www.amazon.com/dp/B06XSRGK1V/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_U02RBb8G4TE2K
I used to want a white backlight but now I realize that i never use backlighting on my laptop.
My mans sounds like thanos
Its rare to see him not cursing at keyboards
your voice has more bass than my speaker
Do the switches have that trademark Cherry scratchyness?
A little. From what I've gathered, the re-tooling has mitigated this issue to an extent.
I really wish Leopold shipped boards with Kailh BOX switches. I'd have bought an FC750/750R with BOX Navies if they did, rather than a KBP V80. I can't stand the switches on my V80 being north-facing, which ruins compatibility with certain keycap profiles (thick Cherry, most notably). I'd even take a barebones FC750/750R and just put the BOX Navies I have into it.
THERAZORKILLE it’s not too hard, I could get mine only with browns but I wanted clears. Desoldering (with a pump) and soldering the new switches didn’t take long.
I just need to get my hands on a soldering iron and desoldering pump, then. Does this board come with Cherry stabilizers or Costar?
Cherry. I used a desoldering pump with a 30W soldering iron. 0.8mm soldering wire to get the new switches in, that worked really quickly. Very happy with the keyboard setup, just a minor ping which is a bit annoying.
Well my V80 has a fair bit of ping, so I don't think there will be much of a difference in that regard. I just need to find time and money to do this now.
A keyboard without LED lights? How are you able to tell if your computer is in sleep mode?
XalphYT sleep mode? And loose all your networked sessions? I don’t think so!
what do you think of matias quiet click switches?
I have a board with them but haven't gotten to reviewing it yet.
What is the board with the silent tactile switch at 6:25?
It's an iGK61 with Zilents.
Now rip those keys out, pop in some 67g springs, and lube those badboys and you'll be laughing.
That method of 6KRO is what is mandated by the USB HID requirements
Great auditory skills. Good info. Well done. Just might need to catch a manicure once in a while...
I'm surprised you didn't call them out for printing «high end mechanical keyboard» on the badge. Blech!
Did you find the Silent Reds any smoother than normal MX Reds? Rumor has it all the silent switches use new molds.
Domas and his keyboards
Your voice! 🙊