Drop Mech Keys Meetup Recap - Thanks for Visiting!
As you may have seen, we just hosted our first meetup in quite a while here at Drop HQ (Corsair HQ, but they seem to like us enough :) )! It was a blast to get to meet so many enthusiasts local to the bay area—it had been 10 years since I was last hanging out with keyboard nerds in the bay, at KeyCon 2014. We had a great time hosting everyone at the offices, checking out all the very nice boards y'all brought, and sharing some of our own projects/spaces! I knew it would be fun to host in the Game Room when I first saw it in person, but seeing it come to fruition was still so cool. Alright, I'll stop blabbering on now. xD Picture time! (Oh, real quick - there will be more of these! Stay tuned for more info and to catch the next one!)
May 15, 2024
Either way/drop, this might be the last chance/drop to get one.
keep in mind my liking/preference might not help you or match your style and from reading gh/dt and others my preference is not the "mainstream" one.
Stock keyboardwise, the Realforce 55g is the winner regarding quality and feel of typing. The Leopold 45g is nice too, being the smaller sister.
The RC stock feels different and not like genuine Topre, the switches are more scratchy and not on the same level regarding smoothness, but silenced, backlit and programmable.
The Novatouch was a big disapointment, way to noisy, non backlit or programmability, but smooth. The HHKB pro 2 is another story, i've had two, unsilenced and a type-s. The unsilenced one is having a wonderfull tock stock, but i didn't liked both in the end regarding the layout.
My daylie driver and number one is the HHKB pro jp, heavily modded (explanation later).
I've taken apart all of them, RF and HHKB are the clear winners, done in a heartbeat, trying nothing to hide with stupid seals inviting you for a closer look. I fucking hate this stupid clipped cases like NT, RC and Leopold where you've to break seals and work carefully with a butterknife/old credit card ... not breaking something. Dissambled i've to say the cases of the NT and RC feel and look "cheap", not premium at all. The Leopold is better, but the upper part can be bended/twisted easily from the bottom to the top.
Moddingwise: The RC only needed some lube to feel better and get rid of most of the scratchiness. The sliders are smooth enough for me, i've read some people sanded it too, to make it even smoother, my guess is, that finesanding the switchhousing might give the last bit of smoothness, i didn't tried. The case itself is looking better in reality than on the pictures, not my favourite, but ok.
The NT was silenced with dentalbands and a lot of love/lube on the stabilizers. Very silent afterwards, but for whatever reason still not my cup of tea.
The Realforce 55g is 45g now silenced with dentalbands and lubed the stabilizers. Silent and smooth like the best butter you can imagine. This would be my first choice if i would have to type all day long writing a novel, dissertation whatever. An upgrade i would like to do would be Cherry sliders and SA keycaps going highprostyle, but no 6u SA spacebars are given and if this would happen, Hypersphere rings on top, they're a "little bit" better than dentalbands for me, but pricey.
The Leopold is silenced with dentalbands too and having the stabilizers lubed, feeling fine, but isn't used and up for sale, one "60"% is enough.
Not getting warm with the NT, it went the way of harvesting for my HHKB pro jp, which is my most beloved mk now. I love the small spacebar and extra keys for remapping to my liking paired with a controller by hasu for remapping my way. I'm one of the few who doesn't think that stock Topre keycaps are that superior, therefore i've implanted NT sliders and 55g domes, silenced with Hypersphere rings using Cherry keycaps, best of both worlds for me.
Tl;dr: HHKB pro jp 55g for my average needs, RF 45g for looong typing sessions, RC, good bang for the buck, a little bit modded even better, NT, good for harvesting.
Remember, this is me and your experience may differ a lot!
Cheers
Nice. I may have to pull the trigger on these if the cups/springs work with an HHKB.