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I spent four days analysing the Topre Type Heaven keyboard across 10 hour working days in a variety of applications. I used the Topre as my weapon of choice this week to produce our AMD R9 290 and Nvidia GTX780 Ti reviews as well.
Over the years I have adopted a variety of expensive flagship keyboards and always find myself going back to the Cherry Blue switches featured in a handful of keyboards such as those from DAS, Ducky and Razer. The Topre electrostatic capacitive switches are unlike anything else and have a very distinctive action which takes a little getting used to. After the third day of testing I was beginning to understand why these switches have such a fanatical cult following.
After initially moving to the Type Heaven from my Ducky Shine 2 SE (with Cherry Blue switches) I noticed that my typing speed had dropped significantly from around 110 wpm to around 60 wpm, although within a couple of hours, it had increased to around 80 wpm.
The majority of my problems were based around the single height return key as my little finger tends to hover over the key above on American style keyboards. Mentally this takes some readjusting, especially when touch typing in an almost subliminal manner.
By the end of the fourth day my typing was around the same speed as that on the Ducky Shine 2. I was quite happy with myself in this regard although I don't feel I would exchange my Ducky Shine 2 SE for the Topre Type Heaven keyboard.
While I can appreciate the quality of the electostatic capacitance keyswitches my own personal favourite is still the Cherry Blue switch. They are very loud, but they offer a feedback level which is difficult to replace, especially if you have been using them for years.
That said, if you are interested in trying something outside the realms of ‘Cherry control' then this typists keyboard certainly earns our WORTH BUYING award. Gamers however are likely to yearn for something a little more configurable and probably one with backlighting.
You can buy from SuperBiiz in America for $151.99 US.
NCIX stock it in Canada for $199.99 CAD.
No sign of UK availability as we speak, but SeaSonic may be distributing the keyboard within the European market at a future date.
Pros:
- fantastic key feel.
- very well built.
- laser etched keys.
- built to last.
Cons:
- Limited availability outside America/Canada/Far East.
- not backlit.
- single height return key.
- tough competition in the market.
- gamers may find it ‘boring'.
Kitguru says: The Topre Type Keyboard comes highly recommended if you want a no frills board for typing.
You can import these via ebay if anyone can’t find them in local stores. they make more expensive models – this one is considered their budget model, still good though, but as the reviewer said= no frills and quite boring looking, but great keys.
I had to laugh when you said you hit the enter key in the top part. I’m a fully trained RSA Text Processor Level 3, RSA Typing Level 3 and Word Processor Level 3 Typist and here are my thoughts on your review:
Advice: When you press the ‘return’ key, your index finger on your right hand should not lift off the ‘j’ key. Similar to you left index finger not lifting off the ‘a’ key when pressing ‘b’. You’ll learn this in RSA level 1 lessons. Seen as a bad habit of so called ‘touch’ typists.
So if you are a typist which this keyboard is aimed at don’t worry too much. As having a single height ‘return’ key gives you a double length left shift.
Typists don’t need backlit keys by the way… touch typing is about muscle memory not using sight.
The left profile of the keys is to the perfect setup for typing for the placement of using your fingers. Many keyboards overlook this. This is also for the keypad too. This may have felt weird to you as you are used to a flat/flatter keyboard design. Pictures of these profiles are not used in your review and is a major selling point of the keyboard.
Furthermore as the keyboard is not mechanical it doesn’t need maintenance, e.g. oiling keys and you can type with 30g of pressure on the keys too which give less noise on this keyboard.
Finally, with correct actuation of the key profiles and less pressure needed for the key to type this keyboard offers you long typing sessions without fatigue in the fingers. Trust me I’m a typist and when you type for 8 hours a day you’ll notice the upgrade.
As for buying in the UK… go here… http://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard/topre-type-heaven-104-key-usa-45g-black-keyboard.asp