Keyboard Fetish

I am in nirvana...

I am in an ecstasy...

I have walked the path of no return...

Finally, after all my computing years, my never ending quest for Promised Land has come to an end. I have solved my most important and longest standing hardware problem ever.

I found THE keyboard: Topre RealForce 103.

I know, I know, why am I bugging you over such an ugly piece of crap? If you are one of those fancy developer types that like curvy aerodynamic keyboards, with dedicated buttons for Media Player, Outlook and oh yeah CALC.EXE, that's OK with me. But I like my keyboard the old fashioned style, it is so much faster to use, everything is just where it's supposed to be.

And what about Topre RealForce? Well, try it out and you will understand, that is if you can find it in a store near you :-) I can't describe this experience in words... It just feels soooo right...

Is it worth $228 (I got it around $200)???

I used to ask myself the same question for all other keyboards that came my way all those years and the answer was always NO NO NO, no matter what their price tag was. But now, for the first time I can answer with a YES.

Oh by the way, I got the white one, I don't like black keyboards :-P

Click click click click...

Have Fun!

Dimitris Staikos

Comments

[Dimitris Papadimitirou]

I'm also the kind of person with keyboard/mouse fetish. But I don't get it! The must be something very special about this keyboard that I can't see. 200$! And 1,4Kg! What's so special about these topre keys?
I'm the kind of guy that likes curvy ergonomic (and not aerodynamic) keyboards :)
What I do hate is the presence of the numeric keypad at the right of any keyboard. I rarely use it and it stands on the way between the main keyboard and my mouse! Sometimes I envy left handed people that use mouse with left hand.

[Theologos Sosonis]

Nice article about keyboards in general from John Dvorak:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2350895,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03079TX1K0000584

[Jake]

Question is, have you used the Unicomp Customizer, or its precursor, the IBM Model M? I ask because both use buckling springs but cost considerably less than the $200 for the Topre.

[aladdin]

I live in Taiwan, I am doing some search on the price of Realforce 103 for my cousin in New York, and I found this one.

Yes, it's really a fantastic keyboard, even better than my Cherry keyboard with brown switches. And why it's so expensive? Is it worthy? Well, I think you will give a definitely YES after you try it. At least, four of my collegues have bought this pieces after they "borrow" my 103 two or three days. And this keyboard cost 1/5 of their monthly salary.

Oh, I am a programmer, 15K of keying in a normal day.

And I found it so hard to buy this keyboard in US. Maybe japanese manufacture is the reason?

[aladdin]

Furthermore, there is a ten-key-less version of RealForce 103, which should be 86/87. More expensive than 103 (about 50 bucks), for there are some features (hardware switch to switch key function, more reliable than software-controlled switching when gaming).