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by sushisource 3260 days ago
Topre switches are the best ever, and they get no love in the fervent mechanical keyboard community. It's just "cherry cherry cherry" ad nauseum with the occasional model-m imitator like the ones in this article.

Do yourself a favor and get a Realforce keyboard. It's typing nirvana.
3 comments
badlucklottery 3260 days ago
>Topre switches are the best ever

Do you know of a decently built and split design keyboard that uses them? A quick googling didn't show anything. I'd be willing to give it a shot but I'm not going back to a one piece keyboard for anything.

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sushisource 3259 days ago
I've never seen one unfortunately. I suspect they exist but maybe aren't easily found on english websites.
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girzel 3259 days ago
That's a bummer. I have a Das Keyboard, and love it, but at some point my keyboard obsession will return, and I can't really justify getting a keyboard that isn't split/configurable. It would be great to be able to try out topres at the same time – the enthusiasm is strong!
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ashark 3260 days ago
Offtopic(ish), but do you mean like the MS ergonomic keyboard split-but-one-piece, or actually two separate pieces? If the latter, what do you like about them?
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badlucklottery 3259 days ago
>do you mean like the MS ergonomic keyboard split-but-one-piece, or actually two separate pieces?

The MS ergo keyboard isn't wide enough for me but I'm not against a one-piece design. I just recently switched to a Kinesis Advantage2 (split-but-one-piece) at home but I have a straight two-piece keyboard at work. The width I keep the two-piece at is a bit wider than the Advantage but it's not enough to bother me.

>If the latter, what do you like about them?

The main issue for me is that I'm 6'6" and have broad shoulders. Normal keyboard layouts cause me to roll my shoulders dramatically so I can get my hands on the home keys. This caused some shoulder pain issues in the past when I had code-heavy weeks. Split configuration seems to have fixed that completely.

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michaelvmata 3259 days ago
Don't physically split keyboards allow for more extreme flexibility?

Single piece split keyboards still restrict the angle of your wrists. I find the MS ergo keyboards to better by default, but having the ability to adjust the angle opens the possibility of finding an even better angle (that may change over time).

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mamcx 3259 days ago
Not love?

Topre have a lot of love. Exist a lot of jokes about it be "just membarane" .

The main thing are:

1- The higher cost 2- Most good are very hard to get, and only from Japan

and the most important:

3- You can't get alternate key caps (easily). All the ecosystem is around MX Stems.

ALPS like matias suffer mostly for this too.

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gregdaynes 3260 days ago
There are a few of us at work that love Topre - HHKB + replacement controller board <3
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