[Review] Leopold FC660C w/ Topre Silent 45g

Coming in at $249, the Leopold FC660C doesn't try to justify its premium positioning with features like RGB, backlighting, software, USB passthroughs, a metal build - things you'd find in many prebuilt, primarily gaming oriented keyboards at this kind of a price point. Instead, Leopold seems to have primarily focused on the typing experience of this board, and let that do the talking. But will that be enough to warrant the asking price?

Beside the keyboard itself, there's not a whole lot in the way of accessories included in the box. You're looking at just a manual, a bog standard USB-A to mini USB-B cable (nope, no USB-C here) and a couple of extra keycaps.

Speaking of which, the FC660C's keycaps are dye-sublimated and made out of PBT plastic, with the exception of the spacebar which is ABS. The profile is something between OEM and Cherry, and will therefore feel very familiar from the moment you take it out of the box and start typing.

As you may or may not have noticed, the legends on these keycaps are really not all that prominent. In fact, from some angles or under certain lighting conditions, they'll almost look like blanks. If you ask me, that just adds to the overall stealthy look of this board, which I'm really into.

If you rely on the legends when typing however, these keycaps will be far from optimal. The fact that aftermarket Topre compatible keycaps are quite scarce also doesn't help, so that's definitely something to take note of, as far as the black on black variant of the FC660C is concerned. If you're into modding though, you could get some MX sliders and make your board compatible with any MX style keycaps of your liking!

Now, let's talk Topre. Technically, these are electrostatic capacitive non-contact switches. In layman's terms, these are the rich man's rubber domes.

In the case of my personal board, these are 45g silenced Topre switches. Non-silenced Topre will have a black housing, as opposed to purple.

So... how do they feel? Are they really good enough to make spending this much on a seemingly uninteresting prebuilt justifiable? Before I comment on that, I would just like to make clear that this is just my personal opinion. Keyboard switches are totally a matter of personal taste, and trying them out before you go out and buy them is highly recommended.

Typing on this keyboard is an absolute joy. Coming from Cherry MX Browns, it really was a pleasure to get to feel a proper tactile switch. I've yet to find a better, short explanation than to say that typing on this keyboard feels like typing on clouds, with a really deliberate, thocky resistance when bottoming out, that then pushes back your finger on the way up with a subtle, distinctive sound. Hopefully that at least kind of makes sense.

With these switches, this board is really quiet. The stabilisers are also very good - I've only noticed a tiny bit of rattle on the backspace key, but that's about it.

I actually even type considerably faster on these switches as opposed to my previous MX Browns, which really was quite surprising.

They're also fine for gaming, I feel. Lots of people seem to think that gaming requires really light keyboard switches for some reason, but I wholeheartedly disagree with that. Double tapping keys felt a little odd at first, which took me back to when I first switched to a mechanical keyboard from a cheap old membrane, though I got used to it quickly.

With all of that said, do I think that the Leopold FC660C was worth the premium? I'd say so. Typing on it feels amazing, it's quiet, portable, and also looks good despite not being flashy in the slightest. I guess the lack of USB-C could be considered a con, though I really don't see why that would be a deal-breaker for anybody.

Oh, and it might also make you hate your old keyboard. Don't say I didn't warn you.