Leopold FC750R Mechanical Keyboard Review (Awful Ping Noise, Scratchy Switches, Aggressive Keycaps)
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- Опубликовано: 17 июл 2024
- My recommended keyboard would be the Durgod Taurus K320 TKL amzn.to/39xWGde (US) amzn.to/3aZphbI (CA)
It's a cool looking expensive keyboard that is super silent but be wary of notorious ping noise, a not-so-smooth typing experience and its aggressive keycap profile (Step Sculpture 2) which is not for the faint of heart.
3M Gel Wrist Pad mentioned amzn.to/3zMTK7w
Leopold FC750R Ash Yellow PD TKL Double Shot PBT Mechanical Keyboard with Cherry MX Silent Reds (Pink)
00:00 Quest to find the perfect keyboard
00:55 Paying exorbitant shipping fees
01:45 What you get
02:47 What you do NOT get
03:25 Form factor, build quality
04:22 ABS vs PBT keycaps
04:54 Keyboard thickness
05:37 Slippery bottom
06:14 Cherry MX Silent Reds Quietness
07:28 Keycap profile Step Sculpture 2 vs OEM
10:00 Horrible ping noise
11:09 Scratchy switches (not very smooth)
11:50 Don't make my mistake, lesson learned
12:20 Quick recap
13:14 Sounds tests and comparisons
13:53 Would I still recommend this keyboard?
This video is NOT sponsored. Some product links are affiliate links which means if you buy something I'll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. 
Хобби
Holy moly! The DIY enthusiast keyboard community is SO amazing and helpful. Thank you everyone for your overwhelmingly and thoughtful replies to my buyer's remorse situation. Sorry I can't reply to everyone, but I've definitely read all your comments and will process it for my next keyboard investment if I decide to sell this keyboard.
"I don't understand anything about mechanical keyboards, but hey, here's a review of one"...
pretty sure this video wasn't made for nerds
Do you even know what a "personal review" is?
Maru, 7 time GSL Starcraft 2 champion, uses this keyboard. So there's that. It's proooobably a good keyboard.
Appreciate your effect on making this video and honestly share your feedback. It's useful for me.
That was clearly spring ping instead of case ping. So the main problems you had with the board (outside of disliking cherry style keycaps) is to do with your switch of choice. Cherry switches can be very scratchy and have bad spring ping too unless they are lubed. Maybe the scratchiness is less noticeable when you've been using tactile/clicky boards in the past. If you are looking for the perfect TKL for you, I think the only real option is to get a custom board. With that you can get some good silent switches and use the OEM keycaps of your choice.
I'm thinking of replacing the key caps with my das keyboard abs keycaps!
@@JSyntax omg. please don't.
Hi! Here to let you know that u can do so much on mechanical keyboards. There are a lot of options and customizations on mech keybs that would suit your preference. You can purchase switches, stabs, keycaps, and lube your switches. There are also a lot of modders in the keyboard community and there may be one in your local area. Good luck in diving down the rabbit hole!
The keyboard actually is pretty decent for the price tag. Compared with the Moonlander Mark 1 (which costs around 365 USD), this one seems affordable :)
I feel like you were somewhat led astray with this Leopold recommendation. For those looking to get into the hobby, get a hotswappable keyboard like one of the Royal Kludge boards, then buy a set of PBT keycaps and potentially also switches. You'll have the flexibility to try different things and narrow down to what you are happy with and it will be significantly cheaper, like around $100 instead of approaching the $200 mark as with this Leopold keyboard. Is it more effort to go this route? Yes, but it's a far cry from the time investment of soldering and lubing switches and you're not going to be as susceptible to buyer's remorse, because if there's an aspect of the board you don't like you can pretty easily change it.
With this route, if you do want to go the extra mile, get some di-electric grease and lube your stabilizers. I have a friend who did exactly what I outlined above and she is extremely happy with the results all while spending about $100 total.
prebuilt is ok, especially for users that need a full-size keyboard, Leopold is the decent one and I got a fc900r with RM249(USD 55?) while promotion,2 Filco m2(just for respect the classic and need to find the old one, since at that time the MX switches are way better than current one ) and main gear ducky one( due to calculator button, office use)just as u mention, after lube the stab is still a great board
customize, the hot-swap is definitely the best and it's seriously not really a cheap hobby, I will recommend Akko( it's also prebuilt but with customization ability) if new to this, then go study mount system~tray~gasket etc~
It's definitely not Leopold issues but the cherry switches need improvement and Leopold is time for hot-swap and build their own switches
mine blue-gray Leopold FC980M PD (cherry brown) was beautiful, and was also pinging as hell, I returned it.
You can disassemble the keyboard by removing the three screws at the bottom and unclip the top frame. Fixing the ping noise though require you to unsolder the switch and lube it (it's mostly spring noise) so it's definitely not a beginner friendly mod. And stock Cherry switch is known for being more scratchy, and the silenced version make it more apparent. Again, lubing the switch will improve it.
Finally, try some good Cherry profile keycap (either ABS or PBT is fine). To me they feel much better than the overly aggressive Leopold stock keycap and the tall, unwieldy and non fitting OEM profile.
Appreciate a review from newbie's perspective! Sad to hear the disappointment, as Leopold is one of the best prebuilt manufacturers.
All silent switches will be somewhat mushy on the bottom out (there are silicon dampeners on the stem). Unlubed switches will ping and scratch.
The mod suggestions by T4CO G4M3 are worth trying.
I do feel like your standards are high enough to really benefit from a custom. I just built my first keyboard, and it was a great learning experience. If you're interested, the QK65 is currently king of budget customs at $180. You do need to buy the other parts (switches, lube, keycaps) separately, but then you get complete control over the look, feel, and sound. It's not difficult, but it can be time consuming (especially lubing switches - but there are services that will do it for you, and some switches are smooth enough to use stock).
Got the Topre silent version, love it. Best typing experience. And the Leo Topre has 0 ping, 0 rattle, sounds and feels better even than my lubed HHKB straight out of the box. It's so good I don't even bother lubing it or doing anything to it.
On the HHKB I did a lot, still not even close, also in terms of quality and weight, keycaps, and the horrible HHKB key profile. HHKB have their charm but as a all round keyboard have nothing on the Leopold Topre silent.
And as a artist Photoshop user, the HHKB layout is also useless.
There is two problems I see with Topre. Obvious one is price. Ballpark of 300 bucks for a keyboard? Take my kidney while you are at it. Second, which is connected to first - I only saw TKL versions of Topre prebuilds. God knows how much a 100% version would cost.
Well , if you looking custom-quality keyboard out of box - try Dark project 87a tkl
This keyboard has silent pbt keys (Gateron Teal Cap) and foams in case, lubed switches and stabilizers.
And this is strong base for modding : Hot swap switches, tools for change switches, caps, changeable type-C cable.
My first mech kb was Leopold FC500R/EB with Cherry Brown and it was really good. I got FC750R with silent reds recently and i kinda like it, for a price it's the best what i could find. Also it has some spare caps for the Caps Lock and Ctrl and different colored caps for a joystic thing (which is surprisingly useful sometimes) and also a plastic keypuller. No gilded cable tho, like in FC500R. Yeah no rgb leds, but otherwise i had nothing to complain. So i watched the vid with my brows raised.
You didn't experience ping, scratchy switches? Maybe u Got OEM keycaps too. I just don't like their step sculpture 2 key caps mostly
@@JSyntax I see
well time will tell, i just got it in september, maybe "problems" will be more apparent when i spend more time with it
I was initially disappointed with my FC750Rs, primarily because of the really odd keycap profile (so different that my fingers would miss keys when touch typing), and that pingy noise. I replaced the keycaps with Tai-Hao OEM caps and they completely changed the experience: *no pinging*, can actually touch type at speed, and the keys no longer feel scratchy. That said, they are relatively cheap here in Australia (A$200/US$125) and I find them excellent after the keycap swap. I liked them so much that every keyboard I own is now an FC750R (red switches).
I need to switch my key caps to oem! Thank you for sharing your deep insights! How many Leopold do you own?
@@JSyntax I have 2x 750Rs and 2x 900Rs.
Ping is due to springs, all stock Cherry switches have this issue. You would need to desolder the board and either swap the springs or lubricate them :/
Leopolds are easy as all hell to open up. There's like 3 screws on the back, then lift the tabs that are actually holding the case together, and finally unplug the daughterboard. As for the price, how did you get one for $200? The newer, more expensive model with bluetooth comes out to $139, and your model is only $119 on the site. And regarding the switches, of course the silent reds are gonna be scratchy. That's always been a big complaint with any MX silent switches, same with the ping. If anything the biggest complaint nowadays with Leopold is that they don't offer any other switches, even though Cherrys are usually not very good out of the box, and so many folks have made much better alternatives.
Very good information in your comment. I won't make the same mistake. I'm going to look for prelubed silent switches. Currency is cad. With taxes and fees, plus delivery to Canada
1. The board is actually quite easy to disassemble. After unscrewing the screws underneath the flip-down feet aswell as the one under the sticker near the USB port, you can use a guitar pick or credit card to pry the tabs between the bottom and top case. From there you could install a higher density foam or pour silicone into it to deaden the sound.
2. The keycaps you bought are very similar to a "cherry" profile which is the standard for keycaps in the community. Since you mentioned that you preferred a taller profile that would also support your fingers, I would recommend the MT3 profile off of Drop. The MT3 profile is similar to SA but has deeper top surfaces that almost "hug" the tips of your fingers. A slightly shorter profile than MT3 would be KAT and it also has a slightly wider top surface.
3. Cherry switches are extremely scratchy stock, most of the time in the community we'll lube them. You could do what is called breaking in the switch which involves you typing on it for a while and the switch will naturally smoothen out.
I hope this experience doesn't stray you away from the hobby as I believe that keyboards can be something that people can use as a way from expressing themselves and everyone can find their own preferences.
Also, there are services where people can build keyboard for you of your preferences, but usually you'll have to supply your own parts and some builders will charge a fee for their labor on top of that. As for the conventions there have been conventions in the past, but those are not that friendly for beginners as it's usually people bringing their own boards that they've built themselves not prebuilt boards from other vendors.
highly appreciate the indepth reply here.
I am not sure about trying random key cap profiles. I'm a little scared to make such a gamble. I may need to stick to OEMs since they're so familiar. The problem with Step Sculpture 2 is that they're narrow and the number row is disproportionately tall vs the lower set of keys.
I am still using this keyboard. I'll put up with the spring but I really just need to replace the key caps for oem or sell the whole keyboard versus risk modding it.
Also got this with the brown switches and regret it for similar reasons (ping is awful on browns and poor grip, butter fingers galore when gaming). Ordered a Ducky One 2, hopefully that's a bit better.
You said it succinctly... "poor grip". I'm guessing you didn't get oem profile?
Nice detailed review! I've got the 10 key version of this keyboard and silent reds have become my all time favorite. I and haven't noticed a ping sound. Is there an area or method you're using to produce it? If the sound is all over your keyboard you might have a defective one and should have warranty service or be able to get a replacement. The sound in this video is a bit exaggerated due to the mic being so close ruclips.net/video/7PhfIfpnv6k/видео.html .
You get use to it, maybe I have overly sensitive hearing! Glad you enkoyed it!
cherry is known to have really bad spring that most people in the custom mechanical keyboard scene that like cherry switches will almost always spring swap it. but lubing the spring would help a lot too. Since u are on a soldered prebuilt, that's something u are not able to do. And because you bought the silent switches (which uses dampeners on the stem rails usually), the spring ping is just going to be a lot more apparent because there is no bottom out of upstroke sound to mask it. well to be honest event with non silent switches they the spring ping are still noticeable so... yeah...
good insights here.. i learned my lesson
Would recommend a Varmilo keyboard for best pre-built. They are quite artistic and visually attractive but there are also other colors.
Ty! Will look into I've heard them before.
@@JSyntax Just got a varmilo va87m summit with cherry mx browns and it also has the pinging reverberating noise when typing. Don't expect anything different than your leopold.
@@aironcullen Second that- my VA87M had so much pinging I had to return it. Without the pinging, that board would be near perfect imo.
@@DreamingPhenom yeah I returned mine aswell. Ended up just getting a keychron so I can customise it to sound how I want
I just bought a Leopold 750 and after a week have only just noticed that only perhaps the enter key has a ping, and only when it's pressed too hard. Perhaps you had a duff board, but if the board has so many good independent reviews, the ping cannot be a serious universal issue.
What Cherry MX brand did you get
@@JSyntax MX Browns. Now that you have mentioned I'm really going of my way to identify any pings! lol. Right side enter and shift are probably culprits. But I'm not really that bothered by it. I have added o rings anyway to the board to make the impact of the keys on the board more muted, which I really like. Yes, enter key does actually ping a bit and actually some other keys. The arrow keys. But most of the keys I press the most don't or at least it's not really noticeable to me. I can live with it, will probably go away after a while.
Relatable to my story. Eight months ago, I got a Logitech G Pro X keyboard. Was hyped with it at first, until I trying to mod it. The layouts are BIZARRE and it seems like no one is making keycaps for them. The keycaps are an ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. It is made out of ABS and it's not even DOUBLESHOT! It costs 110$ when I got it. Despite all the mods I've done, it could not sounds good at all. I've withdrawn it from use a month ago and I'm happy that I'm no longer had a bullshit around me :D (it has been sold to my friend). I replace it with a custom keyboard (FL MK870) and the whole cost of the build is LESS THAN 75$ and it feels SO GOOD!
Thank you for sharing your similar story it's crazy but it's like trying to buy a good keyboard
@@JSyntax I am their victim. After this, I will stay away from gaming keyboards and never get another Logitech mechanical keyboard.
Razer deathstalker v2 pro?
Leopold makes some of the best if not the best prebuilt mechanical keyboards. The keycaps especially are top notch compared to any other OEM. Of course these switches are scratchy because they're stock. Most switches from the big 4 from the factory will be. The ping noise is coming from the springs, which are unoiled. Once again, most of the switches that come from the big 4 will be. There's a reason why people buy Leopold boards just for the caps. Those Koreans know their shit. If you don't like the inherent scratchiness of stock Cherry switches there are some Leopold boards that come with SP Stars but those are a little harder to find. If you want a somewhat competent review to go off of, check out JYMVs FC980m review. Even though I disagree with almost everything stated in this review, I can see where you're coming from as someone who isn't deep into the mechanical keyboard community.
Varmilo are better stock keyboards that come with Electro Capacitive switches which are smooth. Surprisingly, no one recommended them for pre-built.
@@DrWiki-po1hk I agree, Varmilo boards are very good. However Leopolds do also have Topre boards. My FC980c blows all my MX style boards out of the water, even stock.
I much appreciate your detailed reply to this video. I have some learning to do.
@@JSyntax Sure! You live and you learn haha
Maybe consider the Razer DeathStalker V2 Pro TLK. Looks great and gets really good reviews. Not sure there's a wired version though, but since you picked the G915 over the wired G815, it doesn't seems like a huge deal to you.
interesting perspective. one thing i can offer if you ever manage to open it up, tape. painter's tape is your best friend with how easily appliable it is and how much of an impact it has. cover the entirety of the back of the PCB in one to two layers of tape, and the sound should improve massively, and when it comes to reducing ping, add layers of tape to the inside of the case itself (or if you never manage to open it, add tape to the underside of the keyboard, its a bit of a janky solution, but ideally noone's going to see it anyways)
other possibility which would take more efford is if you have EVA foam, cutting it so it fits on the inside of the keyboard and using double sided tape to fixate it to the inside of the case. will take more work, but the results are worth it
as for the switches, yeah, Cherry MX are not the greatest when it comes to user experience, there are tons of aftermarket switches for all kinds of use cases, and the cherry lineup more often than not is the "default" and standard starter when it comes to say, gaming keyboards n stuff, whereas more enthusiast grade boards hardly ever have cherry mx switches, these are considered the bare minimum
unfortunately as far as i know the PCB is not hotswap, meaning you'd have to desolder and resolder the switches, this as a newcomer usually means its tedius, its annoying, etc etc. but its something that some enthusiasts also preffer over hotswap, you get a more secure connection to the PCB, and sometimes a better sound. but it is something that's ultimately worth learning about, its a valuable experience to have
I have to chime in and say that a lot of people highly prefer Cherry switches. A quick look at the Keycults, Jane v2s, Matrix 8xvs, Unikorns, moontowers, etc out there reveals no small number of Cherry enjoyers.
that is a switch situation not the board, leopold makes the best pre-built non-hot-swap boards. solder some new lubed switches in there and you are golden. if you want something that blows everything else get a Rama TKL.
1st of all we have the same name, cool. 2nd I was literally going to say the exact same thing about the switches.
Appreciate all the advice!
Sorry for your experience with this good looking but deficient KB. Little point to its great cherry red silence with its irritating ping noise. Yet another reason for trying to buy tech from Amazon, I am afraid. Best of luck in finding the (nearly) ideal KB and hope you can recoup some of your losses by selling off parts of this disappointing Pinger!
Actually Leopold is not really suitable for gaming usage, it's famous for it's build and keycap (bad point is MX switch), floating keyboard and OEM profile is more suitable for gaming, and it's really need some lube job, even u go for much more expensive cherry keyboard the spring sound remain ~~i would recommend gateron yellow or white box or tealios, for stock keyboard is ducky 3 due to its hotswap ability or a chinese brand fl980(if limited budget)
but how does one lube switches that are soldered?
@@JSyntax desolder= pain job ( i won't do it anymore)or u can just spray it or use the syringe, not really a perfect job but it is better than nothing, and for me lubing the stabilizer is much more important
@@JSyntax you can lube switches that soldered, they may not 100% lubed well but somehow it will be 40% and that's way better than 0%
@@rioscloud9167no, don’t do that lol
my filco tkl has got the same ping, I just got used to it haha
Is it scratchy
Just bought (brown) - yes the ping is terryfying but I can live with it - its my first mechanical keyboard :)
But I'm a big anty china fan - so Im happy that I have sth made in Taiwan :D
I always take reviews with a grain of salt. 🧐
It's a good idea but a typing experience is inherently so personal and subjective
I bought a Filco TKL around 7 months ago and felt the same way about it. Terrible pinging noise, scratchiness, overall a rip-off. Last month I bought the Keychron Q5 and the quality was way better. If you want a solid prebuilt keyboard, consider the Keychron Q series. The Q3 is a TKL so it just might be what you're looking for. The board is also hot-swappable.
The keycaps alone are worth the price
I need to sell them
The mx silents are even more scratchy than normal cherry mx switches
Well that explains it. How do I get silent smooth switches without having to painstakingly lube them?
@@JSyntax Silent switches are never as smooth as normal switches. because of the sound dampening.
you can try durock silent linear
Or Alpaca Silents switches.
Zilents
Those are pretty smooth
@@rubenn7212hat is just wrong, silent and scratch (smoothness) are independent in design and construction
Mx zilents are god tier in silent and smoothness
you can tell by everything he is saying that he is very inexperienced and he cant provide a good perspective on this.
Ouch! My feelings are not valid!
@@JSyntax hey, nothing against you, you just said somethings that I found pretty revolting and blatantly wrong.
The whole "let me pose a question as if I'm about to answer it" and then "I'll come back to that later" got old after the second or third time. You're just trolling your viewers the same way lazy writers do with episodic TV procedurals.
Ok this is actually trash😅