My review of the Leopold FC660M mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches

This is my review of the Leopold FC660M mechanical keyboard with blue Cherry MX switches. I only used it for three weeks and then gave it back although I liked it a lot!

Update April 2019: I sent the keyboard back. It had quality issues. Some of the keycaps imprints started fading away, the worst one was the left shift key. Then the cursor keys. And this only after three weeks of buying and using it! I had to send it back to the seller CandyKeys who acknowledged that this was a bigger problem with the Leopold FC660Ms. I did not expect that from such an expensive keyboard and did not want to buy another one. Actually I switched toa Varmilo VA 69M V3 CMYK (MIYA PRO). You can read my review on that keyboard here.

Keycaps imprints fading away

Original Review: Lets explain some things before I start with this keyboard! I talked about my search for the perfect keyboard in this blog post. Since two years I use a MacBook Pro 2016 at home which is mostly docked. Its keyboard is horrible, I only use it when I need to. Normally I use my Macbook Pro with an Apple Magic Keyboard and an Apple Magic Trackpad 2:

Apple Magic Keyboard and Apple Magic Trackpad 2

The trackpad is phantastic but the keyboard is not. The keys have very low travel and the cursor keys are very bad, especially the up and down arrow keys, they are too small to reach them. I am a software engineer and need this keys a lot. I often mistype and am not happy with it. The MacbookPro keyboard is even worse, this is the most horrible keyboard I ever used. The touch bar is only a gimmick. And the keys have almost no travel, it is like typing directly on a plain surface. The keys are also very unreliable, I alrady had Apple replace the whole keyboard because some keys stopped working because of debris. From time to time I still get stuck keys or keys that produce more than one character per press which forces me to clean the keys with compressed air, horrible!

At work I am using a Windows 10 laptop and since two years I am using a ThinkPad compact keyboard attached to it which is a good keyboard. I stopped using a mouse two years ago completely and am only using the trackpoint on the Lenovo keyboard, which is very precise. Sadly the low travel of the Lenovo keyboard also is affecting me more and more. The keys do not have a good actuation point, it is often not audible for me if I completely pressed a key or not. This is sadly a problem of all current Lenovo keyboards, they are gradually becoming worse. Sadly the build quality of the lenovo compact keyboard was so bad that I damaged several keys while transporting it daily from home to work and back. I could clip some of the keys back into the keyboard but two keys completely broke and I got sick of it 😦 The Lenovo SK 8855 keyboard is much better built!!!

Lenovo Compact Keyboard with the red trackpoint stick

So, after reminiscing the last years I noticed that I was mostly using either laptop keyboards or very flat keyboards. I do not remember having had problems with keyboards before this time period. I remembered that I used mechanical keyboards in the time before. So I decided to switch to a mechanical keyboard and get a better typing experience again 🙂

What keyboard sizes and layouts do exist?

But which one to choose? Because I was used to working with very slim keyboards and having my hands rest on the keyboard without having to use a mouse I could not imagine switching back to a full 102 key keyboard and a mouse. I do not use the number block and I feared that using the mouse would cause me wrist problems when having to reach from the standard keys over the number block to a mouse and back several hundred times a day. So I did some research and found a thriving community and several other interesting keyboard layouts:

• 100% or full size keyboards, these usually have about 102 keys more or less. These are the most common keyboards.
• 80% or 75% keyboards which are tenkeyless (without a number block) like the Ducky One in the images below. These keyboards also include a row with the function keys F1-F12. You get 6 rows of keys in total.
• 65% keyboards like the Leopold FCM660M which I am reviewing. These keyboards do not have a number block but they have cursor keys. Pos1, End, Page Up and Page Down are mostly missing on these keyboards but you can use the missing keys by pressing the Fn key in combination with other keys. These keyboards are missing the function keys row and thus have only 5 rows of keys! The function keys can be reached by holding down function and then a number key.
• 60% keyboards like the VORTEX POK3R do not even have dedicated arrow keys anymore.
• There are even smaller keyboards like the 40% Planck keyboard which would be completely unusable for me!

Please click on an image in the gallery to enlarge it:

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  Leopold FC 980M

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  Ducky One

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  Leopold FC660M

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  Vortex Pok3r

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  Planck keyboard

The best compromise in the keyboard layout for me seemed to be the 65% layout.

• I do not need the number block, it makes the keyboard too wide.
• Tenkeyless keyboards like the Ducky One are still too wide for me.
• The 65% Leopold FCM660M moves the arrow keys close to the other keys and removes Pos1, End, Page Up and Page Down. That is no problem for me because I can use these keys by pressing Function and other keys.
• As a software engineer I often use the function keys. But I have no problem losing the function key row and using Fn and a number key to type F1..F12. The loss of one key row makes the keyboard more compact which I like.
• Sadly most of the keyboards still have the completely unnecessary, never used by me, Caps Lock key. I don’t get it, why reduce the keyboards size and still put a Caps Lock key on them???
• I need a Ctrl, Alt and Windows key. The Leopold FC660M provides these keys. I also can use this keyboard under MacOS. The Windows key acts as the Command key in MacOS and works really fine. I use Mac OS and WIndows.
• I need a German layout. Most of the mechanical keyboards use the ANSI layout. Swapping out the keycaps is too expensive and not always practical. This narrowed down the choice of suitable keyboards even more.
• I wanted a keyboard with Cherry MX blue switches, which I will explain in the next paragraph.

From all keyboards I researched the Leopold FC660M satisfied most of my needs and I could buy it in Germany from CandyKeys for 119€.

The keyboard switches in mechanical keyboards

After having decided which layout I want, I was confronted with a huge variety of possible key switches for the keyboard. Lots of mechanical keyboards can be ordered with a plethora of different switches. The most common switches are Cherry MX switches. Cherry had patents on their switches. These patents ran out some time ago and other companies like Gateron, Kailh, … started producing their own Cherry like switches which usually are cheaper. I decided to go with original Cherry MX switches. These switches follow a color scheme. There are red, black, blue, green, brown and clear switches. They differ in the force needed to actuate a key, if there is a tactile bump when a key actuates and if there is an audible click when the key actuates.

In order to find out which switch type I prefer I ordered a test kit with 12 different Cherry MX switches, as you can see in the following two images and could get a feeling for the keys.

I chose the Cherry MX blue because it is perfect for typing. You feel a bump when the key actuates and also hear an audible click. Some people prefer the brown switches for typing because they don’t click but that is a matter of preference. I suggest going into a store where you can test the switches or order a test set online!

Tester for the different switches

The Leopold FC660M

The Leopold FC660M came very nicely packaged. The package contained a USB-Micro-USB cable, a manual and a very practical transparent cover for the keyboard. Please click on an image to enlarge it.

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They keyboard is built very sturdy. The casing is an aluminum casing and gives the keyboard a good weight. It weighs about 0,7 kilos or 1,60 lbs. The keys have a good travel and feel very pleasant. The white text is clearly readable. The keycaps have a rough texture which prevents your fingers from slipping. All keycaps are rounded. My typing quality has dramatically improved with this keyboard, I love it, it is a joy to use! I use it laying flat or in raised position.

The Cherry MX Blue switches give a good feedback on when a key actuates. The keys are very stable, even the spacebar, the enter key, backspace, … They are stabilized very well.

The only downside is that these switches are really loud. Personally I don’t mind this because I like the sound of these switches. But my surroundings don’t ;-P So I decided to pull off all caps and put O-rings on all keycaps which dampen the sound. Here are some images of this process. Please click on an image to enlarge it.

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After this operation the keys are audibly quieter! I uploaded two typing tests onto my soundcloud account, one without O-rings, the other with O-rings:

Final words

In conclusion I very much enjoy this keyboard. I don’t miss my old ThinkPad keyboard, only the trackpoint. I would like to show my current setup which I am using on my MacbookPro and on my Windows 10 laptop. I coupled the keyboard with a Logitech MX Master 2S mouse which I can keep really close to the keyboard and that works fine. I am planning to test a Logitech MX Ergo trackball in the future, also!

So this is my main keyboard under MacOS and Windows 10 from now on 🙂 Here is a photo of the setup: