What I really hope Topre is for me is soft yet not mushy, one thing that's true of all mechanical switches I've tried thus far is a... rougher bottom out for lack of a better term, I'm not referring to smoothness, as all of my favorite switches are smooth as butter, rather the experience of hitting the slider down on the plastic housing - not a bad feeling, in fact I quite like it! But I can't lie sometimes I wish I had a softer bottom out, the problem is I hate the mushiness which seems inseparable from that softer bottom out, it's why most of the best dome with slider switches have a sharper bottom out I suppose. Welp, I spent about twice as long going on this preface as I wanted so that about sums up my feelings before actually trying it, and I take it what I have to say later fans of Topre and or detractors of the switch will either find incredibly hilarious, or utter heresy! Doesn't seem like there's an in-between.
Now, from here on out this post will have been typed out on my new Realforce and the first impressions.... are insane, it's almost exactly what I wanted from up above, that softer bottom out WITHOUT the mushy cheap feeling just about every other rubber dome tends to suffer from. I've heard reports that the 55g were tiring, however, I'm typing extremely quickly on this without any issue, albeit I have experience with buckling springs and alps, which tend to be heavier than your average MX switch, with that I'd venture to guess I'd probably like the 45g switches a tiny bit less. Some things that surprise me are how well built the keyboard is, it's better built than both my Unicomps for comparison, having next to no flex, not as well built as my Omnikey which is no real surprise. The keyboard also has NKRO which surprised me, as I've read most USB realforces are limited to 6KRO, either way it's a welcome surprise and handily outclasses every other keyboard I have in that respect, as the highest rollover I've had previously were my 6KRO Matias boards, and it handily bests them in just about every other aspect, too!
I went into it a bit earlier, but I have to say: these switches are simply fantastic upon first impressions, I can type on them fairly quickly, they feel just tactile enough and are buttery smooth. It is worth noting however, these are very different from every other mechanical switch I've used, which is to be expected because it is a rubber dome keyboard, however to say that makes it bad is like claiming mechanical switches are horrible by default because of your experience with MX Browns - I have to say I made this mistake myself. The weighting feels perhaps a tiny bit heavier than my SKCM Salmons transplanted into my Omnikey, I'd say it's a tiny bit closer to the SKCM Whites in my FK-2001 in terms of pure weighting, though again the feel itself is completely different. Really the best thing I can say is it does indeed feel like the best of both worlds, the soft feeling of a rubber dome with the smoothness and tactility of a mechanical switch.
Now, onto the layout: I got the TKL, I would have preferred a fullsize however I do appreciate this particular keyboard for having a numpad layer - now for the games I use the numpad on this is useless, however upon first impressions it's fairly usable for inputting numbers, preferable to the number row, only issue is you can't use the alphabetical keys while you're using it, however that's the trade off for more space I suppose.
Lastly, the stabilizers might actually be the best stabilizers I've had in a keyboard myself, let alone out of the box. That's not to say it's perfect, you can make out rattling on the backspace, shift and enter keys, (however the space bar is almost completely silent) but it's minimal enough that I have to actively listen out for it, and is often covered up with the sound of the switch itself, which offers a nice deep sound to it as well.
Overall? My first impressions are stronger than I anticipated! Though at the retail price at about $200+ I think it's a bit steep as switches are all about preference, I'd be hard-pressed to say at the current moment this key feel isn't worth it. Obviously time will tell, while I love these switches now I have indeed heard people complain about fatigue with the 55g, however I am known to be fairly heavy handed so I have my doubts it'll ever be too much of an issue. My first attempt at a typing test led to about 110 WPM, which is above every SKCM alps board I have, however below my highest at about 125 WPM on SMK 2nd gen switches. I'm going to give it a week or so, and report back to this thread and see if I still agree with what I've said, or if this thing manages to beat out my trusty FK-2001 as a daily driver!
P.S. Sorry to flood the board with another topre thread!
