Leopold have been in the mechanical keyboard game for a while now, and they’ve always
been known for their quality build, and clean simple aesthetics.
So today I’m excited to check out their tenkeyless option, the Leopold FC750R PD.
This won’t be a fully fleshed out review, as it is a prize, so I didn’t use it too
much or open it up, but you know, you can get most of the info you need.
Thanks to Mwave.com.au for sponsoring this keyboard as a prize for our upcoming Sydney
Mechanical Keyboard Meetup 2018.
I’ll put the links in the description.
And of course, I will always give my honest opinion in my reviews.
In the hands it feels nice and solid as you’d expect, with minimal flex, as it does have
that internal steel mounting plate that gives it its rigidity and weight, which is a touch
under 1kg.
So weight wise, pretty standard.
And this just looks clean as, with a very basic plastic enclosure, but you get that
quality feel from the plastic.
This is available in a couple of different colours, which all look very classy.
I’d say this one is my favourite colourway, with a slightly creamy or beigy case.
And the keycaps match perfectly as well with a two toned approach, and solid black legends.
And the legends are perfect, just clean, simple, and professional.
So yeh, you can’t really ask for more.
Looking at the side profile, we do have that natural inclination to it.
And you may not notice it right away, but we have their step sculpture 2 keycaps.
So these are quite similar to Cherry profile keycaps, being shorter than the normal OEM
ones you have on most other boards, making it quite comfortable to type on.
On the bottom we have a couple of rubber feet for non-slip, and 2 flip up feet that are
also rubber tipped.
We have our mini USB port, with cable routing channels.
And finally our dip switches.
These just allow us to make some small modifications to the board.
Siwtch 1, swaps the left control and caps lock.
And that’s where the extra keycaps come in.
It’s kind of a popular thing to do, but I’ve honestly never liked it.
Like, I’m one of those people that actually use the caps lock key.
And then I’m way too used to having control down there, especially for gaming, and all
the shortcuts as well.
And the other switches are as described.
So yeh, just small changes.
And there’s no software or onboard programming, so that’s as far as the customisability
goes.
We do still have the FN key, and annoyingly, just by looking at the keyboard, there is
no secondary printing on any keycaps, and then in the user guide, it doesn’t mention
anything.
So you really have no idea what the FN layer actually has.
I had to go to their Korean website, and here it shows that FN plus F1 to F4 is for repeat
rates I think.
And then we have a bunch of media controls.
And then finally we can switch between N-key and 6-key rollover, on home and end.
So yeh, pretty annoying that there aren’t any symbols for this stuff, so you would have
to memorise them if you were to use them, in particular the media controls.
Taking off the keycaps, and these are really really nice 1.5mm thick doubleshot PBT plastic
keycaps.
So the legends are another piece of plastic and will never fade away.
They have a slightly rougher texture to them as well.
But yeh, these are super nice, and they add so much value to the keyboard.
Underneath the keycaps, I have some Cherry MX Black’s, but this does come in the other
Cherry MX variants.
The stabs are great, besides the spacebar, which unfortunately has a bit of rattle to
it.
On the box it does mention that it has a sound absorbing pad.
I can’t test how much of an effect it has, as I’m not going to open the keyboard.
But I know that it’s just like a felt sheet that goes between the case and the PCB, as
I did open up the Leopold FC980M.
And with that one, it didn’t make much of a difference, but in theory, it should make
it feel just a touch more dense and tighter in sound.
Overall, this is a classic Leopold keyboard.
It exudes quality and class, with the solid construction, and a clean design that will
fit into any environment.
If a tenkeyless keyboard isn’t for you, then they do have the FC980 and the FC900
boards.
It’s a very simple board.
What you see is what you get.
So there is no real customisability or programmability that you can do, which can be more bad for
some.
There is the FN layer, but unless you go looking for it, you won’t know that it’s there.
But other than that.
There’s not much to complain about to be honest.
I know I wasn’t able to test it over a longer period, but Leopold do have a great reputation
that they’ve built over the years.
Thanks again to mwave.com.au for sponsoring this prize towards our upcoming Sydney Mechanical
Keyboard Meetup 2018.
And I’ll put the links in the description.