TL;DR: If you like keyboards with Topre switches, there are few aftermarket keycap options. FKCaps has a Minitel-inspired version with a great URSA profile, but the set’s color is off and is inexplicably missing a few keys for my Realforce PFU keyboard – one of the few Topre options.
Topre keyboard switches have some of the qualities of cheap rubber dome keyboards and some of the best mechanical switches. They’re quiet like the cheap stuff, tactile like mechanical switches, and smoother and often significantly more expensive than both combined. There aren’t that many keyboards that use them, with most coming from the HHKB and Realforce keyboard lines manufactured in Japan and distributed globally by Fujitsu. Leopold also sold three models, which appear to be permanently sold out. The HHKB (Happy Hacking KeyBoard) is a small 60% keyboard prized by some coders, while the Realforce is sold primarily to large corporations that appreciate their noise level, tactility, and indestructibility.
Over the years, Fujitsu has sent me review units of both the HHKB and a 108-key Realforce. I could never get my muscle memory or need for navigation buttons to work with the HHKB, but I loved the typing experience on the larger model. I just wished that there was a detachable cable, a wireless option, and that the keycaps weren’t so …beige. I’m stuck with the first two issues, but the keycaps pop off easily, so you should be able to change them. Unfortunately, Topre switches have their own unique spherical keycap connector, so you can’t just swap on any Cherry MX-style keycap and call it a day.
In April of 2024 FKcaps.com posted that it was doing a group buy – a limited run where stock is sold in advance – of new Topre keycaps, including a retro Minitel-themed colorway. These are in a new URSA profile (shape/slope of each key/row) that has sculpted spherical tops on all but the bottom row, and a gentle curve going up the keyboard. They are also the first doubleshot PBT keycaps available for Topre boards, which are thicker and should remain sharper than even Fujitsu’s original keycaps. TheVerge covered the original development, and then covered it again this year when it became apparent that this was actually happening. I clicked “buy” before my brain fully registered what I had done. With shipping and tariffs, my total cost was $141. I now have the set in hand, and, after a deep clean (a family member seems to have used it as a lunch plate), I have it all set up.
The original images showed brown and beige with green accent keys. However, in the Base and Extension sets that I bought for my key Realforce there are no green accent keys. Instead there are just two colors: dark brown for the main keys and caramel for all the accents. I think the caramel looks OK, but it doesn’t match the original Minitel colors.
My other complaint is the lack of keycaps and label inconsistencies. I wasn’t expecting the set to include the four top right keys (mute, volume up/down, and LED) because it wasn’t in the picture, and the original off-white color looks reasonable next to the caramel and dark chocolate, but the different key shapes and profile look wrong. There’s also no excuse: there just aren’t enough Topre boards out there FKCaps not to support every variant, at least in the extra cost Extension kit. I’m also missing Page Up and Page Down labels in the function cluster above the navigation keys. After a lot of trial and error I realized that FKCaps expects you to use PREV for PgUp and NEXT for PgDn. It’s …fine.
Despite the relatively high price point and some complaints on the colorway and keycap selection, I haven’t had the Realforce in my rotation in a long time, and it feels better than ever to type on. URSA gives your fingers a concave top to rest in, and the PBT provides just the right balance between smooth and friction. The board certainly no longer lacks character.
Disclosures: Techsponential purchased the FKCaps keycap set as part of a group buy at retail to update a Realforce keyboard that Fujitsu sent for review many years ago. Devices View does not accept paid posts, does not participate in affiliate link programs, and neither FKCaps or Fujitsu had any editorial control over this article.
