Leopold FC660C

Leopold FC660C
Manufacturer	Leopold
Layouts	66-key compact ANSI with cursor keys
Keyswitches	Topre switch
Keycaps	- Lasered PBT;; - Dye-sublimated PBT
Interface	USB
Dimensions	328 x 111 x 40 mm /; 12.9 x 4.4 x 1.6 inches
Weight	708g / 1.5 lbs
Years of production	2013- ; current; in production

Introduction

The Leopold FC660C is a high-end compact keyboard produced by the South Korean Leopold company featuring Topre switches.

Note: be careful not confuse Leopold FC660C featuring Topre switches with, similarly named and externally almost identical, Leopold FC660M with Cherry MX switches.

Description

The Leopold FC660C is a 66-key Electrostatic Capacitive Mini Keyboard with the Topre switch. The switches are plate mounted in this keyboard, similar to the Topre Realforce line of keyboards. This keyboard is unusual in that it is slightly larger than a normal 60% keyboard, and has dedicated arrow keys and an insert and delete key on the right. FN+arrow-keys perform home, end, page up, and page down, however this is not printed on the front of the keys. FN+Q inverts the FN layer on Escape, making it into the `~ key by default. When this is toggled, a red LED on the INS key lights up. There are 4 dip switches to adjust the layout. Out of the package, the Leopold FC660C comes with the keyboard, a gold plated USB cable, and an extra 1.5 ctrl key and 1.25 caps lock keycaps to swap positions. On the back there are standoff feet available, and unlike the Happy Hacking Keyboard, the FC660C’s feet are rubberized for better grip on the desk. Also unlike the HHKB, the FC660C only has 1 height option and is somewhat steep for normal standards; however the incline feels roughly the same as the HHKB. The switches come in 45g uniform weighting. At the front right the equation for computing capacitance is printed on the case. The white variant appears to be slightly off-white compared to typical Topre switch boards such as the HHKB.

PBT keycaps

The FC660C features high-quality thick (up tp 1.5 mm) PBT keycaps. Note that:

All FC660C variants come with PBT keycaps and never with ABS or any other plastics, except for the spacebar which is always ABS, similar with most other current Topre switch keyboards, such as the Happy Hacking Keyboard and the Topre Realforce line.
While all FC660C variants' keycaps are PBT, the legends print method may be different, for example, the Hangul (Korean/US) black version is using the lasered PBT keycaps while two other variants in the gallery below have the dye-sublimated PBTs. Keyboards using the dye-sublimation method are clearly and prominently marked as such on multiple sides of its packaging. Consequently, the absence of the "dye-sublimation" wording on the box indicates the lasered PBT legends. The bottom key caps are 1.25u 1.25u 1.25u 6u 1.25u 1.25u 1.25u.

Push for Quality

The FC660C was designed by Leopold, manufactured in China - most likely by Varmilo, and inspected in Japan (likely by Topre). From the start of the FC660C project, it has been very important to Leopold to really impress Topre with the quality of this product.^{[Citation needed]} No corners were cut, no expense spared to build a keyboard that's on par with Topre keyboard products, and in many ways that was successfully achieved. From the outside, the FC660C with Topre switches and high-quality PBT keycaps looks like a nice alternative to the HHKB Pro keyboard, especially for many users who prefer a dedicated arrow/cursor cluster. On the inside there are no cost-cutting components – all of the internal components were built by Japanese manufacturers (Shirai, Taiyo Yuden, Toshiba, ROHM, KOA, NEC, TDK, Hirose Electric, Murata, Seiko, Hitachi HWCS, Fujitsu, etc.) in addition to a few coming from the US manufacturers (Texas Instruments and Analog Devices).

DIP switch functions

	ON	OFF	Default (factory settings)
DIP 1	Left `Ctrl` and `CapsLock` (exchange positions)	Retains position	OFF
DIP 2	`Win` key and `Alt` key (exchange positions)	Retains position	OFF
DIP 3	`Win` key and `FN` key (exchange positions)	Retains position	OFF
DIP 4	`Win` key disabled	`Win` key ON	OFF

Gallery

Note: The gallery features the most widespread variants of FC660C — the US/Korean (Hangul), English ANSI white, and English ANSI black FC660Cs.

Leopold FC660C (Hangul) back label
Leopold FC660C feet
Leopold FC660C connector
Leopold FC660C equation
Hangul (US/Korean) ANSI
Hangul lasered PBT keycaps
White FC660C
White FC660C back label
White FC660C dye-sublimated PBT keycaps
Black FC660C w/dark grey keycaps
Black FC660C back label
Black FC660C dye-sublimated PBT arrow cluster
Dye-sublimation marked or absent from the box — notice the middle box
Typical back of the box
"Designed by ... Inspected in"
Specs overview on the box
Included Manual Front and Back (Korean only)
Inside of Manual (Korean only)
Comparing Stock spacebar (top) to Replacement PBT space bar (bottom). Notice the slight off-white color of the stock spacebar.