Today I received my FILCO Majestouch Tenkeyless Tactile Click Keyboard. It’s got Cherry Blue MX switches, which are (as far as I know) the same as the ones in the Das Keyboard. Because the blank keycapversion wasn’t in stock at the time, I just opted to purchase the blank keycaps myself. What’s the rush to get a new keyboard you ask?
See, I’ve been using a Steelseries 7G keyboard for the longest time, and one day the keycap to the letter B broke. I contacted them on 20 December 2009. They told me to provide proof of purchase. After I furnished said proof in the form of a NewEgg invoice, they never responded to me. All I wanted was a replacement keycap for my B key. And somehow, they couldn’t even get back to me about that one little thing. I don’t know what their problem is, but I still have yet to receive a response. I emailed them several times through their support ticket system to no avail. Basically, SteelSeries has a non-existent customer service department. Severely disappointing if you ask me. I highly doubt I will ever purchase anything from them again.Anyway, with SteelSeries leaving me high and dry without a functional B key, I decided that I needed to buy a new keyboard. I wouldn’t trust Das Keyboard again (the first one they sent me malfunctioned: the keys were mixed up). I ended up finding the FILCO Majestouch series of keyboards. Fortunately, it was available in the United States through EliteKeyboards.com.I ordered the keyboard. When it arrived today, I spent a good deal of time replacing the keycaps. The regular ones weren’t particularly difficult. No, it was the long keys that have a metal bar underneath it (presumably to bounce the key back up). Such affected keys include backspace, the two shift keys, and the space bar. They all had these little plastic retainers of sorts to help the key distribute pressure and to depress when struck from off-center.
Anyway, as you can see, I replaced the Escape key with the included red one, and I left on the original tilde key. The rest are blank. I might decide to return the printed keycaps to some of the keys in the future, but for now I like the way it looks.
As for how it types, it is surely noisier than the Cherry Black switches in the SteelSeries 7G. While those are non-clicky and non-tactile, the Blue switches are both clicky and tactile. When I first got the Das Keyboard (which uses the Blue switches), I decided that I fared better on the 7G. Now, I think I prefer the Blue switches over the Black. I’m not superfast (only around 88 WPM), and I think this suits me pretty nicely.
The keyboard itself is well constructed: it has a nice heft to it that reassures me that this is a quality product that will last ages. I enjoy the smaller tenkeyless form factor (meaning it lacks the keypad). I barely ever use the keypad, so it frees up some much needed space on my desk.
Anyway, there’s not much else to discuss. The bottom line: SteelSeries has awful customer service, and EliteKeyboards.com is awesome.
