Topre Type Heaven 104-Key Keyboard Review

Topre Type Heaven 104-Key Keyboard

Fresh put of the box, the Type Heaven is attractive and sleek with the slightly lighter grey key caps used across the simple black frame. The laser etchings on the ANSI U.S. layout is not quite white, but goes well with the gold painting that is applied at the top right edge.

The left section of seventy four keys offers large and easy to see legends and iconography. For touch-typists this matters very little, but for those who do still glance at the keyboard, being slightly larger than usual will help out, especially when the lights are dim.

The caps offer step sculpture tops that are curved right to left, but not front to back. There is a slight texture to the tops, and the home key ridges are in place, but more of what you feel is the valleys left from the caps being laser etched, and this is done so it never wears away.

The right section of the keyboard also offers a larger font than usual. For the keys with dual purpose, the secondary function is moved to the face of the keys. As part of this 30 key layout, there is of course a fully functioning number pad for those that require this over a Tenkeyless solution, yet still be more compact as well.

Getting much closer to the top right corner of this keyboard, the same gold lettering we saw on the packaging is applied to the Type Heaven naming, as well as next to the LEDs to denote lock status for the Number, Caps, and Scroll Locks.

Removing the key caps is much tougher with the Topre switches, but not impossible. From the top, you will see the switch housing as well as the round black plungers. The caps insert into the inside of the plungers where the tabs align the caps to keep the oriented square with the keys next to it.

Since the key caps are laser etched at the top and there is a lack of LEDs, there is no need for the expense of a double shot cap. These are one solid layer of plastic molded in one injection.