Fujitsu FKB4725 / FKB4700 keyboard review REDUX - Chyrosran twenty two

depletedvespene · 23 Jun 2018, 14:58

Good video, chyros. I have to wonder how good of an option would be to use the later unit with all the caps from the older one swapped in...

Chyros · 23 Jun 2018, 16:55

depletedvespene wrote: Good video, chyros. I have to wonder how good of an option would be to use the later unit with all the caps from the older one swapped in...

The bottom row won't fit, but apart from that it should be 100% compatible.

Elrick · 24 Jun 2018, 03:57

Nice review despite you being stuck with a Lazered Version, which were the cheapest available. Although I paid about $30.00USD for mine and have it connected up to an internet connection at home.

You can still get some NIB on Flebay, that have all Dye-sub key-caps but I suspect you're foray into this style of keyboard is now over.

I consider this keyboard one of the very BEST membrane like keyboards despite the slider and as such, don't expect a Thorpie like feel nor a Model-M or F feel.

Fujitsu like most other manufacturers just went cheap over time, as the large corporations wanted dirt cheap-like input devices to go with their PC setups in the late eighties and early nineties.

AmsterDan · 25 Jul 2018, 07:45

Very informative review as always from Chyros. As a recent mechanical/old keyboard enthusiast, I have started my collection with this very keyboard. Got my hands on it for $30 CAD through a local ad. It was new old stock, box included, plastic wrap still around the cord ... beautiful! I went in blindly as I had nil experience and nothing to compare it to either. I can happily report that I was and still am pleasantly surprised by the typing experience. Keys feel heavy, inhibit a semi-click on both the down and up stroke, there's tactility and all without being super loud or sounding tinny. (If I may compare to videos demonstrating Cherry MX Blue switches for example).

Ehm, and then two weeks ago I scored a $10 CAD Dell AT101W, my first black Alps keyboard! Waiting for key pullers to arrive to thoroughly clean it up and de-yellow the key caps and case. (Two of the key caps have a chip along the bottom edge, luckily not too obvious and not taking away from the experience). Anyhow, I intend on giving each of these keyboards a fair amount of 'daily driver' time. The Dell will be that after the cleanup.

I'm wondering off. Back to this Fujitsu board. As part of the learning curve, how can one tell whether a key cap is lasered? Is there a physical 'to-the-eye' way of telling or is there a register available with types/years of keyboards and their caps? (Deskthority's Fujitsu wiki doesn't have the info (yet)

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green-squid · 25 Jul 2018, 18:56

Lasered caps are usually grey-is looking on beige keyboards. even in chyros' video, you can easily spot that they are lasered. If they look like that, they are lasered. As you can see, the dye-subs on the old one are thick and clear.

I'm not sure about the datecodes, but the visual clues should be enough I think.

Hope that answers your question.

AmsterDan · 27 Jul 2018, 08:16

green-squid wrote: Lasered caps are usually grey-is looking on beige keyboards ...

You answered my question indeed, thank you. I did notice the difference in the video; however, I wasn't sure if that was the actual tell-tell or whether it was just a different 'contrast' used for that year. Just checked my FKB4725 (with Windows keys) thinking it would be a newer board but interestingly enough, the caps and printing seem to be in high contrast suggesting they're dye-subs! Happy about that.

green-squid · 27 Jul 2018, 13:45

AmsterDan wrote:
green-squid wrote: Lasered caps are usually grey-is looking on beige keyboards ...
You answered my question indeed, thank you. I did notice the difference in the video; however, I wasn't sure if that was the actual tell-tell or whether it was just a different 'contrast' used for that year. Just checked my FKB4725 (with Windows keys) thinking it would be a newer board but interestingly enough, the caps and printing seem to be in high contrast suggesting they're dye-subs! Happy about that.

Edit:
Tried to link an Imgur picture with the

Cool! But I think I may have given a bad definition. Lazered caps can be black too. THE better way to identify them if wheter you feel the texture of the lettering itself. If so, it's lazered. And your board seems to have dyesubs, buuut I did spot this:

Chyros · 27 Jul 2018, 13:51

If by lasering you're referring exclusively to charring, I'm not sure I've ever seen any that are genuinely BLACK. Could you give an example?

darkcruix · 27 Jul 2018, 16:59

Chyros wrote: If by lasering you're referring exclusively to charring, I'm not sure I've ever seen any that are genuinely BLACK. Could you give an example?

Black is always a tough one to define (:)). As soon as light is reflected it is radiating in a color - e.g. (dark) gray. But these are just semantics.
Even the dye-sub ones on IBM XT keycaps are a dark shade of grey. Dark pigments, in theory, always get darker than dyes that bond with the material in which it sinks in. I have a black pigment that only reflects 2.5% of light which you could describe as 97.5% gray, but the surface is highly granular to "swallow" light. The black for dye-sub on original IBM XT keys is around 90 to 94% black at 450 to 600nm (which is stunning for that process and I wonder how they looked fresh out of the box).

AmsterDan · 28 Jul 2018, 11:26

green-squid wrote: ... buuut I did spot this:

And with 'spot' I imagine you are referring at the seeming interruption of 'ink flow' within the $ symbol. Do you wear HD converters to spot these things? Thanks for that. I checked but all it ended up being, was a speckle of dust. I also don't feel the printing, it is smooth as a dye-subbed cap!