Introduction

The Leaf65 by Foxlab is the 2nd iteration of the Leaf collection. The first was the Leaf60 a sandwich mount keyboard and the Leaf65 is a gasket mounted keyboard. Foxlab took great attention in creating a unique sounding keyboard. The Leaf65 introduced a new type of plate called the skeleton aluminum plate, it’s a plate that was hollowed out to to only a frame holding the switches in place and for the gasket mounting system. All other aluminum has been milled off to allow as little plate vibration as possible, resulting in what to be heard is purely the sound from the switch and the bottoming out PCB sound. The board overall quality is good for a $415 USD board, but it was biting slightly more than it can chew for a board.

Typing Experience (Flex/Bounce)

The typing experience of the board is extremely stiff, the gaskets were compressed tightly and basically act as purely an isolator betweent the plate and the case. There were no flex or bounce on the board as opposed to many other boards designed similarly. The board offers both FR4, PC, Aluminum and Brass plate. The board that was built for the review was with the Aluminum plate. The aluminum plate gave the board an even stiffer typing experience on top of the compressed gasket.

Sound & Sound Isolation

The overall sound of the board is rather muted for a board that was built without foam. The board also came with a plate foam and I cannot imagine if the plate foam was installed as well. The compressed gasket really help to isolate the sound but the case designed muted any possible sound that was coming out of the board. It was a shame that the sound could not travel out freely as opposed to certain other boards. The overall sound was rather similar to 2 other boards that I own; Meridian and Forever65. The Meridian is in Top Mount and Forever65 in Gasket Mount, hence, for the Leaf65 to sound similar to those boards is quite an achievement, albeit it was lacking in the projection of the sound.

Case Quality

The case was a little disappointing in my personal opinion, the texture of the board was rougher than what I had expected. I am unable to determine if that was the intended design or was it a design issue. However, the anodization on the case is flawless and the PVD on the mid piece was perfect. However, what I noticed was due to the coating from the PVD, it resulted the daughterboard screw thread to become too small for the screw to enter. Hence, the daughterboard could not be screwed fully in and resulting in the daughterboard to be left slightly moveable. Apart from the afore mentioned, the board gives the $415 USD a tough position, although I will recommend many other boards under $415 USD and will give you the same amount of enjoyment. The Vega by AI03 is 1 of the boards that was $328 USD at launch and I will say that board really give quality a run for its money.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this board has wonderful anodization and Fox.Lab even took extra time to ensure all anode issue boards were resolved before being shipped. However, due to the daughterboard unable to sit tightly issue, the case weird texture and the overly compressed gasket. I will say this board is a decent but it is not worth the $415 USD. There are way better boards out in the market that you can buy with the same amount of money.

Potential Alternative

As mentioned in the article, there are so many other boards such as; Vega, QK65, Angel65, Keychron, Zoom65, etc. that provide a much better value to board than the Leaf65.

Scoreboard

Category	Score
Typing Experience (Flex/Bounce)	3/10
Sound & Sound Isolation	6/10
Case Quality	4/10