FILCO MAJESTOUCH 2 Review

At the time of writing this review, my Filco Majestouch 2 keyboard has had daily use for over 2 years. How could I have possibly overlooked it when thinking of things I could review? I guess it’s just been hiding in plain sight on my desk all this time.

How does the saying go? It’s better late than never. And today couldn’t be more true, because I’m going to finally publish my Filco Majestouch 2 Review. Because I’ve been using it for over two years, I have lots and lots of points to discuss.

I did sort of cover this keyboard in a previous article, I discussed my top 5 keyboard makers of which, Filco is definitley one of them. It’s been a while since I last reviewed a keyboard, but because this one is my daily driver I’m in a great position to give it the review it deserves.

FILCO MAJESTOUCH-2 Review

Let me just put a spoiler alert in real quick, the Filco Majestouch 2 is simply superb. I’ve loved typing every keystroke on this thing, everyday for the last 730 days (and counting). But why? Well let’s dig into my review and find out.

Typically, my reviews will cover four or five different key measures. I tend to start with my first impressions. I’ll then look at the build quality, typing performance, cost and then anything else I think deserves mentioning.

So first up then, my first impressions.

First Impressions

I usually start the first impression section talking about what the unboxing experience was like. Since it was over two years ago, I don’t have a clear image in my head of what it was like but I have a vague recollection.

I remember being super excited to get the parcel delivered as the Majestouch 2 was going to be my first ‘proper keyboard’. I’d used and reviewed the Keychron K2 before, but that was a TKL, this was my first full sized mechanical keyboard.

Opening up the outer packaging I was greeted with a rather boring looking black box with Filco branding and a high res image of the Majestouch 2 on it.

Don’t get me wrong, the box is made with good quality, strong cardboard that should hopefully protect the keyboard whilst in transit, it’s just a bit boring in terms of the unboxing experience.

I liked that there wasn’t an excessive use of plastic used in the shipping process. Other technology manufacturers could take a leaf out of FILCO’s book. The technology industry is pretty damaging as it is, so it’s good to see at least one company not overloading me with useless single use plastic.

Once I’d opened up the branded box, the first thing I saw was the beautiful looking white and black skull design. It glows in the dark too which is a bit gimmicky, but it eventually grew on me.

I also loved that they included a FILCO branded velcro cable tidy, a nice additional touch. I’ll most certainly make use of it.

Overall I was thoroughly impressed at first glance, I’m hoping the rest of my review measures will be just as impressive. Let’s move on and take a look at my thoughts on the build quality.

Build Quality & Styling

FILCO are renowned for their excellent build quality and this keyboard is really built like a Challenger 2 tank. This is probably the most solid overall feeling keyboard I’ve ever tried.

I wanted to give it a proper strength test, I decided I’d try and twist the board to see if it offered any movement or flex. I tried my hardest to twist it, but there was absolutely zero flex to the keyboard deck.

The next thing to test, will it cope with being dropped. I picked it up and dropped it onto my office floor.

The drop test didn’t cause any concerns, the + key came off on the number pad side, but it didn’t damage the switch under neath it.

Another thing I noticed quite quickly is that the Majestouch 2 has a reassuringly weighty feel to it. This heft along with the rubber pads on the bottom helps to prevent it from sliding around on smooth surfaces.

I was rather surprised to see a PS/2 adapter included in the box. The keyboard does plug in via a USB connector, but for people still rocking PS/2 FILCO have you covered, again a nice touch.

It’s just a shame FILCO decided to go with the pad-printed ABS key-caps, they’re super functional but after over two years of daily typing, they’ve unfortunatley developed that annoying ‘greasy’ looking shine.

Don’t let the poor quality stock caps be a deal breaker though, keycaps you can swap out and change for better quality PBT ones if you wish.

I think the decision to use ABS keycaps could be seen as a positive if it’s used to pass on a saving to the end user.

If you’re looking to mod this board, then really the only deal breaker I can see is the lack of a detachable cable. But, if you’re a serious modder that shouldn’t be too much trouble.

Another gripe I have with the cable is that it’s not braided. It is thick and is really well built. But, I have the cable going through a hole in my desk at an acute angle and after two years it’s starting to show some serious wear and tear.

This wear and tear is starting to concern me ever so slightly, I’m worried it’ll eventually (a couple more years yet) wear through and stop working. I think a braided cable may have helped in this scenario.

But, if you don’t abuse the cable like I have, it’ll be just fine and I don’t think you’ll have any issues at all with it.

I really like the look of the Skull model. The luminous green looks fantastic when it’s dark. I also like the other little styling touches, such as the bright pink indicator LEDs. The brushed metal FILCO logo on the top right hand side fits in with the rest of the colours, it looks pretty much perfect in my opinion.

Water Damage

A little after using this keyboard for a year I did the unthinkable. I spilt a glass of water directly over the keyboard whilst it was turned on!

I thought I’d destroyed a perfectly good keyboard as it stopped working immediately, it also caused some crazy things to happen with my PC such as opening programs on it’s own and eventually shut it’s self down.

I thought I’d knackered my £1000 / $1000 workstation PC. I wasn’t very happy with myself.

I pulled the USB cable out from the PC and swapped the keyboard for a spare, the good news is that I didn’t fry my motherboard or any PC components. Just the FILCO wasn’t working.

To try and fix it, I removed all of the keycaps and absorbed as much water as I could with a microfibre cloth and then set about it with a hair dryer. After 10 – 15 minutes of intense drying it still wasn’t working.

I thought it was permanently broken so I forgot about it for a few days. It was about 5 days later that I plugged it in on the off chance it’d work and it did! It started working again, I couldn’t believe it.

Overall I’m particularly impressed with the build quality, it’s a proper heavyweight keyboard and it’ll pretty much survive what ever you put it through, including a bath!

I’m joking of course, but the sentiment remains, it survived a complete dowsing in H20 and survived. If it can survive that, it’ll cope with just about any thing you can throw at it.

You can just about see the 'greasy' sheen from the ABS keycaps. — You can just about see the ‘greasy’ sheen from the ABS keycaps.

Typing Performance & Switches

FILCO have so many different configurations available. So regardless of what board you go with you can customise it until your hearts content. For the review unit I decided to go with the cherry red MX switches and full size layout.

Red MX are slightly softer than the black switch, the travel is very linear and there isn’t much actuation force required to depress the keys, around 45g.

I prefer red switches as in my opinion, it’s a great middle ground between typing and gaming performance.

They’re also much more comfortable than the black or brown switches, which can become tiring due to the additional force required to depress a key.

The Cherry Red MX’s aren’t all that loud but they do feature a nice audible clunk when a key is pressed, this keyboard can be used in a quiet office. Unlike the blue switches which are super clicky and would be a bit too loud.

A short video demonstrating how loud the keys are.

I compared typing between this and a Corsair K500 and this is just so much more responsive, more accurate and gives me a must faster typing experience. I don’t think I could ever go back to a membrane keyboard.

The Majestouch-2 features N key roll over, which basically means you can press as many keys as you want and it’ll have no problem what so ever registering your keystrokes.

I find the number pad to be quick, I’m faster typing when using the number pad than I am using the letters. The number pad feels great and enables me to not only be quicker when typing, I’m much more accurate aswell when performing data entry for my day to day job.

Overall I’m super impressed with how good the typing performance is on this thing. I often type out 2000 words when I’m writing up my reviews and it’s really comfortable. I don’t use a wrist rest when I’m working but that’d only make more of a pleasure to use than it already is.

The brushed metal FILCO logo looks great.

How Much & Where To Buy

It’s available from most good retailers including; The Keyboard Co, Amazon and Ebay. Hit the buttons below to check it out and find out what the latest price is.

Check FILCO MAJESTOUCH-2 On The Keyboard Co

Check FILCO MAJESTOUCH-2 On Amazon

Summary & Verdict

The Filco Majestouch is definitley my favourite keyboard. It’s got super slick looks, particularly the glow in the dark skull version that I have. It doesn’t have any (what I consider to be non functional) ad-ons like RGB backlighting and is superbly well built.

Score: 9 / 10

It’s easily the best keyboard I’ve ever used and for that, it gets a 9 / 10. Get those ABS key caps replaced and the option for a braided cable it’d be a 10/10 from me.