Corsair PBT Double-Shot Keycaps Review -
Article Page 2 - Installing and Conclusion
The new Corsair kit offers keycaps that are thick, double-shot, and have excellent legends now, no more pad printed legends that fade away over time. Corsair even backs them with a two-year warranty. You’d have to go pretty deep into custom keycap territory to come close to matching the quality of this set. Next, to simply customizing the looks of your keyboard, different keycaps can cause some noticeable differences in the typing and gaming experience. The PBT does make a bit of different (softer) clickety-clackety noise since that line made me sound like Elmo from sesame street, I'll shut up straight away about noise.
I mentioned keyboard compatibility already, but basically, this kit can be used on anything with standard Cherry MX mounts, and pretty much that's all of them eh? Do keep in mind the same layout though. With a full 104/105 set of keys specifically made for Corsair keyboards in North American, British and International English layouts, you’ll be able to fully upgrade almost any Corsair mechanical keyboard.
There is another advantage to swapping out the keycaps, if you have a two-year-old keyboard, it feels like a new one again after you replaced all keycaps. With the backlighting, the new looks are just great and you RGB lighting is still in full effect. Below a couple of photos showing the K70 with net keys and LEDs activated.
With white keycaps, light is being reflected off it, creating a very nice halo over your keyboard.
Final Words
Some, and likely most of you out there, might find PBT Double-Shot Keycaps completely irrelevant, just another set of plastics. However, others say these are the holy grail of keycaps. One of our editors (Brann) that would slap me in the face with a variety of keyboards if I stated the keycaps don't make a difference. This stuff is nearly religious to him, quite honestly I've typed the article you are reading right now on this PBT kit, and a different plastic or not ... I like it. The honest truth is, they do feel a bit different, less slippery even. But that is not the most important factor for me. Nope, for me, it's all about the looks. The lettering is a bit nicer to read with the white keycaps, also the white keys on the black base simply look ridiculous (I do mean that as in ridiculously nice!). There is that more textured surface feels with the PBT heys over the normal ABS keys. So yes, if you already own a Corsair keyboard, this might be a very suitable alternative for you to quickly and easily upgrade to the keys you desire. As it stands, the Corsair K95, K70, K65, K66, K63 and STRAFE keyboards are compatible with the new PBT Double-shot keycap kit. It should be mentioned that for the Corsair K95, K95 RGB and K95 RGB Platinum the macro keys are not included though. The keycaps are not cheap, at a $49.99 price tag in white or black might be a little steep much for some, but in retrospect that is less than 50 cents per keycap. For a lot of aficionados, as mentioned, this is the holy grail of keycaps and for them, surely a worthwhile investment as they will probably last you a lifetime and in the future can be swapped out with other Corsair keyboards. Definitely recommended for the ones with an above average keycap fetish.
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