ABS vs PBT Keycaps

hey guys welcome back to the channel and in this video we'll be talking about the difference between ABS keycaps versus PBT keycaps and why we're recommending PBT keycaps all the time and then we'll also introduce you some of our newest budget key cap sets that we've recently acquired so this is a general comparison there are high quality ABS key cap sets such as the very expensive and a very limited and beautiful gmk key cap sets that you see on group buy all the time those are a thicker much thicker and higher quality ABS plastic than what you usually see from big brand keyboard companies like Coursera or Logitech or Razer and things like that so those are the exception so generally ABS is usually cheaper and comes stock on a lot of keyboards so the Corsair k70 came with ABS plastic key caps the key Chron keyboards all do that as well so ABS can be double shot or not double shot and what double shot means is that they did a primary mold to get the overall shape and then they did another mold to get it that clear layer where the RGB can shine through and that's what double shot means they are generally more smooth and develop a greasy shine over time they also accumulate oils and greases and fingerprints and things like that much faster than PB T key cap to do some benefits of ABS is that they have a better color it's much more vibrant and very pizzazzy some even say that ABS ski caps have more clack since it's a thinner plastic overall for most of them pbt on the other hand is generally a higher quality thicker plastic and it is more textured and more durable as well the double shot is not as good on PBT keycaps since during the process of heating it up and cooling it down some size changes may occur or some warping and things like that so the double shot NIST isn't always as great as it could as abs could be it has more muted colors and not as vibrant as abs but the great thing is that they don't really develop that greasy shine over time or if they do it doesn't happen as quickly it takes a much longer time for the legends of PBT keycaps die sublimated is much better that's when the ink is seeped into the plastic itself and it takes a very long time to wear out you're gonna have to rub into the key cap until that layer of ink is gone whereas if you do laser etched it ill rub off really quick and PBT does expand and warp and sometimes it can cause bowing of some of the larger key caps such as the space bar that it just happens it's not something that you really control so if you find a key cap set in the space bar is bowed you can probably fix it for us we really like PBT key cap since we don't really like typing on a very slick surface that could sort of feel nasty but with that being said I've never typed with a gmk key cap set yet hopefully very soon but I've heard very many good things about them they are quite pricey and tend to be very expensive also limited in quantities and usually in group by only so some of the new PBT key cap sets that we got include the HK gaming die sub Chuck key caps is currently on Mikey Kron k-6 and I've really been loving the way that they feel it comes in a full set of 139 keys so it has the 108 base set and then 39 modifiers and it's pretty much compatible with everything from ANSI to ISO to 65 percent 75 90 I like all those different sizes and it comes with a wire key cap puller which is pretty nice the key caps are 1.4 millimeter thick which is pretty thick it feels very good and I think chalk is a very appropriate name for them since that's sort of what they feel like it's a really good value key cap set the legends are very clear-- and easy to read you can see that the alphabet is left-aligned and if that bothers you then don't get this key cap set but personally I'm okay with it feels really good you can see that I have a reverse base bar here and some people generally do that because it lets the thumb rest a little bit more natural while typing you can also see that some awkwardness occurs when you put them on an alternative sizing such as the height of the key caps not really aligning with each other as they should but overall very nice feel to them highly recommend this key cap set really liked it these are a cherry profile key cap set and generally people really like cherry and say that they're pretty good for everything from typing to gaming the next key cap set we have is a blank om profile white PBT set and we bought this to customize and experiment with like do future experiments like dying key caps and seeing how far we can take it just to have a little creative fun with that they are 1.5 millimeters thick and it's a full-size set but it's only compatible with 60% tkl and a full-size keyboard one problem that I've noticed with using blank key caps is that there is a profile so each row has a different shape so you're going to have to figure out which shape belongs where without having any legends so it just takes a little bit more time but blanks always look super clean they sell it in all black Oh an all-white we got all white because you can die all white with all black you're pretty much stuck the next one we have is a strange profile it's the XDA dye sub lotus key cap set and this comes in TK l so it will fit 60% keyboards and TK l keyboards so xt a is a little bit higher than DSA which is the other profile that we had from our last budget keyboards video that I was using for a little bit as you can see it's pretty much uniform for each row and isn't sculpted at all this makes typing on it very difficult and you can't really touch type on it as quickly it's lower than si which is a pretty high key cup set and I'll have to include a photo of that since I don't own any si key caps they are dye sub and the legends are very clear-- and easy to read I wish the font was a little bit bigger since there seems to be a lot of excess blank space on the key caps themselves and it also comes with a different color escape key the red one the fourth key cap said that we bought that we really like is ey DMK a black to white gradient key cap set there pbt 1.5 millimeters thick with laser edge side print and what this means is is that instead of the legends being on top where you can read and rub as you're typing there on the side so it's okay that they're laser etched since your fingers aren't really touching that in the first place so it's not going to rub out or fade over time but when you're looking at this from the top down it just looks so clean and simple each layer has a different color and this is tkl so it could fit your 60% or tkl board very clean sleek and cool-looking it's good for touch typing if you don't need those legends on the top sometimes finding the symbols or the numbers can be a little hard and then if you're typing at night you're out of luck because it's it's no double shot so even if you have backlight you're not gonna see it and then the last set we got is a wide emk double shot PBT set and right in the health this is on our razor Huntsman which looks a little bit silly on a razor Huntsman because the case is all black but this would look great on a white mechanical keyboard these key caps are a little bit thinner at one point two millimeters thickness and they do have double shot so that really is part of why they're thinner so that the RGB can shine through better these have a slightly rougher texture compared to the other ones which were more smooth and this also comes in tkl so it's gonna fit your 60% or tkl board there are some problems with this one I would say I like the gradient look however on the side with the modifiers it sort of looks like it's mixed our match like it doesn't really fit with the overall gradient of the board and the legends really aren't that great the O has gaps and other letters do as well like B D are some numbers due to so legends aren't all that great but RGB does shine through if that's something that you're looking for it looks alright it was not clean not a big fan of this one for PBT I really do preferred I sub T caps or dye sub legends and the spacebar as you can see is one color because you can't really split colors when it comes to doing that so those are the five newest key cap sets that we bought eventually we're gonna play around with our white key cap set and see what kinds of things we can do with that and see how dyeing works and just doing simple things like that and having fun so hope you guys enjoyed the video it was a little bit long if you skipped us doing our key cap sets that's fine because we primarily buy them to take pictures for our blog and then I like switching out key cap sets once in a while since they're sort of fun well I hope this video was helpful and there's no typing test this time because we didn't do any keyboard reviews hmmm now link you guys to our mechanical keyboard is our ASMR playlist here and then a video here by us that you might like so watch one of those and subscribe here if you want to very excited for the sound tests of the modded k-6 coming soon with these key caps really enjoying it I'll see you in the next one

Channel: Switch and Click

Views: 149,218

Keywords: abs vs pbt keycaps, budget pbt keycaps, abs keycaps, pbt keycaps, abs keycaps shine, pbt budget keycaps, budget pbt keycap sets, best budget pbt keycaps, pbt vs abs keycaps, pbt vs abs keys, abs vs pbt keys, keyboard plastic, keyboard keycap materials, pbt keycaps vs abs keycaps, abs keycaps vs pbt keycaps, keycaps, mechanical keyboard

Id: vnxKemFKWGw

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 14 2020