ABS vs PBT vs Rubber! What Are The Best Budget Keycaps in 2023? [RK61 Giveaway Closed]

a couple months ago I rag down the key caps that came with RK 61 the tilde key caps actually developed the sort of climate icky sensation after several hours of use it got me wondering what kinds of key caps are out there will be the best upgrade kit ABS PVC or rubber [Music] hey guys I hope your 2020 is going well so far this video is going to be framed in a way towards finding upgrade kits for the RK 61 but the info is very in-depth and can be for a wide audience using the MX cherry stems because I feature keyboards that the apex Pro and huntsmen te in this video also by the end of the video I'll be giving away the RK 61 in a big giveaway so make sure you stick around alright let's go shall we the metrics for this video will be durability look and feel for all three types of key caps so abs refers to the type of plastic the key caps are made of they're extremely common with stock keyboards like the RK 61 you can't find a few upgrade sets out there like this cool green Tahoe kit I found for this video but there aren't too many honestly abs is even common on high-end keyboards like a steel series apex Pro at first glance abs and PBT can look very similar but they do have their differences in strength abs key caps of a strength of around 40 mega pascals while PBT has around 50 mega pascals the only seriously noticeable durability difference is the shine that can appear on ABS key caps this is because with ABS key caps you're actually touching the paint of the key cap and not the plastic itself look into this deeper later overall for ABS durability the pink can fade over time create a shiny look to it now moving on PBT is the material more commonly found in keycap upgrade kits online the ones I picked up are the HyperX putting caps razor green set see many rainbow gradient in the Y MDK top prints like I said earlier this material is around 10 mega pascals stronger but some of the key caps can be very thin like these HyperX caps but they do look amazing with a white backplate like on the RK 61 there are no issues with these becoming shiny because the part that you're touching is the plastic itself and not the paint on the key cap I'll show a diagram of this molding process in the next section well the tensile strength of PBT is higher as this classic photo from user rip store shows PBT actually is a little lower fractal resistance so basically it's more prone to shattering with an impact obviously every day I don't think we need to worry about hammers hitting our keyboard but maybe slamming an array just something to think about I didn't really understand what rubber keycaps were when I first heard about them they're basically just a plastic key cap with a thick rubberized coating on the outside the two I picked up were from tae ho and vulture these are the 18 pack which is most common size you find for a kit like this they're also paired with a diamond pattern which allows for more grip as well so far as durability is concerned the only main worry when using these is in harsh or human conditions this here is a pretty common disclaimer for remember key caps abs for the most part is actually known for their RGB and lettering capabilities the reason for this is because they're usually a translucent layer of plastic with a coating of paint on the top they then use a laser to etch out the desired font this allows for very bold font characters that shine light through very easily this means they're very easy to read without backlighting with backlighting with different RGB colors in a dark room and even just in plain darkness you can also have double shot abs like these ones from Tahoe the green color scheme looks cool but their RGB font looks off to me I think this because the fact that abs is a weaker plastic and makes it more difficult to mold with double shot the original font on the RK 61 is an actor that great considering our ABS key caps hence my interest in changing them there are three main categories of PBT caps that you can find putting caps with great RGB normal shine through with decent RGB and top written caps with minimal RGB for putting caps I tried the hyper exes for shine through I use razors and C monies and for top print I use ym DK it's hard to make some fonts with PB Tiki caps because the double shot process what this includes is basically injecting one layer of plastic using one mold then changing the mold and adding another layer of plastic there's no need to paint these because the plastic is colored and will be durable for years looking at the hyper exes and razors first that the same looking thin font the problem with the razor key caps however was the leak through around the characters on each key cap there's a glow from the LED underneath that makes the font look not as sharp a HyperX is however had nearly no leak through at all pretty impressive not gonna lie now looking at the seam any gradient key caps they definitely had the best look to him when there's no RTV present when RGB is added however there's a lot going on and makes the keys hard to read sometimes and unfortunately there's also the same leak through around each character like we saw at the razor key caps probably even worse without underlining on though I think the color scheme is very tasteful and I think the font is actually some of the best in the section finally regarding the top printed ym DK keycaps I think these are first certain crowd that doesn't care for RGB shine through or even any RGB for that matter the grain orange are very nice complement to setups and the best underlining setting is definitely just white the font can also have unlimited customization since it's just printed on the top and you don't have to worry about the transparencies of plastic underneath it I can see how some people like these but in this circumstance of the RK 61's brilliant under lighting I might pass on it for now [Music] rubber key caps are basically an accent set of key caps as you can't find full sets as far as I can tell every set out there seems to come in packs of 8 or 18 the look that they give off is an aggressive look that makes it know that the keyboard is made for gaming which is expected with sets like these look at the tie house first their lessor isn't that bad around each character the vultures though as you can tell get much worse the worst part with these however is when you view it from a normal viewing angle the diamond pattern makes the keys look pretty scuffed the tie houses on the other hand look much better when he's sitting back from the keyboard so overall you have a super aggressive look that stands out they can have a poor font when looking for the side ABS keycaps are known for their slick feel that they can have and the originals on the RK 61 are especially bad the Tahoe abs caps I tried actually had a sort of faux pbt feeling now it's pretty fun to play with they have an almost dry feeling those Pleasant the whole time [Music] to steal serious caps I reference a lot are very smooth the touch but the pain actually makes them feel fine for long hours I'm not sure what it is yeah knock on overall they're known to be smoother and have a moist feeling they can be great when they're applied correctly though as I stated earlier PBT keycaps of a much drier feeling to them since the actual plaster you're touching if a very minimal sort of texture to them that's great for typing long hours and of course gaming I think that razors are definitely middle the road when it comes to PBT keycaps nothing special per se but gets the job done maybe a little bit too much texture on them frankly [Applause] like now for the hyper axis the hyper exes actually felt very similar to the razors but with maybe a little less texture which I liked a lot they had no problems after long hours [Music] now for the cement looking at the seam any gradient caps I thought they had a lot of similar characteristics to that of the hyper axis they're a little bit more on the smooth side than most they did get a bit uncomfortable after a while and the nice sort of dry sensation went away now for the ym decays I'm not a big fan of these for gaming I'll be honest they have a raised font which gets really irritating after a while of easing them I thought overall PB Tiki caps are known to have a dry sensation and a slight texture to them while abs and PBT have minut differences between one another rubber is significantly different it has a jagged sort of diamond powder that makes them super grippy I'd say the biggest downside of these is that when you're typing only your left hand is in contact with these and it gets pretty annoying but they're not made for typing they're made for gaming [Music] the vultures are much harder rubber and it takes a little bit longer to get used to the tie house were great right from the start and is easy to use for a long time [Music] [Music] comes with a stream if you ever interested I test new tech all the time overall they had a rough diamond pattern that is only for grip so that's it all of the metrics are covered I'm gonna leave this on screen for another five seconds and then move on to my recommendations looking at my favorites in this video starting with the ABS category author the Tahoe Double Shot set were fantastic and definitely worth the upgrade at $30 if abs is the route you want to go plus it comes with extra keys as well the main reason I like this is because my setup currently has a lot of nature elements and I really like how they accident now on to the big part my favorite PB Tiki caps there were four as you recall from earlier and overall I think the HyperX has come out on top I think these were hands down the best from this entire video they come in a set of 104 they're only $25 and they're very fun to play with and of course look awesome on the RK 61 the font is very thin and true pbd fashion but the characters are super sharp and there's zero light leakage to the key cap as a disclaimer this video is mainly aimed at keyboards of the white backplate like the RK 61 that doesn't mean these hyper X's won't look cool on other keyboards like the apex Pro it definitely looks cool but I'm not sure if I'd run them on a keyboard like this one just in my opinion looking at the second place we have the razor's the only drawback is their light leak through the keys besides that they're a great deal for $30 and coming with so many extra keys and extra stabilizers from mechanical and optical switches they're pretty good deal I think these might actually work better in different settings like his accent keys in the huntsmen tournament now the see many gradient caps they're super cheap at $17 and come with minimal packaging as expected [Music] they look fantastic in the right conditions and are pretty fun to game with and for the ymd case they're actually pretty cheap at only twenty three dollars and look pretty cool in the right environments the performance is hindered slightly because they're raised font and that's the only issue really I think you've had a wooden keyboard like it shows in the photo on Amazon that would be the perfect scenario for these looking at rubber now the tiles are $40 versus the 27 of the vulture but I hands-down think they're my favorite they have better packaging but more importantly they're much soft to the touch extremely responsive and good for long hours if you did want to save the extra 13 dollars the vultures aren't bad except they're a little bit stiffer and irritating after a while in addition what I like about these smaller rubber sets is that you can mix them in with other fold PBT sets like the hyper X's or something and make it something of your own I'm gonna run through a sound test of all of these if anyone's curious you're welcome to skip ahead to the end for giveaway details thank you guys for watching and I hope you found this info useful so for the giveaway I'm gonna choose one random comment this person will receive the RK 61 keyboard plus one of the four PBT key cap sets and one of the two rubber sets all you to do to enter is make sure you like this video sub to my channel and sub to my second gaming channel which icon looks like this also very importantly your comment can be whatever you like but make sure you include which type of PBT key caps that you like and which type of rubber set you'd like as well also leave your Twitter handle on the bottom because that's how I'll reach you if you win again thanks for watching hope you have a great twenty20 hopefully catch you next time [Music]

Channel: Rielly

Views: 888,433

Keywords: Keyboard, 60% keyboard, Giveaway, Royal Kludge, RK61, Fortnite, Mechanical Keyboard, Outemu, Brown Switch, ABS, PBT, Rubber, Tai-HAO, Razer, HyperX, YMDK, CMANY

Id: JhpvzEiudr0

Length: 15min 57sec (957 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/2ndRoad805]

welcome to the sub. it’s cool to get a comparison from different makers you’re familiar with. Some of the companies you mention though like tai hao and ymdk are knockoff brands of group buy sets like the color scheme of the YMDK is known as “Carbon”. They are a pricey investment, but gmk is considered the premium for ABS keycaps. PBT doesn’t really have a premium maker anymore but Signature Plastics makes a lot of their DSA-profile sets in pbt which I really like.

Regarding “paint” on abs sets, the pigment is part of the plastics just as much as pbt. ABS plastics are more prone to wear faster so the shine and sticky feeling happens sooner. The reason the feel is different between makers is the level of texture I believe. They will all develop shine over time. PBT can take years to develop shine. ABS only weeks to months. ABS is also more vulnerable to chemicals.

You’re just scraping the surface of this, but I still appreciate your in depth experiences with each set. Thank you!

[u/xXxIAmLeoxXx]

A ePBT vs gmk ABS vs SA comparison would be nice