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Quick Look: HyperX Doubleshot PBT Pudding Keycaps (White)

VSG

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We took a close look at HyperX's new keyboard, the Alloy Origins, earlier this week, and were left impressed with it. The company had sent along also a set of their new replacement keycap set for us to check out, and this seemed like a great product to trial out a shorter article format to cover products that otherwise would not merit multi-page reviews. Let us know what you feel about such posts, and if you would like us to expand coverage accordingly.

The HyperX-branded PBT plastic keycaps with doubleshot injected legends use the so-called "pudding" construction, with the top 1/3 of the keycap sides only left opaque to allow for more light to go through. The black and white set was originally sold beginning late last year, and there must have been enough demand for HyperX to dedicate a new SKU for an all-white edition. Read past the break for more on the new keycap set, including fit and finish on the Alloy Origins keyboard too.



Packaging here is in line with that of the HyperX Alloy keyboards, with a white and red color scheme and illustrations galore on the front and back. Indeed, the packaging alone does a good job of showing how the final product will look on a HyperX RGB keyboard, such as the Alloy Origins. There are seals on the sides to keep the contents inside in place.


The contents include a keycap layout map that is handy when between replacement and organizing where the removed keycaps can go. The keycaps and keycap puller come in three vacuum-sealed plastic bags which really are all one-time use. The included puller is a plastic ring-style puller, which works fine but risks scratching the sides of the keycaps, as opposed to a wire-style puller.


A closer look at the replacement keycaps reveals that these are indeed doubleshot injected, and the use of the white plastic is extremely obvious. Indeed, most of the keycap uses a white plastic that has a satin finish to help better diffuse light coming out the bottom and sides of the keycaps, and the legends are white injected into the slightly darker white base plastic that occupies the top surface and a bit more. This type of keycap is colloquially referred to as a "pudding" set, and HyperX is not the first to come up with this. Secondary legends are in the same location as on the stock keycaps except for the keyboard-specific secondary legends on the Alloy series of keyboards from HyperX which are absent on this set.


When comparing the stock keycaps on the Alloy Origins to this replacement set, there is the use of ABS vs. PBT plastic with the latter having the more textured finish and much thicker walls (1.38 mm on average). Font and size of the legends are different too,with the replacement set containing looped legends with seams similar to the vast majority of doubleshot injected keycaps, and the top surface is also larger on these PBT keycaps. Overall, these should fare better not just in terms of the typing experience (which is somewhat subjective, to be fair), but longevity and the lighting effect on the Alloy Origins RGB keyboard.


Seen above is also a look at the keyboard with the replacement keycap set installed outside of the alphanumeric keys to allow for better contrast with the stock keycaps. It is all the more obvious with the keyboard lit up, say in a static white color, where the side walls of the keycaps and the larger top surface all allow for more light in combination with the white plastic reflecting more light too.

The HyperX doubleshot PBT pudding keycaps (in white) costs $24.99 from their web shop, which is a really good deal considering these will be compatible with a lot of third-party keyboards as well (at least those adopting the "standard" bottom row spacing).

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too bad 90% of the LEDs on my keyboard are dead... Even the one that lights up to tell me when capslock is on and it annoys me
 
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I've been using essentially the same thing since MechanicalKeyboards ordered them via Vortex Keyboards (from some China company) early last year. Took nearly 6 months to get them, but yeah, I think I was one of the first. And yes, they are very good. The reason I say they are the same is the legends are identical.

If you cant beat them, copy them.

China^TM

Except in this case, China made them first. :p

Of course, I paid nearly 40 bucks. This is a far better deal.
 
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I've been using essentially the same thing since MechanicalKeyboards ordered them via Vortex Keyboards (from some China company) early last year. Took nearly 6 months to get them, but yeah, I think I was one of the first. And yes, they are very good. The reason I say they are the same is the legends are identical.


Except in this case, China made them first. :p

Of course, I paid nearly 40 bucks. This is a far better deal.

Nope, I was before you... I ONLY like white, TKL, mechanical RGB keyboards, and I searched desperately for white pudding keycaps beginning over two years ago, even on Aliexpress I couldn't find anything. So I actually went on Alibaba in late autumn 2017, found a company to make them bespoke for me. I had to order 25 sets under the pretense that they were a sample for a larger order. I also ordered 25 sets of blank keycaps completely constructed from the translucent PBT used to make the sides and double part of the doubleshot pudding keycaps.

I ended up selling 18 sets of the the white pudding keycaps on ebay and a dozen of the blanks.

I strongly believe that the OEM I contacted soon peddled the caps to several small east Asian retailers because in the months after and prior to hyper x marketing them, they started popping up with smaller unknown retailers on Amazon and Aliexpress and some not so unknown retailers like YMDK. Though, I can't rule out that these small retailers, specifically YMDK didn't use my constant and borderline harassing emails begging for white white pudding keycaps back in the beginning of 2017 as the impetus to procure their own. I literally contacted every keycap seller I could find on the internet and that had a translatable website.
 
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Huh... this looks really interesting. Wondering right now how well it fits on SteelSeries m500. I'm gonna have to do some digging
 

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I've got the black version of these, quite like them

 
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Shame and puzzling they don't make these in ISO, especially as HyperX have a strong presence in Europe. PBT ISO backlit keycaps are a rare thing.
 
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Shame and puzzling they don't make these in ISO, especially as HyperX have a strong presence in Europe. PBT ISO backlit keycaps are a rare thing.

Just buy them on Ali... backlit PBT puddings with ISO / ANSII keys usually go around 20something bucks.
 
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Just buy them on Ali... backlit PBT puddings with ISO / ANSII keys usually go around 20something bucks.

They are junk. The ones with the correct legends that is, I don't just mean an ISO Enter key. No keycap set at $20 is going to be worth a crap. Reviews on there confirm as much.
 
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They are junk. The ones with the correct legends that is, I don't just mean an ISO Enter key. No keycap set at $20 is going to be worth a crap. Reviews on there confirm as much.

Was going to say... probably not really PBT.
 
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oooh I like these :)
 
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Copy of Glorious Aura Mechanical Keycaps.

LOL! You mean they are both copies of pudding keycaps from the same Chinese OEM that you could have purchased from Aliexpress? Get your head out of your botox with that mess. HyperX was the first mainstream brand to release pudding keycaps into major markets.

Shame and puzzling they don't make these in ISO, especially as HyperX have a strong presence in Europe. PBT ISO backlit keycaps are a rare thing.

Yea about that... Ongoing struggle... OEM for these do make them in variety of layouts including ISO that are available through Aliexpress or dedicated mechanical keyboard e-tailers. Try Amazon as well.
 
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They are junk. The ones with the correct legends that is, I don't just mean an ISO Enter key. No keycap set at $20 is going to be worth a crap. Reviews on there confirm as much.

Couple of friends ordered Hungarian and US layout PBT keycaps and they seemed okay quality material wise. Can't say much about the laser engraved top longevity tho as I am not the one whom uses them, but I'll ask how are they holding up. I assumed pudding can't be much worse.

Still if AliExp is not your cup of tea, there are multiple sites that deal in known good quality brand PBT keycaps, most of them even have PBT Puddings in ISO <€40.
 
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