I’m going to be honest here, I’m not a great typist. I mean, I can tap away at a pretty decent rate of keyboard-y knots, but I am no touch-typer. And that means when I got my hands on the Awekeys Retro 80S all-metal keycaps I was at first awed (see what I did there?) and then more and more frustrated.
That’s largely down to my own failings as a typist, but also the fact Awekeys sent over the blank versions of the keycaps, and when I’m tapping in passwords for all the various different work systems (no saved PWs to come to my rescue here) it’s become more of a struggle, not less as times gone on.
But, oh boy, do they sound good? I’ve replaced all the PBT keycaps of my Mountain Everest 60 keeb bar the Fn and arrow keys—I’m not a complete masochist—and sitting atop the pre-lubed switches of my favourite keyboard, the super thocky all-metal caps sound great.
They’re weighty, and there’s a definitive I’ve-really-hit-that-key feeling to typing on this board now. For all the smaller keys that’s a lovely thing, though when it comes to the spacebar it does make the long boi very prone to accidental hits given there’s a whole lot of metal pressing down on that single switch, no matter how effective those stabilisers are. You just have to breathe on it and you’ll get an errant space .
As a package, however, the Awekeys set is ace. You get two layers of keycaps in the box, covering the gamut of different-sized keys, supporting ANSI and ISO layouts to cover alternate shift keys and the range of enter key shapes you might encounter. And you’ll likely be smarter than I and plan your process before excitedly jamming a bunch of new blank keys onto your board… because, of course, they have different angles.
Remember that next time, Dave.
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Once I’d figured that all out, and sorted my rows of caps, I was away and had them all beautifully lined up in my board. Except they didn’t all stay there. Even now, if I tip my keeb upside down I’ll find one or two caps falling out. This meant I then had to grab a pair of pliers and squeeze together the connections under the caps to make them grip the switch stems tighter to stick in place.
There is a wee tool that Awekeys ships with the pack, but I found the end which closes the grip not as effective as the pliers given the rigidity of the metal. One thing to note, don’t try and do that with loose PBT keycaps; they don’t like it and will more than likely just snap out of petulance.
The fact you can do this with the all-metal caps is a boon, but also necessary to ensure a stable set of keys. They are beautifully finished, however, despite varying levels of grip in their connection. Each cap is coated seamlessly, and the finish is entirely consistent across each of them, leaving a completely uniform effect across my keeb.
And that weight, and that sound. Mmmm.
I’m also into the fact that all of the Awekeys metal caps are completely recycled, too. The recycled cupronickel keycaps remain recyclable, making them far more sustainable, and Awekeys claim that the whole recycling process around cupronickel only needs 15% of the energy required in the raw extraction process.
So, all very positive then? Well, kinda. This Retro 80S set is $189 (£146) whether you want the legends on there or not. I know these are premium caps, and only for the real serious keeb enthusiast, but that’s still a lot of cash to drop on a cosmetic. Actually, that’s not quite fair; these caps aren’t just cosmetic because they do alter the feel of the board itself, and also the sound.
They do feel good, but even though I spend my days tapping at a keyboard—and have spent a lot of time and cash on my boards in the past—I’m still not entirely convinced that is the sort of money I could spend on some keycaps in good conscience, however beautifully made they are. And the Awekeys absolutely are.
That’s especially pertinent as I’m certainly going to be removing them from my keyboard the instant I publish this piece. I promised myself that I would write the article using the caps, as is only right and proper, and I’ve left them on my board almost as a kind of punishment for not getting it written sooner. But the longer I’ve had the Awekeys on my keyboard, the more I’ve come to resent them.
It’s the blank caps. Even though they have homing keys for the F and the J key to help touch typists find their way around, I’ve come to realise they still really don’t help me in my chaotic style of typing.
It’s not such an issue when I’m in the flow (though I did just spend some needless extra seconds just then trying to find the ‘ key when typing “I’m”) as my fingers will generally fall in the right places and I can keep my pace up. I don’t look at my board a lot when I’m writing ‘in the zone’, but when I’m jumping between different board layouts in the office and at home, or different laptops, the muscle memory goes and I find my hands get lost.
That’s lead to times where I’ve spent minutes typing a line into Slack over and again because I keep missing the right keys. That won’t be an issue for the caps with legends on, but it has been for me and my blank set. So, let that serve as a warning for those who may want a clean, no-characters finish.