I ordered the EC Hipro keycaps from KBDFans the minute they showed up for order. I’ve been eagerly awaiting their arrival for a long time. Today we see if they’re worth the wait. First some photos:
I compared these to SA and MT3 caps. Left to right is the new HiPro EC, SA Pluse, and MT3 Godspeed.
The profile view. Not the best shot. I will say they are very similar to MT3, with the exception of the z row, R4. HiPro have a less agressive angle.
Here’s a shot for color. They are the same color as the EC Extended 2048 caps. Left to right is HHKB Snow White, EC 2048, HiPro, GMK minimal
Thicker than stock Topre. Pretty much the same thickness as GMK:
Some crooked stems (see the Q here). These are mounted on the Snow White 25th anniversary HHKB for color comparison.
So, the big news here is that there is something wrong with the design. I couldn’t get the caps to snap in to the 2nd or 3rd row (Q and A rows). Upon close listening and feel, it appears they are contacting the housing somewhere.
This happened on my Type-s and non silenced HHKBs. The caps snap in on my Fc660c, and 980c, but seem to have contact as well. I don’t detect any housing contact on my Realforce. They seem most compatible with a Realforce board. Unfortunately I wanted to use them on my HHKB.
Space bars were straight and functioned well.
They did have a bit of gap issue from PBT shrinkage, about on par with other KBDFans EC offerings. There was less wobble than my Extended 2048 set.
I believe I’ll be selling my set. Hope this post helps those looking for info. Let me know if you have questions.
TLDR: Similar but less scoopy than MT3, decently low wobble, some crooked stems, GMK thickness, problems with housing contact on home row (and row above on most boards I own)
