I’m always checking to see if Niz has released new TKL and full-size keyboards in black and white, and they finally have:
What’s amusing to me is that the black one seems to be using keycaps very similar to ones I bought on AliExpress for $20.
I remember that there was a double-shot PBT fake Sky Dolch made to a very low price point. Keycaps were less than stellar in shape, thickness, consistency, sound produced, and legend quality.
But they’re being used on a $160+ keyboard!
Here’s what one reviewer says:
One place where the x108 differs from the Atom 68 is with the keycaps, and this is both a good and a bad thing. The good part is that the x108 keycaps are nice PBT doubleshot keycaps so the lettering is incredibly sharp and will never fade over time. The bad part is that the keycaps on the x108 are thinner than the Atom 68 keycaps (which are thick PBT but not doubleshot). This leads to the x108 having a little less premium feel and sound than the Atom 68. It’s not a huge difference but definitely one that I noticed after having used the Atom 68 for a few months prior.
So the keycaps on the black one are indeed inferior to the ones you may have used in the past. The thick PBT keycaps on my ABKO K935P are essential to the sound and feel of the keyboard, there is nothing that can replace them.
That being said, I have a few PBT sets, so it should be possible to find something to replace them. In my experience, the best-sounding replacement keycaps for the ABKO were EnjoyPBT and generic AliExpress PBT. [I bet you could go wild and put that new ASA profile on it, or whatever AKKO is selling.]
