Having a cheap keyset attracts fullsize users, because they’re the most likely to have prebuilt boards.
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Generally yeah, and that’s the general appeal of cubic, but this a novelkeys branded set as well and they got their name selling switches and high end key sets, so I’m not sure that it’s the general audience for set in particular.
Thanks for the pictures! A lot of the choices were made to keep the costs as low as possible and not have to pay for more tooling. Using existing molds allowed us to have our price point at the way it was. If we changed up more, it would have added costs quite significantly.
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Why not use the existing numpad legends, out of curiosity?
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Is there some correlation between color and what Cubic molds Tai Hao can use?
For example, they already have beautiful Cubic icon molds for Win and Menu that look much better than the strangely proportioned all text Win and Menu.
Along the same lines they already have cubic sets with traditional Numpad legends that aren’t bold and centered.
Making those two small changes would be a huge improvement to the set and/or any future sets you run with them.
That being said, I still love this set especially at $40. I love the Cubic profile and am glad Novelkeys put out a new set.
But if you look at my Tai Hao Cubic Concrete set, you will see they do not suffer from the same molds as Black on White:
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Thanks for the insight Mike! It really is a good start for Tai-Hao to get their foot into the higher end enthusiast market, if that’s what they are looking to do. Maybe just keep working with them to do small changes at a time? Cause honestly if they can get their sets looking uniform, add some more keys to be able to cover most layouts out there, & eventually fix any other issues with the cubic profile molds, I’d be willing to pay even a decent bit more than the $40 this set ran for, for them. Although as they stand, as long as you don’t use the numpad, win keys, & menu keys it is a pretty consistent looking set & great value at $40! I haven’t order a set yet, but I am planning on grabbing one this fri. if they are still available.
They don’t (or didn’t at the time) have the compatibility support of all the numpad options.
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I am honestly not sure on that. We were only given one option for the legends. For future sets we will probably use those icon mods.
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Well it sure wasn’t that Fri. I thought I’d be able to grab a set, but I finally just picked one up. Been wanting a BoW set forever & haven’t found one I’d be willing to pay the aftermarket tax on. GMK Stormtrooper & Minimal go for outrageous amounts, then I never see any ePBT BoW sets or JTK BoW (I think JTK made one?) sets up for sale ever.
So for now this seems to be my best bet for an affordable, decent quality, high compatibility BoW set. From the pics in this thread everything other than the numpad keys looks pretty good IMHO & the numpad is not an issue for me as I use mostly 65% boards. Also this will finally let me try Cubic profile out! I’ll definitely report back once I get them & let you guys know my opinion on them.
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These are amazing. They come with a lot of layout compatible key sizes, for a low price. TaiHao has definitely stepped up their game to help out the community with cheaper and readily available color schemes and key sizes!!
So I’ve had the caps in for a few days now, but really couldn’t try them out since the 7u space that came with my set was warped enough that it binded the stab & I didn’t realize it only came with 1 - 2.25 Shift. Kinda surprised about the last detail, although it does clearly show on the page what is in the set, since the 660 layout is so popular. Anyways finally got a good enough replacement 7u space & put the set on my E6.5 today.
Initial impressions are pretty good other than the problem with the 7u space. I was informed all of the 7u spacebars came warped to some degree & the replacement I got is bananaed pretty bad so that is something to know if you’re considering grabbing a set. The feel is pretty good, the keys are decently thick (very slightly thinner than GMK/ePBT caps), the legends are pretty decent (not including the numpad), & other than the 7u spaces all my keys are in good shape.
All in all a really good value for the price IMHO. The only other thing I feel like isn’t too well known & should be mentioned is the bottom row with cubic is not a repeated R4 like we are used to from almost all aftermarket sets nowadays. It’s actually a true R5 including the spacebars, so that will take a bit of getting used to at the best & will be unacceptable to some at the worst.
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