Quick review of the Corsair PBT Keycap Set

I have a regular Corsair K95 RGB Platinum keyboard (in black with Cherry MX Speed switches), and after reading about how nice PBT keycaps were, I decided to try a set of them out. I didn't really have anything against the ABS keycaps that came stock, it is just that at times they felt a little bit wobbly, and they were easy to get slick if you were say, eating some chips and then hitting the keys. It only took me about 20 min to replace all the standard keycaps on my board with these PBT using the included removal tool. The PBT keycaps are nice, and they are twice as thick as the stock ABS caps, and the legend is physically molded, so there is no way for it to rub off after say, 10 million key presses. Because the PBT caps are thicker, they are also firmer, which is what I wanted. They make the keyboard feel more expensive, if that makes sense. The PBT caps also have a very slight textured surface and are easier for your fingers to maintain traction on. These PBT caps are also just a smidgeon less "clicky" in tone than the stock ABS caps, which I enjoy.

 

Another nice thing for me personally is being able to replace the 6 stock macro keycaps on the Corsair K95. Corsair built the K95 with 6 macro buttons on the far left of the keyboard, but rather than making them black like the rest of the keycaps, Corsair made them gray and with a weird offset. If you order this full PBT set, you will have enough keycaps to replace all 104 on your keyboard and at the same time, you can replace the macro keys, with the included European numbers. So now, every input on my keyboard has a nice black PBT keycap instead of the weird macro ones.

 

Are there any negatives? One downside to these PBT keycaps is that they let less light from the LEDs pass through to your eye. It is exactly the same as if you enter the iCUE software and reduce the brightness setting. (in the included pic, they appear brighter than they are in real life) The new PBT keycaps at full brightness are only about as bright as the old ABS caps at perhaps 40% brightness (and that is due to the thickness of the inner white PBT layer). I am also none too fond of the type setting for these PBT caps. Instead of "Print Screen", you get PSC instead. Instead of "Home", you get HME, etc..... Corsair should have kept the type and font exactly as they were on the stock ABS caps. And at $49 (official), or $39 on Amazon for 104 of these little keycaps, ...... really? Did ya add in some vibranium from Wakanda into these caps?

 

I am hoping Corsair does a version 2.0 of these PBT keycaps in the near future and tweaks the design just a little bit. For now, I would give them about 4 to 4.5 stars out of 5 and I would recommend to other Corsair keyboard owners or those that have keyboards with Cherry switches and layouts the same as Corsair.

Great points but idk if it was possible to keep the Print Screen text on PBTs. It might not be possible or maybe really expensive to get text that fine on PBTs. But yea for Home there was no need to shorten it to HME. I guess it was to keep everything at 3 letters?

It should be possible bc most major manufacturers today can mold plastic to about 0.008 millimeters or less. Most LEGO bricks are made to tolerances of 0.002 mm (which are usually ABS) and Seiko routinely makes PBT parts for their watches that are made to 0.0008 mm.