 | Hey all! Here's a technical mini-review of the Novelkeys x FFXIV keycap collab from the perspective of a custom keyboard enjoyer. According to the website it's manufactured by Keyreative. Kitting is comprehensive for being a single kit, with support for ANSI, ISO, Numpad, Tsangan bottom row, etc. It does not have support for layouts such as AZERTY, ISO DE, etc. And while it may be possible to mix and match keycap sets, the unique colour and it being Cherry profile (each row is a different profile R1-R4) may make combining difficult. Also unfortunately there are no windowed keycaps so LEDs on capslock and scroll-lock toggle will not shine through. For being dye-sub, the colours on the novelties are nice and vibrant, much better than those made by ePBT, for example. The base colour is a very dark warm grey; I have added a comparison picture with some other keycaps in the second picture. Because they are lighter than GMK CR yet darker than GMK N9, it may be a challenge to those who want their keyboard case to match the base colour closely. The legends are a silver-grey and the Eorzean sub-legends are gold with a 3D beveled look, similar to those when starting a duty or entering a new area. The number row has triple legends in both the grey, white, and gold, which I find to be a peculiar. Legend quality is remarkable for being a dye-sub set. The lines are very well defined without any fuzziness or bleed and the gradients of the beveling in the Eorzean sub-legends are rendered nicely. Alignment consistency of the legends is great, though in the F and J with bars, they are slightly raised, which is unusual. Texture is very fine. It isn't coarse like GMK, not overly smooth like some KBDFans keycaps, overall quite similar to ePBT in terms of texture. The fine texture however seems to be very prone to scratches. While the scratches aren't deep, even from a few minutes of use there are some surface marks (quite hard to see) on the spacebar and enter key from where my nails had brushed over. The shape is quite close to the Cherry profile it is trying to emulate but the tops are ever so slightly more rounded than reference. It has standard Cherry R1 to R4 profiles, no R5. The stems are a bit tight so may cause some issues depending on the stems you have. All spacebars have little to no warp, which is excellent to see. Sound profile is in between GMK and ePBT, but leaning more towards GMK's higher pitch - nothing super light like SP's DCS. Of course, disclaimer that sound will vary with your choice of switches, plate, mounting style, PCB thickness, case construction, etc. This was o-ring gasket mounted on a TGR Jane V2 CE with a PC plate, HMX Chu (raw) switches on a Otus Engineering 87.5 PCB. It's obviously too early to tell how durable it is but since it is PBT, it should resist shine much better than ABS. But as mentioned earlier, the keycaps set seems to be prone to surface scratches. Overall a good set with a unique design, the sharp legends and FFXIV theming is a standout. submitted by /u/byunjoe [link] [comments] |
Continue reading...