Yo, today we have some metal keycaps from Besides Studio and Thocc.Supply!
There’s been a few metal keysets coming up as of late, and I feel that we’re gonna
see a bit more as the hobby keeps growing.
AndI received these way back, so these are just prototype kits for the upcoming group
buy.
I don’t have the full kits, and there are a few differences to the final which I’ll
point out.
So I have a blank silver set, and a blue set with legends.
And as we can see, I’m missing a bunch of keys, but here’s the final kitting.
It has pretty much everything you need.
We have an F13.
Of course our 7u spacebar, no 6u.
All the mods you need, no second B though, which some care about.
ISO enter, but no ISO specific keys, but there’s more than enough there to make up for it.
And for the bars, interestingly 2 2u’s, but I’m also not a kitting expert, because
I legit never care.
And there is just this one kit, so it isn’t split up.
And I’ll have everything linked in the description if you want to have a closer look.
Let’s have a closer look at the caps themselves.
These are made from aluminium, are anodised, and are based on the popular Cherry profile.
A 1u keycap is approximately 2 grams.
But the GMK plastic equivalent is about 1.25 grams.
They have approximately 1mm walls, ,and we can see the machining marks inside, and it’s
machined deep into the keycap.
Small sample size here, but here’s a RAMA cap, and an Escape Lab cap, which are more
novelty or artisan kind of caps.
Both feature thicker walls, and the machining doesn’t go as deep, because there’s no
need.
Reduces machining time.
And retains more weight.
However, when it comes to metal caps intended for typing, they designed them to be light,
as to not impact too much on the keyswitch, otherwise they’d change the required force
by you to actuationand bottom out quite a bit.
Therefore it may force you to spring swap.
Being light reduces the need to do that.
The longer keys will be changed to reduce the possibility of metallic ping.
And the good thing about machined caps is that they’re not warped!
No banana spacebar here, which is truly one of the most annoying things with keyboards,
the damn spacebar.
Alrighty, for the keyboard, I have the GMMK Pro, but I stripped it back after a failed
paint slash modding attempt.
So I just sanded it a bit more, because why not.
Fortunately, this does have a hotswap PCB, so we can just chuck in some switches.
And for that I have some of these grey 67g SP-star linears.
Now let’s put em on!
I’ve had absolutely no issues with fitment.
All switches and stems differ slightly, but from what I tested, none were overly loose,
and none were overly tight, so we all good there.
And there we are, check that out.
Pretty pretty nice.
I love stuff like this, cause you know when you’ve been around keyboards for a while,
it’s always cool to have something a bit different.
And it’s not like the first time someone’s thought of this or anything, but I personally
haven’t tried a full metal keycap set in person.
So this is something new in feel, sound, AND aesthetics.
So for me, I think that’s pretty exciting.
Looking at this blank silver set, the ano looks fine.
It’s quite a smooth and shiny finish, quite reflective.
Comparing it to the silver ano on the Mode Eighty, the keyboard has a duller non-reflective
look.
Same goes for the knob on the GMMK Pro, which has more of that matte finish.
And yeh, blanks aren’t for everyone.
I can type fine on them, but it does get difficult sometimes doing like 1 key inputs when I’m
not set on the homing row.
So that’s why we have the legend sets.
I believe that this is the finalised typeface or font.
Quite similar to many premium keycap sets, like GMK.
It’s that rounded Helvetica sort of font, but smaller and slightly bolder.
I guess we’ve just become accustomed to that font and created that association between
it and premium sets.
But yeh, I think it looks good.
It’s the mods on this particular set that look a bit dodge, but it doesn’t matter,
because this is what they will look like.
So again using GMK as an example, it’s all been adjusted to pretty much look the same.
Function row legends have been lowered.
All the mods have been left aligned.
Caps lock to icon.
And yeh, just looks cleaner and better.
The only thing that may not be best presented is the colour of the legends.
The legends are laser etched, so you do feel them a little bit which is fine, but I don’t
think they’re as white and contrasty as the renders.
In real life, they’re more of a light grey, aluminium grey, which makes sense.
And as always, lighting changes how things look, but they’re definitely not as contrasty.
I believe the Aluvia keycaps will be double anodised which is interesting, in order to
achieve different colours.
But you can clearly see here comparing them to plastic, that there is a difference.
And here are the other colours that will be avail, which are looking pretty sweet.
They also feature a rounded front edge to soften it, as they found that when typing
fast, your fingers could potentially catch that front edge.
And the scoop is a little more deep and pronounced than other Cherry profile caps.
One noticeable thing though is that depending on the switch, they may sit a tiny bit higher,
and that's more noticeable on say the GMMK Pro, where the bezel to key gap is quite large.
You probably won’t be mixing them with other sets anyway, so it’s not the biggest deal,
but it is something that can easily be fixed if they wanted to.
Okay, let’s finally give them a listen, and compare.
Hmmm, was it what you expected?
Very different in sound and feel, however I only have these two examples for now, the
GMMK Pro with a polycarbonate plate, and the Mode Eighty with a brass plate, which are
both quite muted builds.
Different switches, plates, mounting styles, and keyboards will change things of course.
Let’s start with the GMMK Pro.
And yep, sorry for the substandard stabs on here.
The metal caps have a deeper sound to it, it’s lower pitched, and has more depth and
dimension to it for sure.
I feel that you can hear more of the plate, and it accentuates that it’s polycarb with
that bottom out.
But it’s the top out sound that has more of a difference, and you can really tell them
apart.
And that translates to the feel as well.
Since they are slightly heavier, the required force for you to actuate and bottom out is
slightly less, but not super noticeable.
If you really wanted to compensate, you might want to increase your spring weight by a gram
or 2, as the return is very slightly slower.
But far from sluggish.
As for the Mode 80, it’s kinda the same sort of deal.
Deeper sound and feel.
And I mean, you can hear it for yourself.
So maybe not what was expected.
They’re not pingy, besides the backspace on the GMMK, but again, that’s been changed.
Personally, I love it.
I don’t think I can say whether I prefer it over plastic, but it’s just different.
And that’s something I really enjoy.
I think that’s it.
Awesome!
Really enjoyed them so far.
And with the changes, they’ll only get better.
If you want to learn more and hear more configurations with keyboards, switches, and setups, there’s
a bunch of streamers that have covered these, which I’ll link below, so make sure to check
em out.
The biggest thing to look out for is the price, but hopefully it can be kept relatively low
to make it more attainable.
And the group buy should be starting real soon, again, all the links in the description
if you want to check it out.
Bless.