I Finally Tried METAL Keycaps. (So you don't have to.)

In this video I try the Aluvia Metal keycaps from Novelkeys. I build a Frog TKL with Kinetic Labs Huskies!
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[MrLogan]

Resale I’ve seen from $400-$500. They come in this nice aluminum carrying case. Alittle gimmicky tbh. They feel great to the touch, my concern is the sound. I got the chance to play with them a bit. And to me they sounded a bit pingy like the sound from the switch bounces off the metal cap sidewalls more. We had lubbed and filmed aqua kings 67g springs. No issues with the space bar. Looks good, feels premium, but don’t expect any additional thock.

[Meatsweats_o_O]

ceramic with legends would probably be the best sounding, per a couple vids i eyeballed and eared. but idk. i'd like a pbt vs. ceramic vs. aluminum vs. wood vs knee vs. glass vs. glarse vs. switch

[armLocalhost]

Be careful with carbon filter. Even though activated carbon used in the filter has low conductivity it still got some so it can cause shorts if you don't put a layer of tape of some other non-conductive material (like paper) in between the PCB and the filter.
Again, the chances to short is very low but they are not 0.

[zaxolotl]

really curious to how these would sound with clicky switches... id imagine every key would sound like dropping a penny, and i think that'd sound cool (for the first few minutes before it got annoying)

[Firstii]

As someone who bought these (and love them), here's a couple "before-you-buy" tips for aluminum keycaps for everyone.
The overarching theme is MACHINING IS RARELY PERFECT. This manifests in 2 noticeable ways. First, the legends are not going to be perfect. Some keys, primarily those with thinner characters, might look bold, while some look thinned out. I haven't noticed any that are crooked though, thankfully.
Second, the underside of the keycaps that connect to the switch stems are not going to be sized properly for all keys. This will mean it sits either loosely or tightly on your switches. In my experience, I only had one key sit loosely, and it was on a stabilized key. The tight keys just required a little extra work to get them safely on the switch stem, and have no noticeable effects on wobble or things like that while typing.
Last point is there may be small blemishes on the keys. I had a SINGLE key with this issue, and yes it is noticeable, but easily ignored.

[NastronautProduction]

I bought these for my keyboard and I found that filling the spacebar with foam or noico sound deadening significantly reduced the pinging on my board. The function row tends to be the more apparent in terms of the metallic pinging sound but other than that, I actually really like the keycaps.

[C.Winchester]

Anyone else find themselves suddenly binge watching this channel after you found it yesterday? Because I’m on that journey right now and have NO regrets. Also…hope silly man Alfred gets his rent paid in the end

[chrisrnz]

I have these and the only warning I would offer is in addition to one mentioned below - the machining isn't perfect. However, this is clearly mentioned this on the product page so there's no way a buyer could ever complain they didn't know (RTFM and all that).

Anyway, the additional part is that the slightly imperfect machining means that yes they don't fit every stem perfectly but it also means you have to squeeze some of the keycap crosses to make the fit a bit tighter or, the opposite, use a tool to make them slightly wider. Across my entire set I've had to do that 8-9x now and while that would be annoying for some, I read the product page and was expecting it.

Another interesting point is that because they're metal, they seem to expand/contract and hot/cold conditions. I suspect this is the case because a keycap I've modified to fit still pops off when this room is really warm but stays firm when the room is cold. I can't see any other explanation than the metal itself expanding and contracting.

Oh yeah and the loose keycaps do "ping" a bit straight out of the box. That issue goes away when they're fitted properly, though.

[Alan-wwvi]

Calling these keycaps (and others) "authorised clones" is doing the community a disservice by re-enforcing the snobbery and false sentiment that only GMK keycaps are official or legitimate.

[advaykumar]

I can’t imagine how much these are gonna resell for

[alarik]

I personally love metal keycaps. They work great in high humidity and warmth to cool you down

[Miss_Wonderful]

They look beautiful and probably the price is justified by what it takes to manufacture them but I would never spend so much for a keycap set, even if they provided a unique typing experience.

[battleshipp]

IMO I love that deeper sound coming from the aluminum caps, but there is no way I could ever justify spending that much. Perhaps I'll sit around looking for a cheaper set of somewhat similar quality

[PRX-Shdw]

The fact that u could of gone to the store and found the milk alley to get ur dad back with 400 dollars

[touchgrass]

I love the deep poppy sound profile of the keycaps, though they do sound like an anvil near the end.

[Goigigandfriends]

I have 13 metal keys and they kick ass they also have RGB pass through the best part about that is since it’s metal and not plastic defused like others it shines the letters on the ceiling 😂 for anyone who is curious I just got them on eBay and Amazon the most expensive one was the space bar and yes it was 75 dollars the rest were reasonable honestly 15-30 bucks for the sets one for the arrow keys and then I got the big back for the wsad and everything around it, then of course the esc key the spacebar I have is protected quadruple the weight of a normal one and that does have a deeper noise

[tidusrodriguez]

I'm not a keyboard enthusiast so I guess I don't "get it" but those aluminum keycaps look and sound beautiful to me. Maybe not worth the premium but damn they are sexy.

[mattdivito]

I'm a little perplexed that you dampened, and then complained about the lack of difference in sound. Without dampening, and depending on your case, plate, and switch, you can achieve a thocky kind of sound, but it'll tend to have more of a ping depending on the materials.

I had a full TKL set of blank zinc caps. They went on my TKL that has an aluminum case and MX Greys (and I also tried them on my MX Green board), and I very much enjoyed the feeling and sound that they produced. I only used them for about a week or two and ultimately, I didn't want to keep them as a daily and end up ruining them, so I packed them up. I ended up selling them to someone else who had wanted them.

[gianlucagaming]

I honestly personally liked how they sounded on the keyboard they gave it a unique sound.
That is just an opinion though.

[zerozoidHD]

Yeah I'd love to se a video of keycaps and switches and keyboards combinations!