INTRODUCTION
Keyboards come in all shapes and sizes but they rarely visually stand out from one another in any significant way. This is somewhat bothersome if you are a gamer that likes to tweak every visual segment of his gaming setup. Lucky for you, most keycaps on mechanical keyboards can be exchanged for different ones to great effect.
You can buy several of Tai-hao keycaps on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
That’s where Tai-Hao comes in. They are a Taiwan-based peripheral and keycaps company that has a solid reputation in the gaming community. Basically, if you want to spice up your keyboard, Tai-Hao has got you covered. We decided to put some of what they have on offer to the test and subjected our keyboards to a colorful makeover. So, here’s what we thought.
DESIGN
Tai-Hao truly has a wide offer of different colored keycaps. It was a tough choice, but we decided to go with one relatively tame, red and black set and one that’s like a bubblegum explosion of color in the form of the blue and pink set. We also got two sets of the famous Tai-Hao rubber keycaps to match our regular red and pink ones. To top it all off, we also got some special caps with a dice and poker theme to further spice things up a bit. Every set comes packaged with a keycap puller so you can easily remove or place them on whichever keyboard you want.
Nice and clean
All the keycaps in the aforementioned sets are compatible with the Cherry MX keyboards but we found them a good fit for some non-cherry ones too. We tested them on the GameSir GK300, The Alfawise V2 and even on the Razer Chroma Blackwidow V2. The keycap sets we tested came in a variety of flavors too. As with all PBT keycaps, the red and black set immediately felt somewhat superior to the ABS blue and pink set. Nevertheless, they both seem to be well made and covered in a matte, almost sandpaper-like finish to increase the color longevity and material durability.
Blank rubber keys can be placed anywhere
Tai-Hao made sure these were as durable as possible, and you shouldn’t have any issues with them for a long long time. The font on both sets is a minimal one that doesn’t immediately scream “gaming” once you see it. It features all the necessary special characters and I found no inconsistencies in their placement. Our sets had the US layout, but Tai-Hao offers numerous other variants to make sure you can find the best fit for your keyboard.
The only issue I found is that there didn’t seem to be an option to have an FN key instead of a second “Windows” button. We mitigated this issue by having the FN button be represented by one of the blank or special character keys to great visual effect. The walls of these keycaps are very thin, so you’ll definitely notice a change in how your keyboard sounds. It’s nothing dramatic really, but it is something to keep in mind if you are picky about how clicky or non-clicky your keyboard is.
Explosion of color
The red and black is a popular and timeless gaming color combination that will make your keyboard look absolutely great. This set can easily find its place in many PC setups as plenty of peripherals share this color combination.
The blue and pink, on the other hand, is a bit more “in your face” color combination that will fit better in predominantly white or colorful PC setups. We found them to be an excellent fit for a keyboard with monochrome white LED’s which excellently blended with the rest of our RGB peripherals.
Extra personality keycaps
One thing to keep in mind is that these sets aren’t backlit. With that in mind, that they are best combined with keyboards that have switches and LED’s clearly exposed from the sides. Should you use them with a keyboard like the Razer Chroma V2 which has a non-exposed LED’s, you’ll somewhat lose the effectiveness of the RGB lights due to them not shining through the cap itself. However, if you still want to have the regular keycaps but you also want to have your RGB in full effect, you can combine them with the backlit rubber ones.
The rubber keycaps are something of a Tai-Hao specialty, and they are absolutely amazing. While they might not be as durable as the regular, plastic ones – they completely make up for it by how they look and feel. Not only are they made out of rubber, but also have a dotted surface that provides extra “grippyness” and an overall excellent feel when using them. While the dots feel great, they do have a downside as they will definitely speed up the degradation of the rubber making you have to replace them more often than the regular keys.
Awesome combo!
Nevertheless, combining them with the regular keycaps absolutely steals the show. If the regular Tai-Hao keycaps make your keyboard go Super-Sayian, the addition of the rubber ones makes it go Ultra Instinct and all of these keycaps are completely worth it on that fact alone.
Should that not be enough, you can always add the dice or the poker on keys like the Escape or the numbers to add even more personality to your keyboard. Whatever the case, you can expect that your keyboard will become the centerpiece of your setup and will definitely “wow” anyone who sees it.
