Want to get peak RGB from your gaming keyboard and the ultimate thocky typing feel? Ceramic keycaps are what you did not know you desired. But they are going to be a thing now that Cerakey has had its Kickstarter campaign (via Sweclockers) funded to the tune of half a million dollars.
Considering its original goal was just over $6,000 I'd say there's been a fair bit of interest in what it claims is an enhanced backlighting experience.
And if your keyboard doesn't have RGB LEDs illuminating your digits, can you really call yourself a gamer? I would suggest not. But the problem is that no matter how you do it, the plastic keycaps of today just can't do justice to all those colours.
Well, I guess you could go transparent, but that's just gross, and honestly, pudding keycaps don't do anything for me except make me hungry. Mmm, pudding. Anyways, the main selling point for us RGB-obsessed gamers is the extra light transmittance properties of ceramic as a material.
"For plastic keycaps," reads the Kickstarter page, "to get a better typing feel, you need thicker keycaps, but a better RGB backlit effect requires thinner keycaps. But ceramic has better light transmittance than any plastics, allows more light to shine through, leading to more vibrant RGB illumination, and without influencing the solid typing feel."
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Which leads into what matters most to keyboard enthusiasts most likely to be the ones swapping keycaps outside of peak LED fun: the actual typing feel. I'm writing this on a cheap mechanical keyboard, with brown Utemi switches and it doesn't feel great, so I am most definitely someone to whom typing feel matters—one of the reasons I love the Mountain Everest 60 so well.
There's a wee demo from the Kickstarter page which just sings to me, in a thocky baritone. The deep sound of those ceramic keys hitting the base… yeah, I'm in. The description of "a warm jade-like feel and silky-smooth texture that no other material could compare with" is also working for me.
Which I guess makes it sad that the campaign is now over, and all pledges are done and dusted. Though with such a huge level of support you can bet that Cerakey will be filling out its online store with full sets soon enough.
