My Kingdom for Smooth ABS SA Keycaps
Every time I build a new keyboard, I go hunting for keycaps. And every time I go hunting, it eventually devolves into a desperate search for SA (or equivalent) profile keycaps with a smooth finish. SA is the ultimate profile, IMHO, and they're relatively hard to come by. Signature Plastics, which is where a lot of SA sets come from like the T0mb3ry SA Carbon set (they might actually hold the trademark on the SA profile if I'm not mistaken), is reportedly going through some management/ownership struggles (last I heard, they're looking for new ownership), and along with apparently the rest of the industry, they seem to be neglecting this superior keycap profile in their own stocks. If you order direct from them, they have a couple themed sets in stock (maybe), but generally you can have any color you want, as long as it's black or white. Drop carries a fair number of MT3 profile sets, which are very similar to SA. But just like SP's SA-P profile, they're made with a different...
Apr 10, 2024
I was really curious to try Topre since I was unhappy with the Cherrys I had tried, but they're kinda overrated. They really feel much more like a plain rubber dome, but they're a bit stiffer and they're more solid feeling as you press the keys. I do like being able to type virtually silently with the Topre, though unimportant for me personally. I find with my Realforce I accidentally press keys sometimes because they're so light, only occasionally when I game (I cannot imagine how anyone games on the non-uniform weight where the outer keys are 35 g...).
If I had to do it all over again, I'd just stick with the Model M or in this case the Unicomp. Not as good if you want to be "trendy" and dump tons of money on custom key caps like some people I know, but if you genuinely just want a good keyboard to type on that rocks you'll be hard pressed to do better. Just know the key presses require a fair bit of force. I did on rare occasion find myself thinking the IBM was a bit heavy to use, but it never got to a point that I couldn't use it anymore for the day. You really get used to it over time as well.