[Review] Tai Hao double-shot ABS keycap sets (Red)

[Photoelectric]

I am honored to be reviewing Tai Hao caps, as I got a surprise set today from Elton (his red caps).  I was super excited and immediately put them onto my Filco.  The red is perfect: a cold medium rich shade; goes very well with a red MKC aluminum OEM-profile spacebar and my Ducky wrist rest.

Without further ado, I present to you... the Red Set



These caps come in a set for a full-sized keyboard, but numpad caps are not shown, as I only use TKL keyboards.  There is currently no standard 6.25x spacebar for these sets, and mine came with a 5x spacebar, but there is a group buy under way for 6.25x sizes. 

Function and OS caps are blank, as I believe Tai Hao does not have the molds for those legends.

(Note: the "5" and "4" number cap switch is a placement error that I did not immediately notice as I touch type without looking.  It has been rectified, and there is no error in legend printing.)



The caps are satisfyingly thick--significantly thicker than SP doubleshots:



And all of the legends are very nicely and evenly made.  This is the only defect I have found



The legends are nice and resemble Cherry legends.  The cap surface is matte and grippy.









The caps have a snap-on mechanism, not unlike Ducky Shine caps, where to get a Tai Hao firmly onto the stem, you need to push down until you hear a pop.  I would exercise caution when removing Tai Hao caps off MX Clears.

There are also single caps of green, yellow, black, and blue in my bag.  The blue is a medium royal blue.  Yellow is a darker yellow, a neutral shade.  Not too orange, not too green.  The green is a colder shade--I want to say emerald green.





A more accurate color representation of the yellow cap:



All of the colors except black have a slight translucence to them.  The red is the most opaque, followed by yellow.  Green shows some of the white plastic through.  At least in my sample, black and red are the most even-toned caps, followed by yellow, then blue, and finally green.

Something interesting I have discovered is that cap thickness seems to vary by color.  Red, green, and yellow are quite thick, whereas black is very thin, as is blue (click to enlarge):



I'm not sure how to classify the feel of typing on these caps.  They are of a mostly standard OEM profile as far as I can tell, and I don't really have anything to compare them to, as my main sets are PBT (thick and thin) as well as Ducky Shine caps, which differ from everything else.  I think I prefer them to thin ABS sets I've tried as far as the feel and sound.  I have them on a keyboard with Jailhouse Blues, so I can't test how they accentuate clicky switches.

All-in-all, I have to say these Red caps are great, especially for the price.  They deserve to cost many times their group buy cost, and I would definitely pick them over SP caps if color combinations were not an issue (SP is great about offering a huge range of colors and custom legends). 

So big from me!

And thank you again, elton5354, for the opportunity to use and review these caps!

[SpAmRaY]

Good write up!! I'll be kicking myself for not getting in on these.

[CPTBadAss]

Is it at all possible for you to get your hands on a Cherry doubleshot cap or an SP cap and take a comparison picture side by side with the Tai Hao caps?

[Moosecraft]

What profile are these?

[SeriouSSpotS]

What profile are these?

OEM

[Photoelectric]

Is it at all possible for you to get your hands on a Cherry doubleshot cap or an SP cap and take a comparison picture side by side with the Tai Hao caps?

I only had Cherry doubleshot modifiers from EK, but I traded them with someone =/  I can take a photo next to thick and thin PBT caps and some thin WYSE caps, if you'd like.

Also added photos of the other 4 colors of Tai Hao caps.

[CPTBadAss]

I only had Cherry doubleshot modifiers from EK, but I traded them with someone =/  I can take a photo next to thick and thin PBT caps and some thin WYSE caps, if you'd like.

That would be fine, thanks! WYSE is thin ABS right?

[Photoelectric]

Yep.  Brb taking that photo

[Photoelectric]

Added comparison photo for thicknesses.  I was surprised by the Blue and Black Tai Hao caps.

Also Tai Hao caps have varying thickness: left/right walls are thicker and front/back walls are thinner.

[tp4tissue]

Yea dude.... ffff sp for overcharging us for years......

[rowdy]

That yellow looks far more orange than the original pictures.

Although I would have preferred yellow yellow, I have Bumblebee to look forward too, and orange is just fine.

Thanks the the review!

[Galaxy]

Great photos! Very happy with how these look, even more excited for my sets now.

[Photoelectric]

That's because it's difficult to get the white balance right.  I even shot all those caps on bright white paper.  Just take my word for it: the yellow is a neutral darker yellow--not orange and not green.  Has a slight translucence to it.

[CPTBadAss]

Thanks for the pictures

It's very odd that different colors have different thickness. I wonder why that is.

[slip84]

Super excited to get mine. Hopefully they get out in mid-October like he's thinking.

[Photoelectric]

Thanks for the pictures

It's very odd that different colors have different thickness. I wonder why that is.

Ya I wonder the same thing.  It seems to be a function of the plastic itself perhaps, as black is the most opaque and hardest.  I also don't have the full sets for each of those other colors, as thickness varies a bit cap to cap, but all of the red caps are significantly thicker than that black cap.  And blue cap.  Perhaps when there are full-set samples of those other colors available, it'll be easier to see what the average thickness is like for each color.

[sonic_the_hedgehog]

Fantastic review! Thanks for all the useful info!

[Artichoke]

Just out of curiosity, why does the red 5 has the ridge on it?

To be honest, those look much nicer than what I was anticipating, wishing I had bought green also now.

[elton5354]

Just out of curiosity, why does the red 5 has the ridge on it?

To be honest, those look much nicer than what I was anticipating, wishing I had bought green also now.

That's a numpad 5.

[bianco]

thank you for the review.
makes me eager to get my hands on the sets that i ordered.

maybe i don't have much knowledge/understanding of the double-shot process, but i find it odd that they have different thickness for different colors.
shouldn't the molds dictate the thickness of the keycaps? unless of course they have dedicated molds for each color.

[Artichoke]

Just out of curiosity, why does the red 5 has the ridge on it?

To be honest, those look much nicer than what I was anticipating, wishing I had bought green also now.

That's a numpad 5.

Wow, I have never noticed that somehow.

[xpistalpetex]

nice pictures

[le_doosh]

Can't wait to revieve mine

[do_Og@n]

Very nice review and as always amazing pictures.

I'm glad I bought an abundance of these. Now to wait for the Tai Hao Spacebar GB.

[Lastpilot]

Thanks for this write-up and amazing pictures. I will definitely be coming back to this page more and more as the shipping for tai hao gets closer.

[HendyZone]

nice review and nice pictures 
so sad i missed the GB 

[Lifey]

I love the look of the space bar *_*

[LechnerDE]

Thanks for the review!

Two questions though:

1. What are Jailhouse blues? Are these modded switches?

2. Looking at the number row: Who taught you to count from 1-5?

[Techno Trousers]

Great review, and the pictures are fantastic. I'm really glad I ordered one of each color. Good head's up about how tight they fit on the stems too. I'll have to make doubly sure about the board I want them on before I mount them.

[chill1217]

you mixed up the number 4 and 5 keys.  these look great!

[mapple]

does the review means that all of us will recieve keycaps shortly?

[iAmAhab]

Yes, but mostly no. I'm guessing mid/late october earliest.

[slip84]

2. Looking at the number row: Who taught you to count from 1-5?

Probably King Arthur.

[Photoelectric]

Haha, yeah, I was in a rush to get the caps on and do some typing (I touch type), and only noticed the mix up outside, after Id already taken the photos and had nothing to remove the caps with   Everything is in it's correct location now

Thanks for the review!

Two questions though:

1. What are Jailhouse blues? Are these modded switches?

2. Looking at the number row: Who taught you to count from 1-5?

Jailhouse Blues are modified Blues, where the two parts of the stem are modded to not move with respect to each other.  Combined info thread here.

[MJ45]

Nice review, I also regret not getting in on this group buy. I thought for the low price they wouldn't very good quality but I was mistaken. 

[LechnerDE]

Haha, yeah, I was in a rush to get the caps on and do some typing (I touch type), and only noticed the mix up outside, after Id already taken the photos and had nothing to remove the caps with   Everything is in it's correct location now

Thanks for the review!

Two questions though:

1. What are Jailhouse blues? Are these modded switches?

2. Looking at the number row: Who taught you to count from 1-5?

Jailhouse Blues are modified Blues, where the two parts of the stem are modded to not move with respect to each other.  Combined info thread here.

Thanks for the link to the jailhouse blues! Seems like a veeery time consuming mod

[BliTzKiN]

Nice review! Now I cant wait to get mine from my local GB

[Halvar]

Thanks for the great review at the right time!

I have to admit the differing thickness creeps me out a bit right now ... can you confirm that the different caps on the red set all have the same thickness, and that the different colors of the same legend have different thicknesses?

[Photoelectric]

Thanks for the great review at the right time!

I have to admit the differing thickness creeps me out a bit right now ... can you confirm that the different caps on the red set all have the same thickness, and that the different colors of the same legend have different thicknesses?

As far as I've seen putting the caps on, they are all like that for the reds: 2 walls are thicker, 2 are thinner on the 1x caps.  Spacebar has one long thick wall one slightly thinner.  Thickness does NOT vary locally--it's just different for different walls of caps--based on mold I guess.

[Sent]

How's the bleed through with LED's with these?  Nice review, Photo.

[Halvar]

As far as I've seen putting the caps on, they are all like that for the reds: 2 walls are thicker, 2 are thinner on the 1x caps.  Spacebar has one long thick wall one slightly thinner.  Thickness does NOT vary locally--it's just different for different walls of caps--based on mold I guess.

Thanks for checking! It's a mystery. I guess that your other color caps must be some kind of prototypes.

[Photoelectric]

According to Elton's photos, these caps are very opaque to LED backlight--at least the tested red ones.  I'm not home until the 16th, when I can put these caps over some indicator LEDs.

[deSheol]

12354, son.

But wow, the green looks very nice. Now I'm interested! 

[Photoelectric]

12354, son.

But wow, the green looks very nice. Now I'm interested! 

You haven't read all the posts here

[Mad_Doktor]

Great writeup and awesome pics. Thanks!

md

[Glenn315]

Those pictures look so nice! 

[rowdy]

Those pictures look so nice! 

Looks like a nice and clean and consistent set, doesn't it.

I'm hanging out to see what a full set of yellow looks like

[Defying]

Oh my.. 

This makes me somewhat regret picking up at least a red set. Oh well. I'll probably pick up a set from classifieds after they get shipped. 

[rowdy]

Oh my.. 

This makes me somewhat regret picking up at least a red set. Oh well. I'll probably pick up a set from classifieds after they get shipped. 

It is possible KeyPop might have a few sets for sale too.

[slip84]

12354, son.

But wow, the green looks very nice. Now I'm interested! 

You haven't read all the posts here

I'm really sad there was such a glaring issue with printing. The "4" and "5" keys being inverted is sad, but I suppose I will live. Still can't complain about $9/set.