This is a review of some Infinkey dye-sub Cherry profile keycaps from a
group buy back in January that I finally received yesterday. I felt that this would be timely as there are several group buys currently running for Infinikey, for prices well below GMK and somewhat below ePBT, so there may be some community interest here.
All pictures in this review were taken with the camera on my phone, a Google Pixel 3a.
The set, mounted on an old Rosewill RK-9000IPackagingI don't have much to say here other than the packaging was quite good. These are just some photos after I removed most of the caps. The keycaps came in box, with individual trays that were organized by function, with thin layers of foam in between (not shown in the picture).
TextureThe texture is a little bit more coarse than GMK, and somewhat more coarse than ePBT (from what I remember; I sold my ePBT set 3 months ago). It’s not as coarse as Unicomp/IBM though (again, from my imperfect recollections - I sold my Unicomp 2 months ago).
ThicknessI measured a random keycap and the thickness varied from 1.3mm (sides) to 1.5mm (back). So they’re decently thick caps.
LegendsFrom a quick visual inspection by naked eye, the legend alignment is quite good. All the legends appear straight (unlike some older Unicomp dye-sub jobs) and correctly positioned.
Due to the texture on the keycaps, the legends come off as slightly fuzzy, and they’re noticeably less crisp than GMK/Cherry double shots, though that's not necessarily a fair comparison as it’s impossible to beat double-shot for crispness. Here’s a close-up comparison shot with an OG Cherry double shot cap:
I don’t currently have any other dye-sub PBT keycaps on hand to compare it to unfortunately. I previously owned a Model M, a ~2010-era Unicomp, and an ePBT black-on-dark-gray set, all of which I have since sold to other people. I vaguely recall the ePBT set being slightly crisper, but it’s relatively hard to judge legend crispness on a black-on-dark-gray-set, and I haven’t seen that set in three months so I can’t say for sure. It's definitely crisper than the Unicomp I had from what I recall.
Note that Infinikey uses Helvetica Rounded Bold for its keycaps. This is very close to the Cherry font that GMK and ePBT use, but differences are notable on the capital G, lowercase t, and some symbols, such as #, ^, and *.
Unfortunately, Infinikey used the Cherry font and legend alignment in its renders back during the group buy, and this practice appears to have continued for more recent Infinikey group buys such as Islander and Pastel. However, the 2D kit pictures use the correct typeface and legend alignment. In TKC’s Discord, they announced that they would try to use the correct font in its renders in the future.
I'm personally not a fan of some minor stylistic decisions, though these are strictly matters of personal opinion:
The left-and-right arrows on the arrow keys are top justified, but they’re simply far too close to the top to make this work visually next to the center-justified Control key. I personally prefer center-arrow keys, but even top-justified arrows usually don’t go this far up. It does line up with numpad 0 a bit better than center-justified, but the centerline of the arrows are higher than the centerline of the 0.
The center-justified numpad + also looks weird because the - key directly above it is left-justified. I understand the Enter-key is technically center-justified, but it takes up the entire width of the keycap so it's basically identical to if it was left or right justified, and it doesn't clash with left-justified keys at all. As far as I’m aware most GMK sets have left-justified numpad + keys, though some (e.g. GMK Nord) do center-justify those.
Spacebar flatness I don't have access to a surface plate or other precision flat surface, so I used the CNC machined aluminum surface on the bottom of my
prototype Boston keyboard, which should be flat within 0.13mm, and is the flattest object I have access to at the moment:
6u: definitely some warpage
6.25u: a bit of warpage
7u: pretty flat
The set also comes with smaller split spacebars, but being much shorter keys those were all very flat.
I installed the 6.25u spacebar on my Rosewill RK-9000, and it works ok, though if I press it hard I can get it to see-saw.
OtherThe keys have row and size molded into their underside, which was nice. Note that Infinikey (and most other Asian manufacturers) number from the borrow row up, while GMK numbers from the top row down. For example, typically F-keys are R1 in GMK’s system, and R4 in Infinikey’s system, and the bottom row is R4 for GMK and R1 for Infinikey.
Although it’s all Cherry profile, the keys do sit slightly higher than GMK/OG Cherry caps. It’s about 0.75mm on R1 and R4, and a bit less on the middle rows. This is a well-known issue with ePBT keycaps, so it’s not entirely unexpected with third party Cherry-profile keycaps, but is slightly disappointing. Due to legend font differences I won’t be mixing this with GMK/Cherry anyways, so it's not an issue at all for me, but this may be of concern to others.
Black OG Cherry double shot up front, with Infinikey caps immediately behind.OverallI don't have much else to say - this is my first group buy keycap set, so I don't have too many points of comparison or comments on quality relative to price. The coverage (base, numpad, ISO, Mac, Ortho, 40%, Alice, and split spacebar) is exceptional for a $90 set, but the spacebars are unfortunately a bit warped, and I disagree with some of the stylistic choices, so my personal opinion is a bit mixed. I also wish the legends were a bit crisper, though this is likely the tradeoff for going with a slightly coarser texture on the caps, which some may prefer. Still, not a bad purchase at all.
The most interesting thing that Infinikey is doing, though, isn't used in this particular set: their reverse-dye sub process that enables light legends on dark caps. If done well, that could be quite a threat to GMK's dominance in Cherry profile sets, and I'm hoping someone else will review of one of those sets soon.
