After trying out the regular thickness keycool PBT keycaps from banggood.com, I decided I will not bother with regular thickness again.
Vortex is the first that I tried since feng was running a group buy at the time
Overall, a huge upgrade to CM’s oem caps as well as keycool’s. I like the texture of the PBT better than regular ABS.
If you are not picky with legend, this is the best bang for your bucks (~ $45 +/- with fees in feng's store)
Next I got the imsto thick pbt dyesub also from feng (this time from classified).
Not sure if IMSTO always have mismatched colored caplock keycap or just this particular batch. But for almost $100 shipped I expect it to be perfect. However since I'm not patient enough to wait for the next group-by I'll have to live with that.
The cherry legend imitation is much prettier than the OEM / vortex's. Many said IMSTO’s are loose but I find them to be just fine. Maybe if I keep swapping them out they will become worst. Not sure if the stem will wear off faster than the caps.
The nip ni the F & J are very subtle, I like it very much compared to vortex's.
Finally got my GMK classic beige set from originative, it has been a 6 month on going nightmare to get them to reply to my emails and several promises of shipping but nothing.
It’s not until I got my CC involved to file a dispute (which initially they rejected because it’s outside of the dispute window) to get them to ship.
Overall impression of the GMK set – the keys are of very high quality, and excellent to type on, just like IMSTO's.
Couple of issues:
1. The keycaps with stabilizer are extremely loose; all the inserts won’t stay on. Might have to buy extra inserts from WASD and have them permanently glue to the caps. I double check that the inserts are not loose as they fit on vortex, IMSTO and OEM caps just fine.
2. The F & J have scoop instead of nibs. I’d much rather have the nibs.
I’m pretty happy with the GMK, except I'm not sure how long they’ll get shiny and how would it affect the feel.
I know I hate the shinny caps on my Dell membrane keyboard. Right now they feel just like my IMSTO / vortex pbt caps when new.
GMK with GMK esc (top)
IMSTO with BSP PBT esc (bottom)
Although it's hard to see from my phone's camera, the GMK white keys stand out a lot better while IMSTO's white keys are greenish. Also GMK's beige color is more accurate.
top - imsto
middle - vortex thick pbt
bottom - QFR
left - keycool pbt
middle - vortex
right - GMK
GMK regular key vs spacebar
note that vortex's spacebar is the same thickness of other keys (very thick) while IMSTO's spacebar is thinner, and also GMK's also looks thinner to the naked eyes.
Also, not sure if it's this particular IMSTO batch but I remember they were thicker in other people's picture than what I have here. If someone have the original IMSTO please post a comparison with GMK.
BSP , GMK , IMSTO
Vortex, QFR, Realforce PBT
Keycool PBT
Warning for QFR owners, if you use any of the low profile keycaps like GMK or IMSTO, their cap-lock has a small plastic stem prop up and will grind against the cap-lock LED.
According to jdcarpe, you could
A) Clip that little plastic support using some flush cutters or similar; and/or
B) Remove the LED and sand the top of it flat using sandpaper. Then reinstall.
The most important aspect is the stability of the caps once installed. I cannot stand the key rattling. For that matter the CM’s OEM caps are great before you remove them. They fit tight even for the stabilizer keys especially spacebar, enter and backspace.
After I replaced them with keycool I had to get grease and add tape to the wire to make them tight and smooth.
I do agree with most of the people who prefer the cherry profile though in that regard, not that I prefer the low profile for typing but the higher the profile the more easier they will rattle even on the alphanumeric keys (just try it on your caps, tapping with two fingers on left & right).
Now I'm just waiting for the RGBY from feng and the CYMK group buy to start invoicing to outfit my two QFRs brown properly.
And of course, still hunting for the GMK purple or even better, Ivan will do another run soon