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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: ollyba on Wed, 30 May 2012, 05:51:43

Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: ollyba on Wed, 30 May 2012, 05:51:43: Hi, I'm about to buy my first mechanical keyboard and after some try i figured out that brown switches are good for me.

So i wanted to buy a Noppoo Choc Mini with brown but i saw that some people have fading letters on the keycaps after like 4-6 months of use.

Can you confirm this? I may consider to buy another keyboard with brown but I'm form Eu and the easiest to buy is the Blackwidow stealth (wich i don't really want to buy because of many problems i read on forums),
what other models i may buy? Price range around 100€.

I prefer tenkeyless but if fullsize is not an issue at all, what i want is a keyboard without issues and well made (even though i can consider fading letters a minor one and i guess if there's nothing better i may overcome).

Thanks guys and sorry for the wall and my english;)!
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: Enki on Wed, 30 May 2012, 08:16:41: I can confirm that they fade somewhat. My Choc, which has seen about four months of heavy use, is starting to fade on some letters. It's not terrible, really, but if you're really into keycap aesthetics it might bother you. I can't speak to what's available for replacement keycaps for the Choc Mini...but I would suspect that finding caps with the front-printed function key & numpad symbols might not be so easy.

It really is a great board, though, and I think quite well-made. I think it may be against the prevailing wisdom, but I prefer my Choc Mini to my Filco TKL, both for the more compact layout and the slightly "chunkier" sound of the keys. My only real gripe is that I use Home and End far more than i use PgUp and PgDn, so I wish Home/End were the defaults and PgUp/PgDn were accessed through the Fn key. (I just use Autohotkey to reverse them...it is a pretty minor gripe.)
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: ollyba on Wed, 30 May 2012, 09:02:06: Thanks for the infos, i'll wait someone to tell me if there are good alternatives to the Noppoo keyboard then!!
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: Tony on Thu, 31 May 2012, 01:29:49: Your fingers have weak acid oils so it will eventually erode keycaps after several months of heavy use.

You can try Ninja or blank keycaps which have no legends on top, if you can touch type.
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: dfour on Fri, 01 June 2012, 14:24:55: Quote from: Tony;604436
Your fingers have weak acid oils so it will eventually erode keycaps after several months of heavy use.

You can try Ninja or blank keycaps which have no legends on top, if you can touch type.

I love my choc mini. I've had it for about 6 months and haven't noticed any fading on the keys. I use it for my home PC though and it only sees about 8 hours worth of action per week.
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: 7bit on Fri, 01 June 2012, 14:29:46: These key caps are not for long-term useage. They are only for protecting the switches during transport.

You should real key caps in one of those various group buys, here at Geekhack (look for Round 4).
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: Enki on Fri, 01 June 2012, 14:33:22: Quote from: 7bit;605783
These key caps are not for long-term useage. They are only for protecting the switches during transport.

You should real key caps in one of those various group buys, here at Geekhack (look for Round 4).

dohoho.

Speaking of which, when do I get my Round 4 order? I don't have the keyboard to put them on yet, but I'd like to just hold them and feel them.
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: lorem3k on Fri, 01 June 2012, 21:58:04: You could buy a Filco tenkeyless. http://www.keyboardco.com/ has them for about 120EUR. The ones labelled as "tactile action" are browns.

Quote from: Enki;605784
Speaking of which, when do I get my Round 4 order? I don't have the keyboard to put them on yet, but I'd like to just hold them and feel them.
June 2013.
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: Enki on Sat, 02 June 2012, 13:04:56: Quote from: lorem3k;606003
June 2013.

:Cry:
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: urbanus on Sun, 03 June 2012, 05:24:49: Quote from: ollyba;603733
but i saw that some people have fading letters on the keycaps after like 4-6 months of use.

The grey with the POM keycaps or the white with PBT? Or both?

Lasered keycaps will last a lot longer than printed ones, but they're not immune to wear. If letter wear really bothers you, you need to get a board with double-shots, but then your choices of makes and models are more limited.

I concur with the other comments here, that the Choc Mini is well made. For a compact keyboard, at the price, it's great value.
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: G.C.W. on Sun, 03 June 2012, 06:35:29: Can it be that only the black choc mini has fading letters and not the white one?
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: speakeasy on Sun, 03 June 2012, 09:35:19: <3 my choc mini. I got one from the early batch that had not so good infill on the lasered keys, though I hear more recent ones have better lettering. Really doesn't bug me because I replaced most of my keys with blanks (though I much prefer the feel of the POM keycaps).
Title: Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown
Post by: ollyba on Tue, 05 June 2012, 12:06:41: Thanks for the replies , i was referring to the black one by the way,i decided fading letters are not bothering me that much but I'm now struggled between KBT race and Choc mini, i'm going to decide in one week. Thank you all for the usefull answers!