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geekhack Community => Reviews => Topic started by: berserkfan on Sun, 28 February 2016, 00:46:37

Title: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: berserkfan on Sun, 28 February 2016, 00:46:37


Just a short post. I didn’t intend to do any review of granite keycaps from Massdrop.

I ordered many sets from them, but felt very disappointed by the quality and feel. I also did not find them useful for my purposes. So I listed some sets for sale.

Now brewses from GH and broadmonkey from DA have reported broken keycaps. Both have photos. Neither is aggressively demanding for refund, so I have every reason to trust them.

I have shipped at least 200 sets of keycaps to various geeks in the past few years. Many were SP’s thin ABS. None ever were reported broken.

Now I get complaints about Massdrop’s Granite Keycap set. These are complaints that mesh with my personal experience. I thought that the Granites ‘felt cheap’. They may be PBT, but they’re like some low end Chinese PBT. They seem thinner than SP’s other DSA batches.

Just thought I’d mention it. In future I will ship Granite keycaps with more padding. And I am not keeping any sets for myself. This is my ‘reverse endorsement’ of quality.
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: Weltschmerz on Wed, 02 March 2016, 06:50:41
You'd think with all the money being poured into SP and Massdrop's pockets there'd be some good quality. But no, we have to get a million sets out to r/mk so they can post their same mid-low tier keyboards with the most unoriginal, boring, and UGLY set out there. I'll go with GMK and JTK for my keycaps, sure, I can't get them in every color of the rainbow, but I know they will be quality and at least good looking, OG beige included.
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: venyv on Wed, 02 March 2016, 07:43:25
I will have to take another look at mine when I get home. I always thought they felt a little thin compared to my other keycaps. Thanks
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: MoarCoffeePlzzz on Sun, 20 March 2016, 23:25:43
Hopefully mine come all in one piece!
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: pab on Thu, 19 May 2016, 02:27:41
I will have to take another look at mine when I get home. I always thought they felt a little thin compared to my other keycaps. Thanks

I always felt that my Granites felt a little bit cheap and thin compared to even stock Pok3r keycaps.
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: daerid on Fri, 20 May 2016, 09:51:11
I bought a set last year (when they said it wasn't coming back - which it did), and just sold it. IMO it was a pretty high quality set. Maybe they only cheaped out on manufacturing this last run?
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: romevi on Fri, 20 May 2016, 09:52:58
So far I've counted all my modifiers and I've had a handful of twisting. Haven't counted all my 1u caps, but from the Elven set that I have on my board only one was warped.
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: need on Fri, 20 May 2016, 10:09:40
So far I've counted all my modifiers and I've had a handful of twisting. Haven't counted all my 1u caps, but from the Elven set that I have on my board only one was warped.
Can you please take some images ?
It sounds pretty bad...
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: romevi on Fri, 20 May 2016, 10:14:32
So far I've counted all my modifiers and I've had a handful of twisting. Haven't counted all my 1u caps, but from the Elven set that I have on my board only one was warped.
Can you please take some images ?
It sounds pretty bad...

I took some pics last night to send to Massdrop, but, honestly, you can't really tell in the pictures. At least not through my shots. But in person you definitely can tell a difference.
I'll try taking some better ones this weekend.
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: need on Fri, 20 May 2016, 10:18:43
cool thanks, that would be really helpful.
I wonder why this happens, considering the previous 3 rounds seem ok.
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: Waateva on Fri, 20 May 2016, 10:23:38
So far I've counted all my modifiers and I've had a handful of twisting. Haven't counted all my 1u caps, but from the Elven set that I have on my board only one was warped.
Can you please take some images ?
It sounds pretty bad...

I got into this last drop as well and noticed the same thing on my modifiers.  Now, it's definitely noticeable to me as I was following the discussion on Massdrop and when I received them I purposely looked for any examples of it, however, everyone that I have shown the keyboard to has had a difficult time noticing it.

Edit:  Fixed my broken picture.

(http://i.imgur.com/U8HLg2M.jpg)
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: romevi on Fri, 20 May 2016, 10:44:10
cool thanks, that would be really helpful.
I wonder why this happens, considering the previous 3 rounds seem ok.

There were issues of this in previous rounds as well.
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: rowdy on Sun, 22 May 2016, 01:26:25
I got the OG Granite, and the alignment is ... creative.

I never bothered getting it fixed as I couldn't work out which ones were misaligned and which were not, and it didn't seem right to get ALL the alphas replaced.

Are SP still fixing this, or have I lost my chance?
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: need on Sun, 22 May 2016, 04:34:23
That's ironic considering its a meticulously aligned keyset
Title: Re: Massdrop Granite Keycaps – beware of issues
Post by: ambalek on Mon, 23 May 2016, 10:54:33
I've been using the Massdrop Granites for a few weeks, and they don't feel significantly different to any other Signature Plastics DSA sets that I've used in terms of texture, thickness, or feel. The legends seem consistently printed, although I can see why some people might have alignment issues. The tilde (~#) key seems odd compared to the others, for instance. I'm not convinced there aren't quality control issues--I've heard about broken stems too, and my particular set has some odd shiny bits of plastic on at least two keys.

For those saying they prefer GMK or JTK, then I definitely see what you mean. I currently have Granite DSA at work and EnjoyPBT at home (from the recent EnjoyPBT Dyesub/Blank Keysets & CMYRGB Mods group buy). I much prefer the feel of the EnjoyPBT caps, and the profile too. Although I like the way DSA looks, the thicker EnjoyPBT and profile suits me more. And it feels great.