I recently bought a new Das Keyboard Professional and have been using it for the past eight days.
Within that time I've noticed that the lettering on my more frequently used keys has already begun to rub off and grow dull.
A friend of mine who's owned an etched mech board for about two years told me he'd never heard of such ridiculously fast wear,
or had the same issue with his own board. I find it quite unacceptable that the letters should rub off at all given how terribly expensive the board was.
I'd very much like to know if this is normal, for Das specifically or for etched black caps in general. I'm thinking of returning it and buying a WASD board instead,
but not without feedback. I want to know if the etching on a WASD board will rub off like it has on my Das,
and if it's a problem with the printing method in general or with Das' bad OEM.
I'm a bit more inclined to believe it's the latter, but I'm rather unsure about it after reading what Mr. Kwong told me:
We use a very similar method to Das keyboards. [...] The plastic actually foams up and changes white when hit by a laser. You will experience the same wear with all black, laser etched keys.
If you are open to other keycap colors, all other colors are more durable than black keys due to the reaction of the plastic to the laser. Yellow, orange, and green, for example, are the most durable.
I'd like to hear from any users of laser-etched, black-capped Das or WASD keyboards about this. Thank you for any information.
