Fading letters on noppoo choc mini and new keyboard with mx brown

[ollyba]

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;)!

[Enki]

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.)

[ollyba]

Thanks for the infos, i'll wait someone to tell me if there are good alternatives to the Noppoo keyboard then!!

[Tony]

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.

[dfour]

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.

[7bit]

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).

[Enki]

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.

[lorem3k]

You could buy a Filco tenkeyless. http://www.keyboardco.com/ has them for about 120EUR. The ones labelled as "tactile action" are browns.

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.

[Enki]

June 2013.

:Cry:

[urbanus]

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.

[G.C.W.]

Can it be that only the black choc mini has fading letters and not the white one?

[speakeasy]

<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).

[ollyba]

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!