Replacement Keycap Set

The PBT replacement keycap set is only offered in one option: black and white. Packaging is, once again, in line with that of the keyboard with a white and red color scheme and illustrations galore on the front and back. Indeed, the packaging alone does a good job of showing how the final product will look on a HyperX RGB keyboard, such as the Alloy FPS RGB we are reviewing today. There are seals on the sides to keep the contents inside in place.


The contents include a keycap layout map that is handy when between replacement and organizing where the removed keycaps can go. The keycaps and keycap puller come in three vacuum-sealed plastic bags which really are all one-time use. This is where I preferred what CORSAIR and a few others have done by providing a box that has pre-cut holes for the individual keycaps to go into, which works great for the stock keycaps of the keyboard for when you need them together but not on the keyboard. The included puller is a plastic ring-style puller, which works fine but risks scratching the sides of the keycaps, as opposed to a wire-style puller.


A closer look at the replacement keycaps reveals that these are indeed doubleshot injected, and the use of the black and white plastic is extremely obvious. Indeed, most of the keycap uses a white plastic that has a satin finish to help better diffuse light coming out the bottom and sides of the keycaps, and the legends are white on the black plastic that occupies the top surface and a bit more. This type of keycap is colloquially referred to as a "pudding" set, and HyperX is not the first to come up with this. Secondary legends are in the same location as on the stock keycaps except for the Alloy FPS RGB-specific secondary legends on the Fn row which are absent on this set.


When comparing the stock keycaps to the replacement set, there is the use of ABS vs. PBT plastic with the latter having the more textured finish and much thicker walls (1.33 mm on average). Font and size of the legends are different too,with the replacement set containing looped legends with seams similar to the vast majority of doubleshot injected keycaps. Overall, these should fare better not just in terms of the typing experience (which is somewhat subjective, to be fair), but longevity and the lighting effect on the Alloy FPS RGB keyboard. Seen above is also a look at the keyboard with the replacement keycap set installed.

The HyperX replacement keycap set costs $24.99, for those interested.