Introduction

Awekeys is a relatively new brand that specializes in making metal keycaps, which in itself is a recent development in the world of enthusiast keyboards. The vast majority of stock keycaps tend be to made of ABS or PBT plastic, and this continues to be the case for most aftermarket replacement keycap sets. There are of course artisan keycaps, typically made out of clear resin, but those tend to be more one-off designs with various themes. If you are familiar with keycap group buys, you will be well aware of how many people spend hundreds of dollars on keycap sets before waiting for months, if not years at times, to receive them. A lot of brands have seen the lucrative market here and have come out with readily available sets for purchase, while some others such as Awekeys have decided to differentiate their offerings by going with different materials altogether. Metal and ceramic keycaps are becoming more available now, with the former in particular offering durability and a different experience to type on compared to plastic ones. Awekeys decided now was as good a time as any to put out multiple different metal keycap sets for release, going the Kickstarter route as usual in such situations.


There are three different themes up for backing on the Awekeys kickstarter, each with different options and/or colors too. When a representative from the brand first reached out, the plan was to only have the "Moon Landing" series up for crowdfunding, with the "Retro 80s" and "Hello Silver" seemingly a new addition. Seen above are three keycaps from the Moon Landing series, one each from the three colors available. These are novelty keycaps that are separate from base kits, and thus are add-ons you would get if you were interested. If all these terms sound confusing to you, then let's get started with this quick look article that goes over the "Brightside of Moon" color option in more detail. Thanks to Awekeys for providing a sample to TechPowerUp for a closer examination.

Packaging

I was quite impressed by the packaging for these keycaps, especially how they come in a sturdy cardboard box that has reinforced corner covers and a plastic sheet all around for added protection. The box itself is squarish and off-white with the brand logo, a simplified render of keycaps, and a confirmation that these are metal keycaps on the front. A cutout near the bottom gives a sneak peek at the keycaps inside too, with the back side confirming the use of recycled materials and an English typo to complete the bingo card for those familiar with these small Asian brands. Opening the box reveals a metal keycap puller in gold finish and a thick foam sheet over two more foam sheets that contain the various keycaps in individual compartments. Note that these layers are heavier than you might expect, and also that the keycap puller tool unscrews to reveal an MX stem insert you will likely use for reasons covered below.

Closer Examination

I received a base kit of the Brightside of Moon colorway, which goes for a light gray background and warmer white legends. The base kit has 116 keys, which is more than usual for such keycap options, owing to the inclusion of the number pad and associated modifiers. This will be a divisive move because a lot of people go for smaller form factor keyboards these days, and they are now effectively forced to pay extra for keycaps which will likely never be used. This particular sample set included two extra keycaps—blanks in the other two colorways, namely Lunar Maria (blue) and Darkside of Moon (black), which have the legends contrasting more against the background. As such, if you are struggling with legibility of the keycap legends here, as I was, then perhaps the other two are for you. The base metal is recycled cupronickel, which is nice from an environmental standpoint in addition to the obvious durability over plastic and ceramic keycaps. There is a "nanocoating" on top which Awekeys says adds to the durability of the legends themselves, while also providing a battered metal-like texture which is nice to the touch and more resistant to finger oils and dust too. These are thick keycaps (wall thickness ~1.4 mm) with even thicker stem guides that go over the Cherry MX-style switch stem. I also found the truncated Awekeys logo and the row number of the keycap on the back to be nice details.


Not everything is perfect though, and I fully expect Awekeys will just say these are pre-production sample issues only. But there are multiple things to be aware of before you decide to purchase these keycaps. For one, I did not have the "/" keycap (the one to the left of Enter), instead getting another blank. More egregious is the fact that some of the coating was already coming off the front/back/sides of some of the keycaps, showing the exposed base metal underneath. There's also the part where the stem guides were not uniformly made to where I had to use the keycap stem insert to push them apart enough to get them over the switch stems. Even here, there is a possibility the plastic on the switch stems may end up shaved off, as seen in one such example above, and some switches with walls/columns around the stem may not even fit them at all. As such, I can't promise you that these keycaps will absolutely work for your keyboard. To be on the safer side, I'd say stick with Cherry MX-style switches without any walls around the stem, and be aware that you may have to deal with some keycaps needing to be pried apart on the underside. I'd say that ~85% of the keycaps I used were fine in that they just installed without any issues, but I did have to use the tool on the other 15% and some were still tighter than I would like even on genuine Cherry MX switches.


I decided to use the recently reviewed Alienware Pro Wireless keyboard for these keycaps, but realized too late this keyboard had a non-standard bottom row spacing even for the 75% form factor. As such, don't worry about the space bar still using the stock keycap here—this is not on Awekeys. Sure, they could have thrown in different space bar keycaps in the base kit rather than the number pad, but that's a different argument altogether. These lighter keycaps are going to be a fairly safe choice for white or black keyboards, and I dare say most other colors too. They look even better in person than these photos make it seem. But do note they are opaque, so any lighting will be around the keycaps only as seen above. It makes these harder-to-read legends all the more faint in dimly lit environments, so this is another reason why these exact keycaps may not be for you.



As always, the sound of a keyboard is based on more than just the switch type. So when comparing sound clips, consider the keyboard as a whole. In this case, I have provided above an example sound clip of me typing on the Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming keyboard in its stock configuration at ~90 WPM, and then again with the Awekeys keycaps installed. This means the only variable changed are the keycaps, so I aimed to mostly type longer words in the second recording avoiding frequent use of the non-replaced spacebar, before moving on to the larger keycaps as usual. You will note that the second recording sounds immediately deeper and without the resonances/pings of the former, which is from the swapping out of the lighter, thinner Alienware PBT keycaps in favor of these denser and thicker metal ones. It absolutely changes the sound signature of keyboards thus, even if you already have a "thockier" keyboard to begin with. The typing experience is also different, although here it will be more divisive. The heavier keycaps may give you the feeling that the switches themselves are now heavier as a result of requiring slightly more initial force to press down. Once in the travel pathway, you will also be more likely to bottom out the switches owing to inertia. Those with a heavy hand will probably adore these keycaps, but it's not necessarily the best for the likes of gaming necessitating multiple quick taps. Overall I do like the look and feel of these keycaps more than I expected going in, so I will likely find a permanent spot for them in one of my preferred keyboards going forward.


Seen above are the three colorways on offer for the Awekeys Moon Landing series. I mentioned above how the other two seem to have more legible legends, and now you can see why. If you end up going for any of these, note that the base kit with 116 keys starts from $199 and goes up to $219 while still under Kickstarter, down from an MSRP of $299. The add-on kits will cost $69 (MSRP $89) for either of the 7U or novelties packs, and you can get everything together for $308-328 depending on when you decide to back the Kickstarter campaign which starts July 30, if at all. Also, while I can't really speak for the other designs being crowdfunded simultaneously since I have not used them, you can see an example photo of each—Retro 80s and Hello Silver—above.