Okay, okay. I know what you’re thinking. “Danielle, of all the things, you’re reviewing keycaps now? The plastic things on your keyboard? That?”
Well, when I was deciding whether or not to buy these, I tried a web search. I couldn’t find many reviews of these keycaps. And you know what? As a person with a blog, I thought it was a darn shame that no one came around to review some product.
So, here we are. I’m reviewing the MaxKey SA Keycaps in the Portland colorway.
Keyboard enthusiasts, stick around. Everyone else… well, I reviewed the iPhone XS recently. The Apple Watch Series 4… even the MacBook Pro. Would you rather one of those?
Okay, onto this set of keycaps, the MaxKey Portland SA keycap set.
In This Article:
MaxKey SA Doubleshot ABS Portland… What?
What are they? They’re bits of plastic that sit atop key switches in a keyboard. They’re the part my fingers hit. On a mechanical keyboard, you can swap out the keycaps with ease, just slide one off and pop another one on. If you’re into keyboards, you already know that. But, as a keyboard enthusiast, I enjoy typing, so sit down and enjoy the ride.
The SA profile has been something I’ve been curious about for a while. The keycaps can be hard to get outside of group buys though. They’re not widely manufactured in many colorways either, so, even when a new one comes out, you might not like it. However, MaxKey decided to pick up some of Signature Plastic’s slack. They started making their own doubleshot SA keycaps. These tall, thick, heavy keycaps are durable, have a spherical top, and curve on each row to meet your fingertips. They have a retro look, and make any keyboard sound better than it did before.
Doubleshot keycap
Doubleshot refers to the keycap itself. It’s shot twice, once to shape the legend, and again to form the rest of the keycap. The inner layer is what displays on the top of the keycap, or, the legend. Because of this, the lettering isn’t printed on a doubleshot keycap, it’s actually part of the plastic. If you want to learn more about doubleshot keycaps, you can do so here.
As for ABS, that’s just the type of plastic used. It’s a shiny plastic, and it’ll shine over time. But it’s not overly expensive and it’s durable. Lego are made of the same type of plastic.
As for the Portland part? That’s just the name of the colorway, the color of the keys. The Portland keycap colorway is one with gray alphas and numbers, black modifiers, and red accents.
Okay, all of that out of the way?
Good. On to the real review.
The Feel
Note how the F key is raised on the corners
A spherical keycap curves around the edges. Imagine pressing straight down on a piece of foam. The foam would wrap around your finger in a spherical shape. Now, if you lie your hand flat down, and take a cross section of where one of your fingers were, that would be a cylindrical shape. Most modern keycaps are cylindrical. However, retro-inspired keycaps, like DSA, SA, MT3, and others use this spherical shape. I prefer the spherical shape. For the most part, I type with the pads of my fingers, not by laying them over the board. I don’t know why this keycap type would have ever been abandoned.
Key Feel
They typing feel with these is fantastic. They are ABS plastic, so they’re a little slick to the touch. It’s not my favorite feeling for a keycap, but I understand the tradeoffs. It’s not the perfect texture under my fingertips, but it’s not unpleasant. Really, I typically don’t think about this at all.
Profile
MaxKey SA Profile Close-Up
I wasn’t sure if I’d like the height. I’m coming from exclusively using DSA keycaps. I only just recently started using a board that adds any elevation to the back of the board as well. SA keycaps are, in some rows, about 3 times as thick as DSA keycaps. I wasn’t sure I’d like them. Fortunately, I do.
Top: SA in a 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 3 arrangement. You’re likely used to the OEM one on the bottom.
The 5 rows of the SA profile are made to sort of create a long curved pattern along your keyboard. Row 3 is flat, and rows 1, 2, 4, and 5 push your fingers towards row 3. This keyboard uses, from top (function row) to bottom, a 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 3 setup. The modifiers and space bar are done with a row 3 profile, as this is more comfortable.
I love how the keys feel as though they curve to meet my fingers. It is almost as though I don’t have to move my fingers quite as much to type on them, though it’s likely only by a small amount. The shape also helps push my fingers towards the home row more. I’ve found I make fewer typos with these keycaps, and can type slightly faster on them than I can with my old favorite, DSA keycaps.
Overall, these are an absolute joy to type on. My work keyboard is a Vortex Race 3 with DSA keycaps. However, I think I’ll bring in a set of SA keycaps for my office. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m actually a bit disappointed to go type on my Race 3. That’s just how good these keys feel to type on.
The Sound
It might be hard to believe that a piece of plastic can so drastically change the sound of a keyboard, but it’s true. These thick, tall keycaps give the keyboard more of a “thunk” sound. In combination with the click from the keyswitches, it’s a really lovely sound. Of course, if you’re in an office, you likely won’t want to have clicky switches, but you’ll still like the deeper sound of the keys. Compare the video above to the same keyboard with different keycaps from my Tada68 review.
Typing Accuracy
Not too shabby, considering I can’t type with my pinkies
Because these keycaps curve so much, it’s much easier to figure out where your hands are. It’s also more difficult to press two keys at once, because they’re so tall and easy to find. The F and J keys have a deeper dome to serve as indicator keys on the first row, giving the keyboard a more uniform look than typical indicators. I’ve found that, with these keys, I can more frequently average over 80wpm in typing tests than I could with DSA keycaps. And I type without my pinkies!
Key Design Availability
The kit has no blanks, but these keys look great
The SA profile is different on each row. We often call this a “sculpted” keycap set. This makes the keys sort of come to meet your fingertips, homing you in on the home row. MaxKey was nice enough to include a few keycaps with flowers and cherry legends, which can be used for any key. However, they only included these for rows 1, 3, and 4. Only one key was a row 4 key. As someone with a 68% keyboard, this was enough for me, but I did have to put the row 4 key upside down to make a row 2 key. I had to do this because I swapped my Delete and `~ keys, so I could more easily find them. I wish they had included more for each row, or perhaps a few blanks, even just a row 2 `~ key. But, this works as well, and it’s not a huge inconvenience. If you have a full keyboard, you’ll be fine, but, if you have a keyboard with an exotic layout, you may have difficulty adding an appropriate keycap to every key.
Overall
I love these keycaps. They look great, they’re extremely legible, I know they’ll last nearly forever, and they feel excellent to type on. If you’re unsure about MaxKey’s SA profile, or just any SA profile keys, take it from this convert: you’re going to enjoy typing on these keycaps.
You can get the MaxKey SA Portland keycaps here for $99.