If you are a mechanical keyboard lover like me.
Probably you might face difficulties to get perfect keycaps for your keyboard due to some incompatible layouts, missed group buys, or lack of availability.
Getting perfect keycaps on real hands is the best feeling for a mechanical keyboard lover.
In this article, we will talk about a keycap that has a variety of beautiful color sets, unique designs, and different layouts, and most important they come at a reasonable price point.
The keycap which I am talking about is the Tai-Hao keycap.
Are you looking for a detailed guide about Tai-Hao keycaps?
Well, your wait is over, I’m going to provide a complete guide about Tai hao keycaps from their introduction to their performance, availability, and price.
Let’s get dive into the details!
Table of Contents
Tai-Hao Keycaps: A Brief Introduction
Tai-Hao is a keycap and keyboard accessories manufacturer company that is known to produce high-quality, unique, beautiful, and brilliant colorways keycaps for mechanical keyboards.
The colorway such as (Sunset, Sand Beach, and Ocean Blue), the design layout for these keycaps look stunning and eye-catching. Anyone can fall in love at a first glance.
It enhances the mechanical keyboard’s appearance and gives you more control over the keyboard by providing an excellent grip and durability as well.
Tai hao keycaps got its name from the two Chinese characters Tai and Hao, Tai means absolute and Hao means excellency If you combine these two words it becomes ‘absolute excellency’.
These keycaps justified their brand name as these keycaps provide absolute excellency with their high-quality keycaps.
They also produce dedicated keycaps called Tai Hao Back Lit PBT keycaps for luminous RGB lighting as well as Rubber Keycaps for gaming.
Tai Hao keycaps generally use the double shot method for printing legends on their keysets which provides brilliant durability to the keycaps and letter prints never go off even after many years of usage.
Now take a look at the Pros and Cons of Tai-hao keycaps.
Pros
- Premium, High-quality, and a variety of beautiful combinations of Color sets.
- Easy Compatibility
- Economical compared to GMK keycaps.
- Double Shot method for printing legends.
- Rubber keycaps for Gaming.
Cons
- I didn’t find any major cons that need to be mentioned here.
Tai Hao Keycaps Review
Before buying a product, a user always wants to know how it going to perform in practical applications.
let me review Tai-Hao keycaps on some technical benchmarks and look at how they perform when installed on the mechanical keyboard?
Here are the following factors to get the conclusion:
1. Manufacturing Components
The high-quality manufacturing components play a vital role to make any keycap strong and durable.
In our previous article, we have discussed the difference between ABS vs PBT keycaps and their role in a mechanical keyboard.
In Tai-Hao keycaps, both ABS and PBT plastic materials are used to create these keycaps, this is the reason I like Tai hao as they give freedom to the users to get perfect keycaps according to their preference.
Let me explain to you, PBT is a high-quality thick plastic material that is more durable and sturdy and does not lose its shine with respect to time whereas ABS keycaps are good too but they can develop a shinier texture after some heavy usage.
So Tai-Hao uses both plastic materials to develop their keycaps. If a user needs PBT for a much better experience then he can go with otherwise ABS can be chosen.
2. Molding Process
The molding process for Tai-Hao keycaps is very similar to the standard molding process which is done to produce both ABS and PBT keycaps.
Tai-Hao ABS keycaps have less melting point due to their light plastic material that’s why they are easy to mold and required less energy.
Because of their easy molding, Tai hao ABS keycaps are slightly less expensive.
Whereas Tai-Hao PBT keycaps have very thick plastic material and it requires more energy to mold and produces keycaps. Due to these reasons, Tai-Hao PBT keycaps are expensive compared to ABS keycaps.
Although both Tai Hao ABS and PBT keycaps are excellent in terms of performance. Due to its premium feel and texture, PBT always has an edge over ABS.
You can opt for any keycap according to your pocket.
3. Printing Method
Do you know how legends are printed on the keycaps?
If not, there are various methods that are used to print legends on a keycap.
Here are the most popular methods of printing legends:
- Paint
- Dye-sublimation
- Double-Shot
This painting method has been most popular to print legends on keycaps around the 1990s.
You may see keyboards having this method at offices and schools as they are cheap and most affordable. But due to a lack of durability, many people avoid these keysets to use in their keyboards.
Dye-sublimation method is also popular in keyboard printing, in this method the dye needs to sink into the plastic. You can get an idea of this mechanism by the name.
Unlike the painting method, they can not be worn off after usage. So this printing method is more durable and reliable than paint.
Now come to the Double-shot method which is Tai-Hao uses as well as is being used in most of the keycaps of current mechanical keyboards.
Double shot keycaps are achieved when two different types of plastic layers are molded into each other. That’s the way you get your favorite double-shot keycaps.
According to keyboard professionals, the Double-shot method is the best method to print legends on the keycaps. Tai-Hao keycaps used this method that why they are impossible to wear off and most durable.
4. Typing Experience
As far as the typing experience is concerned, Tai-Hao has both ABS and PBT keycaps so typing experience can be different for both keycaps.
You will get a magnificent typing experience and a more deep and rich sound with the Tai-Hai PBT keycaps.
The most significant part associated with the PBT Tai-Hao keycaps is they neither won’t wear off nor develop a shiny texture over time. Apart from that, better hand control is observed due to their textured, high-quality, and rigid plastic material.
Whereas In ABS Tai Hao keycaps, you will get a variety of color options that certainly beautify your mechanical keyboard as well as you will get decent typing experience too.
But one downside of the Tai-Hao ABS keycap is it will develop a shiny texture and letters may wear off with time.
This should be kept in mind before buying Tai Hao keycaps, If I have to pick one I would go with PBT Tai-Hao because of their premium build, more durability, and deep sound profile.
I’m enclosing a video for you to get more clarity in real about Tai-Hao keycaps:
Source: BadSeed Tech
5. Price
The price of Tai-Hao keycaps is the prominent factor that makes these keycaps stand out from the market.
If you read our article on GMK Keycaps you definitely know how they are expensive, their price starts from $200.
The price for the Tai-Hao keycaps set starts from $50-60 and goes up to $500.
You have a wide range of options for the Tai-Hao keycaps when considering their price point.
You can buy any Tai hao keycaps set according to your budget and requirement.
Please note that while purchasing these keycaps on any online platform you should check your mechanical keyboard layout so you come to know how many keycaps your keyboard required.
Tai-Hao Keycaps Compatibility
Tai Hao Shell Sand Beach ABS Keycaps
The major advantage to have Tai-Hao keycaps on your system desk is they are compatible with almost all mechanical keyboard that supports Cherry Mx switches.
Some keyboards are not fully customizable, while some keyboards do not let you remove their keycaps so make sure to check does your keyboard supports fully customizable functionality.
Tai-Hao keycaps come with many special profiles such as BOBO, Cubic profile, US Layout + Japanese Characters.
You have a wide range of varieties for Tai hao keycaps which you can pick according to your preferences.
In terms of Compatibility, Tai hao works excellently with most of the mechanical keyboards so you shouldn’t be concerned about their compatibility.
Is Tai Hao Keycap Good?
Tai Hao ABS Red DS Keycaps
Tai-Hao keycaps are one of the best keycaps sets out there on the market that provides magnificent colors layout with very unique shades especially double-shot backlit keycaps which are hardly found in other keycaps.
Tai-Hao keycaps perform exceptionally well in all technical aspects.
PBT Tai-Hao keycaps offer more durability, better texture, and smooth feel along with a deep richer sound whereas ABS Tai-Hao keycaps offer a good build and decent performance at an economical price.
So after seeing their specs and performance. I can commit Yes Tai-Hao keycaps are absolutely good keycaps you should definitely try out for your keyboard.
I forgot to mention one important point you have to buy GMK keycaps and Razor keycaps in a group buy as they are available for a very limited time as well as taking up to 6 months to get delivered to your home.
This is not with the Tai-Hao keycaps, you can instantly order these keycaps on various online platforms and Tai-Hao keysets get delivered in the standard time period.
Tai hao keycaps are certainly a great substitute for GMK and Razor keycaps.
Where to Buy Tai Hao Keycaps?
Getting Tai-Hao keycaps at your home is quite easy compared to GMK keycaps where you have to buy them in a group as well as their waiting period gives you stress.
But with Tai hao the scenario is different as you don’t need to wait for a group buys or something else.
You just have to go to the following online platform to order Tai-Hao keycaps, you can also check out these keycaps on a nearby keyboard store:
Note: Please check out your keyboard’s compatibility before placing an order.
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- ✅These Made in Taiwan Doubleshot ABS Cubic keycaps…
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Conclusion
Let’s wrap this post on Tai-Hao keycaps.
As we have seen Tai-Hao keycaps are definitely one of the best keycaps at a reasonable price in the mechanical keyboard market.
Tai-Hao keycap’s custom and unique color sets with some nostalgic designs draw attention to keyboard enthusiasts. Whereas their premium feels and top-notch performance give them a broad edge over many other keycaps.
RGB spectrum with their special back-lit PBT Keycaps can make your keyboard very special and give them a brilliant and luminous appearance.
If you planning to buy Tai hao keycaps for special RGB lighting, just go for the back-lit PBT edition.
Tai-Hao’s premium feel, unique color sets, magnificent layout, price, and easy availability certainly put these keycaps stand apart from the conventional keycaps.
You definitely give Tai-Hao a try for your next keycap sets.
You will fall in love for sure!
That’s all I have about Tai-Hao keycaps.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers!!
Tai Hao Keycaps FAQs
Do Tai Hao keycaps come with a puller?
Mostly all keycap sets come with a keycap puller to remove the existing keycap mounted on the mechanical keyboards, you can remove any keycap from the keyboard and place a new one according to your preferences.
Are Tai Hao keycaps thick?
All Tai hao keycaps are not that thick, especially ABS Tai-hao keycaps but PBT Tai-hao keycaps are generally thicker due to their high-quality and premium components from which they are made.
Why are keycaps expensive?
Mechanical Keyboard Keycaps come at an expensive price due to their premium quality manufacturing components, limited-edition colorway sets, and unique design layouts which can not be found easily on the market. One-time manufacturing prices and expensive aftermarket sales make these keycaps expensive.