ABS vs PBT Keycaps: Which Should You Buy?

Short version: ABS keycaps - stock on boards like the Lemokey X1-A3 and Razer Ornata V3 X - feel smoother out of the box and keep the price down, but they pick up a greasy shine on the keys you hit most within a few months of daily gaming. PBT keycaps cost more and feel slightly grainier from day one, but they hold that texture for years instead of months. Neither one changes how a switch actuates. It's purely a surface-and-durability call, and it's worth making on purpose instead of by accident.

Nobody mentions keycap plastic when they're comparing switches, layouts, or RGB zones, and most listings bury it in a spec sheet nobody reads. That's a mistake if you actually use the board eight hours a day. The plastic is the part your fingers touch every single keystroke - the switch underneath just tells the computer a key got pressed.

What ABS Keycaps Actually Feel Like

ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) is the plastic most keyboards ship with, ours included. It's cheap to injection-mold, takes dye-sublimated or double-shot legends well, and feels genuinely smooth under a fingertip when it's new - almost slippery in a good way. The Lemokey X1-A3 at 80,99 € uses double-shot ABS specifically, which is the more durable version of the plastic - the legend is molded through the keycap in a second layer rather than printed on top, so it can't wear off even after the surface starts to shine. The Razer Ornata V3 X at 65,99 € runs standard ABS on a low-profile membrane frame, which is the cheaper single-shot kind.

The catch shows up after a few months, not on day one. Skin oil and friction slowly polish the surface of the most-used keys - WASD, space, the letters in your most-typed words - until they go from matte to visibly shiny. It's not a defect. It's just what ABS does under repeated contact, and it happens faster the more you use the board.

What PBT Keycaps Actually Feel Like

PBT (polybutylene terephthalate) is a denser, more heat-resistant plastic that most enthusiast keycap sets are made from. It doesn't polish up the same way ABS does - the surface stays close to its original slightly textured finish even after a year of daily typing, which is the entire reason people pay more for it. We don't currently stock keyboards with PBT keycaps in the box. What we do stock are hot-swap boards built around the same MX-style stem that the vast majority of aftermarket PBT sets are cut for, so switching the plastic later is a keycap puller and twenty minutes, not a new keyboard.

Worth being direct about the trade-off going in: PBT sets typically run anywhere from 20 € to 60 € on their own, on top of a board you already own. It's an upgrade, not a starting point, and it only pays off if you're actually bothered by shine - plenty of people never notice it or don't care.

Keycap Material Isn't Tied to Hot-Swap

Easy thing to mix up: hot-swap sockets are about switches, not keycaps. Every keycap on every keyboard - hot-swap or not - pulls straight off with a wire keycap puller, no soldering, no special socket required. Hot-swap only matters here because it usually signals a board built for tinkering, which tends to mean standard-spacing keycaps rather than a proprietary layout that locks you out of aftermarket sets. The Royal Kludge RK61 at 90,99 € (also in white), the MCHOSE x Unbox Therapy UT98 at 125,99 €, and the MCHOSE GX87 Lite at 145,99 € all fit that description - any of the three is a reasonable base if you're planning to drop in a PBT set down the line. We go through the swap mechanics themselves in our hot-swappable keyboard guide.

Does the Shine Actually Slow You Down?

No. Shiny keycaps type and game exactly as well as fresh ones - the actuation is entirely down to the switch, which we cover separately in our linear vs tactile switches guide. This is a cosmetic and tactile-feel issue, not a performance one. If a shiny space bar doesn't bother you to look at, there's no functional reason to spend extra on PBT. If you're the type who notices, or the board sits on a desk people see, that's the actual deciding factor - not frame rates.

Does keycap material change how loud the board is?

A little. PBT is denser, so it tends to produce a slightly deeper, less hollow sound than ABS on the same switch - subtle, and switch type still matters more for overall volume. If sound is the main concern, switch type is the bigger factor - our quiet keyboard guide covers picking a board for shared rooms.

Are all aftermarket keycap sets compatible with any keyboard?

Not automatically. Most gaming keyboards, ours included, use Cherry MX-compatible stems, and the majority of retail keycap sets are cut for that stem - but layout matters too. A 60% board like the RK61 needs a set with enough keys for its layout; a TKL or full-size board needs more. Check the key count on the set against your board's layout before buying.

Whichever plastic you land on, every board in our keyboard collection ships from EU warehouses in 3-7 tracked business days, backed by a 14-day return window and a 2-year warranty. First order gets 10% off with code WELCOME10.