@sarvopari That whole desk has a coherent vibe and I really like it.
Started using the Zeal Pearlios last night and have them at work with me today. First impressions:
Silky! No surprise, these are really smooth right from the bag.
Stable. Definitely above average in this regard, which is notable for an UHMWPE stem. This means both low resting wobble, stability during travel, and no teeter-totter feeling at the bottom. Not the very best or anything, but maybe near the top when it comes to umwipe switches.
A little chattery, sound-wise. Housing fitment is good as usual, but the springs do a bit of talking - probably the only rough edge I’ve noticed on these so far.
User friendly; that is, no fitment issues so far. I think the industry is starting to master UHMWPE for switch components - the last few umwipe switches I’ve tried haven’t had any of the hallmark umwipe issues, these included. I’m guessing they’re a blend, and that’s almost certainly for the best - they’re crazy smooth like you’d want from umwipe, but not so soft they’ll deform under enthusiastic use like pure umwipe can.
So yeah - first impressions are definitely positive, but I’ll need a few more days with them to have a fully developed opinion. So far the only weakness I’ve perceived is the chattery spring-wiggle sound; in terms of feel these are pretty much golden.
Sound wise, I guess they’re pretty similar to your typical PC-housing linear - I’ll post a recording in the next couple days.
Normally, if you can imagine that. I have NK_ PBT Taro on them right now, and they neither felt too tight nor too lose when installing - these fit better than some POM-stem switches I have.
I’m guessing these are a blend; they don’t seem quite as soft as typical pure UHMWPE, but they do retain its slickness. It reminds me of Durock’s proprietary blend which I can’t remember the name of right now… P3? So far these are reminding me of non-long-pole Cobalts - not the same, but the closest I can think of off hand. Actually not too dissimilar from Epsilons, either - I’ll have to compare them directly but off the top of my head I’d group those three in a similar camp.
Mine are quite loose. I put gmk samurai on them. Keycaps came off easily. Newer keycaps have slightly better grips but are still not tight.
My other problem with zeal Pearlios is the stock spring is too long for my taste(too binary for me), and because it has the same design as CAP switches, I am not sure if standard aftermarket springs work well in them.
Yeah youre right, the CAP springs are a lot wider than regular MX springs. Nobody has made any compatible aftermarket springs for them yet AFAIK either.
I got this going today. It’s an xyz60 (basically a lower front end bakeneko) with DSA Historic, which I’m super grateful was actually made. I love the DSA relegendables they’re just so much fun.
This arrived today. If the post office treats me well, my Gateron Yellow Pros and Equalz stabs will arrive tomorrow and I can build this amazing board over the weekend.
I didn’t really notice it while installing the caps or while using the keyboard, but I definitely noticed it was very easy to remove the keycaps. This jives with what @linch was saying.
With this PBT set there’s just enough friction they don’t come out of place during normal use, and it’s not like the Lychees where caps are flinging off - but I have to rescind my description of “normal”. Defintely on the loose grip side, but I still wouldn’t say “loosey-goosey”, at least not with this set of caps.
