Thoughts on Womier Clear Jelly Keycaps

They’re translucent polycarbon
ate rather than PBT or ABS. They have side-printed legends which is a design choice that I’ve always enjoyed as I have been touch typing for so long that I rarely use the legends. Side printing also works particularly well with them as they light up brilliantly on my Keychron V2 paired with Durock Black Lotus switches that have their excellent LED passthrough diffusion.

But, again, polycarbonate, while not typical, is hardly a strange keycap material. I already have a set of completely transparent polycarbonate keycaps in a more unique profile that can be fun to use with strong RGB. No, where these are strange is that while they are technically Cherry profile they don’t feel like, or look it, at all.

They have a rubber “pillow” on top of each keycap. It’s a soft-touch, subtly squishy material that doesn’t cover the entire surface of the cap. They have a 1mm border around the top edge with a steeply raised pad on top that is proudest on the spacebar with an approximately 4mm peak whilst the other caps are about 3mm. This is the first area where they are most obviously not truly Cherry profile.

They stand much taller than Cherry profile keycaps to begin with. Adding to that, rather than the sides being the tallest part of the cap, it’s the center of each cap that is tallest with that mound of silicone rubber. That gives them a very strange feeling compared to other keycaps I’ve used which are overwhelmingly designed to cup fingertips, these create a smaller point of contact, convex rather than concave. My accuracy when typing, surprisingly, seems largely unaffected by the dramatic change in shape and feel. One area where they are very different is that there are no home bumps on the F or J keycaps, something that is incredibly useful for finding the home position for touch typing.

It does mean that like all things covered in silicone rubber, they will attract dust and will wear differently from solid caps made of hard plastics like ABS and PBT. I imagine they’ll be particularly prone to wear if you type with long fingernails, or type using your nails as I’ve seen some people are wont to do.

Back to their material, it does mean they’re fairly dense keycaps as well which will result in a deeper sound. Paired with the heavily dampened, polycarbonate housing of the V2 does give the whole board a very pleasant sound in my opinion. It’s heavier, and deeper, a delightful thock. If you want a lighter, more sprightly sound, you’ll want to look elsewhere.

Relatedly, if you want ISO support you’ll also need to look elsewhere. This set covers most common ANSI layouts but only includes a single spacebar for instance. If you need a 7u instead of 6.5u spacebar, you’re going to be out of luck here. The front printing is adequate. Text is clear, if somewhat uneven with some characters appearing thinner or slightly larger than others. The word “Backspace” in particular looks messy with the “s” being thinner and the “a”s looking oddly tall. The printing is simply pad printed on the front of the caps, with no indentation. Had it been on top of the caps, they’d lose their legends incredibly quickly but being on the front of the caps they should last a long time so long as you don’t rub your fingers across the front of the caps.

The top silicone pads are also not all white. There’s a sort of rainbow pattern with the outer portions being white, then blue, green, yellow, orange, and red at the center. They’re subtle, pastel colors that are easily overwhelmed by the RGB lighting. As the rainbow lighting animation cycles on my board, it makes them appear to have varying vibrance as they blend, then contract, with the RGB colors. It’s a neat effect that makes them almost feel like they’re moving too.

Where these caps are most strange is when gaming. With typing I was able to adapt pretty quickly and easily but with gaming the different shape makes them somewhat more fatiguing than typical concave type profiles. Being convex they feel like they’re pressing into my fingers more so than my fingers pressing into them. It’s not horrendous but it is less ergonomic than other types. I wanted to test one of my more dynamic scenarios, so I chose to play Risk of Rain 2 with them, and I think, ultimately, they didn’t change my gameplay really. I didn’t notice any irregular key presses or find myself unable to find a key. It simply felt strange, unfamiliar compared to what my fingers are used to feeling when playing a game.

As for why I decided to pick these up it was mostly down to cost. I saw they were discounted from $27.99 to $23.23. They looked interesting, like a fun and weird product to try on a lark. And, for that, I think they are a fun set to have in my inventory. I doubt I’ll keep using them on this keyboard for very long but they’ll be fun to have on hand and could be a fun set to pull out to show off on a keyboard. They’re well enough made that I don’t see them just falling apart and really do look fun with powerful RGB lighting to make them really pop. I think they aren’t a good choice for serious use but as a bit of a fun distraction to have on hand they’re the right price to keep around for a laugh.