Keyboard stickers or silicone covers? That is the question! No matter if you just got your brand new 2023 MacBook Pro or want to upgrade the unbreakable Lenovo ThinkPad, we’ve been there. Want more legible letters? Or better protection against liquids and simple scratches? Or maybe you just got a new laptop with a totally different language layout than you're used to? Be my guest and let me show you all pros and cons of having keyboard stickers and silicone covers.
Table of contents:
- Typing is waaay better with keyboard stickers
- Keyboard stickers can be personalized to the extreme
- Keyboard stickers can be matched with laptop skins
- Once you change your laptop, you don't stay with a bunch of accessories when using keyboard stickers
- You get what's best from your MacBook or other laptop design
- In our opinion, silicone covers can leave marks or crack your screen
- In our opinion, silicone covers increase your laptop's temperature and can lead to overheating in conducive environment
- Keyboard stickers can have metallic finish
- When you can't find silicone cover for your laptop model, custom keyboard stickers can be made for you
1. Typing is waaay better with keyboard stickers
This is crucial for writers and anyone heavily relying on a typing speed and accuracy. Keyboard stickers just stick to the key without changing its shape, hardness or range of movement. Typing will be still an easy job for your fingers, as you won't have to change pressure on the keys.
Silicone cover makes an unnatural layer that changes the feel of typing (you feel a soft gel surface instead of hard key), and decreases typing speed and tactile feedback. Many people report they have to use much more force to type with silicone cover on. Many dumps covers because of that.
Sometimes silicone covers change how the keys are shaped and placed. It happens because manufacturers of these covers made the production cost more economical and put more than one keyboard layout into one product. Your enter key can suddenly change the shape from rectangular or 7-shaped to almost-triangular without a legitimate reason. It may be super rough change if you're used to your keyboard shape.
2. Keyboard stickers can be personalized to the extreme
You can get them with colorful artwork, custom fonts, and colors, bilingual, with keyboard shortcuts. What's more, you'll get them made exactly for your keyboard shape.
In comparison, silicone covers tend to have simple artworks, washed out colors, with one default letters color and font, without any customization.
Try to tell silicone cover seller that you'll like to change letters color and have it with a black stroke, with Great Wave of Kanagawa artwork, for a Dell XPS 13 9560 from 2017, with an Icelandic keyboard layout that has to match US English keyboard shape. We have such customers all the time, silicone cover sellers can't even make such a product.
3. Keyboard stickers can be matched with laptop skins
They can be matched with desired trackpad sticker or full skin coverage and it will always look good. Silicone covers are totally lonely in that matter, plus they just look like rubber. Try matching them with... what? There's nothing that will look seamless with silicone covers.
4. Once you change your laptop, you don't stay with a bunch of accessories when using keyboard stickers
Keyboard stickers can be simply taken off, squeezed and deposited in any recycle bin (plastic section). Let's face it - we all know that feeling when you change your phone but still have old chargers in a drawer. Keyboard stickers are - in this sense - more minimalistic and environmentally friendly. Silicone covers take much more room when thrown to garbage.
5. You get what's best from your MacBook or other laptop design
The sleek design and elegant lines - this is what you paid for while deciding to go with a particular laptop. And who would like to ruin that? With keyboard stickers, you only highlight the designer look, not hide it under a thick silicone layer.
6. In our opinion, silicone covers can leave marks or crack your screen
There have been multiple opinions on the internet about silicone covers leaving greasy marks on the screen, or that silicone covers allegedly crack the screen. This can be true or not, but why take the risk?
7. In our opinion, silicone covers increase your laptop's temperature and can lead to overheating in conducive environment
We had silicone covers years ago on a MacBook, and it keeps getting hot all the time. We dumped it on day two. I really don't like to type on a hot keyboard and hear fans screaming for more air.
8. Keyboard stickers can have metallic finish
We've been making metallic keyboard stickers for years, but you can't find any such silicone covers. Metallic finish is very elegant and can make stickers virtually disappear or blend in to the metal case of laptop. Silicone covers will always look like rubber.
9. When you can't find silicone cover for your laptop model, custom keyboard stickers can be made for you
source of photo: https://keyshorts.com/pages/reviews
Silicone covers can't be made to order and on a per piece basis. You have to make a mold - which costs a lot - that's why you need to produce dozens of covers to make a profit. Keyboard stickers from Keyshorts can be designed and produced to order, exactly for your needs.
To sum up, a handy table for you with pros and cons of keyboard stickers and silicone covers:
| Keyboard stickers | Silicone covers | |
| Typing | ★★★★★ | ★ |
| Customizability | ★★★★★ | ★ |
| Color and artwork quality | ★★★★★ | ★★★ |
| Influence on laptop cooling | none | ★★ |
| Influence on laptop screen | none | depends on brand |
| Environment | ★★ | ★ |
| Protection against dust | ★★★ | ★★★★ |
| Protection against scratches | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Protection against liquids | none | ★★★★ |
| Compatibility with other products | ★★★★★ | ★ |
| Installation | about 15 minutes | few seconds |
| Removal | about 5 minutes | a second |
Overall, keyboard stickers are more versatile, more minimalistic, more customizable, safer and environmentally friendlier than silicone covers.
Yes, silicone covers offer more protection against dust and spills, but did you hear about medieval knights? They had protective armours so thick and heavy, they could barely move and fight. Same story with silicone covers - you get the protection, but the cost is you can't use your keyboard effectively.
I hope this article was informative and helped you with your decision. If so, or if you have other question/opinion, please leave a comment below :)
If you decide to purchase keyboard stickers, we offer a variety of high-quality keyboard stickers, ranging from keyboard decals for MacBooks and other laptops, to bilinguals and stickers with keyboard shortcuts to work faster in a software.
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