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HyperX Launches HX3D Keycap Drops for Your Gaming Keyboard

Made with color 3D printers, these limited-edition add-ons come in both cozy and dark fantasy themes.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Dan Ackerman
2 min read
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Lori Grunin/CNET

HyperX, the gaming peripheral arm of HP, has announced a series of 3D-printed add-ons at CES to customize and personalize the brand's keyboards, mice and headsets. 

What makes this line interesting is that the keycaps and headphone stands are all produced on HP's industrial color 3D printers. Using powdered nylon, they're more advanced than the basic PLA plastic material used by most home 3D printers, but still nontoxic and environmentally friendly. 

Watch this: Get Cozy, or Dark, With New Custom Keycap Drops From Hyper-X and HP

At a pre-CES preview event, I saw a wide variety of styles, some of which were cute and cozy -- HP calls this design language "Cozy." Others had a dark fantasy theme, with lots of skulls and horns. Some of them, like replacement WASD keys -- important for gaming -- are mostly visual. Others turn keys into towering sculptures and are probably best left for function keys you don't normally use, as they're almost impossible to type on.

Read more: CES 2023 Must-See Highlights: A Sliding Foldable, Stunning TVs, Impossibly Thin Laptops

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Lori Grunin/CNET

I also got to see some gaming headsets and mic add-ons. HyperX headsets can be adorned with either cute animal ears or creepy demon horns, and HyperX's RGB microphones, which have multicolored lighting effects, can sit in special stands like a cozy anthropomorphic mushroom or a skull-and-bones pedestal. 

These will be released in limited-edition waves, like other collectible drops, and the first release is a Cozy Cat keycap, which will be available for $20 from HyperX in January. Additional designs in new limited-production releases are planned throughout the year, some in collaboration with game streamers and other celebrities.