So a recent run-in with a blue switch on a brand new, high-quality keyboard that failed to click has gotten me thinking...
How much longer before we hit the point where we have to start telling people to consider equivalent switches from MX-compatible manufacturers instead?
Now, I'm not saying that we're necessarily at that point yet-- I would want a lot more data about the alternatives, especially Gateron, Greetech, and Outemu (Gaote), before recommending them over Cherry-- but I can't help but feel like, in the absence of some corrective action from Cherry, the days when the MX Blue switch can be recommended in good faith to a prospective keyboard buyer will draw to a close in the not too distant future. What say ye?
So you got stuck with a dodgey keyboard and now it looks like all of Cherry Manufacturing has collapsed in quality - Time to wake up sunshine because every Blue, Green, Clear, White, Tactile Grey and Brown switch Made by Cherry Corp is alive and clicking beautifully at my home in a variety of keyboards. Mind you I still love Filcos (TKLs and Fullsized) over most other mechanical keyboards but all of them still work nicely as my Wife can attest, down the hall when she hears my claw tapping at night.
Never go down that route of blaming a whole company because you received a dud keyboard, simply RMA it also don't go into believing that buying a cheap-arse keyboard off someone on Ebay, constitutes a valid assessment of all Blue switches either. Geekhack is notorious in spreading false information as definitive fact, so those that complain suddenly represent 99% of owners on this planet.
Time to get real and not follow blindly into believing that clicky Cherry switches have failed, because you have to dig deeper as to why is it that suddenly no-name Chinese Made cheap copies are now better in "QUALITY"?
This is not just me, though. It's also about all the other people who have had the same problem of non-clicky blue switches. It's about Cherry putting out MX-RGB blues at such low yield that Corsair said f*** it and stopped offering them. It's about Cherry employees going onto Reddit to complain that the machines for making MX Blue switches don't work properly. It's about hearing about so many problems with MX Blue switches that I felt that I had to make a plan
in advance of receiving my latest keyboard for what to do if there was a non-clicky switch.
These problems are not limited to low-end manufacturers. These are issues where whole batches of Costar-manufactured keyboards were affected. I should also note that we have to beware of all sorts of biases. We can't just assume that any problem with a Cherry switch keyboard is due to the keyboard's manufacture rather than the switches; nor can we just assume that any problem with a non-Cherry switch keyboard is due to the switches rather than the keyboard's manufacture. And if we want an accurate comparison, we certainly mustn't do
both of these things at the same time. Yet, this tends to be how the assumptions go in most keyboard debates.
(On a side note, I'm not sure how much faith I even have in popular perceptions of quality anymore. The only keyboard I've had that's been anything close to reliable has been a Noppoo-- not exactly a top-level brand. The debounce is too aggressive, leading to occasional chatter issues, and there are holes in the bottom where debris can get onto the PCB, leading to more chatter issues, but it's survived a few years and still generally works. But I've also owned, among others, Ducky, Das (one of the Costar ones, from their best years), and Deck keyboards. The Ducky and Das are dead now, and the Deck is being RMA'd with a non-clicky MX Blue switch (and generally inconsistent sound and feel on the other switches-- nowhere even
close to the older blues on the Das).)
Edited to add: Of course, it may well be that the degradation of MX Blue machinery and the rise of MX-compatible switches have not yet reached the point where the lines cross-- that is, have not yet reached the point where someone looking for an MX-style blue switch should first consider something other than MX Blue. A lot of the rumors around Kailh switches are pretty negative, and although Gaterons are fast achieving a good reputation, some of the details that I've heard about their physical construction give me worries about their long-term prospects. Greetech and Gaote/Outemu switches are still relatively un-studied, to say nothing of the various still rarer options that deep searches will uncover. But even if the lines have not yet crossed, I can't help but get the impression that they may well do so soon-- at which point the recommendations that we give to quality-minded buyers may have to be rethought.
