[GB] Clickiez™, Crystal™, Pearlio™ Switches

[Zeal]

It's been a while since my last GB here on GH! Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday break!

Our long awaited premium clicky switch is finally here! After years of development and countless rounds of prototyping, samples, and delays, what better gift is there than to release the Clickiez on Christmas day?

Clickiez™ are offered in two weights:

~40g bottom out (~73g peak force, ~32g actuation)
~75g bottom out (~95g peak force, ~58g actuation)

Clickiez™ are the world's first 3-in-1 MX switch that can transform into three different MX style switches via a non permanent mod to the leaf. These switches are fully compatible with Cherry profile keycaps when used with South facing switches (LED slot facing South, or in this case Zeal Logo facing South)

Featuring a Patent Pending multi mode click leaf design, this switch can be transformed from Clicky to Ultra High Tactile (think BKE level, but even more extreme) to super smooth Linear switch modes by simply moving the secondary switch leaf within the housing.
Clickiez™ Switch GB Price $1.30/USD ea
40g

75g


Pearlio™ Switch (Linear) GB Price $1.20/USD ea
UHMWPE stem w/ clear Nylon base & PC Top


Crystal™ Switch (Tactile) GB Price $1.20/USD ea
New clear Nylon for stem material like our Zeal™ stabilizers



Clickiez sound demo below. We'll work on full typing video in the New Years.

Estimated fulfillment date is mid March 2022. Pre-order will run until the switches arrive at our HQ.

Other news & updates will also be provided on our discord: https://discord.gg/zeal

[Zeal]

Typing sound tests:

SA Profile

Cherry Profile

Pearlio switches stock with Cherry Profile

Clickiez Reviews:

[nullinasou]

1.3 USD per switch weirdchamp

[zlorfik]

Thank you for the groundbreaking and inspiring work!

p.s. Ordered sample sets for each.

[J3ff_Leopard]

1.3 USD per switch weirdchamp

$1.50 per switch when the GB ends. Also you can't spring swap easily because Gateron Cap molds. Over $100 to fill a 60%. I've wanted these since the original tease but I'll have to really consider if I want to support these price trends.

[thechemtrailkid]

I was intrigued enough to order a set for a TKL. The force curve Zeal posted on IG shows an extremely (sharply) tactile switch so at the very least, it's something different in the MX world.

Zeal, would it be possible to get a sound test with these in a board?

My bad, didn't see the sentence at the end.

[Hak Foo]

I sort of had these in mind back when I built a custom (buying the MOQ of five PCBs figuring one day I'd want to build them with another different switch type) but that price is sort of painful.  The current market leading clicky switches (Kalih Box clickies) are less than half that price.

I'd love to see a video or disassembly diagram illustrating the modification process.  In particular, I'm worried that it might be a "you need specific clearances to open the switch to perform the mod" situation, where not every plate design will be compatible.

[bigdonnerz]

Wow 1.30 per switch and your warranty is void if you use the main feature as intended

[chat and team]

no, i can one tactile, clicky, and linear for less than a zeal switch.
Box jade: 34 cents
Jwick black T1- 25cents
Jwick black linear 25 cents
disregarding shipping from different vendors
Another Novelkeys only example
Cherry black 38 cents
Box jade 34 cents
Box royal 50 cents
Total: 1.22 cents 8 cents cheaper may seem very little upfront but you get 3 switch instead of 1
 One more from Paramountkeeb
Jwick yellow,red gat milky pro yellow and red, and jwick black tactile or jwick black linear I can average all of these to 25 cents each.
While there is no clicky i could just get these non overpriced decent linear/tactiles for a fraction of the cost
1.30 is 520% of 25 btw just to let yall know .
Common arguments
-Youre paying for the tech and thoughts put into this switch.
Dont care dont want this no one asked for it
-Its innovation
It is but in the wrong direction and again who asked for it? No one did.
-zeal so good
No its not its overpriced
-zeal is Canadian
So is kumamech polartypes and we all know what they do ( if you don't they scam )
- its expensive to produce
no its not, its China
This is almost like Rama paying a premium for a product that wasn't asked for or needed
- this takes less space
i dont have anything to say about this since this is true
I have a personal question will other switch manus be able to use this  "patent pending"  technology if not , whats the point of this "innovation" if others cannot use this and its only exclusive to Zeal.

[Remsky]

Are there any videos showcasing switching between the different mx styles? Any typing tests in actual boards? It seems strange that so much effort clearly went into this product but I think you're misrepresenting it with an 11 second video.

[thechemtrailkid]

no, i can one tactile, clicky, and linear for less than a zeal switch.
Box jade: 34 cents
Jwick black T1- 25cents
Jwick black linear 25 cents
disregarding shipping from different vendors
Another Novelkeys only example
Cherry black 38 cents
Box jade 34 cents
Box royal 50 cents
Total: 1.22 cents 8 cents cheaper may seem very little upfront but you get 3 switch instead of 1
 One more from Paramountkeeb
Jwick yellow,red gat milky pro yellow and red, and jwick black tactile or jwick black linear I can average all of these to 25 cents each.
While there is no clicky i could just get these non overpriced decent linear/tactiles for a fraction of the cost
1.30 is 520% of 25 btw just to let yall know .
Common arguments
-Youre paying for the tech and thoughts put into this switch.
Dont care dont want this no one asked for it
-Its innovation
It is but in the wrong direction and again who asked for it? No one did.
-zeal so good
No its not its overpriced
-zeal is Canadian
So is kumamech polartypes and we all know what they do ( if you don't they scam )
- its expensive to produce
no its not, its China
This is almost like Rama paying a premium for a product that wasn't asked for or needed
- this takes less space
i dont have anything to say about this since this is true
I have a personal question will other switch manus be able to use this  "patent pending"  technology if not , whats the point of this "innovation" if others cannot use this and its only exclusive to Zeal.

I have absolutely asked for someone to put a Alps style tactile leaf in an MX compatible housing

[superdoedoe]

1.3 USD per switch weirdchamp

[okidna]

Zeal, would it be possible to get a sound test with these in a board?

Clickiez sound demo below. We'll work on full typing video in the New Years.

Damn this hobby, people literally addicted to typing and didn't even bother to read......

[thechemtrailkid]

Zeal, would it be possible to get a sound test with these in a board?

Clickiez sound demo below. We'll work on full typing video in the New Years.

Damn this hobby, people literally addicted to typing and didn't even bother to read......

Keyboards not seeboards.

[shansoft]

no, i can one tactile, clicky, and linear for less than a zeal switch.
Box jade: 34 cents
Jwick black T1- 25cents
Jwick black linear 25 cents
disregarding shipping from different vendors
Another Novelkeys only example
Cherry black 38 cents
Box jade 34 cents
Box royal 50 cents
Total: 1.22 cents 8 cents cheaper may seem very little upfront but you get 3 switch instead of 1
 One more from Paramountkeeb
Jwick yellow,red gat milky pro yellow and red, and jwick black tactile or jwick black linear I can average all of these to 25 cents each.
While there is no clicky i could just get these non overpriced decent linear/tactiles for a fraction of the cost
1.30 is 520% of 25 btw just to let yall know .
Common arguments
-Youre paying for the tech and thoughts put into this switch.
Dont care dont want this no one asked for it
-Its innovation
It is but in the wrong direction and again who asked for it? No one did.
-zeal so good
No its not its overpriced
-zeal is Canadian
So is kumamech polartypes and we all know what they do ( if you don't they scam )
- its expensive to produce
no its not, its China
This is almost like Rama paying a premium for a product that wasn't asked for or needed
- this takes less space
i dont have anything to say about this since this is true
I have a personal question will other switch manus be able to use this  "patent pending"  technology if not , whats the point of this "innovation" if others cannot use this and its only exclusive to Zeal.

I have absolutely asked for someone to put a Alps style tactile leaf in an MX compatible housing

THIS!

MX tactile is goddamn awful.... especially on the release of tactile switch is just pure madness....
A lot of time I misclick on space bar because of release tactility prevent it from return properly.

Also, actuation did NOT happened on the peak of tactile event, but afterwards....... 

[Findecanor]

Buggy web site with functionality and information missing.

[OhKeycaps]

These sound amazing. Can't wait to try them.

[Tyson]

1.3 USD per switch weirdchamp

[DukeEsquire]

Seems premature to put these out for sale without any real information.

Also...anyone else thinks it's nonsensical to buy super expensive switches that can switch between styles? At this price point, why not just buy separate switches?

[thechemtrailkid]

Seems premature to put these out for sale without any real information.

Also...anyone else thinks it's nonsensical to buy super expensive switches that can switch between styles? At this price point, why not just buy separate switches?

The ability to linearize them makes sense, sense you're just removing the leaf spring. I'm interested to know how it switches between clicky and tactile though. This line "this switch can be transformed from Clicky to Ultra High Tactile (think BKE level, but even more extreme) to super smooth Linear switch modes by simply moving the secondary switch leaf within the housing." gives me the impression that the leaf spring is formed in a certain way such that deepening on its orientation in the housing, it is either free to move or restrained. If so, adding an additional stamping shouldn't be expensive.

[Grandmasternoob]

WOW, $1.30, see the Zeal style

[DukeEsquire]

Seems premature to put these out for sale without any real information.

Also...anyone else thinks it's nonsensical to buy super expensive switches that can switch between styles? At this price point, why not just buy separate switches?

The ability to linearize them makes sense, sense you're just removing the leaf spring. I'm interested to know how it switches between clicky and tactile though. This line "this switch can be transformed from Clicky to Ultra High Tactile (think BKE level, but even more extreme) to super smooth Linear switch modes by simply moving the secondary switch leaf within the housing." gives me the impression that the leaf spring is formed in a certain way such that deepening on its orientation in the housing, it is either free to move or restrained. If so, adding an additional stamping shouldn't be expensive.

It still doesn't make sense. Just go buy one of the many amazing linear switches if you want a linear switching.

The idea of a converting switch doesn't make sense when you have to desolder a switch to change it.

I guess if someone just absolutely has zero storage space so they need to save space by not having extra switches lying around, maybe this makes sense.

[Tree_]

Too expensive, stem colours are ugly.

[thechemtrailkid]

Seems premature to put these out for sale without any real information.

Also...anyone else thinks it's nonsensical to buy super expensive switches that can switch between styles? At this price point, why not just buy separate switches?

The ability to linearize them makes sense, sense you're just removing the leaf spring. I'm interested to know how it switches between clicky and tactile though. This line "this switch can be transformed from Clicky to Ultra High Tactile (think BKE level, but even more extreme) to super smooth Linear switch modes by simply moving the secondary switch leaf within the housing." gives me the impression that the leaf spring is formed in a certain way such that deepening on its orientation in the housing, it is either free to move or restrained. If so, adding an additional stamping shouldn't be expensive.

It still doesn't make sense. Just go buy one of the many amazing linear switches if you want a linear switching.

The idea of a converting switch doesn't make sense when you have to desolder a switch to change it.

I guess if someone just absolutely has zero storage space so they need to save space by not having extra switches lying around, maybe this makes sense.

I mean the ability to linearize them makes sense because it's inherit to their design; at a minimum they'd be a 2-in-1 switch. If changing between tactility and clicky can be accomplished by stamping the leaf in a particular way, perhaps it's cheaper to make one slightly more complicated leaf than running two production lines to make dedicated clicky and tactile leafs? Who knows, it's all speculation.

[catamscott]

yes, these are expensive, but at least there's finally an actual new (well, new to mx) design change that meaningfully changes the typing experience and not just another switch re-color/new manu. very interested in the full typing test and eventually testing these out

[chat and team]

yes, these are expensive, but at least there's finally an actual new (well, new to mx) design change that meaningfully changes the typing experience and not just another switch re-color/new manu. very interested in the full typing test and eventually testing these out

scroll up and refer to my original wall of text

[Pylon]

Wonder if we'll see a revival in plates with the cutout notches so you can remove the switch tops without desoldering.

[lakeboredom]

These look awesome. Going to build in a TKL with a brass plate that has switch top removal.

[phinix]

so 100g Cliekiez would be more tactile than Zealios v2 78s?

[thechemtrailkid]

so 100g Cliekiez would be more tactile than Zealios v2 78s?

It depends on how you define but yes, I would guess that both weightings would feel more tactile than Zealios v2 since they drop about 40 grams over 1/4-1/2 a millimeter.

[LMarci]

1.3$ lol

[ReverbSlush]

weirdchamp

[scoopbb]

remember the days when zeal was loved. how times have changed. thanks jwk, we owe ya

[Mr_BeastQuake]

remember the days when zeal was loved. how times have changed. thanks jwk, we owe ya

Zeal is a good guy, I still buy his products. The Pearlios are of interest to me.

A lot of people’s barometer for someone being a “good guy”  in this hobby is solely based on whether that person is giving them a “good deal” according to their interpretation. If they aren’t getting a “good deal” people get nasty quick.

[thechemtrailkid]

remember the days when zeal was loved. how times have changed. thanks jwk, we owe ya

Zeal is a good guy, I still buy his products. The Pearlios are of interest to me.

A lot of people’s barometer for someone being a “good guy”  in this hobby is solely based on whether that person is giving them a “good deal” according to their interpretation. If they aren’t getting a “good deal” people get nasty quick.

He should just start making components that don't effect keyfeel, then people wouldn't complain when his products costs more than the latest posting on aliexpress

[dangboy]

100g clickiez? Absolutely.

[scoopbb]

remember the days when zeal was loved. how times have changed. thanks jwk, we owe ya

Zeal is a good guy, I still buy his products. The Pearlios are of interest to me.

A lot of people’s barometer for someone being a “good guy”  in this hobby is solely based on whether that person is giving them a “good deal” according to their interpretation. If they aren’t getting a “good deal” people get nasty quick.

such a nice guy, in this hobby out of real love, not to make money or anything

[jagger27]

CAD $1.60/sw WeirdChamp

[Mr_BeastQuake]

remember the days when zeal was loved. how times have changed. thanks jwk, we owe ya

Zeal is a good guy, I still buy his products. The Pearlios are of interest to me.

A lot of people’s barometer for someone being a “good guy”  in this hobby is solely based on whether that person is giving them a “good deal” according to their interpretation. If they aren’t getting a “good deal” people get nasty quick.

such a nice guy, in this hobby out of real love, not to make money or anything

I would’ve thought it was obvious he owned a business. Are you implying business owners are not good people?

Maybe that’s not a subject for Geekhack.

[Skok]

remember the days when zeal was loved. how times have changed. thanks jwk, we owe ya

Zeal is a good guy, I still buy his products. The Pearlios are of interest to me.

A lot of people’s barometer for someone being a “good guy”  in this hobby is solely based on whether that person is giving them a “good deal” according to their interpretation. If they aren’t getting a “good deal” people get nasty quick.

such a nice guy, in this hobby out of real love, not to make money or anything

This is a dumb take. Making **** costs money. There isn't a single vendor doing anything solely out of the good of their heart. Maybe partly, but money is always going to be an incentive. People need to eat and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't agree with the pricing either so I won't be buying but don't act entitled to someone else's work just because they are charging premium. Y'all are getting fleeced worse on cherry stabs and daughterboards more than these switches lmao.

More

[thechemtrailkid]

remember the days when zeal was loved. how times have changed. thanks jwk, we owe ya

Zeal is a good guy, I still buy his products. The Pearlios are of interest to me.

A lot of people’s barometer for someone being a “good guy”  in this hobby is solely based on whether that person is giving them a “good deal” according to their interpretation. If they aren’t getting a “good deal” people get nasty quick.

such a nice guy, in this hobby out of real love, not to make money or anything

This is a dumb take. Making **** costs money. There isn't a single vendor doing anything solely out of the good of their heart. Maybe partly, but money is always going to be an incentive. People need to eat and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't agree with the pricing either so I won't be buying but don't act entitled to someone else's work just because they are charging premium. Y'all are getting fleeced worse on cherry stabs and daughterboards more than these switches lmao.

More

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As a community we have shown we are willing to spend $150+ to kit out a board in GMK keycaps to the point where GMK has year and a half lead times but apparently spending $20 less on the component that is far and away the most important factor in key feel is outrageous to some in a hobby ostensibly about how nice it feels to type on a nice keyboard.

Who knows how these will actually feel in hand, maybe they wont be worth it all, but it's bizarre to see people completely write off a switch as being too expensive while spending more money on hundreds on keycaps, or $80 on a USB cable, $60 an a single (novelty) keycap, or $400 on a board with the latest meme mounting method, or...

[scoopbb]

remember the days when zeal was loved. how times have changed. thanks jwk, we owe ya

Zeal is a good guy, I still buy his products. The Pearlios are of interest to me.

A lot of people’s barometer for someone being a “good guy”  in this hobby is solely based on whether that person is giving them a “good deal” according to their interpretation. If they aren’t getting a “good deal” people get nasty quick.

such a nice guy, in this hobby out of real love, not to make money or anything

This is a dumb take. Making **** costs money. There isn't a single vendor doing anything solely out of the good of their heart. Maybe partly, but money is always going to be an incentive. People need to eat and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't agree with the pricing either so I won't be buying but don't act entitled to someone else's work just because they are charging premium. Y'all are getting fleeced worse on cherry stabs and daughterboards more than these switches lmao.

More

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the take isnt that hes supposed to give away switches for free. its that hes charging a ridiculous amount in the current market and his reputation or "niceness" shouldnt change that. no one said he cant eat or isnt allowed to make money. i just dont pretend hes doing anyone a favor because hes a nice guy with these switches lol. 

[Skok]

remember the days when zeal was loved. how times have changed. thanks jwk, we owe ya

Zeal is a good guy, I still buy his products. The Pearlios are of interest to me.

A lot of people’s barometer for someone being a “good guy”  in this hobby is solely based on whether that person is giving them a “good deal” according to their interpretation. If they aren’t getting a “good deal” people get nasty quick.

such a nice guy, in this hobby out of real love, not to make money or anything

This is a dumb take. Making **** costs money. There isn't a single vendor doing anything solely out of the good of their heart. Maybe partly, but money is always going to be an incentive. People need to eat and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't agree with the pricing either so I won't be buying but don't act entitled to someone else's work just because they are charging premium. Y'all are getting fleeced worse on cherry stabs and daughterboards more than these switches lmao.

More

Show Image

the take isnt that hes supposed to give away switches for free. its that hes charging a ridiculous amount in the current market and his reputation or "niceness" shouldnt change that. no one said he cant eat or isnt allowed to make money. i just dont pretend hes doing anyone a favor because hes a nice guy with these switches lol.

I don't disagree with you. Your first comment didn't really convey that, at least from my perspective. Fair enough.

[phinix]

Stop complaining here.
I think price is similar to Zealios, which are amazing switches.
I bought Zealios and Tealios many times from Zeal and I think those prices were ok for quality of those products.
Price I willing to pay for premium stuff - this is afterall premium hobby, you can live with standard Dell office keyboard, you dont have to buy custom DIY kits.

What was the price for Holy Pandas? I remember those were expensive.

[Hak Foo]

Who knows how these will actually feel in hand, maybe they wont be worth it all, but it's bizarre to see people completely write off a switch as being too expensive while spending more money on hundreds on keycaps, or $80 on a USB cable, $60 an a single (novelty) keycap, or $400 on a board with the latest meme mounting method, or...

Point taken-- we don't know how they feel.  But there is a framework of prices now.  We know we can get decent clicky switches in the 30-50 cent range.  So if you bring a new product to market at $1.30, you've got some explaining to do.

We'd say the same thing if you said "here's a $4,000 cell phone", or "here's a $350 keycap set."

Switches are also an odd market because in many cases it's invisible.  It's the component which is mostly for you.  You can't tell from a photo or casual inspection if my board has $1.30 switches or 13-cent ones, so it has little street-cred factor the way a fancy cable or bag of artisans does. 

[thechemtrailkid]

Who knows how these will actually feel in hand, maybe they wont be worth it all, but it's bizarre to see people completely write off a switch as being too expensive while spending more money on hundreds on keycaps, or $80 on a USB cable, $60 an a single (novelty) keycap, or $400 on a board with the latest meme mounting method, or...

Point taken-- we don't know how they feel.  But there is a framework of prices now.  We know we can get decent clicky switches in the 30-50 cent range.  So if you bring a new product to market at $1.30, you've got some explaining to do.

We'd say the same thing if you said "here's a $4,000 cell phone", or "here's a $350 keycap set."

Switches are also an odd market because in many cases it's invisible.  It's the component which is mostly for you.  You can't tell from a photo or casual inspection if my board has $1.30 switches or 13-cent ones, so it has little street-cred factor the way a fancy cable or bag of artisans does.

It's true that click bars are nice clickies, I'm mostly interested in these for the tactile variant and that is far and away the standard MX design's weakest point. It still will be interesting to see how these far against click bar based design though. While an improvement over Cherry style clickies, I'm still not a huge fan of the noise of clickbar switches (combined with the fact that they click twice). Plus, I believe the click bar design still needs top balance very high tactility with a heavier return force spring and from what I've seen, click/tactile leaf based design are free from this.

I agree with your take on visibility and street cred and I think it's why they've gotten flack: many people are in the hobby for the aesthetics that are offered. I don't think that's bad a thing, just not inherently more worthy of throwing money at than anything else. Especially because, as a hobby, none of this is really justified by anything other than the fact that it makes us happy in some way.

[Hak Foo]

Have you tried Alps/Matias?   There's a different feel, and it's pretty affordable if you stick to Matias, but the ecosystem is a mess.  Keycap choices are essentially Tai-Hao and one all-blank XDA profile set, and many enthusiast boards aren't built to fit them.

[thechemtrailkid]

Have you tried Alps/Matias?   There's a different feel, and it's pretty affordable if you stick to Matias, but the ecosystem is a mess.  Keycap choices are essentially Tai-Hao and one all-blank XDA profile set, and many enthusiast boards aren't built to fit them.

I indeed have. I have a few AEKs (I and II) with orange and salmon Alps and have tried out Matias' switches in one board and liked them too but no longer have it; a lose clicky matias switch is probably the best fidget toy I've found though. I really like Alps tactiles; they are the best tactile design I have felt. It's one of the reason why I am excited for these switches. I hope I didn't come off as disliking the MX ecosystem in my earlier posts because I don't and appreciate the wide variety of chassis/keycaps available within it. It's why the Zeal switches peaked my interest in the first place.

[Mr_BeastQuake]

Switches are important IMO. I really don’t know why people are so offended by these. Cost like $20 more than the modded Gat Inks I just used. In the past Zeal switches haven’t needed to be modded.

Nothing about that is prohibitive for me nor other people like me.

[mr_fro2000]

People are offended because times have changed and there is a ton more competition in the market.  Charging $1.30 a switch is unquestionably expensive.

As with keyboards, if you're top pricing, you NEED to be top looks, feel, performance, packaging etc.  If you're not, people are going to be mad.  Anyone who charges absolute top dollar will be justifiably subject to the harshest of criticisms.  For ex., keycult does it right while eniigma (for the vertigo) got eviscerated.

Zeal's new switches DO have some innovative features that cannot be found in current switches and for that, one needs to understand that it will be more expensive.  But again, at the end of the day, it better damn well be the best switch out there.