Kailh Yellow - Two Years Later

[onlyabyte]

Hi guys,

About two years ago, I had purchased my first mechanical keyboard - a Rapoo V500. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I purchased this board as it was practically an impulse buy. With absolutely no knowledge of mechanical keyboards whatsoever, my journey began with this keyboard. In this short review, I will share my experiences with this keyboard but more specifically the switches as they’re becoming quite rare due to Kailh discontinuing them a few years ago.

The Keyboard

The Rapoo V500 isn’t the prettiest keyboard out there and it comes with proprietary stabilisers which means you should forget about getting new keycaps. I still have the original keycaps on it and they’re holding up pretty well given that they’re ABS. Keyboard aside, I’ve had many ups and downs with this board. During certain times, I really disliked using it but after a while, especially in the last couple of months, I'm starting to like the switches a lot.

As you’d imagine, I found out about better keyboards and a plethora of switches and I felt a bit disappointed with my purchase. That said, this keyboard has been a good learning experience and the best part has to be the switches. There isn’t much to comment on the keyboard other than me putting some bubble-wrap in the keyboard case to minimise the echoing. I might consider o-rings or silencing clips to further silence the keyboard.

The Switches

Since the Kailh Yellow’s were discontinued which make them somewhat rare now. From what I hear, these switches are about as heavy as Gateron Yellows however, I can’t comment on the smoothness. I hardly tried any other switches over an extended period of time but I did try Razer Greens, pre-retooled MX Reds and Romer-G switches at a computer store. I must say, they’re much smoother than those Reds I tried and the clicky greens were just too loud for me.

The smoothness could be due to me breaking-in the switches. I guess my switches are Vintage Kailh Yellows! 

If you had told me that I would be enjoying typing on linear switches, I’d think you’re mad. I  don’t play video games and yet, I find these switches to be perfect for typing. Over the past year or two, I’ve improved my typing speed and accuracy drastically to a point where I don’t even bottom out these switches.

What now?

I’m considering building a 60% or TKL keyboard and possibly reusing these switches. Alternatively, I hear that the Kailh Box Reds are pretty nice. I really enjoy the TKL experience however I cannot find a relatively cheap TKL PCB, backplate and case. The idea of opening up these switches and lubing them sounds cool too!

I guess I can try out tactile switches but I’m in love with linears. The only thing that sucks about this keyboard is non-standard function cluster, orange backplate and stabilisers.


Thanks for reading!

[tp4tissue]

:: Ergodox

[kiks64]

Hi,
I have a mixed experience with the Kailh box: I mounted  white switches in my tada68, they are very nice and very smooth, although too noisy because clicky.
I recently built a hand-wired keyboard with brown ones and I received switches from a bad series, they are not as smooth as my whites, but especially some are too sensitive and cause typing errors.

[buckyballs]

Kailh still seems to have a bad rep. Am I right?

[Puddsy]

Kailh still seems to have a bad rep. Am I right?

they used to, they're much better than they were when they first came on the scene

i have no real issues recommending kailh switches to anyone at this point in time

[BobCarltheThird]

Kailh still seems to have a bad rep. Am I right?

they used to, they're much better than they were when they first came on the scene

i have no real issues recommending kailh switches to anyone at this point in time

The box switches are some of the best out there IMO. The only downside is that you can't PCB mount them without significant effort.

[Puddsy]

Kailh still seems to have a bad rep. Am I right?

they used to, they're much better than they were when they first came on the scene

i have no real issues recommending kailh switches to anyone at this point in time

The box switches are some of the best out there IMO. The only downside is that you can't PCB mount them without significant effort.

and they look funny

[onlyabyte]

Kailh has definitely improved their switches by a long shot. Their box switches are some of the best according to some in comparison to Cherry's MX lineup. Then again, there is no best switch, only the one that is right for you.

[TeacherGeek]

How much would you pay for this keyboard now? I have the chance to purchase one.

Would you buy it just to get the switches?

[onlyabyte]

How much would you pay for this keyboard now? I have the chance to purchase one.

Would you buy it just to get the switches?

Been a while since I logged into Geekhack, I'm back!

There are much better switches out there now, especially with the advent of hot swaps. I would honestly recommend some other linears (e.g. Gateron, Akko, etc.).

To answer your question, $20-30 just for the switches would be fine but I no longer use the keyboard anymore. I do have the switches though which I may re-purpose. The keyboard itself is OK but the layout and non-standard stabilisers is what makes it, in my experience, pointless to invest in.

I'm sure you found a better keyboard though now, my reply is over a year late...