They feel like top-quality rubber dome switches. Not as nice as a proper tactile but they wouldn't annoy you to type on them for several hours.
It has made me realise how important keycaps are to the keyboard though. When I originally got it on friday I didn't like it and after the weekend using it I was considering whether to return it on monday. I have a gateway with what look like the same keycaps so while I had it I thought I'd see if they fit onto cherry switches. They did, and trying the replaced key it felt slightly better so I swapped over all the alpha keys and it has made the keyboard noticably nicer to type on.
The keycaps from the two keyboards are actually very similar, one is white and the other is black so it's hard to know which perceived differences are real but there's not much between them to look at. The gateway has a slightly less hollow sound, slightly rougher surface, slightly more curve and may be slightly wider.
It'll be interesting to hear if anyone's got a non-filco with brown cherries and how they rate it. Although these black cherries are great for everyday I may have to give into weakness and get a complete AT102W or a brown cherry board for heavy typing. (Filco and HHKB are not in it for me unfortunatly, neither has a UK layout availible).
