Author Topic: Brief Gateron Silent Brown Review  (Read 2738 times)

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Offline Riverman

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Brief Gateron Silent Brown Review
« on: Fri, 03 September 2021, 11:15:44 »
I recently bought 110 Gateron silent brown switches to try out in a Das Keyboard 4 that I removed the original switches from.  I had previously had Cherry silent blacks and and Kailh silent box browns in the same keyboard. 

The Gaterons feel a lot like a normal Cherry MX brown switch: scratchy (they're actually slightly scratchier than a Cherry) and barely tactile, but they're incredibly quiet.  They're almost Topre silenced levels of quiet, they're that good.  The tactility is pretty poor compared to the silent box browns, and of course they're much lighter than the silent blacks, but they're very pleasant to type on, and the keyboard is my new daily driver at work.

The bad is that like the box browns, they have some manufacturing issues.  The box browns had issues with crooked stems.  Several keys were noticeably cocked and I could never get them straight.  Between that and the reports that they turn clicky, I ditched them.  The Gaterons have issues with inconsistent bumpers.  After soldering in all 104 switches, a couple sounded as if they had no silencing at all, and a few would clack hard if pressed off-center.  I replaced the worst 6 with the spares I had, but that's disappointing.  I disassembled the switches, and one had no bumpers at all.  The rest seemed to have bumpers that were slightly thicker on one side than the other.  The bumpers are so thin to begin with that having one a little thinner than spec would probably cause it to clack if pressed hard on that side.  I also have a Cherry G80-3494 with silent blacks, and those are incredibly consistent in their feel. 

If Gateron can improve their quality control, these would be great switches.  They still are, but the inconsistency in the silencing bumpers is slightly maddening.  If they ever come back in stock, I hope to try Gazzew Boba U4 switches in this same keyboard.