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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: CPTBadAss on Tue, 13 September 2016, 06:37:10
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I know I'm really late to this party. Stick with me though. But to be honest, I haven't kept track of the consumer market in keyboards. Too busy playing with enthusiast stuff and super-obscure nonsense no one cares about :)).
I found myself in the Microcenter aisle browsing keyboards. And asking the salesperson who velcro'ed himself to me really hard questions like "Do you still carry the Novatouch?" and "Does this keyboard come in tenkeyless?". (As an aside, according to the salesperson, Microcenter had everything at some point....just in the past. "We used have it in stock!")
Anyways, I hadn't seen a lot of the new switches and boards which have came out. So of course I stopped to play with a bunch of them. I'm still shocked at how much I liked the QS1 switches in the Steelseries Apex 800. If you're late like me, they're Kaihua made linear mechanical keyboard switches which aren't MX compatible. I guess they've got this lens built in so LEDs look nice through the caps? Anyways, they've got a shorter throw like an Alps switch. And it was relatively smooth. Definitely better than MX Reds which I find horribly scratchy and too light (Another aside, I typed on Reds for like 6 months on a work board before forming this opinion). I know that the rated force on the QS1 was 45g but it didn't feel that light to the touch.
It's been a long time since anything in the Microcenter aisle has excited me so I thought I'd just share my thoughts and see if anyone else has an opinion on the switch/keyboard. If it came in TKL/60%, I think I'd pick one up to use for a while. I think it's worth a shot.
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I share the same opinion, I went to Japan for vacation a year ago and I managed to try the Apex 800 at a Japanese shop.
I have to say I really really enjoyed it but the price of $200 CAD just couldn't justify me buying Apex 800.
But yes I also feel like it's smoother than MX Red and the low profile just feels nice. It's best of both worlds between scissor switch and mechanical switch.
Ideally I'd hope they'll come up with a more no frill version maybe like white led only and no macro key and cheap, then I'll jump on it. :thumb:
P.S: On a side note, at the same store I also tried silence Topre, which I also liked more than regular Topre.
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Some people complained it feels mushy but I think it's just because it has sound dampening. I can't really think of any silent switches that don't feel at least a little mushy.
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Actually I tried both the Romer G Switch at Bestbuy and the QS1 switches and I have to agree the QS1 does feel very nice. Even though my Leopold 750r Cherry MX Red feels really smooth and not scratchy at all. I have a corsair strafe silent rgb and those switches feels a bit scratchy. Maybe the newer batches of cherry linears got better quality control.
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Some people complained it feels mushy but I think it's just because it has sound dampening. I can't really think of any silent switches that don't feel at least a little mushy.
I don't find it mushy at all, and I also don't think this switch has any dampenin.
Maybe you were thinking Romer G, Romer G has a tiny bit of dampening.