A while back when I had owned a mechanical keyboard for only a month or so, I did a blind and deaf test between Cherry blues, Cherry browns, Alps blacks, and two rubber dome keyboards (Gateway 2000 AnyKey and cheapo Dell from 2006) to see which felt best, and to see if I could accurately name each switch only based on feel. From that experiment, I noticed several things. First, the Alps switches were very frictiony. Hitting them at any angle other than perfectly vertical felt like you might as well be pushing them sideways. Second, I couldn't accurately name the blues or browns based on feel, even though I could notice the difference in rubber domes. Due to this result, I had the impression that blues and browns felt exactly the same, though the sharp 'click' of the blues led your brain to believe that it was more tactical. However, in the last few weeks, I realized something. If the difference was really this small between the switches, why didn't more people notice it? This called for retesting. This time, with more experience with mechanical keyboards, and science.
To begin, let's go over the two basic tests we have set up.
1- The RipOMeter test, and
2- A deaf test
The tools are as shown below:
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-Leopold TKL with Cherry brown switches
-Rosewill with Cherry blue switches
-Northgate keypuller (sometimes I miss that old board)
-Some hearing protectors
(insert stack of nickels here)
Let's begin, then! I took off the surrounding keycaps to prevent them from skewing results, and started stacking the nickels. After nine were on the switch, I began to dither. I also attempted to trigger the switch with one less nickel after it had buckled, just to make sure nothing had gone wrong. Final results: Browns: 50g, Blues: 55g.
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Hmm... what if the difference in weight of the different keycaps caused the measured force to be different?
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Nope. Still 55g on the Rosewill with Leopold caps.
I did notice through doing this that the Leopold keycaps are quite a bit looser than the Rosewills. On my Leopold, I can actually press down on the corner of the left arrow key, release it by pulling off sideways, repeat a few times, and it will fly like toast out of a toaster. Hmm...
I also tested on the 'H' key (lol, QWERTY) on each board to make sure there weren't any bad or unusually weighted switches or whatnot.
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Nope. Still the same.
One thing I do wonder is if the difference in angles of the boards causes a difference in outcome. Gravity does pull straight down, so having a stack at an angle may skew the results. Nah. I'm too lazy to precisely level my boards. I'll just assume it doesn't make that much of a difference.
Next test, then! Okay, to do this, we don't even need to plug the boards in. Just put on some hearing protectors and spend some time with the boards...
Nope. These hearing protectors don't cancel out anything. So, here's a new set of tools, with fancy noise canceling headphones, instead:
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(Not pictured: loud DnB music)
Okay, so half an hour later and some prodding, typing, and slow keypresses later, I have a result. My original theory is not supported. Honestly, I have no idea how I could have come up with it. Maybe it was just my unrefined fingers, relatively virgin to the world of quality keyboards? Who knows. Anyways, here's my impressions:
BROWNS:
Cherry brown switches are currently my favorite. They're light, tight, and do have a smooth, yet pronounced bump. When you press slowly, there is a short, smooth (almost linear) travel, but long enough to not be mistaken for key wobble. The bump isn't quite 'circular' or 'triangular' feeling, it feels like a parabola. Smooth, but it does have a noticeable apex. After the bump, there's another long, smooth linear-ish travel, then the key bottoms out. On the way back, the force curve should be the same, but the transition between that long linear travel going back onto the bump is much more noticeable. I can't explain too well, so have a quick illustration. The left is the top of the keypress, the right is bottomed out. Note that this is not to scale, and linear force doesn't feel very robotic, so it's illustrated by sweeping curves.
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BLUES:
Cherry blue switches sound amazing to me, but that's not what we're testing today. In terms of the force curve, however, I've realized they just feel unrefined and sloppy. When you press down on the switch, you are first greeted by a small wobbly area. Unlike the browns which have a little (probably .5 mm) linear area, the blues just have wobble. Maybe it could be described as linear, but it's so small it's hard to tell. Then for the tactile bump, it comes as though it were a wall. There really is no way of pushing down a Cherry blue switch without rocketing past the tactile point, at least for my fingers. After that sudden bump, however, everything is smooth sailing. There's another long, linear travel, and then the bottoming out. Being blues, they also have a different feel while travelling upwards. In this case, it certainly feels a lot closer to browns. There's a long linear travel, then a much rounder bump. However, it lacks that final liner travel of the browns. Overall, when pushing the switch at a more everyday speed, it's actually quite easy to feel there's more than one tactile bump. I'd say it can be compared to if there were a small vibrator in each switch, and it vibrates a couple of times whenever you quickly press and then depress the key. Think of your average smartphone keyboard, but it only occurs when you quickly do a full, two way travel. Here's another force sketch. The top is when depressing, the bottom when lifting. The action travels from left to right on these, so bottoming out is the right of the depress, and the left of the lift. Do remember these aren't to scale in any way.
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So there you have it! Blues and browns are indeed very different switches. I do wonder what led to my original interpretation, but at least I'm set straight now. Perhaps I also helped a few of you newer to mechanical keyboards understand the feel of them better. Probably not. Eh, you can't have it all.
If you guys would like to share your experiences with blues v. browns, go ahead. Maybe you can also yell at me for my stupidity in thinking the switches felt the same. Either way, StaCT13, out.
