Trying out 3 switch types for the 1st time

[dr_habu]

The microsd card in my smartphone died on Sunday, so Today I went to Saturn(electronics store) to buy a new one. While I was there I decided to see what mechanical keyboards they had on display. After all I'm about to buy a mechanical keyboard and I thought that it might be a good opportunity to verify that choosing Cherry MX Browns is the way to go.

Turned out they had a surprisingly wide selection - three keyboards to be exact. It's kind of pathetic, but I actually haven't seen more than one mechanical keyboard on display anywhere so far. The cool thing about this was that it turned out that each keyboard had a different switch type(tactile/clicky/linear), so I decided to take advantage of this opportunity and I've spent the next 20 minutes banging on the keyboards that weren't even connected to anything.

I'm really happy that I had a chance to play with those keyboards, and I decided to share my thoughts with you(although I'm sure that I won't be saying anything that hasn't been said before).

So the keyboards that they had on display were:

Asus Strix Tactic Pro(Cherry MX Brown)
Steelseries 6GV2(Cherry MX Black)
Razer BlackWidow Chroma(Razer Green - based on Kailh Blue)


Asus Strix Tactic Pro - Cherry MX Browns
One of the keycaps on this display keyboard was removed and I immediately noticed that it was Cherry Mx Brown - they switch that I was convinced would be perfect for me. I typed on it and it was ok. The tactile bump was noticeable when I was pushing the key down slowly, but when I typed at around 60 WPM it was impossible for me to notice the bump any more and I realized that as my typing speed increased so was the rate at which I was bottoming out. The more I tried to avoid that the more frustrated I got. I wanted to like those switches - after all they seemed perfect on paper, but it seemed like they weren't right for me. Maybe if the tactile bump was more pronounced?


Steelseries 6GV2 - Cherry MX Blacks
I tried it several times, I could obviously tell that it wasn't a membrane, but the response was kind of flat and uninteresting. I wasn't sure what it was, so I looked up that keyboard after coming back home, and it turned out that it uses Cherry MX Blacks. Well, at least now I'm sure that I don't like linear switches.


Razer BlackWidow Chroma - Razer Green (based on Kailh Blue)
This was a big surprise. I generally don't like Razer products, and I was convinced that the blue switches would be too loud and annoying for me, but I was banging on that keyboard for good ten minutes. Yeah, I wanted to test the switches, but I was actually having fun testing this keyboard and I was in no hurry to go home ;P. The tactile bump seemed more pronounced than on the MX Browns and the clicking wasn't that bad(it even made the whole experience more enjoyable). This made my fingers literally glide on this keyboard(no bottoming out). I'm not sure if the original Cherry MX Blues have a tactile bump that's more pronounced than MX Browns(maybe someone here knows the answer?).




These are just three switch types but they did give me a relatively good idea of what I like and I what I don't like. What switches do you think I might like based this writeup? Purple Zealios? Cherry MX Clears? Greens?

[Snowdog993]

I would guess you would like buckling spring, to be honest.

[blueangel2323]

I feel the exact same way about those switches. Looking into trying Ergo Clears and Matias switches for better tactility.

I'd go for buckling spring if they weren't so loud, and if it was easier to build a custom keyboard with them.

[SamirD]

I tried the same Razor at Wal-mart the other night and then a Logitech g710 (not g710+).  If you like the razor, you love the Logitech as it's more precise and has a shorter travel before the click so you can type faster.  I was really impressed.  If I had to buy a 'Cherry Blue' style based board, I think the logitech would be it.

Buckling spring may also be something you'd absolutely love.  It's a different switch than the blue, but it has everything about the blue that you love.  I have several BS boards and love the feel.

[Oobly]

Blues and Browns have almost identical sized tactile bumps (in fact Blues may even be slightly less prominent), but the clicky switches give you an extra feedback dimension (audio) and it reinforces the presence of the bump, so it's more conciously noticable.

I think you'd like Purple Zealios (with 62g or 65g springs) and possibly also Buckling Springs (particularly Model F boards) and MX Greens (although both of these have much stronger springs than Blues / Browns / Zealios)... Seems you already like Blues / Razer Greens, but I find the click sound immensely irritating, personally. It sounds too plasticky and "cheap" to me.

As an aside, there's nothing wrong with bottoming out, per se, but if you're still adding force to your press when it happens it can be bad. This happens for me on linear switches since there's no tactile feedback for my subconcious to notice, but even on Browns it "works" for me. I bottom out, but not with force like I do on linears.

[dr_habu]

I tried the same Razor at Wal-mart the other night and then a Logitech g710 (not g710+).  If you like the razor, you love the Logitech as it's more precise and has a shorter travel before the click so you can type faster.  I was really impressed.  If I had to buy a 'Cherry Blue' style based board, I think the logitech would be it.

Buckling spring may also be something you'd absolutely love.  It's a different switch than the blue, but it has everything about the blue that you love.  I have several BS boards and love the feel.

Well, to be honest I don't like logitech products. I've stopped using them years ago, I don't recommend them to my friends, but sometimes they buy logitech anyway, and when they do those products invariably die several months down the road. Then again maybe it's just bad luck...
I looked up g710 on deskthority wiki, and it turns out it uses cherry mx blue switches, so it's kind of strange that you say that it has shorter travel before actuation. Razer greens have shorter travel before actuation than Cherry MX Blues, at least according to the official technical specs.
Maybe Cherry MX Blue switches have springs that are softer before actuation and that made you feel like the distance to actuation point was shorter? Maybe some other difference between those switches gave you that impression?

Blues and Browns have almost identical sized tactile bumps (in fact Blues may even be slightly less prominent), but the clicky switches give you an extra feedback dimension (audio) and it reinforces the presence of the bump, so it's more conciously noticable.

I think you'd like Purple Zealios (with 62g or 65g springs) and possibly also Buckling Springs (particularly Model F boards) and MX Greens (although both of these have much stronger springs than Blues / Browns / Zealios)... Seems you already like Blues / Razer Greens, but I find the click sound immensely irritating, personally. It sounds too plasticky and "cheap" to me.

As an aside, there's nothing wrong with bottoming out, per se, but if you're still adding force to your press when it happens it can be bad. This happens for me on linear switches since there's no tactile feedback for my subconcious to notice, but even on Browns it "works" for me. I bottom out, but not with force like I do on linears.

I'm thinking about getting 3 Purple Zealios(with different springs) to see if like them, but looks like Zeal isn't taking new orders at this time(and besides I'm not sure if he'd agree to send me just 3 switches). I'll probably have to ask around GH as see if anyone has some spares that they'd be willing to part with.

I also thought about getting a switch tester with an MX Clear in it(I just think that it's more cost-effective than ordering a single switch) and playing around with it.

I know that it's ok to bottom out, but I simply find typing without bottoming out more satisfying.

[SamirD]

Got started on repairing my jeans (Nudie - TLJ), grabbed a doubleshot long black from my coffee place and scanned the interwebz.

Days off are nice.

I had to read this twice to figure out why you were buying keycaps from a coffee shop.  )

I was wondering the same thing too! 

Didn't get as much work done today due to the stress.  Had to let another employee go, but they deserved it.  Want to play on your phone and not do your work?  Want to lie to me and say you're almost done when I can see you on camera?  Not flying with me anymore.  Go do that for someone else.

Came to geekhack to calm down and be among civilized and intelligent people. 

  Remind me to not work for you.  )

lol!  I think most of the new generation can't work anymore.    It's sad really.  My uncle was just talking to my dad about the same thing tonight and the two businesses are in two different industries.

It's an interesting phenomenon, that's for sure.  I think most of us could use a kick in the pants every now and again. 

I tried the same Razor at Wal-mart the other night and then a Logitech g710 (not g710+).  If you like the razor, you love the Logitech as it's more precise and has a shorter travel before the click so you can type faster.  I was really impressed.  If I had to buy a 'Cherry Blue' style based board, I think the logitech would be it.

Buckling spring may also be something you'd absolutely love.  It's a different switch than the blue, but it has everything about the blue that you love.  I have several BS boards and love the feel.

Well, to be honest I don't like logitech products. I've stopped using them years ago, I don't recommend them to my friends, but sometimes they buy logitech anyway, and when they do those products invariably die several months down the road. Then again maybe it's just bad luck...
I looked up g710 on deskthority wiki, and it turns out it uses cherry mx blue switches, so it's kind of strange that you say that it has shorter travel before actuation. Razer greens have shorter travel before actuation than Cherry MX Blues, at least according to the official technical specs.
Maybe Cherry MX Blue switches have springs that are softer before actuation and that made you feel like the distance to actuation point was shorter? Maybe some other difference between those switches gave you that impression?

Blues and Browns have almost identical sized tactile bumps (in fact Blues may even be slightly less prominent), but the clicky switches give you an extra feedback dimension (audio) and it reinforces the presence of the bump, so it's more conciously noticable.

I think you'd like Purple Zealios (with 62g or 65g springs) and possibly also Buckling Springs (particularly Model F boards) and MX Greens (although both of these have much stronger springs than Blues / Browns / Zealios)... Seems you already like Blues / Razer Greens, but I find the click sound immensely irritating, personally. It sounds too plasticky and "cheap" to me.

As an aside, there's nothing wrong with bottoming out, per se, but if you're still adding force to your press when it happens it can be bad. This happens for me on linear switches since there's no tactile feedback for my subconcious to notice, but even on Browns it "works" for me. I bottom out, but not with force like I do on linears.

I'm thinking about getting 3 Purple Zealios(with different springs) to see if like them, but looks like Zeal isn't taking new orders at this time(and besides I'm not sure if he'd agree to send me just 3 switches). I'll probably have to ask around GH as see if anyone has some spares that they'd be willing to part with.

I also thought about getting a switch tester with an MX Clear in it(I just think that it's more cost-effective than ordering a single switch) and playing around with it.

I know that it's ok to bottom out, but I simply find typing without bottoming out more satisfying.

I'm not a fan of logitech either.  When I read what your wrote and thought about my first opinion of anything logitech the word 'crap' practically rolls off my tongue.  However, they have scored on some select things they've produced like the trackman marble that I use.  And I think that g710 falls into the same category.

I think what has been done to make it seem like the travel is less is that the keycap may not be the same height.  If they're just 1mm shorter, I think that's how the feel was different.  I should take a keycap puller and just pop off both keys from both boards and compare them, lol.  It's walmart after all.

[sitch]

I started off with brown too, and to blue, now modded ergo clears with 62g spring and never looked back. Have you tried topre keyboard too? If I have extra cash around I would have kept the 55g realforce 87 cause it gives the best tactile feeling of all the switches, imagine thock thock thock with each keypress