Reds don't have anymore chance of accidental press than brown really. They are only a few cN difference. Reds feel a lot nicer in my opinion though, nice and smooth.
Yeah I have been wondering about this. Some people say Reds are noticeably lighter than browns despite being the same cN rating.
Maybe I'll buy the WASD sampler to find out.
BTW Do heavier keycaps make the switches feel lighter? I would think that they have a slight effect.
As for these questions, first off, a heavier key does make pressing the key easier. It also makes the key coming back up slower, however. Why is this the case? Well, the key provides a weight force, which is determined by F = m*a. a = 9.8 m/s^2 and thus mass is the only thing that changes this. So, increasing mass would lower the actuation force since you already provide more actuation force than a stock key with the extra weight on top. Try taping a penny to your escape key and see what it does. I noticed this when I installed my Zinc silver Esc key.
As for stiffness, I'm almost certain the Reds are lighter than Browns. The reason being is because despite the Actuation Force being the same, the force required to continue the travel of the plunger varies from switch to switch.
Take a look at this table, provided by WASD. Its a Force vs Displacement graph. As you can notice, the slopes are not flat, meaning that the force required (whether linear or tactile) to fully depress the plunger must increase as the displacement is increased, as for the linear switches.
This is a graph of the Reds.
Reds are completely linear, but as still expected, still goes up in force, due to spring compression. This is true for all switches in general.
As for the work required, the way to do this is to find the area under the Force vs Displacement curve. That will give you work done in terms of joules (energy).
If you do it carefully, you'll notice the Browns have slightly more space under the curve. This proves that the Browns will actually require more work to BOTTOM OUT. However, to find the work required to just actuate, you have to find actuation point, stop the graph there and find the work required there. It seems from a rough estimate it still is the Browns that require more work to actuate as well, since the graph shows that the actuation points are at about 1.9-2.0mm of displacement.
Remember to pay attention to the top lines, as this is the line that shows the pressing of the key, whereas the 2nd line shows the key coming back up.
As for the noise, it really depends on how you type. If you mash the keys pretty hard and bottom out constantly, then Reds will probably be louder. I do remember when I tried out a Brown keyboard that the keys didn't slam the bottom as hard due to the resistance provided by the tactile bump. If you can train yourself not to bottom out at all, then Reds will be quieter and easier to type on. It's all subjective from here on out, and personally I love my Reds because well I can control myself well and I don't need that tactile feel (after a while you can get a feel for actuation. On my Ducky Shine II, there is a reactive mode where an LED turns on only when the switch is actuated, so I really can get a feel for it like that). Ultimately it's up to you. I love my keys super smooth and felt like the Browns were a rough Red with sand in it, but that's just my 2 cents. I hope I didn't offend anyone, but after the smoothness of a linear key, to me its either Red or Blue. Red for me because of games.
