Here is my review of the Cherry mx brown, blue, black, red, clear, and ergo clear keys on hashbaz's numpad. Keep in mind these are my opinions, and you may find the keys to be much different.
BROWNS-
Tactility/feeling: The tactility of both the blue and brown switches surprised me, as I have never gotten the chance to use a mech keyboard before. I had expected the tactility of the blues and browns to be more pronounced. The Brown has a null tactile bump at the top, and then has the feeling of the mx Red until it bottoms out.
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Thoughts:I find this key to be light, and have a less noticeable tactile bump than the other keys. I imagine that I would find myself bottoming out very easily on these keys, overall they are not bad, but they are just a bit less tactile and a bit more light than I though they would be.
BLUES-
Tactility/feeling: The tactile bump of the blues seem sharper and requiring of less force than the browns, and the upstroke seems to be smoother. It may be the click that the blues produce, but my brain interprets the tactile bump as being more crisp or sharp than the browns, while requiring less force to activate. Once pressed, the key feels like the mx reds until bottoming out.
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Thoughts: There is no way on earth I could see myself not bottoming out on the blues. So while you are making all that noise, why not throw in a click? Everyone I have shown the blues to absolutely hate the sound of them, but
o lawd the *CLICK*. I equate the blues to taking the muffler off of the browns because you like the sound, and you find satisfaction in annoying the people around you, also I like the blues. I imagine it's click as a little guy in the keyboard letting me know I did a good job on pressing the key.
BLACK-
Tactility/feeling: First off, it is linear and therefore not tactile. The best way I can imagine to describe it would to say you were typing on one of
these things. That's pretty much all I can do to describe it.
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Thoughts: I could find myself able to type on this keyboard, but if I did, I would not want to bottom out. It takes a relatively large amount of force to do so, and I think I would find it hard to do. I would have to say that it would have to be your thing whether you like it or not, but I think you wouldn't be able to decide unless you tried.
RED-
Tactility/feeling: Also linear, It seems to be a lighter version of the blacks. While the blacks feel gummy, the reds feel yielding as if pressing down on a light spring.
- Thoughts: This essentially feels like the mx browns and blues, but without the tactile bump, and whether you like them over tactile keys would be very subjective. I find myself leaning more towards tactile keys, but I still like the linear. And I would take any of them over the membrane keyboard I am typing this on.
CLEAR-
Tactility/feeling: They have an extremely pronounced tactile bump, and what follows after the bump until bottoming out feels like the gummy blacks.
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Thoughts: With no prior experience with mech keyboards, these clears are closest to what I had imagined the blues/browns would be like. I imagine after the bump, the resistance similar to the blacks is there to stop you from bottoming out and to catch you, then spring you back on your upstroke. The only way I could use this key is if I did not bottom out, and just doing a 3/4 stroke is incredibly satisfying and quiet. In comparison to the blues and browns, this key offers more resistance and feels more solid.
ERGO CLEAR-
Tactility/feeling: To imagine these, think blues/browns but with a much more pronounced tactile bump. Also on the upstroke there appears to be a very noticeable awkward bump. These keys seem to be based off of the red springs and not the blacks.
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Thoughts: The people I imagine using these keys would be either people who found the plain clears to strenuous to type on and wanted to keep the clear's tactile bump, but at less resistance, or people who wanted a key that mimics the blues and browns in terms of force required, but they wanted the pronounced tactile bump of the clears.
Also, I just want to thank Hashbaz for graciously lending out his tester.
