Well, not exactly. My real intent was to try a Black Widow to see how I would like Cherry blue switches. The only points of reference I have are an old IBM Model M (that I used and got rid of decades ago) and my current WASD keyboard with Cherry brown switches and o-rings. Fry's is great and frustrating at the same time. They have about 50 keyboards out on the display shelves, but no mechanical keyboards out there to play with. So I spent some time unboxing and testing in the aisle.
The first one I tried was a Corsair (Cherry red). I now understand why these are called "linear" and non-tactile. I don't think I would enjoy using reds, based on my quick demo (btw, I use my keyboard for typing, no gaming). The next one I tried was a Mionix (Cherry black). After reading many posts here, I was expecting the blacks to require more force than they did. Perhaps it's because I've gotten so used to the brown switches? Anyway, based on the quick demo, I thought "meh" too similar to the reds.
Next up was a Siig (not sure what kind of switches are used). The switches on the Siig were very tactile, very clicky, and very loud. Maybe the volume was caused by me typing on the shelf, but I knew right away that I wouldn't be too happy with the Siig at the office. The force required to type on the Siig seemed to be just a little lower than that required for the blacks on the Mionix.
They also had a Steelseries 6G keyboard (Cherry blacks), but I didn't bother unboxing that one.
The last one I tried was an open box Black Widow model (Cherry blue). Definitely louder than my WASD keyboard with browns, but I immediately liked the feel of the blues. The salesdude said that open box items can be returned just like new items, so I decided to buy it and try it side by side with my WASD keyboard for awhile. I will probably return it after my extended demo because I want to get a tenkeyless next.
Anyway, I'm typing on it now, and I definitely like the blues. Not sure if I like them much better than the browns, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to tolerate the added noise. Maybe o-rings will help in that department. However, the build quality of this Black Widow is suspect. The housing is not level, and it rocks back and forth when I type on it. A couple of the keys (shift, control) are sticky. The glossy plastic faceplate looks cheap and cheesy, although I can see how this might be a desirable feature for some people. Personally, I hate the font, although the keys do look nice and the print quality appears to be outstanding.
Is there a point to this post? Not really, but I would recommend a trip to Fry's (if you are lucky enough to have one nearby) if you are really curious about Cherry red, blue, and black switches. Nobody scolded me for unboxing the keyboards and giving them a test drive in the aisle, and I was able to spend enough time to realize that linear switches are probably not for me. Too bad they don't have any keyboards with Cherry clears; I would have liked to have tried one of those.
