White Alps - Your Opinions?

[CPTBadAss]

So I went to Microcenter today and got to play with a bunch of new switches. They had a Coolermaster Quickfire Pro with browns, a Meka G1 with blacks, a Corsair K90 with reds, and a board/switch I had never seen before: An Azio Levetron Clicker Keyboard with White Alps.

I was pretty fascinated with the Azio since I've never seen a non-Cherry mechanical keyboard in stores. So obviously I played with it. It feels like a lighter Cherry MX blue with a different/higher actuation point. I actually didn't hate it, it seemed pretty fun and felt ok. The keyboard itself was a different story.

I wasn't impressed with the weird rubber WASD keys and the keys seemed to have a lot of wobble in them. But that's not my point.

Does anyone else own/have owned a board with White Alps and want to chime in with their thoughts on it?

[Hak Foo]

Modern ALPS are very unlike vintage ones.  I use another "Modern ALPS" board, the Ducky 1008XM, and find it adequately solid and a good value for money.  Indeed, like a lighter Blue.

Old ALPS tend to be much stiffer, like a Buckling Spring

[davkol]

Lighter? It's probably some sort of simplified ALPS. I have a complicated-white-ALPS keyboard in the closed, and it doesn't feel even close to Cherry MX Blue except both are tactile. It's much stiffer, and the bump is completely different ("simpler"?).

[fohat.digs]

White Alps are good switches, but every one that I have used has been from the previous millennium. I have been curious about the greens.

My old Northgate Omnikeys were great boards, but all of the 3-4 I owned had 1 or more dead switches.

I currently have an Alps-branded board with whites that has gotten to feel a bit heavy for my tastes. It has beautiful doubleshot keys, but I don't use it much anymore.

[Burz]

I have a Minitouch with "White ALPS" which I also do not hate... I got it so I could replace the switches with Matias ones.

I really doubt those switches are the same as the ones in the Clicker, though. The Minitouch switches feel nothing like Cherry blues (it would be nice if they did... its only the blue sound that I hate); they feel much cruder and somewhat heavier and I believe they are properly referred to as "white XM" switches. XMs are not well regarded. I remember reading somewhere on GH or DT that the Clicker uses some other, newer ALPS variant.

BTW, my Microcenter would never let people try out mechanical keyboards for fear that asshats will pull off the keys. Seems they'd rather let their laptops suffer that abuse instead. 

[CPTBadAss]

I have a Minitouch with "White ALPS" which I also do not hate... I got it so I could replace the switches with Matias ones.

I really doubt those switches are the same as the ones in the Clicker, though. The Minitouch switches feel nothing like Cherry blues (it would be nice if they did... its only the blue sound that I hate); they feel much cruder and somewhat heavier and I believe they are properly referred to as "white XM" switches. XMs are not well regarded.

I was reading somewhere that white XM were knockoff switches that other companies produced. That's might be why they feel like that but I'm no expert.

Lighter? It's probably some sort of simplified ALPS. I have a complicated-white-ALPS keyboard in the closed, and it doesn't feel even close to Cherry MX Blue except both are tactile. It's much stiffer, and the bump is completely different ("simpler"?).

It's weird to me that even though the stems are the same, they feel different. I guess its something like vintage blacks vs blacks. Must be that I'm used to the Cherry MX world.


To everyone else who've responded so far, thanks for the input. Pretty interesting. 

[Vintage]

I tried the Levatron Clicker at microcenter once and I was not impressed with it. I much prefer the feel of MX Blues. They were a lot lighter which is fine but the tactile bump was not nealy as satisfying IMO. I even would prefer browns for a linear switch. Then again it was also selling for $50 regular price.

Vintage ALPS are supposed to be a lot better.

[CPTBadAss]

I tried the Levatron Clicker at microcenter once and I was not impressed with it. I much prefer the feel of MX Blues. They were a lot lighter which is fine but the tactile bump was not nealy as satisfying IMO. I even would prefer browns for a linear switch. Then again it was also selling for $50 regular price.

Vintage ALPS are supposed to be a lot better.

I definitely prefer MX Blues, they're my favorite switch right now. But it wasn't like MX reds where it was hate at first touch.

[Vintage]

lol, I love Reds 

And yeah my Microcenter doesn't really let people try out the keyboards either. I just open the boxes when they don't look and try them anyway.

[FoxWolf1]

Just "white alps" isn't super-meaningful, since there have been lots of different white-colored, alps-form switches (as with pretty much any color of alps).

 Interesting that the switches are white, though...other keyboards with the same OEM/shell/general setup have had blue APC alps.

[CPTBadAss]

Just "white alps" isn't super-meaningful, since there have been lots of different white-colored, alps-form switches (as with pretty much any color of alps).

 Interesting that the switches are white, though...other keyboards with the same OEM/shell/general setup have had blue APC alps.

That's all I got to work with from the box. =(

[Burz]

And yeah my Microcenter doesn't really let people try out the keyboards either. I just open the boxes when they don't look and try them anyway.

Eeek!!! Keyboard Feeler!!! Keyboard Feeler over there in aisle nine!

[xDezor]

BTW, my Microcenter would never let people try out mechanical keyboards for fear that asshats will pull off the keys. Seems they'd rather let their laptops suffer that abuse instead. 

That sucks. Mine never had a problem with me opening up keyboards and trying them out so long as I put them back.

[tobydeemer]

I have a Minitouch with "White ALPS" which I also do not hate... I got it so I could replace the switches with Matias ones.

I really doubt those switches are the same as the ones in the Clicker, though. The Minitouch switches feel nothing like Cherry blues (it would be nice if they did... its only the blue sound that I hate); they feel much cruder and somewhat heavier and I believe they are properly referred to as "white XM" switches. XMs are not well regarded. I remember reading somewhere on GH or DT that the Clicker uses some other, newer ALPS variant.

BTW, my Microcenter would never let people try out mechanical keyboards for fear that asshats will pull off the keys. Seems they'd rather let their laptops suffer that abuse instead. 

This was true on both of my SIIG MiniTouch boards. Moreso on the first one. However, I think this is due to Alps-type switches not responding well to dust. Once I lubed the switches with some contact cleaner / lube, the board felt better by an order of magnitude. There was none of the "grittiness" or unrefined feel left, and it was only a smooth, tactile switch. My second MiniTouch was much better when I received it, and I had to lube only a couple switches. The main difference between them now is that the lubed one sounds just a tad "softer" in respect to the switch mechanics. They both still feel very tactile and have a heavier actuation than MX Blues. All in all, the two MiniTouches and my SGI Granite (dampened, complicated real Alps) are my favorite boards. Which one is top depends on the day. I also have a CM QFR with Blues, two Model Ms, and several other scissor switch boards as a sample pool. The Alps are hands down my favorites. (Side note- the SGI is noticeably a heavier actuation than all my other boards, even the Ms. But it is extremely smooth and the sound is amazing. Dem thick-ass keys.... mmmm...)

However, the SIIGs use simplified Alps clones, as noted elsewhere, and the SGI uses complicated Alps. I don't think any of these are actually parallel to the newer switches in the Clicker board.

The lube I used on the SIIGs is from Radioshack- Contact Cleaner and Lubricant. Similar to DeOXXit (sp?) products, but much cheaper. I tried finding it on their website a few months ago for a link, but it wasn't listed. Win for the web-team. Anyway, like I said it made a huge difference on the "bad"-feeling Alps board.

The Deskthority wiki has some pretty solid entries on many different Alps boards, switches, etc, etc. Lots to dig through over there. Daniel Beardsmore has been on a mission to dig down into all things Alps, so start there.

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Alps_CM