Originally posted March 2021
The five-ish switches we’ll be focusing on today.
This article is part five-way showdown, part commentary on the Box line in general. The main focus here is around the various iterations of Browns in the series, and not a comprehensive overview of the line as a whole. It’s not an exhaustive examination – as there are still details I’ve ear-marked for exploration – though I think you’ll find here an illuminating inspection of our Boxy boys from Kaihua.
NovelKeys_ Box Cream
I’m not sure I’ve seen any other product in this space carry the kind of lasting negative cloud that BOX switches have, after their first production run damaged quite a few people’s keycaps. Word on the street is that the thicker stem spec was requested by another company Kaihua sold to, who were using the first run of BOX switches as OEMs in their boards. Apparently this detail was overlooked when they started producing the switches for commercial release, and the altered spec made it out into the wild, unfortunately claiming many an expensive keycap.
Like any company that isn’t completely beyond hope, Kaihua quickly moved to correct the issue and re-tooled the switches – but the damage was done – not just to all those keycaps, but to the reputation of the BOX line itself. I think this is pretty unfortunate, because in and of themselves, BOX switches represent some of the most significant innovations in the MX compatible space in some time. I suppose that’s part of taking risks – sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don’t. That said, I think the line is far from a bust or even a wash for the Kailh brand, despite the fact that potential keyboard buyers are asking about cap-breaking stems to this day. Even with that ever-present cloud, BOX switches do still manage some amount of love in the community.
Qlavier’s visual commentary on the early Box situation.
In what appears to me at least in part a move to distance the line from this reputation, all of the new Box switches of-late use a new stem and top housing shape. Still called “BOX” switches and still featuring the eponymous semi-sealed contact box, the switches traded out the square stem most folks reasonably thought the switch was named after for a circular one instead. While I believe the primary benefit of this shape is an immediate and obvious change from the one everyone associates with dead keycaps, I do see another possible adjacent function it could be serving.
Silent Box Brown
The reader may or may not be aware that all of the latest circular-shroud BOX switches (i.e. last year’s silents and this year’s Creams) have a more tapered, trapezoidal-shaped housing when compared to classic MX-compatible switches, including V1 and V2 BOXes. This shaves-off some un-used space and plastic, but more importantly negates the interference issue that arises between Cherry profile keycaps and North-facing keyswitches. Noice!
Here you can see the side-profile shapes. From left to right; Box Cream, Art Box Brown, Silent Box Brown, Classic Box Brown
A lesser-known detail is that this tapered housing *did not* debut with the BOX Silents, but with a much more obscure line of BOX variants exclusive to the Korean market known as Art BOXes. These versions feature a number of changes from the classic BOX line besides the tapered housing. They still have the classic square-shrouded stem, but they have a supposedly better lube job and 5 pins – another “new” BOX feature that debuted in the Western market with the recent Creams. It seems these apparently objectively better switches were commissioned from Kaihua by a company called Archon – and I have rarely seen them anywhere but their own site, and a proxy seller. That gives me a strong hunch that Archon has or had some degree of exclusivity to the design changes they requested.
Thanks to :3ildcat for making me aware of these! After some poking around, I found a proxy-seller website called Harumio that sells these and all sorts of other Korean-market items for us Westerners to enjoy. They carry the Art Box switches as well as aftermarket springs for the Box line.
Only once Kailh released the Silent BOX line quite some time later did the tapered housing make an appearance in the Western market – but it was distinct from the Archon one, still having only 3 pins and the new, circular-shrouded stem – and of course the silencing dampeners. Also featuring the circular shroud but omitting the dampeners is the new BOX Cream linear switch – and as far as I can tell, it uses a POM version of the Archon Art Box bottom. See, each time some aspect of the Art switches show up somewhere else, they are accompanied by some other significant aspect that distinguishes them from the Art line. All of that looks like tip-toeing around a license agreement to me, but that’s pure speculation on my part.
It’s not the first time I’ve speculated about this sort of behavior from Kailh – here’s a post on KeebTalk about that.
Now – for the switches themselves. You came here for a showdown, and that’s what you’re going to get.
Tonight, our contenders include:
- The Classic:
V2 Box Brown - The Snappy Sibling:
Silent Box Brown - The Gangnam Hipster:
Art Box Brown - with The Special Guest:
NK Box Cream - and The Door Guy:
NK Box Royal
From left to right; Box Cream, Art Box Brown, Silent Box Brown, two Box Browns, and a Box Royal. The white-housing classic Box Brown is a bit older; I belive it’s still a V2, but it has a differently colored brown stem compared to the other three. The one with the black bottom is newer and comes from a Hexgears Impulse, but is otherwise identical.
For the objective section of this overview, I’ll be comparing some apples-to-apples aspects of the various Boxes.
First, relative spring weight:
Now – different sources claim different weights for these switches, but they’re all within a reasonable ballpark – so let’s call it a bottom-out of between 50 and 55 grams. Pressing the switches stem-to-stem, all of our contenders save one share a comparable enough weight as to be indistinguishable. The odd one out is the Silent Box Brown, with both a stronger tactile leaf and main spring than their other brown siblings. Only the Royal has a stronger tactile event and spring weight – and only just.
Cream, Art, (Older) Classic, Royal, Silent
Pure speculation: I think Kaihua chose a stronger spring and tactility for the silent version of the Box brown to offset the loss of impact from bottom-out in terms of the switch’s character. For many users, the strongest sensation from a brown switch is the bottom-out, with the tactile event more of a gentle confirmation on the way. The silent switches sacrifice this satisfying clacking sensation in lieu of a more subtle sound signature, but to keep them from losing their overall tactile impression, the confirmation has been enhanced to an assertion.
As far as I can tell, both the silent and classic Box Browns have the same stem bump – and get this – it looks like the Box Royal might have the same one, too. This all leads me to believe that any given Box’s tactility comes down to the leaf.
Silent Box Brown on the left, Box Cream on the right
The bottom housing color can vary, as can the little plastic plunger, but the top lid of the box itself is always white. The plunger seems to loosely but not definitively correlate with tactility; the SBB’s stronger leaf is noted with a green plunger – but the Royal’s even stronger tactile leaf has the same brown plunger all the rest of the switches discussed here have.
Art (same as Classic), Silent, Royal
I don’t have any precision measuring tools, and this may have been discussed elsewhere – but I do have some images you can see and judge for yourself. Above you’ll see the Art Box Brown, Silent Box Brown, and Box Royal stems lined-up. Below is a gif showing a close-up comparison between the regular Brown and Royal stems. The are at slightly different angles, but I think you get the idea:
Are all Box tactile stems the same? Maybe. I’d say at least most of them are.
Focusing on tactility; while I once believed Art Box browns to have a slightly stronger leaf than standard ones, further testing reveals this to be an artifact of the mild but notable inconsistency of Box switches. On average, the standard and Archon varieties of Box Browns have the same spring and leaf weighting. So – we have the standard and Art varieties with the most mild tactility, and with a fair bit more we have the Silent Box Brown and Box Royal with similarly strong if not identical amounts thereof – and of course, the Cream has none at all.
Cream, Silent, Art, (Older) Classic, Royal
The Art Box claiming a better lubing job might bear-out; note the older Box Brown stem with a big glob of grease, while the newer Art Box stem has just a sheen on the tactile leg. The Royal is somewhere in-between, with a less zealous application of grease. The Silent stem looks almost dry. It’s hard to see in the photos, but the Box Cream stem has a fairly generous application of clear grease on the leg.
An open Box with an open box
This is a great time to mention that the majority of Box switch parts are interchangeable in much the same way traditional MX parts are. With the exception of the circular and square shroud stems and top housings not being cross-compatible, literally everything else is. So, for example, you can take the top half of a Silent Box Brown, and combine it with the bottom half of a Box Royal to pair even stronger tactility with the sound and feeling of the dampened stem.
A closer look inside the magic box; here you can see the plunger and contacts. Looking up-top, you’ll see the characteristic bend of this switch having been stored in a switch tester (or plate otherwise too thick to engage the clips) for some time.
You can swap the silent stem into the housing of a Box Cream, which yields a switch with the tactility of a regular Box Brown, the dampened feeling of a Silent Box, the deeper sound of the Box Cream housing, and the much more clean and quiet report of the Box Cream spring.
I call this combination “Cookies and Cream” – because why not?
One thing I’ve yet to mention that affects the square-stem varieties of switches is inconsistent resting position, frequently including some degree of right-ward twist. As far as I can tell, the circular-stem versions don’t appear to have this problem.
Of all the varieties discussed today, I think my personal favorite is the Cookies and Cream frankenswitch – but for the stock ones, it’s a hard choice between the satisfyingly poppy Silent Box Browns and the balanced, if boney-feeling Box Creams. I’ve been a fan of the Box lineup since it first came on the scene, and I’m glad to see Kaihua continuing to bring further innovation to the line despite early missteps. I’m also glad to see NovelKeys getting in on those 5-pin bottoms, quieter springs, tapered housings, and twist-free stems. On the surface, they might seem like just another Box Black – but all the subtle improvements make the Box Cream a genuine step forward in my book.
How about you – what’s your favorite Box? Maybe the line isn’t for you? Shoot me an email, hit me up on Instagram, or say hello on Keebtalk – I’d love to know what aspects of the box family you folks would like to see me cover next. Cheers!