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Akko POM Browns

Introduction:

Welcome – it’s time for another in-practice switch review, and this time we’ll be taking a look at Akko POM Browns. Here I’ll be comparing them to other browns and light tactiles, comparing the factory force-curve illustration to the real data, and exploring some surrounding context. I’ve also included plenty of original photos, credited images, memes, and a few sound recordings. Here’s our focus for today:

In all its milk-chocolatey glory.

If you just want to know if these are good are not, yes – they’re excellent light tactiles, and exemplary “browns”. If you like any of the other brown switches, there’s a good chance you’ll find a lot to love here. As the name suggests, these are all-POM – but I really wouldn’t say these are much like other well-known POM switches like NK_Creams.

If you’re still reading, chances are you’d like some details.

The Basics:

Type: Tactile
Sub-types: Light, Early-middle bump, Short-travel*
Brand: Akko
Manufacturer: KTT
Top & Bottom Housing: POM
Stem: POM
Actuation / Travel: 1.75mm* / 3.65mm*
Spring (Start / Actuation / Bottom): 35g / 46g / 50g
Spring size: 18mm
Factory lube: Yes, light
Mounting: Plate / 3-pin

*Note about travel specs: The factory sheet for these lists 1.9mm actuation and 4mm travel, but real-world measurements show something closer to 1.75mm actuation and 3.65mm travel. While the graph reads around 35g at actuation, it takes around 46g to clear the bump before it.

A render of the POM Brown from Akko

Akko POM Brown factory-supplied force-curve graph

The factory-supplied force-curve graph; always pairs well with a grain of salt. This diagram depicts a very sharp transition that doesn’t exist in the real switch. Read on for a direct comparison.

Context & Background

On reflection, there’s really a lot here – so I’m going to break it down further into three categories. There’s a Venn-diagram of overlapping categories / lineages representing these switches, and they all have at least a little bit to say about what the Akko POM Brown is and where it sits in the massive sea of MX-compatibles.

Official promotional photo from Akko’s website

Context & Background: Browns

It would be hard to talk about these without mentioning their lineage with other “brown” switches, all of which owe their namesake to the Cherry MX Brown circa 1992, which itself set the format for light MX-compatible tactiles to follow. I suppose if we’re being fully honest here, there’s a high likelihood that Cherry’s choice of brown for their first non-clicky tactile was inspired by Alps Electric’s own SKCL Brown from the late 80’s. Either way, “brown” has been synonymous with non-clicky tactiles in the mechanical keyboard world for quite some time, now.

From Cherry’s marketing: “The characteristic of this tactile switch is characterized by a noticeable feedback. The noiseless guidance of the CHERRY MX Brown trains the sure instinct and helps to act tactically and strategically.” …right… the MX Brown actually came about after an OEM requested something like a Blue but without the click for their quiet-ish ergonomic office keyboards.

While I’d say the Akko POM Brown sets itself apart in a few notable ways, I’d also say it remains true to its roots in the process. Someone shopping for the “brown” experience is not likely to be disappointed with these, and someone introduced to the “brown” experience with these is not going to be led-astray in terms of what to expect from others.

I’d have a hard time talking about browns without acknowledging the memes…

M’yes…

MX Brown bad… (but not really)

am cry

Caption

Fair

we live in a society

Despite the sometimes admittedly funny browns bad meme-ery flying around, MX Browns and their clones remain one of the most popular switch types by the numbers, and have been hailed by tech critics and keyboard enthusiasts alike. Between Chyrosran22, Glarses, and the popularity of heavier tactiles, MX Browns may have learned what negative attention looks like – whether serious or in jest – but what we really have here is a poster-switch for one of the more nuanced subcategories: light tactiles.

Context & Background: Light Tactiles

In the world of MX-compatibility, MX Browns were the first non-clicky tactile – and retroactively, they became the first light tactile. The vast majority of MX compatible tactiles have a heavier, more pronounced tactile bump than any given brown – so what began as the only tactile ended up being on the very mild / light end of the emerging field. They would also be an integral part of the first popular MX frankenswitch, the Ergo Clear – which itself is now a commercial product available from Cherry. When the field was young and choices limited, users wanted and found a way to obtain something between the MXes Brown and Clear.

Cherry MX Ergo clear official product render

Official product render of the Cherry MX Ergo Clear commercial switch

Many of the aforementioned memes deride browns for the mildness of their tactile bump. Some say it’s indistinguishable from the surrounding scratch, calling it a “muddy linear” – and I can relate to this criticism when moving straight to browns from something heavier like Zealio V2s, Holy Pandas, BOX Royals, Bettys, et-cetera. It takes me a few minutes (or more) to get used to the lighter tactility / spring weight; when I first make the switch, my WPM and accuracy both tank for a bit. However – once I’ve acclimated, I find light tactiles to be both comfortable and rewarding to use. They’re easier to type on for longer periods – and assuming you aren’t hammering them, they’re also going to be more quiet than a given stronger tactile.

Each subcategory of switches has its own benefits and quirks, and light tactiles are no exception. I just mentioned a bunch of benefits – so now let’s talk quirks. Outside the realm of preference, I think the most regular complaint I see about light tactiles is some kind of noisiness – distinct from loudness. Noisiness is about chaos and complication. If a switch has lots of errant sounds like rattle, ping, and scratch, I’d call it “noisy” regardless of how loud the switch is overall – but not regardless of how loud those errant sounds are compared to intended / normal sounds like clicks, clacks, and yes, even thocks. If a switch is free or nearly-free of those errant sounds, I’ll call it “clean” regardless of how loud it is.

Graph comparing MX Brown and Akko POM Brown

More on this comparison image later, but it’s one great way of illustrating “noisy” vs “clean”; these are equivalent scale force-curve measurements from two switches, zoomed-down to a fraction of a millimeter.

Coming back around to light tactiles: I’ve experienced it as rare to find a stock one that isn’t some degree of noisy – often metallic leaf or spring noise but also rattle and scratch – and I mention all of that here because I think the POM Browns stand-out in that way. We seem to be moving in the direction of cleanliness being normal in switches, but we aren’t there yet, and certainly not with light tactiles. That being the case, I find the POM Browns a breath of fresh air with how little effort it takes to enjoy them: none.

Man reaching for the easy button - image from istock

How it feels to install Akko POM Browns into your keyboard | Image credit: iStock

Context & Background: POM

Probably the most common (or at least commonly-seen) application for POM: plastic gears. There’s a very good chance you’ve seen these – and even if not, it’s almost certain you utilize them every day, whether they be in your car, your work computer’s optical drive, or your Xbox at home. | Image credit: Polyplastics Today

Polyoxymethelyne, most often known by the acronym POM, is a family of semi-crystalline thermoplastics known for its wide range of operating temperatures and high strength. It is used in meshing parts like gears, joints, sliding mechanisms, and so-on. In the world of keyboards, POM is the material that composes the vast majority of MX compatible switch stems. Cherry uses it and so do most of the clones – and while experimentation with blends and other plastics is common with switch stems now, POM stems are still by far the most common.

A molecular diagram showing POM and its relation to formaldehyde. | Image from 123rf.com

Before stem material experimentation was common, there were a few notable early examples of housings using different materials than the standard Nylon / polyamide and polycarbonate: TKC + C3Equalz Tangerines with ultra high molecular weight polyethylene, and NK_ Creams with polyoxymethelyne. The UHMWPE Tangies may have been known for their smoothness, but the POM Creams were known for their sound.

Early on there was lots of hype about POM housings being “self-lubricating”, and while there is something to this in terms of the plastic wearing-smooth and sort of making dry lubricant in the form of its own powdered material on the surface, this doesn’t have the effect most keyboard enthusiasts think of when they think about lubing switches. That being the case, most people do lube their Creams, and lubed Creams enjoy glowing praise that’s long outlived the aforementioned hype – though it still appears as a bullet-point on some sales pages, because of course it does, you can’t just leave bullets on the table like that

The NovelKeys Cream – of of the switch scene’s first hype-beasts, and the first all-POM switch. | Image credit: ThereminGoat’s Cream review

One thing original Creams were not: smooth from the package – but what they did do is popularize POM as a housing material. They also set the aesthetic format used by Akko’s POM series; a matching color across all the plastic components. Since they came out a few years ago, quite a few more have followed in their wake. Some are more or less clones, but most actually sound and feel pretty different, being composed of different POM blends and/or using tooling with different surface qualities, et-cetera. Once such example is today’s switch, the Akko POM Brown, along with its pair of all-POM siblings.

Akko POM Brown, Pink, Silver | official promo image from Akko’s social media

As the name implies, Akko POM Browns contain only one plastic: polyoxymethylene. While the switches that popularized this format are known as scratchy and grainy in their stock form, this just isn’t the case with KTT and Akko’s all-POM examples. This may be in large part due to the factory lubrication treatment they all get, but I also think the tooling and type of POM might play a role. Either way, these join some lesser-known-in-the-West switches like MMD Ice Creams on the growing list of smooth-from-the-box all-POM switches on the market.

A sample of the MMD Ice Cream switch; an ostensible NK_ Cream clone that’s actually pretty different, and also quite good, coming pre-lubed from the factory. | Photo (and samples available) from SwitchOddities.com

Section Dinkus

I said it was a lot – but now you have a sense of all the information packed-into the simple name POM Brown – which is, but is also more than light tactile made of stem stuff.

A dinkus - also known as a section divider

“WHAT is a DINKUS?” you may rightfully ask. This is a dinkus – also known as a section break, flourish, or divider. These are typographical page elements that indicate some kind of pause or break, usually represented by a trio of asterisks [ * * * ]. I’m just taking the opportunity to use the word “dinkus” anywhere I can by placing these at the closing of longer sections – and now you can, too. | Image credit: Gordon Johnson on Pixabay.com

Aesthetics

Someone I know said these look like “they were carved out of a Tootsie Roll” – I agree.

The Akko POM Brown is, unsurprisingly, brown.

Not just the stem, but the entire switch is a matching opaque milk-chocolate color with a medium-glossy finish. This could be an item on that Japanese game show where contestants are tasked with discerning real objects from chocolate facsimiles.

A man discovers a chocolate doorknob on a Japanese game show

Yep, that one

As mentioned above, this all-matching-color convention follows the Cream series of switches, so-far opting for pink, silver, and brown for the light linear, light speed linear, and light tactile switches respectively. All three switches do have a “creamy” appearance, especially the pinks and browns.

Owing to their delicious appearance, I give these a subjective A for aesthetics.

Sound

While they have the characteristic “snickity” sound of MX-pattern light tactiles, they are notably free of ping, ring, and rattle. In fact, these are some of the most clean-sounding light tactiles I’ve yet used. They have a sharp, fairly high-pitched clack. While I don’t consider them harsh in the POM plate build I’m using, it’s easy for me to imagine folks who don’t prefer brighter sounds in their boards to be put-off by these.

Alongside aesthetics and cleanliness, sound character is really where the Akko POM Browns set themselves apart. Whether or not that’s a good thing comes down to personal taste; these are markedly more clacky than the average brown. It’s possible to type quietly with them, but you have to try harder – especially compared with the Pros Gateron and TTC – switches I’d otherwise consider peers of this one above most other browns. The sound is more clean than most light tactiles, but has a sharp, if not loud quality that may grate on some users.

I have them paired with a soft POM plate (just to keep the all-POM theme going a little farther) and some fairly thick ABS keycaps. I like the sound enough that I’ve kept these switches in the board at least twice as long as I’d planned. Alright, enough words – here’s some sounds from that keyboard;

With some Equalz stabilizers that have a little tick on the Enter key:

With some TX stabilizers that don’t tick, but have too much Nyogel on them – there’s also a NuPhy GhostBar in-place of the DCX one for this recording:

Enjoyment of sound is of course subjective (as are all my scores), but owing to the outstanding cleanliness among light tactiles, I feel I should give these at least an A for the sound category.

Feel

If you’ve ever used a brown MX compatible switch these will be familiar, however their bump profile is a bit different. It starts a little sooner and sustains a little longer than the traditional Cherry MX or Gateron Browns. They’re a light tactile with a smooth and gentle bump you can still feel while typing.

This would be a great time to compare TheraminGoat‘s real-world measurements with the factory-supplied force-curve graph:

ThereminGoat’s measurements, overlaid and scaled to the factory graph; note the small difference in peak force, and the big difference in bump shape and travel distance! Even the factory graph shows it as less than 4mm, but the real measurements reveal it to be even shorter.

Feel: Smoothness

These are smooth switches; there isn’t much grain in the sound or the feel. Here’s a visual aid comparing the first small part of travel of a Cherry MX Hyperglide Brown with an Akko POM Brown, zoomed way-in on the graph so you can see that grain (or lack thereof) I mentioned:

See all that noisy squiggling in the top line? That’s scratch. In more orderly forms I call it grain. Now check out the bottom line – notice the relative lack of harsh or abrupt changes. | Measurements by ThereminGoat

Not even the Gateron Pro V2 Brown is as actually smooth as this. It might feel more buttery, but there is measurably less grain on the Akko. I’ve hardly scanned every light tactile graph out there, but this earns an A+ in my book.

Feel: Stability

Resting position wobble / 10: N/S – 2, very little | E/W – 3, some | Very Good: A

Bottom position wobble / 10: N/S – 2, very little | E/W – 2, very little | Very Good: A

Travel Stability: 8/10, Very Good: A

Housing Fitment: 8/10, Very Good: A

Cap Fitment: Excellent: A+

Off-center Performance: Excellent: A+

Overall: As stable and solid a light tactile as I have yet experienced. I can imagine better, but haven’t tried it. Easy A.

Feel: Weighting

Akko POM Brown force-curve graph with visual annotations

ThereminGoat’s Force-curve graph data for the down-stroke of the Akko POM Brown with visual annotations added by myself; lines to help track the starting break-away point, tactile peak, and bottom-out point. I also added some shaded areas to help illustrate the bump and its peak; that part is to some degree down to my interpretation, so take it with a grain of salt.

Travel starts at ~35g, the bump peaks just after 1mm at ~46g and falls back down to ~35g again at ~1.75mm where it actuates, then climbs back up to ~50g at bottom-out, ~3.75mm.

Along with the otherwise very low level of noise in the travel, this makes for a gentle yet positively confirming tactile experience. I mentioned this once before, but the bump starts a little early compared to the classic MX Brown:

Force-curve graph for classic Cherry MX Brown

Force-curve graph for the classic Cherry MX Brown (pre-Hyperglide); note the more concentrated bump with more steep front-end. The bump and its peak both start later than on the POM Brown.

Here’s an overlay to help compare:

Akko in brown, Cherry in red

The Akko is on the whole a more gentle switch than the Cherry, but because there’s less scratch and other noise, that more gentle bump comes through more clearly. This is what I mean when I say these are browns refined, if decidedly on the branch of long-pole. That is, shorter travel and with a louder clack than otherwise.

I think the Akko POM Brown is a very well-balanced light tactile, and on that note, I give it a subjective A for weighting.

Feel: Familiarity

This is a new section I’m adding, as it’s something I like to discuss when recommending switches. Are you looking for something like what you’ve tried, just better? Or are you looking for something novel to tickle your fancy? Is the switch approachable for newbies, or only lovable by a select niche?

When it comes to the Akko POM Browns, I think they’ll be very approachable for most users, though the shorter travel and sharper clack may be a turn-off for some. They’re a little different, but mostly they’re a cleaned-up take on a well-established theme. These get a B+.

This is a great time to break-out some teardown photos:

18mm

13, maybe 13.5mm

A close look at the bump profile of the Akko POM Brown stem

Another angle on the stem; you might be able to see how the bump portion of the stem rails narrow a bit in a sort of bevel; I suppose this reduces the surface-area in contact with the leaf, thus reducing friction. As far as I’m aware, this feature exists on all KTT-made tactiles.

The bottom housing, more or less straight-on

Another angle; note the little dab of grease on the leaf where it touches the stem.

The top housing from above

From another angle

Reliability & Caveats

This is a section where I talk about functional reliability, and consolidate any other caveats that may have come up in any other sections into a list of suggestions for potential improvement.

Consistency:

If there’s any significant inconsistency here, I haven’t noticed it. There might be an occasional housing top not quite as tight as the rest, a spring a little more jiggly than its neighbors… but I’m grabbing at straws. I’ve got nothing to write here and that’s a good thing. A-.

Functional Reliability:

I’ve been using these for well over a month, and I can’t say I’ve experienced a single issue with them. Every single rare extra letter I can attribute to my own nerves and/or over-caffination. These get a clean A+ from me for their flawless track-record and excellent off-center stability.

Other Caveats:

These are three-pin, plate-mount switches – so they aren’t going to be a good choice for a plate-less build. They aren’t the best for surface-mounted LEDs, but do have a little square window so they aren’t the worst, either. That’s about it. These get a solid A- on compromise.

Suggestions for improvement:

Genuinely, all I’d ask for is a 5-pin option.

Another look at this tasty bon-bon of a brown

Value

At around 50 cents per switch depending on where you get them, these are priced comparably to Cherry MX Browns and land pretty middle-of-the-road. For the stock quality on-offer, especially in the category, I think these easily earn a solid A for value.

Comparisons

I haven’t included this as its own section in most of my reviews so far, and I have this switch, where comparison is especially relevant, to thank for reminding me to include it moving forward. How could I not have a section comparing the (visually) brownest Brown to at least a few other Browns? I have force-curve graphs for some of these, but not all – for those that I do, I’ve included an overlay comparison like with the classic MX Brown above.

Akko POM Brown recap comparison notes:

Also of note for this comparison: the bump profile on POM Browns is somewhere in between the fully-centered traditional brown, and the topped-out T-shaped “negative” bump of switches like the Ink Kangaroo or BOX Royal. With a bump this light, though, that distinction doesn’t stand out as much as it might on those aforementioned examples.

BRB, gonna eat some chocolate

Comparison to other browns:

Cherry Brown: The literal format-setter for MX light tactiles. Compared with the APB, these have a less definite bump that’s more towards the middle, more scratch, a lot more metallic noise, and a slightly less-hard bottom-out. Also less stable.

This is an RGB version, salvaged from an ASUS number pad.

Orange: Cherry MX Hyperglide Brown – I used this version here since it’s the one currently being made and sold. Note the “notch” near the beginning of the bump; I believe this is intentional to give a more confirming feedback, but I think it may also make them feel a bit more crunchy or noisy.

BSUN Brown: A typical clone. Similar to the Cherry, but a little chunkier throughout. That is, a little heavier and with a more clearly-pronounced tactile bump. Comparable scratch and grain, but notably less metallic noise. (That said there is an occasional crinkle from one of the metal parts.) Compared with the APB; more scratch, less stability, more pronounced tactility lower in the key travel, deeper clack, less clean. I only have a sample or two of these but get the sense they’d be pretty satisfying when tuned, but in stock form feel unrefined next to the POM Browns.

I got this sample from SwitchOddities.com

Gateron Brown (standard): The classic clone. Compared with the APB, these also have a less definite bump, if more-so than Cherry’s, and only due to less adjacent noise in the travel. Same story with scratch; this one lies between the Akko and Cherry offerings. These are also a little less stable than the Akkos, but these days, more than the Cherries.

The basic all-Nylon version

Gateron G Pro Brown: The classic clone upgraded. This is only one of two browns on the list with any qualities I’d call “better” than the Akko: notably perceived smoothness. The Akkos are plenty smooth, but these feel buttery without any harshness. This has a slightly less definitive bump than the Akko despite its more abruptly steepening curve. It also has more wobble and a more muted bottom-out. Like the other more traditional browns, this one has a centered bump – though it’s worth noting it starts later than Cherry’s.

Green: Gateron G-Pro 2.0 Brown – I used a 1.0 for my testing comparison, but only have a graph for the 2.0 – close enough!

There’s an occasional odd metallic report from these, but on the whole they are comparably clean to the Akkos. Maybe a bit less consistent but also less sharp overall. Put another way, they feel softer. Honestly a little too ethereal for me and my modestly clumsy fingers, but seem like they’d be a delight for light tactile enjoyers. Aside from an old MX Brown board, this is the only switch on the list I currently have in a full board besides the POM Browns.

Version 1 – the new ones have even better lubing and a condenser lens instead of a slot for the LED.

Greetech Brown: A generic clone. Pretty similar to the Cherry it’s copying, if even more noisy when stock. These aren’t bad switches, but in stock form are inferior to POM Browns in just about every way. Lots more scratch, more wobble, definite spring-rattle, less clean overall. The bump is a little more pronounced but still mild. Like Cherry, these have lots of tuning headroom – but need that tuning to be worth putting in a nice board, where APBs are above average right from the box. (Also, they come in a box.)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Kailh BOX Brown: The brown re-interpreted. This one is middle-of-the-road in many ways, except when it comes to cleanliness and complexity. That is, the higher moving part count makes for more “information” in the feel and sound. There’s not as much scratch or ping as you’d get from a stock Cherry, but there are more sounds being made by the switch at once overall, mostly the pusher against the stem and housing. I think this makes these feel extra “mechanical” – and while I wouldn’t call this noise objectively bad by any stretch of the imagination (I actually quite like it), I also can’t call it “clean” – so Akko still gets the point there.

See what I mean about “complex”? Actually a graph for the 2.0 version, but I don’t think the tactility as too different. Another thing of note here; the tactile peak is significantly heavier than the spring weight, but is also very early in the travel, so might not necessarily force a bottom-out.

Like the APBs, these have “negative” tactility, also called a top bump or T-shaped bump. Also worth noting: these are less consistent than Akko POM Browns in pretty much every way – so if that matters to you, these are not the move. BOX switches also tend to have just a hair of resting cap twist, which I’m pretty sure is a flaw in the design or manufacturing process.

This one has a black bottom, having come from a hotswap OEM board, but is otherwise the same as any other BOX Brown.

Reccazr KU Brown: Easily the biggest outlier on the list that isn’t a completely different design like the BOX, even including the non-browns below. Like the BOX (and unlike the APB), this switch has negative tactility – meaning bump starts right at the top, and you push through it to start the switch moving. It probably has the most full / deep sounding clack on the list. It performs similarly in terms of smoothness and wobble to the APB being from the same factory, but the tactile event on this flavor of brown is more punchy than most anything else mentioned in this review.

Tan: KTT R. KU Brown. These are almost the same save for the first bit of travel, and that changes a lot. This is an excellent illustration comparing negative tactility vs something closer to standard.

I’d place it comfortably in “medium” territory, if on the light side of it – there are plenty of tactile bumps out there that dwarf this one, but not in the world of “browns”, and definitely not the APB. I happen to think this is a fantastic switch in general and is on my short list of samples I want a full set of, but my recommendation of it will always come with the asterisk that it’s a different experience compared with the otherwise fairly same-y field of brown switches that more or less aim for the same light tactile experience.

I don’t know how to say it, either.

TTC Gold Brown V3: The aspirational clone. A fairly familiar brown with lots of tuning potential, but fairly dreadful stock performance when it comes to cleanliness. Harsh and rattly out of the bag, these will reward the hard work and patience of lubing. A thick oil or thin grease on these will give you a buttery light tactile you’ll want to use all day.

Gold, baby.

TTC Gold Brown Pro (V4): The ascendant clone. Evolution of the Gold Brown V3; essentially a pre-tuned version with further revised tooling. In very sparse company with the G Pro Browns, the Gold Brown Pros aren’t only similar in-name – they’re both competently pre-tuned light tactiles with very good if not quite perfect performance from the factory. If you like the cleanliness and top-bump of the Akko POM Browns but wish the collisions were less harsh, this is a great stock light tactile option.

I like these.

Comparisons to other light tactiles:

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon (un-lubed version): The hipster adjacent. While I also consider these to be exceptional light tactiles alongside APBs, they still sit a notch below in my personal ranking system – at least when it comes to the un-lubed version. The bump is extra crisp and discrete with the IBCs (and it’s in the middle), but it’s not as clean.

Light but very crisp and well-balanced with the spring. Noisy when unlubed, but the whole point of that version is for people to lube their own.

Shorter than most MX bumps, but not sharp like a click-bar or anything. In their dry state, these things are understandably straight up *noisy*, owing mostly to ping – probably the farthest thing from “clean” on this list. They are, however, quite stable – on-par with the Akkos if not better.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon switch unlubed

Aflion made these.

KTT Mallo: The older sibling. KTT is the manufacturer for Akko POM Browns, and I’ve also known them as a manufacturer that makes above-average light tactiles that generally have a single flaw, leaf noise. I’m happy to report that APBs have all but completely eliminated that noise while retaining everything else I loved about the Mallos, which are otherwise fairly similar. The Mallos, of course, don’t have housings made of POM. These are similar-feeling to POM Browns, but are a little more metallic and less clean.

Inspired by Peeps!

SP Star Meteor Orange (gray housing): Slightly heavier and more pronounced than some of the other browns – in similar territory to the BSUN, not as much as the Reccazr. Still closer to a typical brown in weight and intensity than most tactiles around these days. All-Nylon like the standard Gateron and Greetech above, but more smooth and clean than either – and in fact most on the list. You get some Nylon grain and some ring on harder bottom-outs, but the switch is notably light on errant noises like rattle, crunch, or crinkle. Thanks to its much deeper, more calm sound signature, I think I might actually prefer these to the APBs.

SP Star Meteor Orange switch with gray housing

These are really nice.

Section Dinkus

While that was a lot of browns, that wasn’t even close to all of them. The topic of browns deserves at least one of its own articles; that in mind, I tried to stick to popular or otherwise common examples that readers may have encountered before – or that may appear in one of the increasingly common sample testers offered for sale by various keyboard vendors. The Akko Pom Brown is at once an exemplary and an outstanding example among its umber brethren.

Image credit: Gordon Johnson on Pixabay.com

Recap & Conclusion

An overview

It’s familiar with enough distinction to stand apart. It’s smooth with subtle weighting and tactility. It has a sharp, clean clack. I don’t know if I can pick a favorite brown switch, but if I had to, Akko POM Browns would be on the short list. It’s an exceptionally clean light tactile available at a refreshingly standard price. If you’re in the market for a brown or a light tactile in general, these are definitely worth considering.

Aesthetics: A
Sound: A
Smoothness: A+
Overall Stability: A
Housing Fitment: A
Cap Fitment: A+
Off-Center Performance: A+
Weighting / Balance: A
Familiarity: B+
Consistency: A-
Reliability: A+
Compromise: A-
Value: A

Overall subjective score: A+

I’d been wanting to try these since they came out, and once I did, I didn’t want to take them out of my tester board. But life must go on, there are other switches to test! Very much as a new favorite, Akko POM Browns go back on my shelf… for now.

A jar of Akko POM Browns with a UPS sticker because brown

How I store these when not in-use

The light weight takes a little acclimating for me, sometimes repeatedly – but these have to be some of the most pleasant to use light tactiles right out of the box I’ve tried.

Alright! That’s all I have to say about the Akko POM Browns for today. Thanks so much for reading, and have a good one!

Reviews•Switches

Ajazz Diced Fruit Kiwi

Introduction:

Hello my friends – I have a few hours to spare today which means it’s time for another switch review. I’ve been typing on the Ajazz × Huano Diced Fruit Kiwi switches daily for a couple weeks now, and while I have to say these aren’t for everyone, they’ve made a fan of me.

Product photo for the Diced Fruit Kiwis from the Ajazz website

For the sake of brevity, I’m going to call these “DF Kiwis” from here forward. Let’s get into it!

The Basics:

Type: Tactile
Sub-types: Top-bump • T-shaped bump • Long-pole
Brand: Ajazz
Manufacturer: Huano
Housing: PC top • Nylon bottom
Stem: Assuming POM • long-pole
Actuation • Travel: 1.9mm • 3.3mm
Spring weight: 60g • 50g • 60g*
Spring type: 21mm • two-stage
Factory lube: Yes • light grease
Mounting: Plate • 3-pin

Diced Fruit Kiwi switch factory graph and render

The illustrated force curve graph and switch render from the factory spec sheet

*If this weight distribution looks a little strange, that’s because it is. While the spring itself should theoretically let you start moving the stem at around 35-50g of pressure, the tactile bump at the top keeps it from moving until you’ve applied around 60g – which is nearly the same amount required to bottom-out the whole switch. Actuation happens between those two crests right after the lowest dip at around 50g.

Spec sheet drawing of the Ajazz Diced Fruit Kiwi switch

Context & Background:

I honestly don’t have much to share here, aside from these being one of the first switches I saw that included glitter inside the housing plastic. The real elephant in the room here is the already successful Kiwi switch from The Key Company and C3 Equalz; more or less a boutique T1 variant. Whether or not that switch played-into the naming and/or character of this switch is the stuff of speculation – seems likely, but who knows.

A TKC × C3 Equalz Kiwi, with its own custom housing and grey T1 stem borrowed from the Koala.

As of writing these have been around at least a couple years; I’m just now getting around to them myself thanks to a holiday gift card and a bit of curiosity. Like TKC, Ajazz is approaching a fruit-themed series here – specifically “diced” – don’t want any lawyers getting too excited.

An official product photo for the DF Kiwis; a little similar, a lot distinct

I’d also like to briefly touch on a topic I’ll be covering more in-depth in the near future, because this switch is such an excellent example of it. For me, this switch is emblematic of why I don’t really encourage anyone other than switch nuts to engage in frankenswitching these days. That is, a few years ago, the only way to get a switch like this one would be to combine switch parts from different manufacturers that use different specs for things like how deep the central tube is, or how long the central stem pole is.

A favorite funky frankenswitch I think the DF Kiwi makes more or less redundant; a TKC Dragonfruit housing paired with a Gazzew U4T stem, which I nicknamed “PB&J”

Around that time, variety hadn’t quite exploded yet, and frankenswitching was a great way to explore new possibilities that weren’t available widely (or at all) in the commercial market. While it’s still a fun way to learn, many of my favorite franken-styles can be had for less money and effort as commercial switches these days; and the DF Kiwi is a perfect example.

When I saw people looking for a super-short, all-bump tactile, I’d recommend Halo or U4T stems in JWK housings with long springs. Now I recommend DF Kiwis.

Aesthetics:

One might think this is the most distinguishing feature of these switches, and that would be a reasonable assumption if not a correct one. Even today these are very distinctive in appearance, even more-so when they were first released. The colors here are more directly inspired by a slice (or dice) of kiwi than TKC’s version; lighter yellow-greens complete with little speckles to simulate the seeds. I love the look of the T1 Kiwi – so much so that I had a custom stained-glass window made in reference to it – but I have to hand it to Ajazz here, this look does a fantastic job as visual reference to actual kiwi fruit.

Actual kiwi fruit

Those speckles I mentioned are actually glitter flakes embedded in the housing plastic. There are a few switches with glittery housings these days, but I think most of those have more fine sparkly bits than the discernible flakes here. These mainly provide dark contrast to the light yellow-green plastic like seeds, but do occasionally scintillate as they reflect the light like the shiny, almost sparkly texture of sliced kiwi fruit. These switches are instantly recognizable and fun to look at, and I also think they nail the theming. That’s why I’m giving them a subjective A+ when it comes to aesthetics.

I think they nailed it

One other note here; I could discern at least two distinct styles of logo badge in the batch I have, mixed together in both packs. One has a badge with the same surface look as the surrounding plastic, one has a different surface there, generally making for more contrast.

Comparing the two styles of badge I’ve seen on these so far; one where the text looks filled-in, one where it looks outlined; or perhaps one is matte and one is shiny. I’m not sure if it’s an intentional revision or just inconsistency.

Sound:

My chair decided to be very squeaky that day…

These are clackity, snickity-snackity switches – and remarkably clean at that. For the most part, all you’re going to hear with these is the bottom and top-out sounds; not much in the way of scratch, swish, crunch, ping, ring, or any of that other stuff one might expect from a factory tactile with a steep bump.

The top-out is a little thin with just the tiniest hint of dry impact rattle; but this is really reaching for nit-picks. While they have excellent performance in their own right, their extra-short travel inherently makes stabilizer tuning more challenging, which I think is worth consideration. All that said, I give these a subjective sound score of A-. That is, exceptionally clean from the box for a steep tactile; complicated by a slight mismatch with standard stabilizer specs.

Feel

I think this is really where the DF Kiwis stand apart; the combination of super-short travel with a smooth top-bump and a pre-loaded spring makes for a pretty novel experience.

Probably the first thing to mention about the overall feel of these switches is just how snappy they are, along with the short travel, of course. The go down with a snap, and pop back up affirmatively. The have a sprightly cadence that reminds me of running down a hill just a bit too quickly, to the point of nearly tumbling. If you can strike the balance, you’ll be flying indeed. Each crispy clack like the crackle of rocks under the feet of a fell runner.

Kinda like this. • Photo from suunto.com

Once cresting what I feel is a steep but short learning-curve, I found these easy and intuitive to use quickly and accurately. They were quite strange to me at first, but after just a day or two I felt right at home with them.

A sea of Kiwis – the TKC ones, that is.

Before I get too deep into the individual details here, I’d like to make a direct comparison to the TKC Kiwi. Compared to that switch, the DF Kiwi:

Is much shorter travel, by about 0.7mm
Has a shorter, lighter bump
Has a lighter bottom-out weight

A cozy bunch of DF Kiwis

Let’s get into the details…

Feel – Smoothness:

There’s only so much I can say about the smoothness of a switch whose tactile bump consumes most of its travel – but is it smooth? Yes. Yes it is.

In normal typing, there’s no grit or grain to speak of – nor is there any scratch or even texture, for that matter. You get the bump, you get the clack, you get the top-out. The journey between is a short interplay between the spring and leaf, none of which generates any unwanted friction.

A photo from the Ajazz sales page for these switches

Holding the switch up to my ear and actuating it very slowly like some kind of obsessive crazy person, I still don’t feel or hear any scratch. Even though it doesn’t need smoothness to be an enjoyable snappy tactile, it’s plenty smooth anyway. I think the only thing detracting from this (as well as the sound) is a dry quality to the top-out.

All this in mind, DF Kiwis earn a solid A- from me when it comes to being a slick tactile.

Feel – Stability:

Resting position wobble /10: N/S – 2, very little | E/W – 2, very little

Bottom position wobble /10: N/S – 3, quite low for a long-pole | E/W – 2, very little

Travel Stability: 8/10, Very Good

Housing Fitment: 9/10, Excellent: A

Cap Fitment: No apparent issues: A

Ajazz Huano Diced Fruit Kiwi top housing

Here’s the underside of the top housing, because I wasn’t sure where else to put it. Note the lack of leaf-teeth, like Outemu and TTC.

Here’s the top-side, if you were curious

Overall, DF Kiwis have less wobble than average, seemingly aided by the spring. You can make this switch wobble a bit, but it’s not really inclined to in normal typing. Said another way, the travel stability carries-over to aid both the resting and bottom position stability, and in normal use the switch feels very stable – exceptionally so for a long-pole variety. I’d give these an easy A for overall stability.

Feel – Weighting:

TL;DR: The bump is super-steep, right at the top, and matches the bottom-out weight. While it looks kind of extreme on paper and does feel very index-y, it’s surprisingly approachable, even light-feeling once you orient to the shorter travel.

The stem, looks like around 13.75mm

The stronger the tactile bump, the more of a role it plays alongside the spring in how the weighting feels. The spring here has an approachable weight with plenty of preload, making for a small delta between the start of movement and bottom-out. Add to that a snappy-yet-smooth bump all the way up-top, and you get a remarkably well-balanced feel for such short travel.

The ~21mm two-stage spring

According to the illustrated factory force-curve graph, the tactile event of this switch takes up 2/3 of the entire travel – which at typing speed, feels like the entire travel. While the bump is very snappy and does confidently resist all but the heaviest of fingers from accidental actuation, it also isn’t nearly so heavy-feeling as it looks on that graph, and I think there’s a good reason for that.

Ajazz Diced Fruit Kiwi switch force curve graph

Factory spec sheet snippet with illustrated force-curve graph

The peak of the tactile bump lines-up nicely with the peak force of the spring at bottom-out. Once you’ve applied enough force to start the switch moving at all, you’ve applied enough force to push it all the way down – this is why it’s challenging to type on these without striking bottom. This is an on-off indexing type of switch, which happen to be one of my favorite tactile sub-types.

An annotated version of the factory graph to illustrate some of the relationships I mentioned

All of that established, I think we’re beginning to have a clear picture of the things that make this switch what it is, and why it feels the way it does. In a “traditional” MX tactile, the tactile event is a bump around the middle of the force-curve otherwise dominated by the spring. In switches like this, the force-curve is dominated by the tactile event, itself an interplay between the bump and spring taking up most of the travel.

A close-up of the stem and it’s snappy bump

I may be biased with my preferences here, but I think this switch strikes an excellent balance of weight between its spring and bump while keeping the peak force in very reasonable territory, making for a very tasty tactile experience. That in mind, I give these a subjective A+ for weighting.

Reliability & Caveats:

This is a section where I talk about functional reliability, and consolidate any other caveats that may have come up in any other sections into a list of suggestions for potential improvement.

Consistency: In this kind of switch – that is one dominated by its tactile event – I think it’s always a bit more difficult to pick-out consistency issues with feel or even sound. Whether or not this counts as an advantage of the style I’ll leave to you. All this said, I haven’t run into any functional consistency issues at all with these since I started using them, and they all sound and feel pretty much the same to me. However – I will note at least two permutations of the name plate badge, as I mentioned in the Aesthetics section above.

Another look at the inconsistent name plates; pardon the annihilated white-balance

Functional Reliability: Huano claims a life of 80-million actuations. I’m obviously not in a position to verify that, but I can tell you that I haven’t experienced any issues with these when it comes to functionality: no chatter (double inputs), dead switches, or otherwise weird behavior.

When it comes to overall reliability I’ll give these a clean A+ for the specified long life and apparent lack of consistency issues.

Ajazz Huano Diced Fruit Kiwi bottom housing

A look at the bottom housing, with what looks like light grease in the center tube and on the contact rails.

Other Caveats: Aside from just getting used to them, another important consideration with any long-pole or otherwise short-travel MX-compatible switches is how that travel relates to the stabilizers. These days some manufacturers are making *long-pole stabilizers with longer mounting stems, but those are a set additional length, and the switch travel comes in many varieties. There’s still potential for issues caused by the discrepancy between switches and stabs, mostly in the form of tick and teeter. This in mind, I give these an admirable B when it comes to compromise.

My favored way to deal with these problems is still OKLB’s North-facing compatibility washers – thanks again to walkerstop for this fantastic advice that I use constantly. If only the washers weren’t so hard to come by!

Another option is to use thick and/or stacked pads from stabilizer tuning kits like the C3 Equalz Soulmate, or even just random bits of adhesive-backed foam.

Another close-up of the stem, complete with extra-long pole and little ejection marks that make the front look like a cute surprised spider face

Suggestions for improvement: I don’t think these switches really need anything, but walled stems with further improved tolerances might be worth considering whenever it’s time to refresh the tooling.

Value:

At around 45 cents each, these are a middle-priced switch – and aside from being a fairly interesting sub-type, I think their stock quality outshines most peers in the bracket. The DF Kiwis earn a solid A for value in my book.

It looks to be pretty standard for the Diced Fruit switches to come 45+1; mine did. 45 sealed under a fruit-can style pull-tab top, and one open in the box – in case you want to try one and don’t feel like breaking the seal just yet.

Recap & Conclusion:

Aesthetics: A+
Sound: A-
Smoothness: A-
Overall Stability: A
Housing Fitment: A
Cap Fitment: A
Spring Feel: A+
Reliability: A+
Compromise: B
Value: A

Overall subjective score: A-

I’d been sleeping on these for years, figuring them to be knock-offs of the other switches named after the same fruit. I picked some up on a whim, and they surprised me twice: once by being nothing like the other Kiwis, and again by being consistent, clean, and generally excellent right from the box.

Another product photo; a collection of DF Kiwis

They threw me off with their short travel in the beginning, but their crystal-clear haptics and well-balanced tactility make them fast, natural typing switches for me. DF Kiwis are some of my new favorite tactiles.

Alright – that’s all I have to say about the Ajazz × Huano Diced Fruit Kiwi switches for today. Thanks so much for reading, and have a good one!

Reviews•Switches

Gateron North Pole

Introduction:

Hello my friends, it’s time for another switch review, and today we’ll be taking a look at (and through) the icy-clear Gateron North Pole. I’d been eagerly waiting for these to come out and picked some up as soon as they were available. I’ve been using them for a few months now, and I’m ready to share my thoughts. This review is dropping quite a bit later than I’d originally intended, but hey – this gave me plenty of time with the switches, and I can tell you now that they’re among my favorite linears to type with in my whole collection.

There are lots of clear switches, but none of them are quite *this* clear.

A disambiguating side note for any international readers: in the US, this is a single switch product and is only available in one spring-weight from most vendors. The few vendors that have multiple weights distinguish them by the rated measurement. In some other markets, though, Gateron’s “North Pole” is a series of switches much like “Pro 2.0” and is similarly available in the three most popular linear “colors” of black, red, and yellow. The switches themselves are still all-clear, and ostensibly contain the springs from Gateron Blacks, Reds, or Yellows. If I understand correctly, the “North Pole” switch sold in the US market is sold as “North Pole Yellow” in other places, alongside the other color-coded weights. I’ve also seen these included in the Pro 2.0 series in some places, which is logical enough given the housing appearance.

The Basics:

Type: Linear
Sub-type: Slow-curve
Brand: Gateron
Manufacturer: Gateron
Housing: Polycarbonate
Stem: Proprietary “Ink” material
Spring weight: 50g / 55g / 68g*
Factory lube: clear oil, generous application
Mounting: PCB / 5-pin

Factory spec sheet for the Gateron North Pole (Yellow); *real-world measurements further-down

Context & Background:

There’s a lot here – if you just want to know about this switch, scroll on about half-way down the page to the next divider line.

An Everglide Aqua king; more or less why we’re here today, if indirectly.

Appearing on the scene well after the novelty of all-clear switches had run its course, I think this switch is a great talking point in the debate of priorities between being first and being the best. I couldn’t properly talk about this switch without first mentioning Everglide’s Aqua Kings and the fad they kicked-off – but I’ll start a little farther back than that.

The first wave of switches to hit the market after the MX patent expired were more or less facsimiles of the existing Cherry MX line, with occasional tweaks and minor experiments along the way. Blues, Reds, maybe Yellows if you’re feeling adventurous. Then came Zealios, Halos, Creams – within just a few years the field exploded into every imaginable color, weight, and style. Novel derivatives made the MX mechanical keyboard experience all the more tune-able to one’s tastes, even including aesthetics.

A jar of Aqua Kings, backlit

These days you can find switches in just about any color and finish you could want, but not very long ago the idea of a switch not following the established Cherry conventions was indeed pretty novel. (Hence NovelKeys, right?) Today’s switch landscape is a veritable zoo of plant, animal, and food-inspired names; more interesting than simple colors, but no more informative. (Still, I’ll take variety over standardization just about any day.)

After the rise of JWK and the like, tailoring a keyboard build to a specific color theme was all the more easy – but there was *one* look that no one had yet executed successfully: totally clear switches. The demand was there – I remember a popular keeb video having a thumbnail depicting an RGB rainbow of switches in a board, that rainbow shining through the stems – or at least appearing to. I think these were actually optical switches using the MX mount, not actual MX-compatibles – and the video wasn’t about clear switches – but just the notion served to make that thumbnail successful at its job of attracting traffic. For years I’d see that thumbnail from time to time and think, “why hasn’t someone done this in MX switches yet?”

The thumbnail in question. I think these are actually Flaretech Opticals, as seen on the Wooting One.

Turns out there was indeed a reason. Without putting words in anyone’s mouth, I’ll say it like this: stems are the most sensitive part when it comes to tolerances, and many clear plastics are challenging to shape precisely at that size. Some of them shrink. Some of them warp. Some of them are easier to shape but sacrifice significant durability – so experimentation here was pretty limited, at least for a time.

Everglide Aqua Kings mounted in a KBD67 Lite

Aqua Kings, mounted in a KBD67 Lite with its stock polycarb plate and paired with KBDFans’ polycarb stabilizers.

Even with all the variety that quickly hit the scene post-2015, the list of materials used for switches was quite short – stems even shorter. With a few odd examples out, just about every stem on the market was made of POM. It’s suitable to the role and remains the most popular stem material for that reason – but there came a point at which folks started experimenting with other plastics and blends. I’m not sure who stepped away from the tried and true formula of Nylon and/or polycarbonate housing with POM stems, but the first I was aware of would be the Tangerine and its UHMWPE housing. I believe the massive success of that switch series kicked off a lot more wide-spread experimentation with materials.

C3 Equalz × The Key Company Tangerine switches; some earlier examples of bright colors, and the use of UHMWPE in switches.

(UHMWPE stands for Ultra High Molecular Weight Poly Ethylene, which is a soft and very slick plastic. It’s hard to shape precisely, but that slickness has a lot of value for switches.)

It wasn’t long before UHMWPE stems went from a low-run group-buy experiment to a stock category all their own. In just a few years the industry all but mastered the fickle material with its tendency to shrink, warp, and peel; giving us a whole suite of genuinely slick switches. It is in this environment – this hotbed of experimentation that the all-clear switches stood a chance at success. I don’t know who tried it first, but the first to get it right (or at least right enough to sell) was the brand Everglide, who uses JWK to manufacture their switches.

After a couple of low-number experimental runs and revisions, Everglide debuted the Aqua King V3 – easily the most hyped (and similarly over-hyped) switches since Creams, themselves the first all-white(ish) switch. Now – it makes sense for the first ever commercially available all-clear switch to make a splash (no pun intended), but I think the Aqua King rollout is emblematic of the shortcomings tied to influencer marketing from the consumer’s perspective. Many trusted reviewers were given Aqua Kings to review, and almost universally showered praise on them. One top reviewer said they were the smoothest, lowest-wobble stock switch they’d ever tried – and I believe him. The problem is that reviewers got cherry-picked samples, and the public didn’t.

A TTC Honey / Heart linear; another (almost) all-clear switch. One of the more unique examples, this one is a complex mix of materials.

Everglide’s Aqua King (also sometimes called Water King) uses a polycarbonate stem along with a polycarbonate top and bottom housing. From what I understand, PC can have a very smooth surface, be very firm, but that it’s also challenging to shape precisely on a small scale for various reasons. While I applaud Everglide for doing as well as they did with these, the brutal truth is that Aqua King V3s were horribly inconsistent, despite being reportedly much better than the prior two versions that only saw limited distribution. The hype momentum was real, though, and those switches sold like hotcakes – all the while maintaining overwhelmingly positive reviews. While its true that the good ones were some of the smoothest, most stable stock switches ever at the time, not even half the bag would be like that – and a good chunk of it might not even be usable at all.

Aqua Kings were really cool, but in my view, never evolved past anything but novelty. They got a revision that helped a bit with consistency, but even those are still one of the most inconsistent switch sets I’ve ever purchased. Their visual novelty did lots of heavy lifting, and I think the name including “King” while the word was at peak meme-usage sure didn’t hurt – but I think the most un-due momentum for them came from influencers and subsequently their fans. This isn’t to place any blame on the influencers; I’m confident all of them were sharing their honest opinion of what they had on-hand, and it is pretty a-typical for switch review samples to be significantly different than what customers get.

A TTC Frozen Silent linear, another one of many ice-themed clear switches. These have a milky bottom, unlike most of them.

With all the hype, of course every other manufacturer had to take a shot at making a clear switch – to not do so would be leaving money on the table – so a whole wave of clear switches came along shortly after the Aqua Kings. Some took a similar approach using polycarbonate, while others tried a clear version of Nylon. Some brands tried clear blends of UHMWPE. Most of these examples reference water or ice in their names, and most are good switches. I’d say just about all of those are less smooth and stable than Aqua Kings, but also significantly more consistent. After a year or so, just about everybody had one – but not Gateron.

Some reporting from ThereminGoat revealed they’d been working on one for a while, but they weren’t talking about it. That gave me the impression that they were interested in the idea, but wanted to wait until they really had it right before releasing it.

A Zeal Crystal tactile; another all-clear switch from Gateron that actually predates the North Pole. These are a bit more expensive, and are built around the CAP architecture instead of being derivative of the KS-9 Pro 2.0 design like the North Pole. These have a polished Nylon stem as opposed to Ink plastic, and also a Nylon bottom as opposed to polycarb.

In my opinion, this patience and persistence very much paid-off. When Gateron finally released the North Pole, the all-clear-craze was long-past, but the demand for smooth and stable switches remained – so do they measure-up all novelty aside? Unlike other manufacturers who tried things like polycarbonate and polyamide for clear stems, Gateron settled on their proprietary “Ink” plastic, which they’ve been using for the housings of their highest-end switches for a few years now.

Product image for the North Pole series from LumeKeebs, showing both the un-shrouded “yellow” stems, and the shrouded, short-travel “red” stems.

As Gateron’s Oil King took its own shots at the Aqua King, the North Pole takes all the more – and I think they land, too. This switch targets all the same performance points the Aqua King was touted to have:

It’s all-clear, even more clear than all the others
It’s really darn smooth from the factory
It’s very stable

More than any of the copycats and indeed more than the “originals”, I think these are the “real” Aqua Kings – that is, I think these truly and reliably succeed at being the kind of switch the Aqua King was hyped to be.

That’s the important stuff you need to know right there, but if you’re reading this chances are you’re into details – so let’s dig in!

Aesthetics:

No surprise, these are clear – but even amongst all the other clear switches, these manage to stand-out aesthetically. They aren’t just made of colorless plastic you can see through, they are about as crystal-clear as they possibly can be – they look like wet ice. Not only does this make them visually striking in general, but it also helps them transmit RGB light in every direction. Just look at this one catching the evening sun!

Normal exposure; this almost crystalline switch is practically blinding as it transmits the evening sun directly into my face. Let’s bracket that down a little…

There we go. Much lower exposure; the broad-daylight background is blacked-out, and the colors of the sky show through the switch. Looks like a wet ice-cube on a hot day.

As another reviewer pointed-out, these have a weighty feeling in the hand compared to most other switches – and while the actual difference is small, it’s enough to feel. I think this lends to the “ice cube” aesthetic, and lends an impression of substance and quality. Even ignoring all the other aspects, if all you’re looking for is the most clear of the clear switches, well – look no further – I don’t think anyone else is going to get one looking more transparent than this.

These are clear. Like, really clear.

Given these switches manage to stand out in a sea of all-clear switches, and really nail the “wet ice” look, I give these a subjective A when it comes to aesthetics.

Sound:

When it comes to sound, North Poles are pretty interesting. The bottom-out impact is fairly sharp, but not very loud, and all the sounds are clean. That is, free of un-intentional sound; no rattles, scratches, or wiggles. Just clackity-clacks.

Overall, the sound signature of these is on the deep side. Maybe not quite as deep as an Aqua King, but pretty close – deeper than Inks, certainly deeper than average. There’s a sharp clack when you hit bottom as I mentioned, but it’s paired with a deeper thud that’s not present with most “clacky” switches.

Top and bottom-out impact sounds are remarkably similar.

For me cleanliness is a high priority, or at least valuable – and thats why I give these a subjective sound score of A-. That is, generally very clean and pleasant, marred by the occasional crunchy or wiggly spring.

Feel

When discussing the feel of switches, I’ll be breaking that factor down further into Smoothness, Stability, and Weighting.

Feel – Smoothness:

North Poles are glassy smooth; effectively zero grain. If you like to skate, these might be worth a look. They have the potential to stick-slip at very extreme angles or during very slow, gentle presses – I’ve never perceived it while typing.

If you check out ThereminGoat’s force-curve graph of the switch (which I believe is captured with fairly slow movement), I think this bears-out:

ThereminGoat force-curve graph for Gateron North Pole switch

ThereminGoat’s real-world measurements for the Gateron North Pole switches.

The more compressed the spring, the less “noise” is visible in the measurement. I believe what we’re seeing here is the mild slip-stick effect (not grain) being increasingly overcome as more force is required to continue compressing the spring.

I *speculate* that if we had a way to take measurements at the speed of typing, that certain aspects of the graph would present differently depending on the switch – and in the case of the North Poles, I think the whole graph would look more like the last third measured the traditional way.

For real-world use, I give these an A+ for smoothness.

Feel – Stability:

Resting position wobble /10: N/S – 0, almost none | E/W – 1, very little

Bottom position wobble /10: N/S – 3, some | E/W – 1, very little

Travel Stability: 9/10, Excellent

Housing Fitment: 8/10, Very Good: A

Cap Fitment: No apparent issues: A

Overall, these are very stable switches – especially considering no upper stem walls / dust shroud. I’d give these an easy A for stability, kept from perfection only by the slightest inconsistency.

Feel – Weighting:

This is pretty subjective, but for me, these are *just right*. More than just about any other linear I can think of, I find these fantastic for typing.

In terms of bottom-out weight, these actually sit between Yellows and Blacks at 68.7g.

Factory spec sheet for the Gateron North Pole (Yellow)

According to the spec sheet, these are supposed to start moving at 40 grams (just like Yellows and Blacks) and linearly increase to 67, actuating midway at 50.

*In reality, it looks like it starts moving somewhere between 50 and 58g, depending. I think beyond a certain speed it doesn’t take as much force to overcome the slip-stick effect, and below you end up having to crest that first before returning to the spring’s natural force-curve. I think it likely that slow-moving measurement devices exaggerate the slip-stick effect, at least compared to how it would present in typing – but I think that’s useful none-the less.

I don’t think slip-stick is the only factor at-work here, but take a look at this with the above in-mind:

ThereminGoat force-curve graph for Gateron North Pole switch with added visual aid.

Slip-stick side-branch: ThereminGoat’s real-world measurements for the Gateron North Pole switches, with lines added to illustrate certain areas or relationships: Cyan shows the bottom-out weight. Orange is drawn from where the noise tapers-off, back across the peaks of the graph; this is a sort of “upper limit” for the noise. Yellow is drawn from the same point where the noise tapers-off, back across the valleys of the graph; this is a sort of “lower limit” for the noise. I think the end of this line also represents where I think the switch starts moving under normal fast typing conditions as opposed to the slower speed of measurement. Magenta is a straight line continued back from bottom-out through the same point where the noise tapers-off; this line happens to land on the factory-spec starting weight of the switch, 40g. I think what’s between orange and yellow is the additive noise of the slip-stick effect, which I think might change with different measurement speed. Between yellow and magenta is other resistance on-top of the spring; surface friction, oil viscosity, whatever it may be.

Either way, this switch has a very flat force-curve, essentially increasing only ~10g the entire travel. I think this “fast-curve” spring paired with the glassy-smooth operation and thicc housing collisions make this a delicious switch for typing. I give these a subjective A+ for weighting.

Reliability & Caveats:

This is a section where I talk about functional reliability, and consolidate any other caveats that may have come up in any other sections into a list of suggestions for potential improvement.

Consistency: In terms of this, I’ve encountered the occasional instance of a crunchy spring that can be heard and felt, but for the most part these are quite clean and consistent for a stock switch.

Functional Reliability: Gateron claims an extra-long lifespan of 80-million actuations in terms of the contacts. I don’t have any specific information about Ink plastic, but I don’t think there’s much reason to believe these will be any less durable or reliable than the average premium Gateron.

When it comes to overall reliability I’ll give these a solid A for the long life and only the most mild of consistency issues.

Another official image showing a tall jar full of North Poles.

Other Caveats: While these are very smooth in-motion, they also have some degree of slip-stick. I genuinely don’t thin this impacts normal use at all, but a very slow or gentle press may reveal it.

Suggestions for improvement: I don’t think I could contribute anything here that Gateron isn’t already thinking about; these switches aren’t perfect, but I do genuinely think they’re excellent.

When it comes to compromise, I think we’re looking at another solid A here. Unless you plan to be slow-pressing your switches more than anything else, you’re in for a great experience with these.

Value:

At around 68 cents each, North Poles are by no means cheap or inexpensive. These are a premium item and carry a premium price. By the same token, you do get more for your money here – so I do think the higher cost is worth it for me, and will be worth it for customers willing to pay more for specific qualities.

I give North Poles a solid B+ for value; well above average, but can only score so high being nearly 70 cents a switch.

Recap & conclusion:

Aesthetics: A
Sound: A-
Smoothness: A+
Overall Stability: A
Housing Fitment: A
Cap Fitment: A
Spring Feel: A+
Reliability: A
Compromise: A
Value: B+

Overall subjective score: A

To come back around, I think these switches are a perfect example of the staying power that taking the time to get something right has compared with the power of being first on the block. North Poles never got the crazy hype that Aqua Kings did, but they have a lot more staying power – and I think they more successfully execute on the original mission statement of the Aqua Kings themselves. I don’t think they’re the only ones, either – but I do think they’re the best.

Alright! That’s all I have to say about Gateron’s North Pole (Yellow) switch for today – thanks so much for reading, and have a good one.

Keys•Reviews

DCX Cyber

Introduction:

Hello my friends, I’m back with another keyset review for you. Today we’ll be taking a look at DCX Cyber, a striking Cherry-like ABS keyset from Drop; in good company being inspired by the aesthetic of cyberpunk.

This rad photo is from the DCX Cyber product page.

Cyber is my first Drop Cylindrical X set, so this review will also cover the profile itself, taking into account lots of existing customer feedback. This one’s un-sponsored; I bought the set for myself and have been using it for a few weeks. Let’s dig in!

TL;DR: They look good, they feel good, they fit properly; these are solid keycaps and this colorway is rad. I’d say these are closer to a 9/10 than a 4/5, but not quite a 10. If you’re a details person, read on.

Here’s my set on a purple Portico, sitting on a Bob Ross deskmat:

Mm. Dat purple.

As a footnote, DCX wasn’t always called DCX, and there was a momentary kerfuffle about it. If you find that sort of thing interesting, I have most of my thoughts about it here.

Let’s talk about Cyber.

Kit image from Drop’s website; for R1 there’s only this base kit, but I think it does have at least a respectable amount of coverage and some nice accent options.

This colorway in particular is rich and striking, and I think it looks fantastic on a board. As a point of novelty, the distribution of the colors is not identical to its MT3 counterpart – this set is a thoughtful re-interpretation of the colorway in context of DCX rather than a straight key-for-key port. I think it works really well.

Quality and material feel is on-par with the ABS MT3 sets, coming from the same manufacturer. That is, generally exceptional quality with rare lapses in quality-control, accounted-for with a customer-friendly return policy. Maybe not perfect, but I don’t think a patient customer can possibly loose-out here.

Text in screenshot reads: RETURNS—NO QUESTIONS ASKED We get it. Sometimes what you ordered just doesn’t work out. If that’s the case for you, don’t fret! All customers (both US and international) may return this item in new, unused condition within 30 days of delivery.

Pretty darn reasonable, if you ask me. If you’d like the details, you can find them here.

These are ABS and everything that entails, so if you’re not down with shine over time, stick with pure PBT – it’s just the nature of that type of plastic. While they will shine, just like any reasonably thick ABS set they won’t wear-out… unless, I dunno, you have the most caustic hand oils in the world and type 24/7 for literal years.

One more image from the product page, showing a side view of the DCX profile rows.

In terms of the profile, it took me just a little bit to get fully acclimated coming straight from Cherry, but it’s plenty familiar and approachable. By that I mean I had zero problems, vanishingly-little awkwardness, and it took a few hours over a couple days to get back up to my average WPM after moving to the profile. From there it’s been feeling completely natural to me. DCX is genuinely distinct from Cherry, but probably the closest thing to it that isn’t a clone of the profile at this point. From what I understand about the design goals here, this is basically a perfect success. Noice. For me, this profile is a welcome alternative to existing options, offering its own distinctions while largely maintaining established conventions, and this is probably the most fun colorway it comes in right now.

A few notes about the tooling: Drop went out of their way to address a pain-point present on many popular high-end keycaps: visible sprue marks. If you’re a flipped-space enjoyer like myself, you might be familiar with GMK’s unsightly blemishes on the “back” of the bar, and for that matter most other keys like the F-row. Not here – injection marks are under the caps and not visible from any normal viewing angle. I appreciate this every time I see it, and seeing it on a premium keyset makes me even happier.

A close look at both sides of the DCX arrow keys.

Legends are generally crisp and reasonably uniform. I haven’t found any blemishes on my own set, but at least one user has posted photos of color-bleed from one shot to the other. I get the impression this is a rare occurrence, but it’s documented, so I’m mentioning it. The typeface is thinner than Cherry’s, but shares the familiar and timeless rotary-machine-tool quality of rounded corners. I’ve seen mixed feelings about the kerning (distance between letters) on the Shift keys, and this comes down to different schools of thought when it comes to how to approach kerning: visual weight vs absolute distance vs bounding box.

That is, you can space letters taking into account how natural it will look, but not necessarily adhering to uniform spacing. Alternatively, you can space letters with an exact uniform distance between the actual boundaries of each letter – this tends to be more of a good place to start and then adjust for visual weight. Finally, you can evenly space letters based on the boundaries of an imaginary box drawn to touch the extremities on all sides. This is a pretty traditional way to do it in context of letter-press typesetting and machine tooling, but it often creates awkward-looking relationships between some letters, especially lower-case ones.

To me, this looks like traditional mono-spaced, machine-tooled lettering – there *is* a logic to the spacing, but it does also naturally strike plenty of people as a little derpy depending on the letters being used. See “Shift” key below:

The nested plastic trays that DCX ships in.

The packaging is very good, if a little understated on the outside for such a loud colorway. Inside the black-on-black cardboard box are a series of nested trays that hold each individual cap in-place; no scratches or gouges from sliding in troughs or bouncing in bags. The cardboard part is good physically speaking, like 7 or 8/10 for that sort of thing, but the plastic part inside (IMO the important part) is 10/10, excellent, industry-leading, heck-yeah, everybody-else-take-notes kind of good.

Well – MelGeek’s MCR keycaps actually come in pretty much equivalent excellent packaging – but all the other major manufacturers I’ve gotten caps from are behind when it comes to the trays that sets come in and/or the space they take up. Per-key trays are nothing new, but those have traditionally been big, flat blister packs that stink to store – these neatly stack and fit in a nice small box. Perfect. (As an aside I’d love if MT3 moved to something like this; I like not having the shreddy paperboard while also reliably protecting the caps.)

A fairly close look at DCX Cyber, sitting in its packaging tray.

Truly minor nitpick; there’s a hint of inconsistency with some of the color. I’m not sure if that comes down to surface, pigment, the color of the other shot being underneath the whole cap, something else entirely, or some combination, but it’s there. — I should put an *asterisk on this; I’m literally trained to spot this sort of thing and work in a field where it’s important. In my experience most people will probably not perceive a difference like this, I’m just mentioning it for the few folks it may actually matter to. I can see it, but this set is just so fun to look at that I don’t care at all – but a specifically obsessed person (or the rare tetrachromat) might appreciate more rigid consistency. FWIW I think the consistency here is notably better than at least one of the top / most well-known keycap manufacturers; it’s quite good.

To wrap this all up, I think Drop and Terra Plastics have done a fantastic job developing this profile, and I think MiTo has done an excellent job with the colorway and its composition. This really is a killer set, fitting a rad name like DCX Cyber.

Now… I just need to find the perfect yellow keyboard.

Reviews•Switches

Prevail Nebula

Introduction:

Hello, my friends – I’m back with another review, and this time I’m taking a look at Prevail Key Company’s latest linear switch offering, the Nebula. This one’s un-sponsored; I was curious about these, bought some for myself, and decided to share my thoughts here after a few weeks with them in my daily keeb. Let’s get into it!

Ooh, pretty.

The Basics:

Type: Linear
Sub-types: Long-pole, Progressive
Brand: Prevail Key Co. (with Cobertt of Control On Caps)
Manufacturer: JWK
Housing: full Nylon (PA)
Stem: Custom mold, “LY” material*
Spring weight: 62g**
Factory lube: “light”
Mounting: PCB / 5-pin

*I’ve reached out to Prevail for a little more info about what kind of plastic “LY” might be; I haven’t heard back as of writing, but will update with more information as I have it.

**I don’t currently have a force-curve graph or discrete measurements of starting, actuation, and bottom-out weights. IC’s listed the weight at 67g, sales pages list at 62g. I’ll update this review with that information as able.

Context & Background:

Originally announced with an Interest-Check post in mid-December of 2020, the Nebula switch has taken a long if not terribly winding road from there into the hands and keyboards of consumers. A collaboration between established builder Cobertt of Control On Caps and respected vendor Prevail Key Co., the Nebula switch had its sights set on being a smooth, clacky, progressive long-pole linear – a category with scant representation among stock commercial options.

Discussion around the IC mentioned that full-Nylon from JWK was exclusive to Cannon Keys, but by the time the GB rolled around, full-Nylon was all-systems-go for the Nebulae.

Original render from the Nebula Interest Check post on Geekhack

At the time of its announcement nearly two years ago, the progressive linear segment was vanishingly small – and it’s not very different today. Off-hand, I can only think of two others that actually made it to production: the ThicThock Marshmallow (also made by JWK, with springs hand-installed at the factory), and the NK_ Cream Arc (made by Kailh, no clue about the springs there). At one time, TKC’s Dragonfruit switch was planned as a progressive linear, but the idea was abandoned for an Ergo Clear style tactile instead when it became clear manually-oriented springs would mean a price increase they weren’t happy with. Ever since TKC announced that change, I’d been hoping for other factory progressives to hit the market, so I was naturally excited by the announcement of this switch – and unlike TKC’s, this one made it to market almost completely unchanged from its initial plan.

The Nebula’s core, a roughly 20mm progressive spring. On the left side, there’s about 4mm worth of tighter coiling.

If you’re not familiar, a “progressive” spring is one whose *rate* of rising resistance increases with compression. That is, the more the spring is compressed, the faster the resistance increases per unit of compression. All springs increase in resistance (usually just called “weight” in the keeb hobby) as they are compressed, but the amount of weight increase per unit of compression is generally the same throughout compression. Some springs increase in weight only slightly when compressed (called “slow curve”), others more dramatically (called “fast curve”) – but both of those fall under the “linear” spring category – plotted on a resistance/compression graph (called a “force curve graph”), the data would appear as a straight line; shallow, steep, or somewhere in between. However, a “progressive” spring will produce a *curved* line on the very same graph, increasing in steepness with compression.

Automotive spring graph from the iRacing forums illustrating the difference between a progressive spring rate (left) and a linear one (right).

The nature, efficacy, and character of progressive springs is its own multi-pronged discussion, still fairly rich with debate to this day – so I’ll avoid getting into those weeds for the moment. For now, I’ll carve-out this detail for today’s discussion:

Marshmallow switches cost more than originally planned thanks to hand-installation of the springs at the factory. Dragonfruit switches got turned into something else completely in lieu of raising the price or suffering inconsistency. When I asked Prevail if spring orientation could be a factor for these switches, the initial response was yes, due to the tighter coil at one end. I mis-remembered this as meaning the spring would be conical, which actually would make the orientation matter – but I think they were just talking about pitch.

There’s all kinds of debate about whether cylindrical progressive springs behave differently depending on their orientation inside the switch, with most evidence leaning towards it making no difference – *however* – that story changes when the top and bottom of the spring aren’t the same shape, and may not be interacting with identically-shaped surfaces at either end inside the switch. That is, with a conical spring, orientation *may indeed* matter because the pre-load compression may be different depending on that orientation because of the surfaces the spring seats into / onto.

No specific reason this photo is here, I just thought it looked cool.

That confirmation was two years ago, though – and while a surprising number of details have remained unchanged since that time, the one about spring orientation hasn’t. From what I can gather, the story now goes like this:

Prevail decided against using hand-installation of the springs to avoid a price increase, but also decided to stick with the progressive springs, being a core part of the idea behind them. Apparently they determined that with the spring they settled on, orientation made either no difference or not enough to make inconsistency obvious. They also factored-in a safely-assumed high likelihood that people would be opening these anyway, and thus have an opportunity to orient the spring as they prefer. It seems Prevail thought this would be the best compromise between retaining their vision and attaining affordability, and I think they made the right call.

A photo taken in lower, warmer light (and on a Bob Ross deskmat)

Examining the spring found in the final version of the switch, I confirmed that it is not conical, and has the same 3.75mm contact footprint on either end. That is, in theory, flipping the spring shouldn’t have a significant impact on the travel feel. At least when it comes to hard measurable data, there’s slim-to-none supporting the idea that spring orientation matters *unless* the footprint of either end is different from the other. (It probably further depends on how the housing interacts with those footprints; I think it’s easy to imagine some that may tolerate a smaller or larger diameter without changing anything, and others that may seat a smaller coil differently from a larger one.)

Aside from the spring orientation factor, one other significant detail has changed since the IC, and that’s stem material. Originally planned as having a new mold but traditional POM material, the stems are now made of a new-to-switches plastic referred to only as “LY”. As mentioned above, I’ve reached out to Prevail for some more information on this, but so far don’t have much of anything to tell you about it.

A less significant change would be moving from a “milky” plastic look to a clear one for the Nylon housing.

More crystal-y than milky, really.

Alright! It’s time to evaluate these sparkly switches.

Aesthetics:

Whether you caught the IC two years ago or you just happened to see these on Prevail’s website yesterday, the most immediately noticeable thing about these switches is their appearance. While sparkly switches aren’t exactly unheard-of these days, they’re still pretty uncommon – and barely existed at all two years ago. To this day, I’m pretty sure this is the only switch with this particular look: clear purple housing with embedded glitter and an off-white stem.

What an opportune time to have a huge coffee-table book about space

In a sea of many, many MX-compatible switches, these manage to stand-out as visually novel – and I think the aesthetic theme is well-executed. Aside from being unusual, I also think they’re striking and pretty. I’m biased, being a huge fan of purple, but I love the color and finish. IMHO, these are some of the nicest-to-look-at switches in my ever-growing collection.

Subjective to personal opinion as it may be, I’d rate the aesthetics of this switch a solid A. They’re fun to look at and at least for now, very distinctive in appearance.

Sound:

If you’ve heard long-pole linears before, these won’t be unfamiliar. In the realm of clacky switches, I would say these are on the mild end when it comes to sound – they’re clacky, not harsh.

For the most part sound is a subjective thing like other aesthetic aspects, but there are some things I focus on when it comes to gauging quality – or at least when it comes to what I enjoy. I like my sounds clean and deliberate. Loud, quiet, sharp, deep – as long as it’s clean. For me, “clean” means an absence of un-intended sound, or sound that in some way signals compromise. Rattle. Tick. Creak. Chatter. Ping! More rattle…

Another photo in low, warm light – helps to illustrate the stem’s not-quite-white-ness.

So are the Nebulae *clean?* Mmmmm they’re alright. The friction surfaces are all more quiet than average – just about silent – but those springs are a little chattery, wiggling around in there like miniature Slinkies. This is something I’ve seen happen *especially* with springs that have tighter coil sections like progressive springs tend to. These have a long section of wide coils that make up most of the travel feel, but they also have a section of much tighter coiling at one end. That part compresses first; other things being equal, the more shallow the angle, the less resistance offered by the coil. The *down-side* of that is those close-together bits of wire are *way* more likely to smack into each-other and make all kinds of messy vibrations than far-apart coils.

Ah, but nothing a little donut-dip in grease or spin in the oil tub can’t fix. So – if you’re liking everything else about this switch, the slinky-springs don’t need to be a deal-breaker. When it comes to my nebulous, arbitrary, mood-dependent scoring system, however, I’ll mainly be focusing on the stock performance. That in mind, I’d give the stock sound experience of the Nebula switches a whelming, fair, and acceptable B-.

Feel:

When discussing the feel of switches, I’ll be breaking that factor down further into Smoothness, Stability, and Weighting.

Time for another photo! Here you can see the contact leaf through the glittery housing.

Feel – Smoothness:

When it comes to actually using these switches, the first thing you’re likely to notice about these is that they’re very smooth right from the bag. Even since 2020 this has become a much less rare thing, especially considering this is a JWK-produced switch – but it’s no less important of a factor when it comes to evaluation, and the Nebula switches have it.

Specifically:

There is very little *if any* perceivable grain in the travel
The only resistance you feel when typing is from the spring; no binding, no slip-stick, not overly tight
The feel is consistent throughout travel as well as between switches

Considering only the smoothness aspect of feel, the Nebula switches earn an easy A.

Feel – Stability:

I’ll be breaking this down into a few related factors that come together to give the overall impression of stability in a given switch; resting wobble, bottom wobble, travel stability, and housing fitment. While the last one plays-into and affects the other three, it isn’t the only factor in them, so I kept it as its own point of analysis.

Resting position wobble:

This is how much play exists between the stem and housing when the switch is topped-out, or in its base “off” position – the state it’s in when just sitting on its own, not being pressed-down. This is what most people are referring to when they talk about “wobble”, but I like to distinguish it from some other types.

In the case of the Nebula switches, resting wobble seems pretty average, if perhaps a bit more. When it comes to this factor, they don’t really stand out either way. I’d give them a B- for resting wobble.

Just so there’s a little more color variety going on here

Bottom position wobble:

This is how much play a stem has within a housing while in the fully-depressed position; when it’s actively being pushed all the way down. In most switches, this is a factor that isn’t often given much attention – but in “long-pole” or otherwise short travel linears like this one, I’ve seen at least a few people cite it as a high-priority data-point. This makes sense, as long-pole switches *generally* have significantly more bottom-wobble than more traditional designs.

Today’s switches are no exception: the bottom-wobble is real. In context of other long-poles, this one doesn’t stand out as being noticeably worse or better – but in a more general context, it’s definitely noticeable when compared to the broader pool of MX-compatible switches.

This is pretty much par for the course when it comes to long-poles and is to be expected; those in the category that *don’t* suffer from this are vanishingly-small in number. For bottom-wobble (and considering its type), I’d give these a dead-average C.

Travel Stability:

At least until I get some measuring equipment, this is a bit more of a subjective factor – but still one I think is very worth discussing when it comes to the feel of a given switch. One might be rock-solid at the top and bottom, but if it feels wiggly all the way down, I’m not going to call it “stable”. When trying to pin this down for yourself, it might help to think of it this way: “when I push this switch down, does the key stay level as if on a flat platform, or does it teeter and wobble as if balancing on a point?”

The last two factors are important to me, but this one nearly eclipses them both when it comes to my personal priorities. If a switch feels “on rails” as it is moving up and down, that makes a very positive impression on me when it comes to perceived quality. So – how are the Nebulae?

Meh? They’re not bad – but they’re not good, either. This may be the Nebula’s weakest performance factor; I’d give them a resoundingly-bleh C- for travel stability.

Housing Fitment:

Not a whole lot to say here – it’s good. So far, none that I’ve opened seem like they need films afterwards, though I’ve heard you can fit especially thin ones in there if you really want to. Another easy A here.

The housings have a good fit. And sparkles.

Cap Fitment:

While not necessarily always a stability factor, this seemed like the most sensible place to talk about the fit between stem and keycap. When excessively loose, this can have a negative impact on the stability and cleanliness of sound and feel. When excessively tight, this can make the switch difficult or impossible to use – and can even damage or destroy keycap stems.

The Nebula’s “LY” stems don’t grip caps as well as the average POM one, but they also do better than plenty of UHMWPE stems. When using a GMK cap, for example, the fitment seems pretty normal – but with one of my PBT sets, it’s noticeably easier than average to install and remove caps from the stems.

A look at the LY stem and its tapered long pole; overall length appears to be about 13.5mm.

They aren’t so loose that I’d consider it a problem, and I don’t expect any but the most loose of caps to have any trouble staying on and in-position, but I still thought it worth mentioning that these have a less-tight-than-average grip with cap stems. When it comes to cap fitment, I’d give the Nebula switches a roughly-average C. (It might actually be a little more loose than average, but since I didn’t observe any actual issues with any caps I tried on them, I see no reason to rate this any lower.)

All of that considered, I’d give the Nebula switches a flat C when it comes to overall stability.

Feel – Weighting:

So, how does that weird-looking spring feel?

The spring, as seen through the transparent housing

I’d say I get the most out of them with a medium-light typing style. They’ll tolerate slammy-whammy typing just fine, but their nuance comes out somewhere between that and twinkle-toeing your way along the keys – and you’ll get less slinky-chatter that way, too.

Now – I don’t have a force-curve-graph device – yet – but I’ll do my best to describe my subjective experience of these.

Over well before actuation happens, the first tiny bit of travel is like a light, gentle pillow. Behind that, it feels like a slow-curve linear the rest of the way down to me, perhaps with a mild ramping-up more towards the bottom. On the way back up, that mostly-slow-curve linear action gives you a nice, lively alley-oop – but instead of a follow-through that smacks the stem into a wall, it mellows to the gentle shove of an ice curling champion right at the end.

Easy does it…

Colorful hyperbole aside, the spring manages to impart something of a “bouncy” feel without an aggressive fast curve. Slightly more marshmallow-y than Marshmallows? Maybe. Look, using words to describe springs is hard ok

Is it going to blow your mind with its novel force-curve? No. Is it pleasant to use and a bit more interesting than yellows / reds / blacks? Yes. It’s also more smooth than most chromonymous switches, too. Yes, I just made that word up – but hey, that’s language for ya

When it comes to the spring feel, I think Nebulae get an A, eh? Ay!

Reliability & Caveats:

This is a section where I talk about functional reliability, and consolidate any other caveats that may have come up in any other sections into a list of suggestions for potential improvement.

Functional Reliability:

When it comes to functional reliability, there’s only a few things that can go wrong – and generally speaking, you’re looking at either occasional missed inputs or occasional unintended repeat inputs, also called “chatter”. Other potential caveats may include manufacturing inconsistencies, material durability issues, or significant fitment problems. So – how reliable are the Nebula switches?

Reasonably – but not completely.

*Every now and then* – just often enough to stop questioning if it’s a fluke – the Nebulae will chatter. That is, on rare occasions, pressing a key once will send the signal twice – and you’ll end up with an extra letter or number on-screen. This is rare enough that I don’t count it as a significant detractor – but just frequent enough that I feel ignoring it would be disingenuous.

Said another way, I’ve been using these switches every day for a few weeks, often for many hours each day. During that time, I think the most I’ve seen chatter in a single day is three instances. Some days I don’t see any at all. Most I’ll see one or two. I’d call these reasonably reliable – but if reliable function is critical, I’d look elsewhere. I’d give Nebulae the subjective score of B- when it comes to functional reliability.

Low-light photo with the switch sitting on NovelKeys’ PBT Taro

Other Caveats:

When it comes to detractors for this switch, they’re pretty much all centered around the stem and housing having fairly loose tolerance with each-other, and around the noisy spring. (To JWK’s credit: In my experience, tuning audible noise out of progressive springs is a bit more challenging than with standard ones.)

So, a list of caveats for this switch would be:

Less than perfect functional reliability: some electrical chatter —> extra inputs
Not all that stable
Sound isn’t clean
Might be a little loose depending on your caps

Suggestions for improvement:

Were I to be in charge of a round two for these switches here’s what I would set out to change:

Inspect closely the operation of the contacts and see if anything can be done about the occasional electrical chatter
Adjust the new stem mold to produce an ever-so-slightly larger stem
If at all practical, include a process in the factory lubrication that involves the spring; both ends dipped in grease or the whole thing soaked in oil – either should take the edge off of these talkative springs

When it comes to overall caveats, how do these measure up? I’d give Nebulae a solid B when it comes to necessary compromise.

Value:

Here’s where it all comes together. We know what the switch is about and how successful it is in reaching its stated goals – but how much does it cost, and is it worth it?

Coming in at ten cents under the target price settled-on at the end of the IC, Prevail Nebulae come in at a very reasonable ~$0.65 per switch. This puts them on the high side of average, and for a switch that performs as well as this one does right from the bag, I think it’s spot-on. At least on Prevail’s website, Nebula switches are offered in packs of 70, 90, and 110 – not the packs-of-ten they’d originally planned on, but a reasonable enough breakdown.

A nice look at the “Prevail” badge.

Cleanliness of sound and degree of wobble are the only real weaknesses here IMO, and they aren’t too bad in that regard – just not impressive like their Epsilon siblings. So, while these may not be quite the “must have” I consider those to be, I don’t have any misgivings about calling Nebula switches a solid value.

If stability or stock cleanliness is a high priority for you, I don’t think these will satisfy – but if you hold smoothness or a nuanced spring character above those, I recommend including Prevail Nebulae among your considerations. They are unfalteringly smooth, pleasantly clacky, and offer a haptic experience a bit more nuanced than the average bear (or Panda, or Alpaca…) – When it comes to overall value, I’m happy to award Prevail Nebula switches a healthy A-.

Quick subjective score recap:

Aesthetics: A
Sound: B-
Smoothness: A
Overall Stability: C
Housing Fitment: A
Cap Fitment: C
Spring Feel: A
Reliability: B-
Compromise: B
Value: A-

Overall subjective score: B+

While I wasn’t as impressed with these as I was with Epsilons, hey – those are a hard act to follow. None the less, these Nebulae have their own nuanced experience to offer, and I’d recommend them for folks who want to see what the progressive business is about. If you’re looking to treat your fingers with some soft, spacey clacks, well – you could do a whole lot worse than these – and there’s really nothing else out there right now that looks quite like them.

Alright! That’s all I have to say about Prevail’s Nebula switch for today – thanks so much for reading, and have a good one.

Keys•Reviews

NK_ Cherry Charcoal

Introduction:

Hello my friends, today we’ll be taking a look at NovelKeys’ “Cherry Charcoal” dye-sublimated PBT keycap set. This is an un-sponsored review; I bought the set for myself and just wanted to share my thoughts.

An image of Cherry Charcoal from its sales page on NovelKeys’ website

As the name implies, this keyset is sculpted in Cherry profile. Said another way, these will be pretty much the same shape as GMK keycaps – just made of a different material and colored using a different method. If you’ve never used Cherry profile before, chances are it will still be pretty familiar to you – the shape is a lot like the standard one found on just about any and all keyboards from the 90’s and early 2000’s – just a little less tall and wide.

Kit Coverage:

Starting with one of the most objective things about the set, let’s talk coverage. Like NovelKeys’ other house PBT sets, this one only has one main kit, and it comes with 180 keycaps. This should cover most layouts, including Alice / Arisu boards thanks to an extra “B” key. In addition to the wide coverage, the kit also comes with accent keys in three different colors in addition to the base-colored ones. These sets have unusually generous coverage by any standard, and I think it’s great everything comes in one kit.

Here are the images from NovelKeys’ sales page:

All the reverse dye-sub keys in the kit

Included dye-sub accent keys

Packaging:

Well above-average in quality in the world of keysets. I’ll put it this way – you’d have to spend more than twice as much to expect better packaging with your caps.

The box, peeking out from behind some switch jars and a pack of Gaterons.

We’ve got a black cardboard box with a printed paperboard sleeve featuring themed branding for the set. Inside the box are four layers of plastic trays, each sandwiched between layers of black filter foam. I’d call it a decent balance between space-saving and protection, leaning more towards protection. Presentation is also nice. I mean, hey – overall this is better packaging in almost every conceivable way than you’ll get from either of the two top-shelf manufacturers GMK & Signature Plastics.

Material Quality:

Sets sold as “PBT” come in a variety of blends, composites, and qualities. Many pure sets feel extra dry, almost bony – while some blended sets feel more or less like ABS down to their tendency to shine after a while. For me, these hit the sweet spot: between the feel of desert-dry bone and amorphous plastic is the feel of time-worn stone, and that’s the feel the surface of these caps has. More dry feeling than ABS, but not so dry as bleached bone. Texture is on the fine side of normal for PBT; the grain is fairly small and it’s not rough. Enough to feel but not enough to get caught on.

Charcoal on a black KBD67 Lite

The caps have an ample thickness; an average of 1.4mm according to my calipers. Like many other aspects of these sets, I’d call the amount of material on-offer here well balanced. Plenty to give the impression of quality, but not so much that anything else is sacrificed for it (like straightness or compatibility, for example).

Like pretty much any pure PBT set, these are shine-free and should stay that way for a very long time. I’m talking about those glossy spots that form over time from wear and finger oils; the caps do have a base level of shininess like most plastics, as you can see above.

I type a lot, to the point where I gloss-up a GMK space bar within the first day. After nearly a month of use, this NK_ set doesn’t have any more shine than it did in the box. I’ve been using another of NK’s PBT sets, Taro, as my daily driver and switch testing set for about three times as long, and it still looks brand new. These sets do a fantastic job of bridging the gap between aesthetic quality and workhorse durability.

Molding Quality:

When it comes to PBT, I think this is the make-or-break quality point. Excelling here stands-out, and failing here places a set in one of the lowest rungs: warped and useless. PBT is notoriously difficult to mold accurately and reliably when compared with something like ABS, and countless manufacturers have failed in valiant attempts at making straight space bars from the material. In days past, manufacturers just considered the feat impractical enough so as not to be worth trying – this is why so many vintage keyboards have pristine keys but a yellow space bar – PBT doesn’t yellow, but ABS does. Thanks to consistent demand from the custom community, modern manufacturers have kept trying, and at least a few have nearly mastered it – at very least to the point of being competitive with the average ABS bar. So where do these sets stack up?

The underside; here you can see the sprue mark, stem, support ribs, and penetration of the black dye into the already-dyed-grey plastic.

An extra-close look at the tooling marks.

Well – I’m happy to report that the molding quality on NovelKeys’ latest PBT sets is excellent. Sprue marks are on the bottom-inside rather than any of the outer surfaces – always a plus. Cap walls are nice and flat where they should be. The space bar is flat! Stems are straight and do a good job gripping switch stems – at least most of them. Depending on the brand of stabilizers you are using, the space bar may not grip the stems well enough to stay seated; for example, they lose grip on the C3 Equalz V2 stabs on my Portico – much like Infinikey (IFK) sets, but they seat onto Owlstabs just fine. If you have stabs with small-ish stems, fear not! There is a safe solution:

This stuff! Photo from ThockPop, who sells it in a convenient size.

PTFE (Teflon) thread tape – the stuff that probably came with your last shower head. Alongside OKLB’s compatibility washers, I consider this stuff absolutely essential to keep on-hand for any keyboard enthusiast. I also consider it to be the only material safe to use for shimming keycap stems – even plastic wrap can break them, but PTFE tape just mushes out of the way when it has to. Between two and four layers pressed onto the stem is enough to make the space bar work exactly as intended on the C3 Equalz V2 stabs.

Printing Quality:

Another hallmark of PBT keycap set quality is printing clarity and alignment. Dye-sublimation will never be as crisp, clean, and consistently accurate as double-shot molding, but the closer it gets, the better. Cheap or poorly-executed dye-sub legends tend to be blurry, muted, crooked, and off-center – and sets like that are a dime a dozen.

This set relies on a technique called “reverse” dye-sub, where the legend color is actually the main color of the plastic, and the background color of the cap is actually the sublimated dye. Any dye-sub set with legends a lighter color than the background must be done this way because dye-sublimation can only darken a material, never lighten it. For the most part, this just meant that nobody even bothered trying to make dye-sub sets with lighter legends than backgrounds – but eventually the custom community pushed this innovation into viability.

A close look at one of the keys to show the legend clarity

The last time NovelKeys tried doing a house PBT set, they chose a manufacturer that uses a double-shot injection technique – unfortunately for them, this manufacturer cut some corners and sacrificed fully-functional stems for super-crisp legends. It takes carefully-developed tooling to reliably produce a double-shot PBT set, and this company made a fatal compromise that resulted in multiple stems being unable to hold the caps on straight. NovelKeys quietly sold out of those and never spoke of them again, and I don’t blame them.

So – how did these turn out?

Great!

While not the very most crisp I’ve ever seen in the medium, the edge clarity of the printing on these keys is quite good. Above average, at least – especially for reverse dye-sub. Alignment is very good – no registration issues of any kind have stood out to me as I’ve been using the set for the past few weeks.

Color:

The main color is a nice, rich black – both in the common use of the phrase and the printing-industry specific one. That is, the black dye has color in it, giving it a deeper appearance and in this case giving it a “cool” (as in color temperature) quality. Depending on the lighting conditions, this keyset either looks a neutral jet black or a slate blue-black.

Our example key shown in different lighting conditions to illustrate how this can change perceived color.

For most of the keys in this set, the base color of the PBT plastic is a cool, “battleship” middle-grey, and the sublimated dye is a cool slate-black. There are also three sets of accent keys; one set with the same color plastic but normally dyed instead of reverse – that is, black legends on the grey background. Another accent set is ivory-white with black legends, and the last set is a very warm light ash-grey that’s between the ivory and battleship in terms of shade, but markedly warmer than any other greys in the set.

Seen here, the four colors available in the set. The darkest is reverse dye-sub, the rest have the legends sublimated.

Caveats:

This is a section where I’d normally consolidate all the nit-picks I’ve had throughout a review and assemble them into a succinct package of suggestions for the retailer and/or manufacturer – but in this case I really only have the one: the space bar stems don’t grip some brands of stabilizer stems very well. This is pretty common with PBT sets in general, and something I’ve seen consistently with brands like IFK (which has also made me wonder if they’re the manufacturer for this set), and thankfully it’s pretty minor here and completely addressable with just a smidge of non-adhesive PTFE tape.

Value:

Here’s where it all comes together. By now you’ll probably know how good the set is and if you want it – time to figure out if its worth the price. How much are these, anyway?

$95 in-stock.

Considering the coverage, quality, and performance of this set, I think that’s a spot-on retail price.

With cheap PBT sets, you’re always getting into a gamble: Is the printing good? Is the space bar warped? Are the stems straight? Does the set support my non-standard layout? With these, you know what you’re getting: full-coverage, clear printing, good color, and controlled quality.

I really can’t think of a keycap line I’d sooner recommend for daily driver sets: these have all the durability I’d want from a work-horse but also much of the aesthetic flair I’d look for in a luxury or premium set. I think right now, NovelKeys’ PBT sets are as close as one could possibly get to having truly the best of both worlds. All that in mind, I consider $95 to be a solidly fair price – and at that price, I consider NovelKeys’ PBT Cherry profile sets like this one to be an excellent value.

First Impressions•Keyboards•Reviews•Who Is This For?

WiTF #2 • CIY GAS67

Who is This For ep. 2 • CIY GAS67 • First Impressions Review

Introduction:

Hello and welcome to the second entry in my WiTF review series, where I focus on the question, “Who is This For?”

I include reviews in this series if I feel there’s something about the product that places it firmly in one demographic category or another – or if there’s something about the product that defies being categorized demographically. Cases where one market may see a decision as strange while another may appreciate the choice.

We have one such product on our hands today, and I intend to explore where it fits into the greater keeb-verse as well as relate my first impressions of real-world use. This is not a sponsored review; I was just curious and bought a GAS67 for the purpose of writing one. Let’s get right into it!

Promotional image for the GAS67 from banggood

Today we’ll be taking a look at the CIY GAS67; a budget bare-bones kit featuring a gasket mounting system.

That’s right, folks – gasket mounting has officially landed in the budget sector. Have the benefits of this innovation truly trickled down to modestly-priced keyboards? Is the middle market dead? Are customs redundant!? Hyperbolic attention-hooks aside, let’s find out.

RGB go brrrrr

TL;DR bullet-points:

· Very hard to beat for the price
· Only complaint is no metal inserts for the case screws
· Otherwise a fantastic kit

Other points of interest:

· This keeb has a daughter board for the USBC; killer inclusion at this price
· The build is solder-free and tools are included
· Plate is CNC cut from a sheet
· There are no standoffs in this build
· The dampening works, and there’s even some deck flex
· The bottom “badge” is actually a solid aluminum wedge …neat

The bottom “badge”

I wouldn’t call it a “weight” per-se, but it is a solid wedge of aluminum.

Context:

Without a doubt, the most special thing about this kit is the fact that it features gasket mounting at such a low price. Plenty of you are likely already familiar with what that means, but if not, here’s a brief primer:

“Gasket mounting” is an umbrella term referring to a variety of construction styles that share a specific feature; namely that the functional part of the keyboard is in some way isolated from the case by some kind of dampening material – the “gasket”. From there, you’ll find a large variety of executions with this concept – but what they all have in common is an elimination of hot-spots that would otherwise be caused by a traditional standoff mounting system. Most of them also soften high-frequency vibrations, and some of them also introduce flex and/or bounce into the typing experience.

Sometimes this comes in the form of a big rubber band that wraps around the assembly. Sometimes it’s adhesive pads in the case or on the plate. Sometimes it’s rubber or silicone inserts. In any case, these various permutations of “gasket mounting” all act to improve the consistency, sound, and feel of a given keyboard.

When first introduced, gasket mounting was exclusively found in the realm of high-end, bespoke custom keyboards. We’re talking engineers designing their own luxury products for themselves at a professional level and getting like-minded folks to buy-in on a production run – but these also acted as proofs-of-concept for other boards to follow:

The whole landscape of expectation shifted with the release of the KBD67 Lite – at the time, this was the first “gasket mount” keyboard available for the masses – though even at that it’s still mostly sold through group-buy pre-orders. This kit generally goes for around $110 bare-bones, and when it released that was the least expensive gasket option by a very wide margin. It simultaneously elevated and expanded the middle-market.

An over-exposed shot of my KBD67L at work

Fast-forward a few years and the 67L has plenty of peers, but nothing that undercuts it significantly in terms of making gasket mounting more accessible or budget friendly. That is, not until now.

Another promo image from banggood, showing the structure of the keyboard – complete with gaskets.

The Kit:

The box and everything in it.

This is a 67-key layout with a fairly traditional configuration as far as those go.

With switches and a pretty standard set of caps, the fully-assembled board weighs 608g / 1.34 lbs.

In the box, the first thing you’ll see are the blister packs containing the stabilizer parts. They’re pretty decent ones, too.

Opening the box

Below that you’ll see the rest of the parts; case, plate, PCB, hardware, pads, switch & cap puller, and of course the cable. There is software available for the PCB [ here ]; covered in more detail below.

The Cable:

The cable is pretty typical of what you’d get in one of those middle-market kits, and honestly it’s a bit nicer than at least a few of them. Considering this kit is between $40 and $60 cheaper than those, I’d say that’s a notable inclusion.

A fully-assembled GAS67 with its included stock cable. It plugs into a center-mounted USBC daughter board.

It’s got a braided sleeve and is on the firm side. It has a nice, even coil and gold-colored connectors. As pack-in cables go, this really is one of the better ones, and frankly better than this kit needed to come with; I wouldn’t change a thing about it.

The PCB:

Nothing super fancy, but it’s no slouch. We’ve got RGB LEDs for each key as well as hot-swap sockets, which I believe are CIY’s own but patterned after Kailh or Gateron ones. There are holes to accommodate fixing pins for “5-pin” switches. The LEDs are oriented North of the contacts; more on that later. There are also holes for stabilizers – that’s right – a cheap kit with PCB-mount stabs, and they don’t even suck. They’re not perfect, though – more on that later. There’s also a physical toggle switch positioned between the arrow cluster and right CTRL key.

A look at the PCB, where you can see the toggle switch and shiny stab dampening stickers.

The most notable thing about this PCB, especially at this price point, is the fact that I/O is handled through a daughter board. Probably not that expensive to execute given how many pre-builts rely on it, but for whatever reason this feature has been notably absent on almost every budget and middle-market kit, despite being objectively better for gasket-mount boards, or any board with a somewhat mobile assembly. We’ve got it here, though – and that’s a very welcome feature.

The Stabs:

As far as I can tell, these are CIY’s own screw-in PCB-mount stabilizers. They’re shaped pretty similarly to KBDfans’ polycarb ones, but I believe these are POM. They also don’t have metal inserts, more like GMK screw-ins. They’re made without the dampening legs that most prefer to clip-off anyway.

A close look at the stabs installed in a complete build. They almost match the FLCMMK Ice Mint stems – almost.

They’re a baby-blue color with a glossy finish and generally seem well-made. I lubed them with a mix of 205g0 and 206g2, and I don’t have a complaint about them.

The Case:

Pretty simple sandwich style design; the top and bottom halves carry the gasket pads, and those hold onto tabs on the sides of the plate. The case is available in three colors; bluish-green, light-purple, and smoky grey. All three are translucent. I think the plastic quality is surprisingly high for being a budget kit – not bad at all.

Case, foam, silicone, adhesive bits, hardware, manual.

My one and only real complaint about this case is also my one and only real complaint about the entire kit: the case is held together with screws, and those wood-style screws carve their own threads into plastic holes. With no metal inserts, those threads will get chewed-up with repeated use, which is not great for a keyboard that’s otherwise supposed to be “hot-swap”. More on this later.

The case features areas to place the gaskets, as well as a slider built into the blocker that meshes with the toggle switch on the PCB. There are a pair of guide posts that the plate slots onto, one on each side.

The Gaskets:

I don’t know if these would technically qualify as “gaskets” or not in the traditional engineering sense, but in terms of our use-case here, that’s the function served by these little pads.

Gaskets on the clear sheet. Stab stickers on the white shiny one. Case screws in the red bag, stab screws in the blue one.

Nothing fancy but they do the job: simple Poron foam rectangles with adhesive on one side. Simply install them into the similarly-shaped slots in the case and you’re good to go.

Other Goodies:

Also included is a thin layer of dense foam for the PCB, and some minimal dampening stickers for the stabs. They’re shiny!

Here you can see the PCB foam, toggle switch, and shiny stab stickers.

The Plate:

This right here is the star of the show, isn’t it? Very simple when it comes to material and manufacture, but the design is refreshingly thoughtful. In general that’s something I think this kit does really well: making excellent economic use of material and design to perform otherwise high-end functions with modest materials and manufacturing methods.

Plate in the middle; top shell above, gaskets and stickers below.

What we have here is a simple sheet of plastic cut with a CNC router – just like the KBD67L had in its first run. Unlike that plate, however, this one has a smooth surface and is made of a milky polycarbonate, which makes it perfect for diffusing RGB light.

The eight winglets sticking out around the periphery are the mounting tabs; these are what interact with the gaskets and generally what supports the internals of the keyboard. The flexibility of the plate material as well as the flexibility imparted by the shape and size of these tabs play into the final product of typing quality. In this case, we have plenty of dampening, a little bounce, and even some deck flex despite the absence of any flex cuts on the PCB or plate interior:

Lastly – this build features zero standoffs – this means that the PCB is held by the switches, themselves being held by the plate. This may add a tiny bit of complication to installing or changing switches, but I actually prefer this execution to using standoffs to hold the “sandwich” together. Even though they’re not nearly as bad as support standoffs, sandwich standoffs can still create their own hot-spots, and aren’t strictly necessary. I think electing to skip them here was a good call; both for the lower cost and for the quality of end-user experience.

A shot of the full “sandwich”, featuring the blocker toggle switch.

Assembly:

As mentioned before, this is a kit – that means it’s a collection of parts you get to assemble yourself! As far as keyboard kits go, this one is fun and easy – I’d definitely consider this one beginner friendly. One tool is required, and it comes in the box.

First thing’s first, tune and assemble your stabs. I won’t go over that here, but if you aren’t familiar with the process here’s a fantastic guide. With the stabilizers tuned and assembled, install them into the PCB using the included screws (blue bag).

These 4mm led clutch pencils are pretty helpful with stabs.

Now – here’s where the one obvious weakness of these becomes apparent: the clip side is quite loose with this PCB. Still, I do think that’s preferable to being too tight – you can add shims if you really want to, but since these are screw-in, I don’t think it’s necessary. Just be mindful the housings can twist a little bit because of the play on the clip side.

Installing the gasket pads; these are the short ones with the alignment post in the middle.

Adding the rubber to the flip-out feet.

Now add the adhesive Poron pads into their slots on the case; the smaller ones go on the short sides, with the guide posts in between them. All the other ones are the same size. The tallest two rubber pads go on the included plastic flip-out feet; just match the angle in terms of orientation and you should have an easy time. The other four black rubber pads go on the bottom case, in the similarly shaped recessed areas at the four corners. Pop the flip-out feet into their respective recesses on the case, and flip it back over.

The flip-out foot in-place.

Place the silicone dampeners on top of the PCB, and then the plate on top of that. The holes should line up with the sockets, so let that be your guide for orientation. The silicone has one big part and one small part; the small one goes on the outer side of the space bar area. Holding the “sandwich” together, begin to snap the switches into place, starting at the outer corners.

When installing switches, first make sure the pins are straight, and gently line them up with the sockets. Supporting the socket from the other side, push the switch into the socket – you’ll likely hear and feel a click from the clips grasping the plate.

Another angle of the assembled “sandwich” – complete with FLCMMK Ice Mint switches made by Kailh. You can also see here the baby-blue stabs that come with the kit.

Once all the switches are installed, place the sandwich assembly near the bottom case, and carefully connect the cable from the daughter board to the PCB. With this connected, place the sandwich atop the pads, with the guide-post on each side interacting with the associated slots in the plate.

Daughter board connection

Alignment post

Next, place the top shell, taking care that the toggle switch slots-into the slider built into the blocker. Flip the keyboard over, and install the case screws (red bag), starting with one corner and alternating opposite remaining corners. Tighten these screws gently, as they cut their own threads into bare plastic and can easily strip those threads out.

Case, screws.

That’s it! Install some keycaps, plug it in, and start enjoying your keyboard.

Fully-built CIY GAS67 with pudding caps

Features & Performance:

Alright – now we can get into what this keyboard can do and what it’s like to use.

As mentioned before, this is a 67-key layout in a fairly standard configuration by default. The biggest variable with these tends to be the right column, and in this case it starts from the top with Tilde, Delete, Page Up, and Page Down. These can be re-defined through the available software, which you can download [ here ].

There is a toggle-switch situated in the blocker to the left of the arrow cluster, and this switch changes the Windows / Command key into a second FN (function layer) key. This acts as a “gamer mode” since striking the key accidentally while in this mode won’t call-up the start menu and tab-out of your game – though it does still have a function in combination with other keys, which is pretty neat.

A right-side view that shows the toggle-blocker.

We’ve got a USBC connection on the aforementioned daughter board, which powers some respectably-bright RGB lights. RGB lights positioned to fire straight into shine-through legends. I *know* – trust me – we’re getting there. The PCB accommodates (but of course does not require) 5-pin switches, which is always nice.

There’s the aforementioned function layer, accessible through the FN key(s). This layer gives the user access to all the keys otherwise not included in the layout, and also controls some on-board functions such as all the RGB options as well as toggling a full key-lock. Here’s the default keymap, including the function layer:

Image from banggood

Speaking of RGB, it’s nice and bright here. It diffuses well through the frosty / milky polycarb plate, (and the milky POM switches and pudding caps I have installed). It has a typical handful of modes and four brightness settings.

Aesthetics:

It’s nothing fancy, and I’m not particularly a fan of the stepped-bevel on the top shell, but I also have no real complaints about the look of this keyboard. It’s simple and minimal, and I think the toggle-switch placement is actually pretty clever and works well with the intention of the keyboard. ~more on that laterrr~

The three currently available colors; image from banggood

The frosty translucent case lets some light through, but the black version I have more or less looks solid at first glance. The bezel is a little chunky compared to your typical minimal design, but it’s not super thick. When looking from above, the thickness it does have is uniform on the front and sides with a little more at the back. Looking at the side, there’s a slight wedge shape to the case. Typing angle is adjustable with the flip-out feet, which have a nice snap-action.

A view from the side; note the slight wedge shape, moderately chunky bezel, and extended flip-out feet.

Functionality:

It works, no complaints. It’s a wired keyboard with RGB, and I haven’t observed any reliability issues. I’ve tested it with one set of switches so far, and haven’t gotten into the software yet – this first impressions review will get an update that includes more information on the software among other aspects of living with the keyboard.

The RGB is pretty darn bright. Seen here glowing its way through a bunch of milky plastic.

Sound:

This is going to depend heavily on the switches and caps installed and I’ve so far only tried one set each with this board, but I can tell you that the plate material, mounting style, and dampening elements do their job when it comes to consistency across the rows and mitigating harsh vibrations.

The all-POM switches and half-POM caps I’m using are on the high-pitched side themselves so it’s hard for me to comment so far on how the chassis affects that; the caps aren’t new to me but the switches are. All that considered I’d say it’s a fairly typical timbre that’s also consistent and relatively free of harshness.

Another look at the all-POM switches I’m using today; Kailh FLCMMK Ice Mints. Smooth, stable, and clacky.

I think they really do match the plate quite well.

Feel:

If the mounting style & plate are the selling points of this keyboard, this is where it really has to perform beyond the aforementioned consistency and cleanliness in sound. This is the make or break performance point for this build – so does it bring home the bacon or swing and miss?

Well, I think it’s pretty good!

After a week or so of being positively spoiled by the Portico68 Black Label, a keyboard that costs around 5x what this one does if we’re comparing the barebones kits, I’m impressed with how well this budget keeb stacks up when it comes to feel. (I don’t think it can compete as much with sound, but at this price point it’s impressive how much it does.)

Specifically: the mounting has been executed successfully.

The polycarb plate does its job, and so does the gasket mounting. Impacts are dampened, and have a slight bouncy reverb to them. As mentioned before there’s a bit of deck flex; maybe not a ton but hey, more than any version of the KBD67 or Portico! The gaskets aren’t the fanciest or most nuanced – but they do work, and that’s pretty awesome.

Value:

That’s right, folks – it’s legit.

You can get a gasket-mounted keyboard for less than a hundo all-in. Price ranges from a little over $50 to around $70 with some people trying to hawk them for just under $100 on ebay. At $70 this is the least expensive competently-executed gasket keeb kit I know of (at time of writing, of course), and represents a major shift foward in the budget landscape. At $50 it’s a straight game-changer, no less than the KBD67L before it.

I’ve haven’t had a ton of time with it yet, but I don’t have any trouble telling my fine readers that I think this kit is a great value in general. If you’re still considering whether or not the kit is right for your use-case, the next section is here to help you off the fence into the greener pastures of yay or nay.

Who is This For?

As much as sharing this keeb with folks in general, this question is the biggest reason I wanted to write this review sooner rather than later.

Yep, it’s finally time to talk about the North-facing sockets, and come-around to why this keyboard is included in the WiTF series.

Who is this keyboard for? I think that’s a genuinely important question to ask when assessing its value for an individual buyer. While I think it’s an objectively good deal, generally speaking, it still might not be a good choice depending on what one is looking for; so let’s hone-in on that.

Two things I think make this a gaming-focused keyboard:

1. RGB (and specifically shine-through performance) is prioritized over custom keycap compatibility; this is dialed for pudding and other shine-thru caps, not GMK, and that’s a concious choice with its target market in-mind

2. The dedicated switch sitting in the blocker has one job: turn the Windows key into a second FN key. Like a win-key lock, but with a little more utility. The only user-group in particular I know of that prioritizes disabling the OS key would be keyboard-and-mouse gamers, and this feature is given priority for them.

If you’re looking to dip your toes into the custom keyboard market, this might be one of the cheapest and best for buck options out there right now no matter how you slice it – but I think who this is really for is the gamer who wants to enjoy some of the benefits offered by custom keyboards without sacrificing great RGB.

It’s bright! Here you can see it peeking through the case as well.

I think one reviewer I happen to be a fan of said this keyboard’s “fatal flaw” is that it has North-facing switch sockets (meaning this keyboard won’t play nice with popular expensive keycap brand GMK, whose caps are patterned from Cherry’s original standard). I don’t really think that’s a flaw for this keyboard, as much as I’d personally appreciate GMK compatibility.

As a fairly budget-oriented gaming keyboard, I think North-facing sockets is exactly what it should have.

No – I think this keyboard’s actual “fatal flaw” is that the case has plastic screw-holes and self-threading screws. In one swoop that pretty much kicks this keeb out of what I’d consider the “hot-swap” category and firmly into what I call the “solder-free” category.

The real “fatal flaw” – self-tapping screws and soft plastic holes to thread them in.

That is, this keeb is not suitable for frequent switch swapping – but – you also don’t need a soldering iron to assemble it.

You can change the switches a few times without major consequence – but much more than that and the threads will start to give out. Adding metal inserts here would literally be the only thing I’d change about this board. CIY if you ever see this – revise the case to include those and make that case available as its own product as well, for those of us who already own the GAS67 but want to turn it into a switch testing platform without chewing up the case!

Another side view; here you can appreciate the subtle transparency of the black case.

I think this fact does represent a knock against the keyboard for a potential enthusiast, but for someone who is buying this thing for its function as a solder-free gasket gaming keyboard, I don’t think it’s too much of a problem – especially considering the price. You build it, you use it. Maybe one day you decide you want different switches – no problem, don’t even need a soldering iron and the board comes with the tools to switch them.

If you’re really interested in trying lots of switches, though, this might not be the very best choice owing to those plastic case threads. The sockets will last a lot longer if you support them from below while installing switches – and you can’t do that without opening the case – which you can’t do without putting significant wear on those threads. You can still use this keeb as a switch testing platform, but you’ll either need to really trust yourself with lining up pins or be at peace with the fact that those threads will not go the distance. If you’re planning on testing lots of switches, maybe consider a Portico instead – you’ll get a lot more durability for that particular use-case for your extra money.

The RGB color really is no slouch on this keeb.

So, all that being said, I think the CIY GAS67 is a fantastic option for a gamer that wants a better, more consistent experience than the typical gaming keyboard provides – and at very least a decent and inexpensive option for those wanting to dip their toes into the pool of custom keyboards (or at least some of the features they’re famous for) without committing to a big expenditure up-front. For keyboard customers on a tight (specifically $100 or less) budget that really want to squeeze the most typing quality out of the least money, well, they could do a lot worse than this keyboard – and I think they’d find a challenge in doing better.

Alright! That’s all I have to say about the CIY GAS67 for today. This has been Deadeye Dave – thanks very much for reading, and whatever you’re typing on today, remember to enjoy it!

First Impressions•Keyboards•Reviews

TKC Portico68 Black Label

Introduction:

A few days ago, I visited thekey.company and and saw something neat on their front page – a new, metal Portico. The Portico68 Black Label, apparently – an updated design featuring an aluminum case.

Hey awesome! …it’s still got 67 keys, right? (It does.)

Now I don’t know about you, but the idea of a premium Portico is one I’m very happy to hear about. The KBD67L might still be my favorite “entry” board, but I actually put a lot more mileage on my Portico for a few specific reasons, and as such that keyboard has become my true stand-by daily driver.

That being the case, I was pleased indeed to find out about the metal one being a thing. I followed the link expecting an interest-check, group-buy page, or perhaps pre-order form.

Nope! This thing is in-stock and ready to go.

I bought one for myself because I wanted one, and am writing this to share my first impressions as a customer – this one isn’t sponsored.

A shot from TKC’s website of the four colors available.

Now. Before I go any farther I want to address the innocuous if quirky pink elephant in the room: the name. No, I have no real idea why a 67-key layout with a white label on the bottom is called the “Portico68 Black Label”.

My first guess is intentional dissonance to drive discussion. (If so, success here lol) My second guess is “67 +1”. My third guess is they associate “68” being in the name of many 65% keyboards while somehow missing it refers to the 68-key version of the layout. Naaahhh…

As for “Black Label”, I suppose that’s simply meant to be “fancy” – to communicate a premium, even exclusive identity for the product. There are lots of mildly-curious, head-scratching names in keeb-space, and this is just one more of them. Well. It is a 65%, and it is pretty fancy. Moving on.

Context:

As far as I can tell, this keeb was released with very little fanfare.

It’s at the top of TKC’s homepage as a featured product at the moment, but no special banners, no influencers talking about it all over the place (yet), no ICs on geekhack – just, “oh hey by the way we massively upgraded our really great entry keeb, and oh yeah it’s in stock” – definitely not how I would have expected this keyboard to come on the scene.

Here’s mine. Yes, I got the pink one. Yes, I love it.

I’m wondering if this means they don’t think of it as much of a big deal or big product – or perhaps they intend for the product to speak for and sell itself. I do have to say, the product page is almost NovelKeys-level scant in terms of detail… almost. The linked build guide and FAQ are for the plastic version. Not all the specs are correct (says it comes with felt instead of Poron, for example). BUT – what is clear on the page is this – what we have here is an aluminum take on the Portico, and to me, that’s a tantalizing prospect.

I bought one, I’m using it – now let’s see how it’s living up to my expectations so far.

Unboxing / In the box:

As noted in the sales page, this first run of P68BLs come with a generic hard-shell “gun-style” case rather than a typical keyboard bag. Apparently this was the result of some mix-up in the pipeline, but hey – good on them for finding an alternative solution that gets the job done. It is in fact a hard-shell pistol case, and it holds the keeb just fine. It’s a bit bigger and more chunky than a typical 65% case – but you won’t have to worry about protection.

This is ample but… well… I’m not taking this to work. Or school. Or anywhere I might otherwise take my keeb.

A look on the inside – yep, that’s a gun case, but hey it works. See inside the bonus FR4 plate that comes with the kit. You can even download the plate file on their website if you’d like it in some other material.

The MFR logo of the case is covered with a vinyl sticker indicating the Portico68 Black Label contained within; it looks a little slap-dash since the case logo is embossed, which you can see through the sticker. Gets the job done, though!

Included in the case is the mostly-assembled keyboard with flex-cut polycarbonate plate pre-installed along with some other accessories. There’s an additional FR4 plate, an optional foam/plastic composite layer for the PCB, and a set of C3 Equalz V3 stabs – complete with an accompanying kit of adhesive pads and gaskets for all sorts of modding options.

Another side-by-side comparing the two Porticos. On the left you can see the translucent polycarb case. On the right you can see the flex-cut plate, and the foam layer beneath it.

While it’s normal for a kit of this kind not to come with caps and switches, a cable of any kind is notably absent. I suppose that’s normal enough for keebs getting into the higher end of things, but it stands-out just a little in context of the plastic version including one.

Material Impressions:

On first glance, what we have here is indeed an aluminum take on the classic Portico. It has the same shape and format with a few small but notable changes:

USBC daughter board: this puts the port lower-down and improves the durability and serviceability of the keeb
Gasket placement: aside from being a bit thicker, the gaskets stay with the case instead of the plate this time around
Feet: generic bump-ons replaced with wider silicone bars that perform better
Materials: aluminum case aside, the kit now also comes with a polycarbonate flex-cut plate

Portico siblings. Classic version seen above with PBT Taro from NovelKeys, and the Black Label version with GMK Noire.

The quality of the case looks excellent. The finish is smooth and consistent, and I don’t see any imperfections on it. Only the tapped screw holes on the inside have a little silver showing around them. Just like with the plastic version, the seams face down towards the desk and the halves are joined with standard Philips-head screws.

I know a lot of custom enjoyers out there tend to prefer hex or torx head screws for their metal keebs, but in the case of a hot-swap board like this one, I actually appreciate how quick and easy this one is to get apart. That fact is half of why the original Portico has been and continues to be my test-bed for new switches. Aside from that, it’s stock FR4 plate sits in a happy medium in terms of grip – the NK65EE R1’s plate is too tight – so is the CIY TES68’s. The KBD67L’s stock plate is nice, but is honestly a bit loose for regular switch testing.

The Portico’s is just right. On that note – I do recommend using the FR4 plate if you’re going to be swapping switches regularly – it’s just a bit faster and easier to get the clips engaged compared to the flex-cut (and thusly flexible) poly one.

I put TTC Heart (aka Honey, Love) switches in mine; just seemed thematically appropriate with the case color, but I also really like them as switches.

Between the two versions I’d still say the classic Portico is a little more convenient for regular swapping; no wires connecting the top and bottom, and the brass thread inserts are more smooth to screw in and out of than the tapped holes in the aluminum case. This just means the plastic version is a little faster to dis-assemble and re-assemble, and that it can be done with a little less care – but this aluminum version remains an excellent switch testing platform that’s very easy to break-down and re-assemble.

A closer look at the TTC Heart / Honey / Love switches I installed in today’s keeb. These are fairly light, slow-curve linears with some very unique qualities.

Performance:

Now I’ve only had a few days with this so far, and that’s why this is a First Impressions article rather than a full review – but I do indeed have some of those impressions to share with you today.

While the original Portico feels almost surprisingly light until you put the silicone weight in it, the 68BL is no dainty keeb. The frame is nice and minimal, but the build has enough heft to keep it firmly planted where it’s placed on the desk – it has a solid stance that inspires typing confidence.

So far I’ve only tried the polycarbonate plate with flex-cuts, and I have to say I like it quite a bit. Because of the design there’s not a lot of “flex” per-se – no real trampoline action going on here – however the dampening does its job of absorbing high-frequency vibrations and eliminating hot-spots, while also taking the edge off of any hard bottom-outs. So far I’m finding the typing experience on this keyboard to be very pleasant.

A close look at the finish, and a view of the USBC port.

A note about the RGB: the previous Portico was unfortunately plagued with instability when it came to the RGB behavior, but I’m happy to report having seen no such issues so far with the 68BL. This doesn’t tend to be a big deal for custom keyboard buyers, but it’s nice to know the option is there and fully functional.

The last thing I’ll mention for performance today is sound. While the typing feel is better than I thought it would be, it’s almost eclipsed by how much better the sound is than I was expecting. By that I mean I fully anticipated this keyboard to be firm, harsh, and ping-y… I was impressed to find that it’s none of those things.

Have a listen:

I’m currently using the included foam sheet, which is actually a composite of foam glued to plastic. At first I thought the plastic was backing meant to be taken off, but the glue is pretty strong so it seems the plastic is meant to stay with it. I decided to give it a shot that way. I’m not sure how much of a role it’s playing yet, but the sound I’m getting from this keyboard is delightfully clean and poppy, sounding like a build that might easily cost twice as much. Not bad!

I’m happy with just about every aspect of this keyboard so far, but I think the sound is what impresses me the most. In terms of my own collection over the years, this is the first all-aluminum enclosed keyboard I’ve ever used that isn’t harsh or ping-y – and that counts for a lot in my book. Switching to a heavy metal keeb pretty much always meant sacrificing sound, feel, or both – but not with this one, and that’s awesome.

I think this keyboard is very pretty. I didn’t plan to use Noire with a pink keyboard, but I think it’s quite suitable.

A quick note about software; this keeb is sold as VIA-compatible, but I haven’t yet tested that feature. I can confirm it works on the previous iteration, but since the layout is already how I like it I haven’t had a reason to fiddle with it just yet.

Quick comparisons with peer products:

I see this keyboard’s most direct competitor as the KBD67 v3, and it’s a direct evolution from the classic Portico, so those are the two boards on which I’ll focus comparing with the 68BL.

I’m really quite a fan of both of these.

Compared with the classic Portico it’s obviously more heavy and planted on the desk, and unsurprisingly it feels more solid as a result. Since someone asked: the classic Portico pictured above weighs-in at 709g, while the Black Label next to it weighs 1209g. That makes the Black Label about half a kilogram – or just over a pound heavier.

It should also come as no surprise that the Black Label comes across as more premium with its material and finish. Functionally, I suppose the biggest difference is the addition of the daughter board – this means the cable is sitting lower to the desk, and that any potential servicing of the port will be easier.

Here you can see the rear side profiles, and the differing locations of the USB ports.

Compared with its ostensible rival the KBD67 v3, I think there’s a bigger gulf between these two than between their respective plastic versions. While the 67L and Portico are pretty comparable in terms of quality, features, and price with reasons to choose one or the other coming down to small feature differences, these two metal keebs aren’t quite so similar. With the KBD67 v3, moving over to metal sacrifices the sound the 67L is known for – and it also significantly firms-up the feel. The v3 isn’t a bad keeb by any means – but it does give up just about everything that makes it special for that weight and material.

In my mind, the main reason for getting a metal version of a keeb instead of a plastic one is to have that premium feel and presence on the desk – something about which I think the 67 v3 shoots itself in the foot. All of these keebs are some variation on a sandwich; top and bottom halves holding the rest together.

The 67s have a visible seam in the middle – itself not really a problem or anything – but on the aluminum version especially it comes off looking like an after-thought. It’s not beveled or chamfered like other edges, and the faces don’t meet up exactly – nor do the faces often reflect the same color at the same time, making the separate nature of the halves all the more evident. It’s the only kinda derpy looking thing on an otherwise very well-resolved design – kind of a non-issue for me on the plastic one – but on the metal version, I think it stands out just a bit too much, undermining that “premium” quality feel it’s going for.

KBD67 v3 – also known as the metal case upgrade for the KBD67 Lite. It looks good – but not great. So close – but that seam…

The Portico68 BL, on the other hand, has its seems thoughtfully hidden at the bottom of the keeb – just like its plastic version. More impressive than that, however, is that moving from the plastic to the metal Portico does not mean sacrificing good sound. Obviously it won’t be the same, but the P68BL has a nuance and cleanliness to the sound and feel that the 67 v3 just doesn’t. Going from a 67L to a 67 v3 feels like a lateral movement that involves compromise. Going from a Portico to a Portico68 BL just seems like an objective upgrade to me.

A closer look at the main PCB and lower gaskets. I think these traces look pretty cool.

Early Conclusions:

I’m still in my first week with this keyboard, but it’s quickly and comfortably becoming one of my very favorites, if not my absolute favorite. If it had bluetooth I think it actually would be perfect – but I don’t take off any points for that being absent. It really does check all my boxes: it’s beautiful, it’s reliable, it has excellent haptics, it sounds great, and it’s well-built.

I really like this keeb. I also really need a bigger dust filter for my house.

As of yet, I don’t have a single complaint. I like most of the keyboards I buy, but I’m especially pleased with this purchase.

That very well could change over the next few weeks so take it with a grain of salt – but my experience with the oddly-named Portico68 Black Label so far has been exclusively and remarkably positive. Right now I really can’t find a single reason not to recommend it to anyone looking for a premium (if not high-end custom) 65% keyboard.

As of writing the kit is currently available for sale, and you can find it here.

Reviews•Switches•Video Reviews•Videos

KK Light Wave V2 (Candy Jade Green)

Originally posted June 2021

Transcript:

Hello my friends, and welcome to switchbox.studio. I’m your host Deadeye Dave, and today we’ll be talking about the Light Wave V2 – a surprisingly-unique linear designed by Velocifire.

Outdoor photo of KK Light Wave V2 switch

Today’s switch in the sun.

This switch was manufactured by KingKeyboard with custom tooling supplied by Gateron.

Stats:

5-pin / PCB mount
4mm full travel
now – the website claims a normal actuation height of 2mm, but in practice this is most definitely a speed switch, actuating quite soon after the start of travel; perhaps around 1mm
Polycarbonate housing
POM Stem
“60g gold-plated spring”, which translates to:
35g will get the switch moving
45g will actuate
and 65 will bottom out

During the initial group and extras buys, these were 45-55 cents apiece.

I haven’t seen any specific mention of running them again, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t given the switch’s bespoke aspects.

Lore / Trivia:

According to the Velocifire rep in the original interest check post, this switch has custom molds for every plastic part, utilizing extra-precise production methods and mirror polishing for enhanced smoothness of the final product.

It almost sounds too fancy for a company whose products you can find in Walmart (and who, for the record, made the worst mx-compatible board I’ve yet used), but the claim bears-out in how unusually smooth this switch is straight out of the bag.

Molds custom-made by Gateron, but manufactured by KingKeyboard – No, I’ve never heard of them, either. I didn’t look too deeply, but the only references to them I found were from this switch and its prior version.

Speculation: perhaps KK is the new manufacturing arm of Velocifire, which appears to be expanding globally. Their official headquarters are in Chino, California – but the rep on the forums who I also assume writes the English marketing materials does not appear to be a native English speaker.

The Quirk:

Not mentioned in the interest check or the product description – or even clearly depicted in any of the official photos – is the feature that interested me enough to jump on the last 70 extras Bolsa had on-hand. What is it?

No, not this absurdly lorge spring –

The longboi spring and single-piece dampened stem.

This thing; a very unusual stem.

The most obvious bit is the pair of pliant legs on either side, acting as dampeners. In addition to those, however, is also the wide, flat top-surface of the otherwise short rail sections.

To compliment the weird stem, the inside of the bottom housing is specially shaped to interact with the pliant legs, and compress them *almost* all the way before the center pole and contact legs bottom-out themselves.

A close look through the housing.

Unlike other MX dampeners, this one isn’t made of a softer material, and doesn’t require extra parts or extra complicated injection-molding.

Stem Comparison:

FIGHT!

Below you can see the Light Wave V2 stem compared with a Gazzew silent linear on the left, and an Ink Black on the right. Side-by-side, it’s easy to see how unusual the points of contact for this stem really are.

Comparing vertically-relevant bits

Highlighting the top and bottom points of contact

A close-up angle showing the pliant leg static mechanism.

For this reason, the less obviously but equally unique Light Wave V2 housing plays oddly with other stems. The Light Wave V2 stem, while quite smooth in many other housings, loses the benefit of its dampening legs and instead bottoms-out (solely) on the contact legs or center pole depending on the housing.

Close-up of the bottom housing; note the topography of the floor there.

Performance:

So how is it, really? It’s weird – but is it good? Short answer, yes. If you just want something really smooth, these are a great bet – you can hear that “but” coming, can’t you?

It’s the sound. While these are lubed from the factory, have excellent fitment between the two housing parts, and are hella smooth – they are *not* hella refined. Out of the bag, the stem is rattly and the springs have a sound that reminds me of a Slinky™ rolling down stairs.

Slinky spring

No wonder, too – that big, long spring is already quite compressed when the switch is open. If you look closely, you might be able to see it trying to buckle, only prevented by the center tube and stem holding it in place. Not only does that make the spring want to carry vibrations, it also makes it brush against the top of the tube. These are some noisy, if not loud switches.

Even more than most, these really come alive when you lube them – but maybe for a different primary reason. I tested individual switches with 205g0 and 106, and decided to go with the oil. While the smoothness itself only saw slight improvement from its already admirable position, the sound improved significantly.

Dis-assembled switches

Gone is the raspy Slinky sound, and gone is the rattle of the stem against the polycarbonate housings – in its place, a luscious “plocky” sound.

This lovely sound owes its character in part to the lube, but as much to the unusual stem shape. The pliant legs on the bottom make for a softer, yet still crisp bottom-out; both in sound and feel. The broad top surfaces of the rails that strike equally broad surfaces on the top housing make for a louder, sharper sound than the bottom-out. Pair that with some case dampening and some tall ABS keycaps and you’ll get a sound like this:

Recommendations / Use-case

As much as I love the sound and smooth feel of these switches for typing, I find them hard to recommend for that purpose. Despite what the spec sheet says, these activate very early and are very easy for me to actuate unintentionally.

By the same token, however, I think these would make an ideal gaming switch. The speedy activation is an obvious plus there, and so is the style of dampening. It takes the edge off of bottoming-out without sacrificing a crisp, definitive feel like the softer mechanisms of silent switches do to varying degrees.
I can easily recommend this as a gaming switch to just about anyone, and for those of you who are both light and accurate typists, this could be a very satisfying daily-driver as well.

A bowl of tuned Light Wave V2s, and the Collection behind.

Valuation

While I think I’m going to stay away from numerical scores for these overviews, I do want to cover the topics of quality and value.

Purely in terms of quality, I’d call these “very good” with the heavy asterisk that they will sound pretty rough until you take the time to lube them. If you don’t mind to or are already planning to lube your switches, these might be an attractive option.

Factoring in the 45-cent per-switch price, these impress me a bit more. While they lack the out-of-box refinement that some of the pre-lubed JWK linears or higher-end Gateron-made offerings possess, they absolutely compete on smoothness – and for that price, I think that makes these a surprisingly solid offering from the team responsible for the one mechanical I’ve tried that I wouldn’t choose over a typical pack-in rubber dingus.

For that, I have to give Velocifire the Biggest Improvement award – and a bit more of my attention moving forward.

Typing Demos

Recording the switches

And now, some individual tests and full typing demonstrations of the switches before and after lubing. (The first two are the same recordings embedded above.)

Stock:

Lubed:

Side-by-side individual switches:

Outro

Thank you all very much for reading. Remember – be kind to your fellow life-forms, and to yourself as well – and of course, happy clacking!

Keyboards•Reviews•Who Is This For?

WiTF #1 • X9VR Retro Bundle

Who is This For ep. 1 • Xinmeng X9VR Keyboard & Mouse Bundle

Word-up: All the links in this article are affiliate ones that I only want you to use if you’re genuinely curious about or interested in what’s behind them. Disclosures and formalities accounted-for, let’s get right into it!

Oh, yeah.

Welcome to the first in my new series of review articles I’ve decided to call Who is This For? – today we’ll be looking at a full-size pre-built mechanical keyboard and mouse bundle, graciously provided for review by MechDIY.com – even after I said they could expect my honest opinion, positive or negative. High-five for being a good sport! I’ve spent a bit over a week with the pink peripherals as daily-drivers, and I’m happy to share my thoughts about them.

A neat little promo keychain, showcasing some Kailh Chocs. Thanks again to MechDIY, today’s enablers – er, sponsors!

I’m going to take a look at the mouse first, since this is a keyboard focused website, and I have quite a bit more to say about that part of the package.

The Mouse:

Autobots, roll out! …to the nail salon!

For a pack-in, it’s surprisingly suitable as a gaming mouse. The aesthetic is a mashup of Michael Bay and Mary Kay – perfect for D.va mains and the most fabulous Transformers. It has a color-matched cable with a branded USB-A plug and a glossy finish; available in dream-house pink or baby blue. It also has a readily accessible DPI switch right behind the scroll wheel, which itself is just as stylized as the rest of the mouse.

The wheel might be the highlight of this mouse.

Speaking of scroll wheels, this one is quite nice. It has plenty of texture with raised rubber covering the plastic in alternating ridges. The wheel has mild but clear indexing as it turns. It’s easy to scroll with being a nice, large wheel with just enough resistance. The middle-click is crisp, but not harsh, and the same is true of the right and left buttons. If you’ve ever used Kailh’s red gaming mouse switches, these are decidedly more gentle.

There are forward and back buttons to the side; the travel is a little springy, but actuation is crisp. The buttons stick out plenty to feel them, and they are close together – the value of which comes down to preference. For comparison, my Ducky Secret M is also a 5-button mouse, but its forward and back buttons are farther apart, and shaped differently from each-other. On the Xinmeng, the two buttons are one shape, split down the middle. This makes the forward button more quickly accessible, but perhaps easier to mistake for the rearward one.

I let out a small guffaw when I saw the bottom of this mouse – maybe I just didn’t expect to see material overkill here.

It has a good weight towards the bottom thanks to a metal plate. There are wide winglets at the bottom your fingers can rest on, and it has at least an ergonomically-inspired, ambidextrous shape. The forward and back buttons are only on the left, though.

I figured this thing for a party favor, but honestly, I quite like it. Don’t get me wrong – I think its hideous – but it feels nice to use. I’m sure the skates are cheap, but they work well enough. It may not be competitive equipment by any stretch – but it’s a better mouse for gaming than plenty I’ve used.

The USB ends for each peripheral are branded and match in shape, but not color; the keeb has the white one with the striped braided cable.

While the keyboard was easy enough to feel-around, and did come with a limited manual, the mouse didn’t have one – and I so far haven’t found one online. I figured out how to turn the RGB rainbow demo on and off, so far that’s it. Holding the DPI button will toggle the lighting. Seems there would be some kind of control if it has RGB capability, but I haven’t found it yet.

It won’t make you a champion, but it’ll get the job done.

To sum it up, this is a perfectly good mouse that matches the keyboard in color and no other way whatsoever. The aesthetic styling is about as far apart between the two as it could be, but at least they are color-coordinated.

Now that we have that mildly-curious pack-in covered, let’s take a look at this keyboard.

The Keeb:

Were you born in the wrong decade but can’t leave behind your all pink everything? This one’s here for you, baby.

Intro & Aesthetic Impressions

Obvious stuff out of the way first, what we have here is a full-size layout with three media buttons and a knob-with-clicker. The switches have the LED slot facing North, and have white SMD LEDs underneath, driven by a wide array of select-able effects. The knob can be switched between two modes, one of which controls the lighting, with the other controlling volume and other media functions. More on that a bit later.

Shiny. Clicky. Pink.

The defining quality of this board is its aesthetics; 2010’s tech with a *heavy* coat of Art Deco filtered through Mary Kay with a spritz of kawaii. Ye-olde type-writer style keys in a uniform profile with circular and pill-shaped footprints. A flat* top shell that doubles as a mounting plate, making for an out-board mounted look for the switches – I think this is actually an appropriate choice for the aesthetic, if it was a conscious choice.

The crunchy workhorse, Outemu Blue – topped with a very shiny hat.

Overall the keeb’s frame is quite thin, with a fairly flat plastic bottom shell. While this keeb basically looks like a pink GMMK with a knob, it’s quite a bit more flexible than one. *In fact, it looks like this particular one has a curve to it, with more of a bend on one side. I’m guessing this happened at least in some part during shipping. I’ll take a shot at flattening it back out.

A trip through the postal system is not for the faint of heart, or frail of frame.

Bridging into the subject of functionality from aesthetics, this keeb also has per-switch back-lighting, accomplished with surface-mounted LEDs. All of the lights (including the lock indicators) are a cool white. With the shiny silver rings of the stock keys, this makes for a fairly dazzling display. This would look right at home on the desk of a beautician or kawaii-aesthetic streamer, and brings to mind images of makeup and vanity mirrors as much as vintage typewriters.

It is pretty fabulous.

So – aesthetically speaking, who is this for?

I’d say, those aforementioned fans of kawaii and steam-punky retro seeking a keyboard to match the look of their lifestyle.

It most definitely is not for any keyboard enthusiast – unless they collect that sort of thing, or are writing a review like this one. By nature of this being a keeb community article, I’m sure at least a few of you are having a cheeky giggle at the sight of this thing – there’s more for you when we get to the sound – but this is a genuinely cool product for some folks. My sister, for example – she’s a Harley ridin’ Mustang drivin’ skip-second-gear kinda lady – and her first words upon seeing this keyboard were,

She meant it, too. I agreed to let her take the keys when I install different ones for the follow-up. Awesomely-bad word-art courtesy of cooltext.com.

I think it’s this dichotomy of love-it-or-hate-it that makes this keeb a perfect candidate to kick-off this series. Onward!

Functions:

Aside from the keys and the color, the most noticeable thing about this keeb is the inclusion of a knob in the top-right corner. To the left of the knob are three multi-function buttons that also double as lock-light indicators. Between the broken English in the manual and just playing around, I was able to familiarize myself with the functions in a few minutes. Here’s how it works:

The cluster has two modes; lighting control and media control. Long-pressing the knob switches between the two modes, which are indicated by a pair of white LEDs around the top-left and bottom-right of the knob. When the lights are illuminated, the cluster is in lighting control mode, and when the lights are off it is in media control mode.

IT’S GOTTA GNAWB, BREAU, (deuude)

In lighting control mode, turning the knob adjusts the lighting brightness, and quick-pressing it cycles through lighting animations. Tapping each of the three buttons to the left will select one of three pre-set lighting configurations.

In media control mode, turning the knob adjusts the volume, and quick-pressing it mutes and un-mutes the sound. In media control mode, the three buttons to the left have the media functions labeled on them; ⏮ for previous, ⏯ for play / pause, and ⏭ for next. If you have a media player open, these controls will likely work with it.

In either control mode, the LEDs under each of the three buttons are lock-light indicators: the left ⏮ button indicates Number Lock, the middle ⏯ button indicates Caps Lock, and the right ⏭ button indicates Scroll Lock.

In combination with other keys, the FN key also controls both media and lighting functions as well as a Windows-key lock for those high-stakes gaming sessions.

That’s the FN (or function layer) key, between the right Alt and Menu keys.

Under the umbrella of functionality, let’s get into who this keyboard will be useful for, which gets its own little section:

Use-cases:

Typing: Not the best, but plenty functional and even satisfying if you don’t mind lots of sound.
Gaming: Just fine for solo casual fun, but not great for voice-chat and definitely not for competition.
Display: Potentially awesome; as part of an ensemble, this keeb could be the missing piece of kit.

Sound:

Sound is going to be a polarizing feature of this one; I’d put it comfortably in the “love it or hate it” category, alongside the aesthetics.

I think it sounds like a family of gnomes, clogging atop corn-flakes in the bowl of a small steel drum. Have a listen:

This is a clicky-switch board, which I’d say fits given the typewriter-inspired keycaps. In fact, this keeb does sound remarkably similar to an old mechanical typewriter, which Cherry Blues and their cousins were originally designed to emulate. In that way, I’d call the sound of this board successful. Overall, it’s crunchy and noisy, but far from the loudest keyboard I’ve ever used.

There’s also quite a bit of ping and ring to the sound of this keeb. In terms of the typewriter theming, I’d say this is alright – and its at least vaguely reminiscent of venerable vintage mechanical keyboards like the IBM Model M when it comes to the ring. Enthusiasts of today have honed-in on tuning the sound, but back then keyboard users might lament that the thing isn’t loud enough – some keyboards of the day even had little electric hammers inside to slap the case – to make typists migrating from typewriters more comfortable, of course. While the keys of the X9VR are significantly lighter in weight than any mechanical (read: un-powered) typewriter, it still does a surprisingly good job of giving the user a typewriter-like experience.

This has nothing to do with sound but the rings are friction-fit and removable. Isn’t that neat?

Now, when it comes to the enthusiast community, I don’t think any one of them would be interested in this board from a sound or feel perspective. It uses click-jacket clone blues, which tend to be at the very bottom of a custom keeb builder’s switch list. The stabilizers rattle like a bag of small dry bones. What would really make an enthusiast wince, though, is that PING. This might be the most pingy mx-compatible keyboard I’ve ever used, and that’s something of an accomplishment. This goes right past “that’s kinda pingy” and comfortably into “is that a buckling spring keeb?” territory.

So – when it comes to sound, who is this keyboard for? Well – all that stuff I just mentioned means folks looking for a clean sound won’t even want to be in the same room as this thing – but folks who really love the retro aesthetic and the sound that comes with it will have nothing but fun using the X9VR.

Stay tuned for my follow-up video where I take-on the challenge of tuning this keyboard for, among other things, sound.

Feel:

There’s not a whole lot to say about feel here – it’s a clone blue board, and it feels like one. It’s pretty light. Between the lack of rubber on the flip-out feet and the bend in this one’s case, it won’t stay put on a hard surface. On a deskmat, though, it does just fine. I’ve used the X9VR to write the majority of this review.

Outemu blues, rando stabs. Nothing fancy, but gets it done.

If you’ve never used a “blue” switch before, “blue” comes from Cherry’s original color-coding for their first clicky switch. Many other manufacturers follow the same color-coding conventions that they do, though with the advent of color-coordinating with switches this is becoming less common. Blues in general have a satisfying “tactile event” just before actuating – at least, I found it really satisfying before I spoiled myself with hand-lubed switches – but that’s another topic altogether. Suffice to say that if you’re typing on the thing that came with your Dell and wish it was a bit more crisp, you might really appreciate some blues like the ones populating this keeb.

A close look at one of the MX-mount vintage-typewriter-inspired keys.

Probably the most unique aspect of this keeb’s haptics would be the keys themselves. While they’ve been around for some time and are easy to find if you’re looking for them, these typewriter style keys aren’t exactly super common, so most keeb enjoyers probably haven’t tried them yet. I can tell you that I find them surprisingly more usable than I expected them to be when it comes to touch-typing. They have traditional homing nubs, and the rings around each cap actually do a decent job helping ones fingers find their way around. Unlike the drastically angled typewriters that tended to have keys resembling these, this keyboard has a completely flat typing profile, with feet providing an optional angle.

An old QWERTZ typewriter with heavy, lever-action keys and a very steep incline between the rows. At least when it comes to the keys, this is the sort of thing today’s keeb calls-back to. • Photo by Tomasz Mikołajczyk.

So – when it comes to the typing feel, who is this for?

Like with the sound, when it comes to feel this keyboard is here for retro fans. Want to feel like you’re using hand-crafted, stylish, and archaic technology without all that would actually entail? Well – the X9VR might be worth a look for you.

Value & Conclusions:

Priced at eighty American Bacon Shares, this keyboard-and-mouse combo is comfortably less than anything in the custom keyboard universe, but a fair sight more than the cheapest basic gear. I guess this would be a mid-range kit in the prebuilt gaming keeb world – it might be on the expensive side for someone shopping purely for color. For those seeking a full-sized board with the shiny typewriter look in pink (or baby blue), I think this checks enough boxes to be worth the price of admission.

Under the knob – here you can easily see where the mode indicator LEDs are; the two small holes on either side of the rotary encoder.

Recommendations for Improvement:

Were I to try to improve this product on a commercial level, I think the biggest change I’d make would be with the box it ships in – it’s not quite sturdy enough to properly protect the keyboard in transit. While the keyboard is plenty durable for years of use, it didn’t fare that well in shipping. The mouse is good but not a fit for the bundle aesthetically. Beyond that, I would add rubber ends to the flip-out feet of the keyboard, and maybe a multi-lingual reference card for the mouse functions.

I’d be lying if I said I could read any of this, and full disclosure, I may not even have the name of this product quite right – but I think you got the idea.

This is a section where I’d normally talk about how to improve the sound and feel, but at least for the market this kit appears to be aiming for, I think it does just fine with its crunchy, crispy qualities.

That’s all I have to say about the Xinmeng X9VR keyboard and mouse kit for today. Stay tuned for a follow-up about modding this keyboard. Thanks again to MechDIY.com for providing this keyboard for review, and thank you very much for reading.

Whatever you’re typing on today, remember to enjoy it!