A glance at my overall opinion of a switch, and a visual TL;DR for reviews long and short. Larger numbers are better.

Sound: One of the first things people want to know about a switch: is it easy on the ears? Does it make an awful din?

Feel: What I consider to be the most important individual aspect of a switch – how does it treat your fingers?

Looks: Might matter less than the rest, but still matters plenty for some folks. I prefer the word “aesthetics” but I don’t like how it looks on the chart – so “looks” it is. Is it pretty?

Familiarity: Is the average user going to be able to pick this up and work with it right away, or will it take some getting used to? Is it all-out weird or totally approachable?

Parity: A shorter word for “consistency” – those last two aspects, are they more or less the same from switch to switch?

Value: Something of a contextual summary; how do all those other factors fit-in with the price? Not a direct measure of cost so much as my opinion of how much quality you get relative to that cost.

This graph shows what I think this switch (or keyboard) is good for, in terms of both task and environment.

This graph compares the push weight at various critical points. Sometimes visually similar to a force-curve graph, this is a little different, not tracking travel distance and being a pure comparison between the weights at meaningful points in travel (which may not be the same switch-to-switch) rather than measured distances.

This graph tracks the travel distance at key points.

This graph breaks-down the many aspects of switch wobble, giving an overall and comparative glance at the aspect and its various sub-components.

This graph breaks-down the sound character into component parts and their relative prominence.

This graph tracks various aspects of un-intended noise.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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

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 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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Hey folks!

Deadeye Dave here. It’s time for a rare personal update: I’ve reached something of a self-imposed milestone, and I feel like writing it down. Let’s talk about switches!

I’ve been dabbling in mechanical keyboards for 6 or 7 years now, and collecting switches seriously for around 3 or 4. Right around the time brightly-colored switches became commonplace, I started putting them in 12oz mason jars, and the collection really took off from there.

It begins… I blame those EV-01s – they look way too cool not to be looked-at. I’d originally picked them up for a commissioned build, but when the customer cancelled I stuck them on the shelf.

It was around this time I got my first hot-swap keyboard and realized how easy it would be to change the feel of my keyboard to suit my mood. New obsession, meet gas-pedal.

I first started with 61 switches per jar, as my switch testing platform at the time was a trusty GK-61x. Seems fairly quaint now with its stamped-sheet plate mounted in a cheap plastic tray – but that scuffed little keeb really was a catalyst in my obsession with switches.

I put so many miles on this thing. Well – a board very similar to this one, anyway. My original GK-61x is now living in a BBOX 60 case; the one pictured above is actually a GK-61s with a custom prototype POM plate and a fresh set of MT3 WoB keycaps – still one of my favorite sets of all time.

Trivia: this version of the GK is out of production, and has a different case and plate than the ones currently available – given away by its more rounded corners and thinner walls when compared with the updated “x” and “xs” models. If you’re curious, “x” means it supports an optional split space bar, and “s” means it has bluetooth; the no-suffix and s-only models were discontinued; they’re now all either “x” or “xs” and feature thicker case walls with sharper corners.

The GK was my second hot-swap – but my first one that was actually easy to swap switches in and out of. I already had a Massdrop CTRL, but its tight-gripping anodized top plate wasn’t really conducive to indulging in switch ADD – the GK, though – that’s another story. Swapping switches in that was effortless – and so I did, often. This was about the point I really started to lean-into collecting switches consciously, and also started learning about some of the more nuanced aspects of them like travel distance, spring curve type, and potential keycap interference.

This was also about the time I specifically got into silent switches, having a desire to continue enjoying haptic bliss at work – and after Cherry’s offerings left me wanting, this had me poking around internet back-allies asking about a guy called “hbheroinbob”.

It grows – when SeoBun released her wonderful switch illustrations as a sticker set, I inadvertently stumbled into a new side-hobby: finding the perfect stickers for switch jars.

Heroin Bob? Yep – this isn’t SLC Punk! – I’m talking about Gazzew. While his taijitu-flavored Outemus are absolute staples of the enthusiast community these days, they weren’t always so easy to come by. When I got my first set of Gazzew components, he was A.) the only English-speaking vendor I knew of that sold parts piecemeal and B.) exclusively selling through reddit DMs.

I’m delighted to see his much-deserved ascent to switch-designing legend, but there was a certain exciting charm to having switches that could only be sourced by directly contacting a single individual. (TBH I think this initial aspect of intrigue only helped the rise of Gazzew – stumbling on his stuff through searching and ordering directly from “Heroin Bob” makes for a fun story, and it was shared a-plenty around the various forums. Hipster gold, as they say.)

My first (and worst) silent keyboard, a KBParadise V80. This is a generic form-factor TKL; if you’ve heard of Filco’s Majestouch 2, think of this as a discount version. At the time, it was the only ready-to-go silent mech under $200 I could find in stock, and it was… a learning experience. In fact, the pictured configuration is how I learned about good ol’ North-facing interference. It’s also where I discovered that I really don’t like Cherry’s silent switches.

My relentless search for MX-compatible silent switches that didn’t suck (quite the elusive thing at the time) also served to deepen my curiosity about and interest in switches generally. Finding Gazzew and his at-the-time-obscure experiments made me realize there was a lot more to this sphere than I first knew, and it holds my interest to this day. This was around the time I joined KeebTalk and put together my first write-up about switches (complete with goofily-named franken at its center).

My well-used GK’s successors – well, one of them was, anyway. I like the NK65EE. I love the KBD67L.

At this point I’d started putting another 7 switches in the jars for a total of 68 – after trying my first not too long before, I was all-in on the 65% train with another one or two on the way. I enjoyed the NK65EE, and found a new favorite in the KBD67L – I’m using the latter to write this post, and it’s still my daily standby. This is about the time my focus in the hobby really honed-in on switches specifically – I was already interested in and collecting them, but having some enjoyable hot-swap boards definitely grew my interest in curating a personal switch library.

I have a few of these, and this is the one that’s seen more use than any other keyboard I own. I use it every day at work, and I’m using it now – this permutation features the YD67BLE bluetooth PCB and one of my very favorite keysets (named after my day-job), GMK Prepress.

As my collection grew I got really into playing around with frankenswitching – mostly just for fun, but also to see what I could learn through experimentation. I wouldn’t say I stumbled on anything ground-breaking, but I did manage to stumble upon a couple combinations I enjoy to this day, and I definitely learned a lot about switches – especially when I found combinations that didn’t work. While I don’t spend as much time in the Switch Kitchen these days, I’ll still mix-up a few new experiments on the odd Sunday evening to see what I can see.

The Switch Corner is born – featuring some framed prints of SeoBun’s illustrations, one of Romly’s switch data books, a Gator Ron plush, and of course – a shelf full of switches.

When I took the above photo, switch selection was exploding, but still wasn’t at the level of copious variety we enjoy now – so it still wasn’t too uncommon to mix some things together and have a switch with aspects not represented in the commercial market. For me, these days frankenswitching is more about learning the nuances of how parts interact than finding a new favorite – with the selection available today, I know there’s a good chance anything I can kit-bash at home probably has a cheaper-to-acquire equivalent somewhere in the market.

I still occasionally find a sound, feel, or performance aspect that I prefer in some mix-matched arrangement – but if I wasn’t having fun doing the mixing, the practice would be pretty deep into the realm of diminishing returns.

*Oh, you.* Regardless of how one feels about the Holy Panda and all that came in its wake – its impact on the whole MX-compatible universe is undeniable. Illustration by @wintheart and commissioned by Qlavier.

To drive home how frankenswitching has both driven and been largely outmoded by growth in the market, the OG granddaddy of them all, the Ergo Clear, is now available as a factory switch from Cherry. In addition of course, that other wildly popular franken that ignited frankenswitching as a hobby in its own right, the (above pictured) Holy Panda, has had commercial iterations, equivalents, and copies for years now. With more of my focus drifting towards trying new materials and tooling iterations over mixing-up new recipes, I continued to grow the collection ever-larger.

The pandemic thing happened, I moved a couple times, had major spinal surgery, and then moved one more time for good measure. During all of that, the collection was steadily out-growing my little tapered display shelf and increasingly overflowing into a bookshelf – and in either case, most of the collection was obscured. That last move was into a house, and it was then I decided my collection belonged on the wall. Roughly one year later, and my imagined wall-of-switches is now a reality:

The collection as it stands – as of late last night, anyway – I’ve yet to organize them. If you’re curious, these 12 shelves will hold 132 12oz mason jars – each of which can hold up to about 90 switches. Yep – that means there’s around 11,000 switches in this photo.

This brings us to now – we’re at now, now. I stayed up past all reasonability last night – I was on a roll and wasn’t about to stop until they were all up – and it’s finally done! Well – at least for now. I’ve got more jars than will fit on the shelves I have, but that’s most of my collection up there. I haven’t taken the time to sort or organize them yet – I was just way too excited about having the shelves on the wall to not see how they would look full with jars – and I’m way too stoked about that to wait until later to post about it – so here we are!

The Switch Corner lives again, back and bigger than ever – and I don’t think I could be happier about it. I love being able to see my collection at-a-glance, and I think having them on the wall will really facilitate enjoying the collection as a sort of haptic library.

SCIENCE IMMINENT!

It’s not just for me, though! I’m currently developing a cataloging process – and once I’ve got that sorted, I’ll be systematically covering every single switch in my collection one at a time. It’s a project that will keep me busy a good few years, and I think I’ll enjoy having a long-term hobby endeavor like that. I have a grand total of 1 (one) switch videos as of writing so far, and it’s over a year old – but once I’ve got the process dialed there will be lots more switch content coming – so stay tuned!

In the mean-time, it’s back to work for me. This has been Deadeye Dave – thanks so much for stopping by, and have yourselves a good one!

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

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

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.

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.

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!

Introduction:

Hello and welcome to another installment of Reddit Asks! I’d actually started this post quite some time ago, and then completely forgotten about it – so I won’t bother linking the now quite stale thread this question comes from – but I think it’s still a good question that’s crossed plenty of minds at this point:

Why buy multiple budget keyboards instead of one top-shelf premium one?

Two “entry level” titans: the Novelkeys NK65 Entry Edition & KBDfans KBD67 Lite, each topped with a set of MT3 profile keycaps.

TL;DR:

It’s like how there’s a bunch of different kinds of car people; some hunt-down the perfect specimen of their favorite rare or highly engineered chassis and build it into an apex machine. Others might be constantly buying and selling (or just buying) a bunch of different types of less expensive or older car, more interested in exploring the medium. It depends on priorities, preferences, and all that qualifying goodness.

In terms of my own experience, over the years I’ve picked up a couple “real” customs, but I go back to a few specific “budget” boards because they sound and feel either just better to my tastes, or at least good enough along with their lack of preciousness that I use them most of the time. I like a high-quality keeb, but I tend to like a highly-configurable one even more as my preferences basically change with my mood.

An example of a highly-configurable keyboard: the KBD67 Lite, here seen with a black case, Owlstabs, POM plate, JWICK semi-slents, and Novelkeys’ Cherry Charcoal keyset.

I’ve had more fun exploring a wide variety of configurations than I have with a given holy grail keyboard. I appreciate chassis with tons of aftermarket options like a bunch of plate or even case materials. For my personal priorities, luxury / high-end customs have at least one foot in the door of diminishing returns.

Here’s the very same keyboard, in a Ship-of-Theseus sort of way. It’s numerically the same PCB, switches, and stabilizers – but with an orange case, FR4 plate, and XVX profile keycaps.

Not unlike today’s inspirational OP, I’ve collected what most sane people would reasonably call a ridiculous amount of keyboards – and I like most of them at least a little bit. However – if I could only keep one, it wouldn’t be even in the top three most expensive, and barely in the realm of common custom prices – not unlike OP’s QK65.

It’s this one. If I could only have one keyboard from any I’ve had over the past decade, it would be this one: a(nother) KBD67 Lite with the YD67BLE bluetooth PCB. If any keyboard could rightly be called my daily driver, this is it. KBDfans calls this smoky grey case color “transparent”, and that’s GMK Prepress (what I do for a living) with TTC Silent Bluish Whites and Equalz V3 stabs underneath.

Aside from laying-out my general predilection towards this kind of keyboard, I can also tell you that the quality available in the budget sector has come a long way in the past few years.

I put budget in quotes up there in the intro paragraph because at this point there’s a truly wide spectrum of price and quality going on before you even brush the under-side of high-end customs. These days you can easily get a hot-swap wireless keyboard for $25, or a gasket mounted keyboard with a polycarb plate for less than $50. You can get some nicer commercial / mass-produced hobby ones with varying levels of options / aftermarket support in a range from $90-ish to $300+.

What I consider to be one of the true “budget hero” keyboards: the CIY GAS67. Just a few short years ago, “gasket mount with polycarb plate and dampening silicone” was limited to a scant few ultra-high-end pioneering customs. Now you can get one for less than the cost of a new video game – and you can go much cheaper if you don’t care about the buzzword features. If you’d like to know more about this keeb in general or the specific build as seen above, I have a full review and build guide of it here on the site.

All of that is vaguely referred to as entry-level / beginner, I’d say because pretty much none of that includes small-run / high-end machined pieces and rarely includes complicated builds. Some are pre-built, most are easy-mode hot-swap, plenty involve soldering switches (themselves easy mode of soldering), and a *few* involve soldering a large number of other components, mostly diodes.

A fairly rare example of a very complicated build that isn’t very expensive – and in its base form, doesn’t even have a case: the Discipline 65%. (That’s GMK Oblivion on top, if you’re wondering.) Photo taken from the official build guide by coseyfannitutti.

High-end customs have pioneered all the clever designs that are now commonplace among commercial boards, and often continue to bring new innovations to the table. The materials are rarely anything less than luxurious. The designs are often genuine works of art and artful engineering. Lots of them can sound downright luscious.

Representing the other end of the “entry level” price scale, and probably my personal favorite keyboard, the Portico68 Black Label by The Key Company, seen here in pink, topped with GMK Noire. (No, I never figured out why they named a 67-key board “…68”)
 
This is a sort of up-scaled swan-song of the original Portico 65% – just one little run of these has happened so far, but I think this could be a staple keyboard. It has at least one foot in the door of high-end, with a full machined aluminum chassis, flex-cut polycarbonate plate, dense dampening foam, and of course gasket mounting. Everything has that nowadays, though – I actually love this because it’s straightforward, aesthetically beautiful, and it feels fantastic while making delicious sounds. If you’d like to know more about this one, I have a full review here on the site.

Even so, not all my favorite keebs are precision-machined, ASMR-ready desk jewelry, and my personal sweet-spot has settled around the higher-end of the “entry” realm of things, which I’ve been calling the “middle market”. It includes things like the Bakeneko family, plenty of Keychrons, KBD67 or Tiger Lite, Portico, Ikki68 Aurora, etc. – with these options you can get some really nice typing experiences and the occasional great sound, and save on the luxury materials.

Ikki68 Aurora – for when you still want a splash of luxury with your “entry” keyboard.

This is great not just for folks on a tight budget who care about having a nice keyboard, but also great for keyboard nerds like myself who are interested in exploring a wide range of materials, mounting styles, layouts, key shapes, switches, etc. I enjoy being able to flip the keeb-channel on a whim, and those middle-market boards really facilitate that without having to sacrifice too much in terms of typing quality. I also personally really enjoy collecting related-but-distinct things – add on top of that an innate desire to help people find the right [ thing ] for their use-case, and I was pretty much if pleasantly doomed when I found customizable keyboards.

We’re not even going to talk about switches. Yet.

All of this is why, at least for me, a collection of various “entry” boards is more attractive than a single premium one – I’m more interested in the medium of keyboards and what makes them excellent than I am any particular excellent keyboard. While I’m sure this doesn’t represent most keyboard buyers out there, I’d bet it could describe enough of them to provide a satisfactory answer for today’s instigating query.

Well – that’s about all the fluff I can possibly add to the topic for now.

Thanks for stopping-by, enjoy the remainder of your wake-cycle, and keep on keebin’ on.

Introduction & Background:

Hello, good reader – I got some new keycaps in the mail today, so I feel like talking about profiles.

It seems like there’s all sorts of new profiles out there these days; there’s a thread about it and everything. This being the first in the series, I’ll be including something of a primer on profiles, focusing mostly on familiar ones – which you can skip by scrolling to the next horizontal divider. Onward!

EMA profile product image from the manufacturer’s website – complete with a righteous speck of dust on the left shift – these are the keys I’ll more or less be focusing on today, with a bit of a rambling introduction first.

When I first got into keyboards for their own sake – or even just as not the least important part of my PC – I didn’t know what “profiles” were, and I’d never heard the word “keycap”.  I later learned that keys have a top part called a cap, and that those keycaps come in different shapes – and those shapes are generally called profiles.

I learned the shape I’d been using pretty much my entire life up to that point was called OEM. The shape of keys on most keyboards I’d owned up to that point – most, except the wretched thing that was so bad it convinced me to go for something better in the first place.

The aforementioned “thing”. My first PC keyboard not in OEM profile, and my last non-mechanical or otherwise not thoughtfully-designed keyboard. Sold under many names including Logitech, I bought this from Walmart as an Onn SoftTouch somethingorother. I’ll give it to them – it is …soft. Soft like rubber gloves on spoiled melon rind. Oh – and don’t let that texture fool you. Those keys are slick like Teflon in the rain.

Side view of the… thing. This is not OEM profile as we’re talking about it today – or any particular profile – but we can note that the top row is just a bit taller than the rest and angled slightly towards the user, while the next four rows are identically angled back slightly, with the final closest row to the user being convex the whole way down. Stuff like this might actually be more common than “OEM” these days when it comes to actual OEM hardware, but that profile is still king when it comes to commercial gaming keyboards.

The DELL keyboards in the library. The beige keyboards with the HPs and eMachines and the really funky Packard-Bell shenanigans – more or less, that’s all OEM. Ducky, Filco, CoolerMaster, SteelSeries – pretty much all the modern gaming keyboards not also marketed as low-profile are going to be in OEM profile.

If you haven’t seen one of these, welcome to Planet Earth – this is a keyboard. Specifically, a Dell L100 – one of the most ubiquitous input devices of the last couple decades – and a great example of OEM profile in the wild, and outside the MX-compatible space. Also a good example how each company is a little different – just look at that bottom row.

Another example of OEM profile – this time on an MX keyboard; an original Ducky One, with the Akko × Ducky version of the Horizon keyset from just before they parted ways. While this one isn’t intended for back-lighting, the tooling it’s made from is – note all the legends placed in the top-center, right above the North-facing LED.

Much later, I learned that particular “profile” is something of a small can of worms in that it’s less an exact standard and more of a loose grouping – but for most practical purposes, it’s fair to lump them together. Not everyone’s “OEM” is the same, but they do tend to follow a particular set of criteria: cylindrical, sculpted, and when it comes to MX specifically, tall and wide enough to accommodate switches regardless of their mounting direction. In other words, it has room for an LED right under the letter in case the keyboard has back-lighting – which wasn’t really a thing when Cherry designed MX switches and their companion keycap profile.

“South-facing” MX LEDs performing their original function under Cherry profile keycaps, as seen in an extremely helpful photo from ComputerHope.com

They did design the switches with a slot right in them to fit 3mm LEDs – for indicators – which with the original keys, had windows in the bottom-middle of the cap, facing the user. Later on, someone had the idea to flip the switches around and have LEDs in that slot illuminate translucent letters instead – but that required taller keycaps. No, that’s not where OEM came from to begin with – but it is at least one reason why it’s the default shape of choice for commercial MX keyboards.

“North-facing” MX LEDs performing their modern function; letter back-lighting and ambient RGB under some taller-than-Cherry OEM profile keycaps. While the pictured setup actually uses tiny surface-mounted lights on the PCB, these caps are tall and wide enough to operate with a traditional domed 3mm LED on the switch.

So that’s the og Cherry and its ubiquitous cousin OEM – but those are the baseline of the MX-compatible keycap universe. While I may end up writing an entry on Cherry profile, the meat and potatoes of this series is going to be about everything but OEM and Cherry.

Going back to when I first got into all this business – there were a fair number of other choices available at the time, but not exactly easy to find in a non-hobby-customer sort of way. You might luck out and find something cool in-stock at Pimp My Keyboard, which at the time was mostly SA and DSA profiles (more about those in the glossary if you’re not familiar). I’m not sure about DSA, but I know SA specifically has its roots in retro computing going back as far as the late 70s, and the MX-compatible tooling for SA was adapted from some older tooling used for a different mount.

Say all that to say – there were choices in 2015 – but there weren’t very many, and while some were pretty cool, none of them were particularly fresh.

I’m writing this in December of 2022, and right now, there are more profiles available to the average consumer than I can list in any reasonable amount of time. Caps are available in a nearly uncountable array of shapes and sizes, with new ones emerging on a seemingly weekly basis – which brings us to today’s specimen.

EMA Profile

This is more of a first-look and comparison article and not so much a review – once I’ve had some time with these under my fingers I’ll be glad to tell you what they’re like in practical use – but for today, I have plenty of comparison images and a few thoughts to share.

Browsing GH the other day, I saw a new listing for a profile I hadn’t heard of before: EMA. They soon showed up on Drop as well, and the set on that site is doubleshot PBT and has 140-something keys, and was going for 30 bucks during the preorder. I decided to poke around and see if EMA sets showed up anywhere else, and it turns out the profile is a fairly recent creation of IDOBAO – a name familiar to many a budget keyboard enjoyer.

The listing for EMA, as seen on Drop. Three mixed colorway choices available, but some folks were asking about all-black or all-white sets.

The thing about this profile that caught my attention when I saw this listing were the broad top surfaces. I’ve enjoyed other profiles with broad tops like MelGeek’s MDA, and a friend of mine had recently picked that as a favorite when I let them try a bunch – so I’d been on the lookout for that or something similar.

A graphic from IDOBAO showing EMA, SA, and Cherry profiles from the side and comparing the rows. Note that Cherry’s numbering system is actually reverse from this one, so what’s actually up there is 1,1,2,3,4,4 (and there is a 5, you just don’t see it too often).

The ones on Drop were a mixed colorway, but I found an all-black one I was much more interested in on Idobao’s site on sale for less than 20 bucks – so I snagged a set and promptly forgot about it before they even made it into a shipping container.

Well, here they are.

Oh yeah! These things. While the PBT ones on Drop were in group-buy, the ABS ones on Idobao’s site were in-stock – so while it took a minute for them to get here, it was still faster.

Checking them out, the first thing I notice is the texture. The second thing I notice is they have no homing keys.

Gasp! No bumps, bars, or scoops to be found.

Well. That’s something of a deal-breaker for me personally, but I didn’t really get these with myself (or a touch-typist for that matter) in-mind. These are here a.) to satisfy my curiosity which I then share with you fine folks and b.) as potential candidates for use on a bluetooth couch-keyboard for a friend who likes broad-topped keys. That being the case, no-homing isn’t necessarily a no-go.

If you’re wondering, the larger kits that ran on Drop and also available on Idobao’s site)do have traditional homing bars – so I’d expect subsequently-made examples (or at least the PBT ones) to include them.

From the side. Here you can see the sculpt on each of the rows, including the space bar. Most obvious when looking at those couple on the right that are from a different row than the rest next to them.

Some profiles have a space bar that’s symmetrical front-to-back, but most have one that shares the sculpt angle of the bottom row – and this one’s no exception. In those cases, I tend to flip them around because I type like a heathen with my wrists resting right on the desk, and I still want my thumbs to be comfortable – so I’ll definitely be doing that with EMA. To quote Busta Rhymes, “flipmode is the greatest.”

Speaking of flip – here’s the underside. Pretty elegant, if you ask me – especially compared with older doubleshot caps with purely utilitarian business going on down here, usually lots of weird looking lines that run together. Lately other aspects of the tooling have been getting aesthetic consideration, like this nice, neat underside here – pretty good considering how reasonably priced these are.

From what I can tell, EMA is Idobao’s second foray into new keycap profiles, after the notably less conventional MA.

I found this photo on an ebay listing – I know it’s supposed to be about the kinda weird MA profile keycaps, but how about that funky rug?

So, starting from that, EMA is a step towards the conventional – but it manages to be its own thing. On that note; there are quite a few profiles born from the idea of striking a balance between the big spherical retro chonkness of SA and the sleek, practical low-profile of Cherry. This profile appears to be another of them, but setting itself apart in that space with rather broad, nearly-flat top surfaces while retaining a fair bit of angled sculpt from row to row.

A lower angle to more appreciate the presence of row sculpt – and the near absence of surface sculpt. These are spherical-topped keys, but the sphere has been nearly flattened.

Comparisons

There are plenty of other broad-topped profiles; CXA, XVX, and MDA come to mind. The first two are closer to Cherry in terms of height and angle, but the other is a bit closer to what we have here today – but even more broad. MDA is almost as wide at the top as it is at the bottom. Wouldn’t you know it, I bothered to take some comparison photos and managed to bring up the two profiles I have on-hand but didn’t include. Ah well – just imagine flat Adam Driver as a keycap and you pretty much got it.

Just kidding; I do have some photos, just not right next to EMA. On the left is XVX in what I think is a PBT blend, and on the right is CXA in ABS. They are extremely similar, but not identical. They’re a bit shorter than EMA, and more scooped at the edges, especially CXA with it’s smaller corners.

Here’s a blurry photo of XVX on a KBD67 Lite R3. I think the green colorway actually looks really nice, especially with the Bob Ross deskmat. The nuclear-orange case is like a hiking safety vest. What keeps me from using this, though, are the homing dots right in the middle of the F and J keys – my fingers don’t like that. If you can get down with the homing nips, though, these are very reasonably priced.

Here is CXA on a KBD67 V3. Note the curve in the space bar; that’s another feature that sets it apart from XVX, EMA, and most other profiles for that matter. I still have mine flipped around, but this curve literally takes the edge off for the standard orientation.

Alright – ones I forgot to include in the group photo aside, let’s get to the fun part – direct comparisons. Group photo!

From left to right: EMA, MDA, XDA, DSS, DCS, Cherry, OEM (Akko), MT3, SA sculpted (R2), SA uniform (R3)

These are all taken from the same row, whichever key from it I happened to grab first – aside from XDA, which is the same on every row. SA sets come in a variety of row combinations ranging from fully sculpted to uniform, with all rows being the flat-angled one from sculpted row 3 – so I’ve included an extra SA key from that row for comparison as well.

Let’s take another look at that lineup, but this time with a forced-perspective panoramic stitch effect for better side-to-side comparison. There’s a little distortion going on, but you get the idea. I also swapped-out the white MT3 key for a purple one. I think this gives a good overview of how these profiles differ from each-other.

EMA is about on-par with XDA when it comes to surface-area, but XDA has a flat and uniform row sculpt as opposed to EMA’s angled rows. MDA sits between them in terms of angle, but has the most broad surface area. They’re fairly flat, but not quite as flat as EMA.

Focusing-in on MDA (middle) as it relates to EMA (left), XDA on the right. Note the texture on the EMA cap vs the comparatively smooth others next to it.

It’s mostly comparison photos from here; I’ll be reviewing the set at some point, but for now, here are a bunch of close-ups from various angles comparing EMA with other profiles:

EMA R1 from the side, with equivalent row keys from other profiles receding. Here you can appreciate the subtle spherical sculpt to the surface of the key.

EMA on the left, MT3 on the right.

EMA closest, MT3 behind. Here it’s easy to appreciate how much more angled and scooped MT3 is, and how much larger EMA’s surface area is.

Adding DSS to the left, EMA, MT3. MT3’s scoop is a bit deeper than DSS, but from this angle DSS’s sculpting is more obvious because its top edges are affected by the sculpt as well, dipping between corners, whereas MT3 and EMA look flat from straight on.

From above; DSS, EMA, MT3

From the side; DSS, EMA, MT3. Here it’s easy to appreciate how angled DSS is, even more than MT3.

And another angle for good measure; DSS, EMA, MT3.

Cherry, EMA, SA from the front

Cherry, EMA, SA from above

Cherry, EMA, SA from the side; Cherry having a quite different angle while the other two are more similar.

Cherry, EMA, SA

MDA, EMA, OEM from the front; darker exposure to make lighter surfaces easier to see

MDA, EMA, OEM from above; here it’s easy to appreciate how big MDA’s top surfaces are.

MDA, EMA, OEM from the side; here it’s easy to appreciate MDA’s almost horizontally-cylindrical sculpt, barely spherical.

MDA, EMA, OEM

You know, this might be the most middle-of-the-road profile I’ve ever seen. Neat.

Well – that’s about all I have for you today. I’ll be back at some point in the un-scheduled near future with more ramblings, reviews, and other such information.

Be seeing you.

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.

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’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:

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.

Hello my friends, I felt like writing this evening so it’s time for another episode of Reddit Asks.

Do plate and case foam make a big difference in boards with clicky switches?

DCX “Drama”:

I’d originally included this in my review for DCX Cyber, but realized it was a little too off-topic and gave the section its own little post. For a little context about DCX and myself; I was among those most vocally critical towards Drop’s handling of this profile’s originally-intended name, MT2. In the intervening time a few things have changed, and I wanted to talk about that for posterity.

I fully believe no one meant an ounce of harm here, but this was deffo an “oops”. Image from Drop’s profile announcement.

I won’t be getting into the weeds of exactly what Drop staff did and didn’t say to catch ire, as I think everyone is better-served that way; this is about context. I centered my criticism first around the dissonance between using a name inherently derived from a popular creator’s handle (Matt3o, most recently known for creating MT3) while in no way involving that creator. Drop’s response was perhaps unfortunate if well-intended; said creator had more or less the same reaction to that response I did, expressed disappointment, and peaced-out.

And thus, I yote to lands unknown.

Before I did, however, I went out of my way to highlight that while the name choice was perhaps ill-informed or poorly considered, that it was never actually the problem despite all the drama appearing to center around it. The only real issue was poor (or sometimes hollow) communication with both creators and customers, which had been an issue with Drop for a long time – basically since the beginning. When confronted with some decisions that customers didn’t like, Drop (at the time) elected to side-step and not address some material points. The instigating thing (the name) was actually a no-big-deal-at-all sort of thing – but how they handled it was a problem.

I pointed out that their actual products, likely these keys included, tend to be excellent – and that it’s only their communication that has long been lacking. I said that while I am indeed walking away for the time being, that I’ll keep my eye on the space because even at the time, I did see a desire from Drop to take stock and move forward in a productive way. I told them then that if they can be open and communicate better with their customers and creators from there, that they can fully expect to earn back my trust and vocal advocacy.

A screenshot of what I said to Drop before stepping away for a few months.

Well – here we are – so what did Drop do to win back both my and (more notably) Matt3o’s engagement?

IMHO, just about the best things they possibly could have – and reasonably quickly if not instantly, once the extent of the backlash had become clear to the organization as a whole: They listened to their customers and collaborators, took a step back, realized the true issues, and adjusted their approach.

No renders here: these are photographs on the product page. Oh yeah, it dropped in-stock, too.

They started being more detailed and transparent in communications. (Yeah, product descriptions are still fluffy but that’s to be expected – and hey, they’re well written in that fluffiness, at least.) They started communicating more things up-front, and even acknowledging potential pain-points with products and specific plans on how to address them in subsequent versions. Well – at very least not stopping their collaborating creators from doing so on their site. DCX Cyber and its designer MiTo’s post on Drop’s blog section being the critical example:

DCX Cyber was the brace that healed the camel’s back for me in multiple ways. Not only did I specifically want the colorway in a shorter profile, but its rollout and introduction were refreshingly transparent. I genuinely don’t think I could ask for more or faster improvement with what I view as Drop’s biggest issue, so here I am keeping my word and my end of the bargain.

They’ve genuinely earned-back my patronage and my vocal support, so I’m happy to be sharing with you my thoughts of more Drop goodies moving forward.

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.

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.