I’ve been thinking at that price I may as well just bite the bullet and buy some legit vintage ALPS to try out for the first time.
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Yup, agreed. The only definitive answer would have to come from Zeal. For those of us on the outside we can only speculate based on the rest of the market, and watching trends.
Initially listening to this I thought it sounded good, but going back to my BOX clickbar keyboard, and going back to this video, I gotta say either Zeal used the worst equipment available to record this sound or the Clickiez are lacking, probably their equipment.
The SA build sounds somewhat decent but the GMK build sounds pretty bad.
Anyway the new force graph looks awesome, that spring is very linear, super explosive and the tactile mode looks even heavier.
Too much for me, but I’m sure the community will absolutely love this.
Though one thing is odd to me, Matias click force graph shows a similar peak force to the 40g Clickiez yet the switch feels weaker in my hand, and compared against even a BOX whites, the Matias switch depress first even though it’s supposed to be much heavier.
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Pretty thorough review. I can tell they aren’t for me because of the high tactility. Hopefully Zeal will come out with something less tactile down the road.
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When hearing the switch with a reasonable recording equipment I can hear they does sound better than anything currently offered, they seem to shine with the SA keycaps, I wish he would make a typing test with an SA set.
About the tactility, the video confirms my thoughts about it, too heavy, seems like Zeal is buying into the “bigger tactility = better” mentality and I can see them succeed.
Though I disagree with his opinion about the price, newer shouldn’t mean significantly expensive, or else everything would be x100 more expensive today, but I guess each for their own.
I’m interested to see what the competition will bring.
On other note, his videos never disappoint me.
I have my reservations about the tactility force needed for these switches, and I’m coming from Box Jade’s. Those tactility graphs make it look really quite different from any of the other MX switches on the market… And I know that I haven’t had good experiences with 65g tactiles before.
The difference here is quite considerable. Most of the new MX style switches that have been coming out are derivative of current designs. They tend to just need tweaks to the current production process.
These, OTOH, are quite substantially different, requiring re-tooling of one (or more) production line(s). That’s typically very expensive, often costing $10’s if not $100’s of thousands of dollars. The cost of being a new product. After this first time the cost to produce variations, and re-tool more production lines should come down.
And, if Clickiez show enough market penetration, the clones won’t be far behind…and the competition from the clones will help drive the price down. (Unless Zeal has enough patent registrations that they can litigate against the clones…)
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Yeah, I agree. They don’t really sound that great to boot. I think I’ll wait for the DCS ALPS WoB GB (holy acronyms Batman!) to dip my toes in the ALPS water.
After watching Chyrosran22’s review, I’m still on the fence about them. I would like to have to have a solid, clicky switch that gives a nice crisp typing feedback and evokes a retro vibe. Wondering if these really fit the bill, or if I’m better off grabbing some Box Navies
Might I suggest Speed Navies as a potential alternative?
They have a nice, stronk click-bar like Box Navies do, but the drop-off is less extreme. The speeds are quite tactile and very clicky, but I find them a lot more usable in-practice compared with their Box counterparts. (I do love using the Box Navies for lock-keys, though; the super-affirmative click is perfect for them.)
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Interesting recommendation! I’ve not heard much about the Speed Navies, nor do I see them in-stock. But will keep a look out for them
My takeaway from the video is that these are top-tier clickies, but a less-tactile version, especially in the case of the ‘tactile conversion,’ would reach buyers who aren’t considering the switch.
I agree - it’s clear that the switch generates a somewhat different-feeling tactility than MX. A lighter version could be successful.
As for all the talk about cost, I agree they are relatively pricey. But ZealPC, like it or not, is engaging in actual innovation. That costs money. If you want cheaper and cheaper MX, some manus are working on that. But if you want something new, it will cost more.
I think having a version of this switch, the tactile version, with the intensity of Orange ALPS, is worth paying more for. I would gladly try out such switches.
Switches are the most important part of the keyboard. I’m glad there’s lots of low-cost variations on a theme in the MX world, but I also like ALPS-ish leaves too.
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Sounds amazing. I’ve also never seen a switch in 100g spring option. Well, in any case if the jacket can be removed this might be an amazing tactile option.
The cool thing about these is that they don’t even use a jacket; the same metal leaf acts as either a click-leaf or a tactile one depending on which position it’s placed in the housing.
There have been a small number of 100g switches out there; I think the easiest to find are springs by themselves. I got some 150g springs from FlashQuark a while back; great for individual buttons, say on a flight-sim macro pad. ACTIVATE THE PHOTONIC CANNON
Typing test at around 58 minutes:
Glarses super-reds video? also can you link me to those springs I’m considering building a 12-key with some jwick blacks and just as a joke I kind of want my friends to try typing on it and not being able to press down on the keys (they’d expect it to be lighter)
Here’s 3DKeebs’ product page for the FlashQuark springs, which have a 150g option:
Is he calling them too light? at around 01:06:00, he said he feel like hes done with BOX Jades and Whites, if he uses BOX Whites and says this feel light it’s pretty interesting.
Got to say they great on his board.
Edit: wait he later pulled a blue Alps board and concluded the blue Alps are lighter, he also compared them (the Clickiez) more to BOX navies in terms of heaviness.
Leaf also seems to sit loosly and it’s very easy to damage it when moding the switches.
Interesting video but I can’t make myself watch more than couple of minutes.
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Has anyone ordered/received their Pearlio? I am curious to hear more about them
I watched the Apiary twitch stream yesterday. I’m not sure when/if she’s planning to do a full switch review, but she said she was surprised by how much she hated Clickiez. I guess these will be the new Box Navy in terms of polarizing opinions.
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Oh, there’s no doubt that these won’t be for everyone.
I read that ZealPC is developing an explicitly tactile version that’s being formed to resemble Brown ALPS in intensity. This may reach a different audience than Clickiez.
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