Community Switch Survey!

Learning and discussion Key switches
1

When looking for a switch, what are the first three things you would want to know?

  • Actuation, bottom-out, and/or peak force
  • Actuation and/or bottom-out travel distance
  • Brand and/or manufacturer
  • Colorway
  • How rare / obscure
  • LED compatibility
  • Materials
  • Number of pins / (pcb or plate mount)
  • Price-range
  • Type (clicky, tactile, linear, silent, etc.)
  • Other: ______

Edit: thanks, everybody!

1 Like
2

Type, actuation, manufacturer(quality)

1 Like
3

type, actuation, and price range. in that order.

2 Likes
4

Type, other: sound, and then material.

I wouldn’t buy a switch that I’ve never heard before.

4 Likes
5

Type (tactile)

Smoothness (butter)

Wobble (close to 0)

Actuation (45-60g)

6

Actuation, weighting, tactility, and sound. Price is always a consideration for any part.

1 Like
7

When I’m looking at a switch to buy I first would consider the type, then the weighting, then the actuation distance (gotta have that full 4mm, LOL!). The final two parts of the puzzle would who manufactured the switch & the pricing, but those would be my last two concerns.

Edit: I see a lot of people saying smoothness & sound. While I do agree that those are both very important things I did not mention them for these reasons. Smoothness is something you can’t really know for sure about till you try a switch yourself. You can ask other people’s opinions, but that doesn’t mean they’ll align with yours & everybody has differing tolerances for smoothness. What I find unacceptable could be just fine for someone else. Then sound is hugely influenced by the build you put the switches into. Yes each switch will have it’s own unique acoustics, but they will change depending on plate or no plate, plate material if one, mounting type, case type/material, etc. So I was looking at the question as if it was a switch I’ve never tried myself before.

1 Like
8

Type (linear or lightly tactile), smoothness, sound.

1 Like
9
  1. Type - Linear
  2. Actuation - 60-70g
  3. Manufacturer
1 Like
10

type (linear, tactile), brand, materials, thoccy-ness (sound comparable to topre), and colorway

1 Like
11

Smoothness (butter)

Sound (deep and thocky or poppy like a hp)

Actuation (55g-67g)

1 Like
12

From those categories:

Type, force measurements, distance measurements, pins, price, then the rest.

Though really, I want to know:

-Type [and subtype: light/medium/heavy tactile, full or partial linear, MX-style clicky or BOX-style clickbar]
-Smoothness / Tactility
-Sound
-Actuation
-Cost
-Materials
-Number of Pins
-All the rest

1 Like
13
  1. Type
  2. Sound
  3. Actuation
  4. Material
  5. Cost
1 Like
14

•Is it a Box Navy?
•Yes
•Is it a pretooled Box Navy that cracks GMK?
•Don’t care at all because PBT.
•BUY

As you can see, I’m a partisan.

4 Likes
15

:fist_right: :fist_left:

16
  1. Tactility
  2. mid to high actuation point, in line with the tactile bump.
  3. Weight 60ish
1 Like
17
  1. Profile. High v Low. I prefer low profile, i.e. short travel and pre-travel.
  2. Type. Tactile v Linear. I prefer linear.
  3. Actuation force. Heavy v Light. I prefer light.
1 Like