Curious how these compare to my tactile choice of HPs
OK, it took me a while, but it just hit me. Those switches are not super-expensive, they just included the shipping price in the price of the product, because Aliexpress. The switch itself doesn’t cost a dollar.
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I hadn’t caught that, but you’re right.
I wonder why they did it that way - plenty of other items in the Kailh AliExpress store have shipping fees, but not these.
While checking that, I noticed the Polias are no longer available there after only 12 orders. I wonder if this was a small test run or something.
In my experience, price scales downwards with quantity with a lot of sellers on AliExpress.
Buying 10 is the most expensive, 30 might be less, 70 less so, and so on. Because shipping becomes a lower and lower proportion of the cost, if the shipping cost is quietly bundled into the switch price.
That’s why you’ll see some sellers offering separate buttons for 10, 30, 70, 90, 110 switches.
Because there is an option in the search to only show products with free shipping, and many people click that.
I think they have some after-holidays chaos there right now. Before the National Day I ordered some V2 choc switches for tests (the ones with MX-compatible keycaps), and they should be arriving about now, but the status now say “shipping cancelled”…
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Mine showed up today - well, at least 10 out of the 70 I ordered did. Box said “2/2” so hopefully “1/2” shows up Monday…
TL;DR: Still a first impression, but my initial thoughts are that Polias are pretty much just Halos with lighter springs and a different color.
Copypasta from the “mail today” thread:
First in-hand impressions are interesting. It reminds me of a more refined Halo in that I think the way it’s weighted would be helpful for someone who wants to avoid bottoming-out.
I wouldn’t say this switch is in it’s own category outside of “tactile” like Kailh implies in their marketing - but I would say that this style of tactility needs a name if it doesn’t already have one.
That is, a top-bump that drops-off into a cushion of rising spring weight. It’s as if the force has a “valley” in the middle where the actuation happens. I like it.
Of course I’ll be fiddling with these few I have here while waiting on the rest - I think they seem promising so far.
Edit; Comparisons:
Side-by-side with either Halo, Polias have a lighter weighting and with a curve closer to Clears than Trues. After some fiddling, I think that might be the biggest difference between the these new switches and Halos. At first glance the Polia’s tactility seems more pronounced, but I think that’s just down to the lighter spring.
Trying the stem in both a Red Panda and a Blue Ink housing and comparing them side by side to the same with Halo stems, I can hardly tell a difference. I’ve felt bigger differences between batches of the same switch - so it’s hard to say if the stems actually have small differences or if I’m just perceiving normal variance in the leaves / springs.
Putting a Halo Clear spring into the Polia and comparing them side-by-side, I couldn’t tell them apart with my eyes closed.
Having the stems out of the switches looking closely at them side-by-side… I cannot see a difference.
Gotta say - I do wonder if this “different” switch is just a re-color of the Halo parts and with a different name to sidestep any exclusivity agreements. On the one hand that doesn’t seem too on the up-and-up, and on the other, I wouldn’t mind being able to get “Halos” elsewhere.
(Would Kailh be in hot water for using the Halo stem molds? Last time I checked Drop is the only one with rights to sell it, and they pay royalties to Input Club when they do. Pretty sure that agreement was about the switch design, not its name.)
I’m definitely interested to see what some folks that are more familiar with the industry side / have more time in the hobby have to say after there’s been time to inspect these closely - I’d love to see some side-by-side force-curve averages…
Well. The Halo / Panda drama will probably still be going strong when the Jharia coal seam fire goes out - but hey, I like the color. 
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Very interesting. Lighter Halo Trues is kind of a Pro Purple.
So this may be the Pro Purple equivalent for Halo Clears. A sort of ‘Ergo-Clear.’
Damn I kinda was going to hope that this might have been the halo version of the hako violet just because why not.
Small tactility is on the rise, come on Kailh.
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Just preordered from Drop. As someone who likes the feel of trues and clears, I’m looking forward to these. I’m not really a fan of overly tactile switches. In fact, I’ve sort of come to hate my box royals 
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I had the same reaction to box royals. I thought it would be more of a tactile box form of zeal/HP with the large round bump. Instead they felt very “binary”. I did lube the tactile bump and it seemed to significantly reduced that binary feeling but I still wouldn’t call it a go to switch compared to my others (Kiwi, Moya Blacks, Bobas, Zeals)
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Yep. Even after lubing, every keystroke felt like falling off a cliff.
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=IF(tactilepeak=“achieved”,falloffacliff,keeprising)
This is what it sounds like I’m hearing
I’m half shocked, half completely unsurprised that Drop are selling these.
On one hand, I find it quite amusing they don’t seem to realize this is a recolor of their “own” Halo switch, and more amusing still that they’re simply parroting Kailh’s marketing instead of trying and describing it themselves. Just one more example of Drop not knowing much about the products they sell.
I can tell you from first hand experience, Polias feel nothing like Holy Pandas - but they’re extremely similar to Halo Clears - just a bit lighter. What does feel like a Holy Panda is when you put the “Polia” stem in a Panda - since it’s (as far as I can tell) completely identical to a Halo stem, you just get a differently-colored Holy Panda - which I’ve decided to call the Poli Panda, purely for my own amusement.
Edit: Hey, at least the price is more where it should be. @deshipu pointed out the price on AliExpress was so high only because it included the shipping - still, said shipping was pretty steep - if you’re of a mind to try these, I guess Drop is a fine enough place to snag them.
Good to know. May drop some medium progressives in there and see how that feels.
For those who have experience with Ergo Clears, how would you say this switch compares to MX Clear with a lighter spring?
This thought floated through my head a few days ago and I just happened to remember now; while I can’t say I mind Drop being side-stepped with these halos-with-lighter-springs switches, what about Input Club?
I know Drop still has to pay them a license fee for each Halo sold - but I can’t imagine they’re getting that for Polias. I dunno - what do you guys think? If the Polia stem is indeed a straight-up re-colored Halo stem (and I genuinely believe it is), should I:C be getting fees for that? I lean towards “yes” but I’m no expert here and am mostly going on my personal moral compass. Do I think they ever will? Very probably not.
I like the Polias (and their stems), and wouldn’t mind if they stuck around - but they do seem to occupy a strange position. I also couldn’t help but notice they never showed up on NovelKeys - I wonder whether nor not that’s totally unrelated.
Yeah, I keep waiting and not seeing them. Major bummer, but the point you bring up about I:C is fair: perhaps in a more-just world Kailh would be giving them a cut of these sales.
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Novelkeys version seems to be slightly different than the original listing from what I remember. I believe the first ones were 3 pin versions but these are 5 pin. Also I might be wrong on this next part but I thought the originals were 62-67g bottom out but these are listed as 75g bottom out on novelkeys. Interesting.
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