So I thought I'd give you guys my thoughts on some switches that seem to be super popular at the moment and for the last while. Please remember, these thoughts below are
MY OPINIONS and not scientifically researched theories. If you feel different, great, good for you, I don't feel like turning this into an argument, so please, play nice. These are my experiences and can be so different to others, and we all know how personal switch choice can be. It's like trying to argue with someone that the best colour is green!! Which it is, but that's no the point!!
The switches in question :
The
"FAMOUS/INFAMOUS" Kailh/Novelkeys CREAM Switches (FROM HERE ON KNOWN AS NKC's)!
I thought with such an amount of chatter on almost all forums, including this one, it was time for someone to take the plunge and give a solid quick opinion on these switches, and share my experiences with everyone.
Kailh/Novelkeys CREAM Linear Switches:
Contrary to popular belief, these switches are not particularly new on the market. They were announced in late 2018. They have just seen a massive spike in sales due to a famous Keyboard YOUTUBE personality (TaehaTypes - One of the most popular Mech Keyboard Reviewers/Makers/Designers) making a keyboard for another famous YOUTUBE personality (TFUE - One of the worlds most popular Fortnite players). This opened up the world of custom mechanical keyboards to a much wider audience, and especially the keycaps themselves. In fact, you can actually take this event (TFUE Keyboard) as the official moment when everything that had to do with custom mech keyboards became almost impossible to get your hands on, and the prices shot through the roof. It was always difficult to lay your hands on the stuff we love, and pricey, but things just got worse from here.
Back to the actual switches. The switches are Cream in colour throughout, which is actually a really nice look. It would have been cooler if they did the stems in a different unique colour, but hey it is what it is. These switches fall under the Linear segment of switches, and have a 2mm actuation with a 4mm bottom out. They have a force of 55g. They are manufactured from a material known as POM (polyacetal and polyoxymethylene), and these were the first switches to be made of this material from top to bottom: top housing, bottom housing and stem. This material is known for it's sturdiness. This material also has a specific characteristic of releasing a layer of it's own material for lubrication purposes. This has been marketed at "Self Lubricating", but this term is very misleading!! They will not feel like lubed switches after a little while, and in terms of Keyboard use case scenarios, these will probably never feel that much better than stock. Rumour had it that at around 20000 actuations, you would have broken these switches in and they would be way better than stock. I can confirm this in
not true, as I actually sat one evening and tested this theory up to over 50000 actuations(Nearly 4 Hours and a very tired hand), and whilst they did feel a bit better, they were nowhere near what lubed switches feel like.
The cost of these switches locally is R120 for 10 switches, which is dead inline, if not cheaper, with international prices. It puts them in the mid-high segment of switches.
So there are two very different experiences with these switches when it comes to stock and lubed. Massively more so than any other switch I have ever used. Most switches out of the box are actually quite good, and are used in everyday keyboards with no issue whatsoever. NKC's are a little different. Out of the box, these switches have a very loud scratchiness to them. Don't get me wrong, they are still smooth and this scratchiness does not affect the operation of the switches per say, but it is very noticeable in terms of sound. In fact, sometimes while I was typing with them, the actual noise coming from the switches was actually quite hypnotizing, and you can easily get lost in the sound and feedback the switches give you. I did quite a few times. But. not what we are looking for in a switch, well, not me anyway.
Then, I lubed them. The difference between the stock and lubed switch is night and day. Please don't mistake this for me saying they were the best switches in the world, it's just the difference is massive. The scratchiness disappears completely, and I mean completely. The sound of the keys change completely. The feel changed completely. It is literally like having two different switches. The force immediately lightens up, the sound gets deeper and the smoothness cranks up a notch or two.
Sounds great right?
Well yes, and no. You see, these switches have received a lot of hype over the last year or so, and that hype can be either great for a product, or if it doesn't meet those hyped expectations, it can be detrimental. This kind of fell into the latter for me. Whilst I don't think these switches are bad by any means, especially when lubed, I also think there are better feeling switches out there for the same or less money. For me anyway. Would I be unhappy with a keyboard with these switches fitted? No, not at all. But it's definitely not the end game switch I was expecting or that they were hyped up to be. The feel of the switches was very smooth, but not the smoothest I have felt before, in fact quite a few switches feel smoother than this for me. The sound was also good, but not as "thonky" as I was expecting, except in a specific setup which I will discuss a bit later. The overall feel of the actuation was quite good, so no issues there.
There is also a weird thing that that happened to me while using these switches. I found when typing fast, I was missing presses while typing. I first thought it might be me getting used to them or later I thought maybe it was an intermittent PCB problem, but it wasn't, it was the combination of my typing style and the switches. And I have no idea why it was happening. I can comfortably type on heavier switches no problem, and on lighter, so I really never found out why it was happening. Even on different PCB's, Plates, Keycaps and complete boards, this still happened.
But their is one scenario where I found these switches really performing well. Stick these on a keyboard with a full aluminium/metal case and a gasket mounted brass plate with a heavy brass weight at the bottom, and the sound from these keys is really really nice. Then again, in this scenario, a lot of switches sound really really good.
Final thoughts:
They are good switches but they
HAVE to be lubed. They perform well under most scenario's, but IMHO, I don't believe that these are the best out there with regards to what I have felt. The advice I would give is to try these on a Hot-Swap board and see if you like them. If you don't, you can move them on to the next person, but hey, you might find them to be your favourites, who knows? The POM "Self Lubricating" Marketing is a bit misleading, so don't rely on that at all. I did not have a single dead switch in the 70 that I got, and I had no issue with the actual operation of any of the switches at any point. I've now tried these in two very high end boards (Not Mine), and they seem to resonate a lovely frequency on metals. The more metal in your board, the better these sound.
Just for reference, I reviewed these switches in 2 different boards, a GK61XS and a TOFU 60 with Brass Plate and Brass Weight (All with Sound Insulation). I also got to feel them on 2 other boards for reference, with the same results and thoughts as on my boards.
Also, this opinion piece is not sponsored at all, and no one has asked me to do this write up, I just thought it would help a few people decide if they want to go down this path or not.
If you do want to get your hands on these locally, you can contact
@ctrlshiftesc_za or jump on their website at
www.ctrlshiftesc.co.za
If there were other people selling these in SA, I would also put them here as well, but there isn't, so tough!!!
Hope you all enjoyed and got some value out of this.