Mechanical Cherry MX
Mechanical Cherry Keys
Cherry is a company that was established in 1953 in US, but Headquarters were moved to Germany in 1979. It has four divisions, and the one that is the most interesting in relation with this review is that they are responsible for the mechanical switches. Cherry MX was marketed around 1985. They are mainly referenced by the color of the key stem.
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Switch type |
Click |
Tactile |
Linear |
Actuation force |
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Cherry MX Red |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.45 N |
|
Cherry MX Silent Red |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.45 N |
|
Cherry MX Speed Silver |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.45 N |
|
Cherry MX Nature White |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.55 N |
|
Cherry MX Black |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.60 N |
|
Cherry MX Silent Black |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.60 N |
|
Cherry MX Linear Grey |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.80 N |
|
Cherry MX Brown |
No |
Yes |
No |
0.45 N |
|
Cherry MX Clear |
No |
Yes |
No |
0.55 N |
|
Cherry MX Tactile Grey |
No |
Yes |
No |
0.80 N |
|
Cherry MX Blue |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
0.50 N |
|
Cherry MX White |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
0.50 N / 0.70 N |
|
Cherry MX Green |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
0.70 N |
MX Clear switches are very known on the market. Mechanical switches give you a more perceptible feel when comparing to the rubber membrane used in most of the cheaper keyboards. On the gamers market, mechanical keyboards are gaining the share very fast. Performance is good, the reliability is outstanding, what more can you ask for? Aaah, yes – full key rollover (but can you push more than 10 buttons at once?) and anti-ghosting. MX Reds (other variants of Corsair RGB MK.2) are possibly the best ones for first-time buyers. Why’s that? Well, 45 g of actuation force, linear response and quite rapid bounce back are the features that make it possible. The MX Silent is quite similar, but is … yes, more silent. During the time spent with these keyboards, you’ll get used to typing faster, and not be bottoming out the keys. In fact, there are switches that better for writing, e.g. MX Browns/Blues. The RGB Cherry MX Silent switches should resist at 50 million key presses, but that’s not what I’m going to test. You’ve got the warranty if it breaks, right? Keycaps are made of ABS (unfortunately not PBT) that is translucent to enable the back-lighting. PBT is offered by Corsair, but that costs an additional 50 USD. If the keycap is removed, you can see the LED directly.
The keys are slightly curved. You can replace WASD (for FPS) and QWERDF (MOBA) with ease, by using the provided keycap puller tool. You just pull up the keycap with a bit of force and lift from the spot. Replacement WASD keycaps are dimpled and more curved than the default keycaps. That does give them a different feel compared to the standard ones. Of course, you don’t actually have to put them in, as you can stay with the default configuration. That feature can come in handy if you type/game a lot and letters are vanishing.
