Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsNon-Cherry Switches on a Sub £30 Board?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 December 2017
There is a few people asking about the key switches and people seem to be saying they are Cherry switches.
These are *NOT* Cherry MX switches. They have an MX compatible stem, which means any keycap made for MX switches/clones will fit these keys.
At this price point I knew I would not be getting Cherry switches. Cherry's are made and designed in Germany. And Cherry do not sell them cheap. Normally 99% of key switches do not come with LED's pre-installed, that's up to the manufacturer of the board to fit. For a decent Cherry board with no LED's, you can be looking at £65+ from sellers.
I received the keyboard tonight and had a quick look and type test on it.
For the price point, this keyboard is pretty decent for a mech. The LED's a bright and vibrant, they have a few flashy modes they can go through (if you like that, I mainly got it so I can program in the dark).
I had the keycaps off as soon as I got it, inside the box you will find a keycap puller. Not the greatest one but does the job. On further inspection the LED's are inside the key switches it seems and not propped up on the switch itself, which is good for avoiding ESD and blowing them.
The switches themselves are C&K Chinese Cherry MX clones. Cherry's patent on the switches ran out which meant anyone could manufacture the same switch without issue and undercut Cherry. One of the most popular gaming brands Razer, used to use Cherry switches but they since moved to a Chinese cloned key switches too via various manufacturers. I only know of one gaming branded keyboard that uses Cherry MX switches, and that is Corsair. SteelSeries use their own (save for the M500, which uses Cherry, but it isn't the main branded keyboard they sell), and so do Logitech.
However just because they are not Cherry, does not mean they are not decent, especially for sub £30.
You do get a decent switch, good sound and a decent enough tactile feedback for the price point and I am very happy with this purchase.
If they die out in 12 months from heavy typing all day everyday, I would happily purchase another board with these switches.
I would give 5 stars but I'm knocking one off for having a US layout instead of a UK one.
EDIT: 28th of December and this board is still going strong. All day. Everyday. It’s outlasted Razer and Corsair boards that cost over £100. Even the LEDs are still fine (they’re on 24/7). For this. It now gets the full 5 star rating.
