these are both Cherry Blue---why feel different?

[mike1127]

I love my first Cherry MX Blue keyboard, a Rosewill Model RK-9000V2. However according to Amazon reviews it's not that robust, so I ordered a Filco Majestouch 2, Model FILCKF15, assuming it would come with blue switches as well. The Amazon description does not say Blue, but the reviewers confirm it. The Filco arrived, and it seems the Filco is stiffer than the Rosewill. It hurts my fingers (I have RSI), but no pain with the Rosewill.

I popped a few key tops and the plastic color of the switch is blue in both the Filco and Rosewill.
How is this possible? Did Cherry recently change the down force of the Blue? Is the Filco really a Blue switch? Am I imagining this? (I don't think so--I'm a musician and pretty sensitive to the touch of keyboards.)
The Filco is unusuable to me as it hurts.

Thanks for any info!

[codemonkeymike]

There was a time a couple years ago when some companies switched away from Cherry for multiple reasons, one of them was Das Keyboards, I am not sure if it was the case with one of these companies. Another possibility is if you hit the switches off center they may Bing or require more force to click.

[Muirium]

Several manufacturers are moving away from Cherry's own switches to Chinese clones. Usually that's a bad thing, but apparently the clones are quite good now (and Cherry's have gotten worse over the years) so some clones like Gaterons aren't bad news. Not exactly a Filco kind of move, though.

One way to be sure these switches are Cherry MX: the Cherry logo on top. Pull a cap and look. No one clones the logo. You'll also see the stem colour that way. Could just be heavy MX black!

[IKSLM]

Measure the force, put some small coins (really small) on a keycap on both keyboards and see if it takes the same amount of coins to push the key down. This way you will see if there is an actual force difference or something else.

[cookie]

The one whose name shall not be spoken O'meter

[davkol]

There are differences between batches of the same switch.

However, that doesn't mean it's the case here. In order to avoid bias, you should measure force required by the switches, and/or do a blind test (which is easily doable with the same layout, keycaps and the rest covered in cardboard, if you have someone to swap the keyboards for you).

On a different note, we're talking about key mechanisms with peak force around 60 cN. If ~10cN difference causes you significant issues, I'm inclined to argue, that your hands are the problem, not the keyboard.

(Although, modern Cherry MX Blue switches, as in those made in last ~20 years, are mediocre at best, if you ask me, and the standard keyboard layout has its own share of problems.)

[gcardinal]

Also try swapping keycaps between boards. For instance Cherry G80-1000 with thin cheapo keycaps is quite a different experience from thick original double shout keycaps. Also for instance with Cherry MX-Board 3.0 G80-3850 I never felt that I was hitting keys in the center - that coused a lot of "sideways" action and overall bad experience.

So weight test alone will not illustrate this issue of "unlucky" combination of keyboard, keycaps and keyswitches. But again that what gives each keyboard its uniq feeling.