How tactile are Razer clicky optical switches?

[Sh0ffle]

Has anyone tried any board with these?

[Ilostmytoeinvietnam]

I have tried a board with them, but not because I went and bought one or something, but they actually did a thing at my local target where you could try razer purple optical switches. also I have a friend who bought a tournament addition a while back, and it came with razer green. as far as I could tell, the tactility was very subdued. I had to type on heavy linear's before hand (alps skcc cream gang) just to be able to feel the bump when typing at speed. unless you wanna have an apple m0110 laying around just to feel the tactility of the clicky tournament edition, I wouldn't go for it. the one at target (the one with clicky optical) was noticeably smoother then the contact based ones, but the tactility was very similar. if you want good clicky, go for kailh box white/jade/navy/pink for mx based, and for everything else, look at chryossran22's video about the best clicky switches. all off them are vintage, so if you could find them, go for whatever he lists over the kailh switches that I just listed. if you want mx based, the ones above are the best ones on the market.

[Sh0ffle]

Yeah, I've seen a lot of Chyros videos, the MX type switch I'm definitely more interested in right now is the Zealiostotles mod, I'll see if in the future i could create a keyboard with these. IDK about box switches really, i heard that it can fuck up the stems of some keycaps.

About the topic of Vintage Boards, I'm definitely looking forward to getting keyboards with ALPS SKCM/SKCL or Buckling springs as I did not live at that time (I'm currently 18) and I'm also surprised about the fact that A lot of Vintage keyboards are a lot better, all you see today is mostly cherry MX really.

[sharktastica]

I'm also surprised about the fact that A lot of Vintage keyboards are a lot better, all you see today is mostly cherry MX really.

In short, as Chyros in one of his vidos (maybe the Model F round-up?) in fact explained, the good vintage keyboards come from the age where serious business computers were built to last forever. Something that could be achieved by the sheer revenue these early systems (mostly IBM and their compatibles and early Macintoshes) could pull in and be used for R&D, better material, etc. And coming from the age of typewriters, many people expected a solid and mechanical experience. That changed once PCs became an expendable commodity in the '90s and rubberdomes took over, and we lost Alps and IBM/Lexmark decided to give up on buckling springs. Only relatively recently has PC gaming and vocal typing enthusiasts allowed a widespread reset and resurgence in mechanical keyboards, and Cherry MX (that managed to survive the '90s) took over.

In all fairness, however, the home micros of the period (the equivalent to what most PCs are today) almost always had lackluster keyboards by comparison - as much as I love the Commodore 64, I don't like typing on them at all. And let's not mention the ZX Spectrum... Even Big Blue sinned at one point with the PCJr keyboard. Keyboard quality has always been diverse/a mixed-bag, it's just we dont have to talk about the bad ones often since they're longer being marketed to us.

[PlacaFromHell]

Has anyone tried any board with these?

I tried the Razer green from a Blackwidow and they feel like a linear switch with a clicky sound, absolutely linear.

[Rauha]

Do you mean these purple switches?
https://www.razer.com/razer-optical-switch

They have roughly same tactility as MX blue, but are smoother feeling and much nicer to type with. Sound is unfortunately also very clicky MX like. Not quite the MX blue level 'ear rape without any lubrication', but still a clear deal breaker for me. Could not use them solely because of the horrible noise.

However, I have only tried them few times in stores, so above is quite anecdotal opinion.