deskthority

Please vote for your winner of the Best keyboard switch 2015.

By voting in this category, you can win ErgoDox PVC cases and keyboard carry cases from FalbaTech!

This is the final round. See the first round and second round for reference.

The final round ends on Monday 14 December, 20:00hrs UTC. You can change your vote until the end of the round. The winner and full results will be released soon after the vote closes. EDIT: The winner has been announced here.

The official nominees are:

Alps SKCL/SKCM switches
Introduced in the early 1980s, Alps SKCL/SKCM series switches, aka complicated Alps, are a design classic with a range from delicate, damped tactiles to succulent clicks; and an impenetrable vortex of no return for wiki writers the world over.


Classic clicky Blue Alps switches: jackpot!

Gateron switches
Gateron keyswitches are clones of Cherry MX keyswitches, and have a lot of buzz this year as the first worthy rival to the true Cherry. They have gained great popularity because of an innovation called "availability", that Cherry has struggled with, as well as a smoothness modern MX lacks.


You just better not be thinking of putting Cherry caps on these fellas.

IBM buckling springs
The famous, legendary, and downright notoriously loud IBM buckling spring is a mainstay of the mechanical keyboard realm. IBM made the king of click with an unusual design of switch where the spring buckles outwards instead of compressing. Buckling spring is at the heart of IBM's highly prized Model F and Model M families of keyboards.


Buckling springs from a 1996 Greenock blue label IBM Model M, made in Scotland, from girders.

Project Zealio switches
"Project Zealio" switches are a custom switch project by Zeal PC together with Gateron. The springs are gold-plate, the housings are fully transparent (not translucent), and you don't have to be <INSERT EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT COMPANY NAME HERE> to get them!


Project Zealio Purple prototypes, clear as ice.

Topre switches
Love/hate: take your choice. There's no ignoring Topre. Topre switches power the "Only one Made in Japan electrostatic capacitive non-contact type keyboard in the world". They're either the most overpriced domes on Earth, or magic inside the greatest keyboards in the world today.


Experience the "Feeling of oneness with cup rubber".

What kind of contest is this? Where's Cherry MX? Where's Cherry MY!?!? Gah!

They are both crap ! At least the modern ones anyway! ML should be in before modern MX and MY .

I can't believe that those fake Cherry keys made it into the contest.


But then, Cherry does not deliver or only at too high prices.

Muirium wrote: ↑What kind of contest is this? Where's Cherry MX? Where's Cherry MY!?!? Gah!

You giving us fake MX admiration now? And Cherry MY? I don't think so.

7bit wrote: ↑I can't believe that those fake Cherry keys made it into the contest.


But then, Cherry does not deliver or only at too high prices.

When a clone of your product as higher quality plastics and better availability you know your doing something wrong. I think cherry still has the edge on the springs just for consistency .

Great. Im forced to vote for RUBBER DOMES. What a travesty!

webwit wrote: ↑[…] You just better not be thinking of putting Cherry caps on these fellas. […]

Can someone explain what this apparently depreciative comment at the end of the Gateron entry means? Don't Cherry caps fit on the switch, or are Cherry caps too crappy for use with Gateron switches, or Gateron switches too crappy for Cherry caps?

Edit: edited typos, left unchanged otherwise

They will get stuck/jammed on some of the >1u keys.

shreebles wrote: ↑The housings are not a good copy either. Proper Cherry keycaps keep getting stuck on the top housings, so you have to sand them down or change them for genuine Cherry. Wtf??

Thanks!

Muirium wrote: ↑Great. Im forced to vote for RUBBER DOMES. What a travesty!

I know man, I know

derzemel wrote: ↑

Muirium wrote: ↑Great. Im forced to vote for RUBBER DOMES. What a travesty!

I know man, I know

Oh man, I can't wait to get a Topre to do a review on xD . Whatever I say half the community will be all over me like a cheap suit xD .

Chyros wrote: ↑

derzemel wrote: ↑

Muirium wrote: ↑Great. Im forced to vote for RUBBER DOMES. What a travesty!

I know man, I know

Oh man, I can't wait to get a Topre to do a review on xD . Whatever I say half the community will be all over me like a cheap suit xD .

Just open with...welcome to my review of the most expensive rubberdome ever...

I would vote for those Alps switches, or IBM buckling spring.

Those Gaterons are maybe even illegal, because they are not a genuine design!

Cherry MX's priority date was 1982-08-06, so the patents expired 2002-08-06. They're not illegal.

Still, they're Cherry MX clones, and the other choice is a rubber dome, so it really is a choice between Alps and BS.

They sell Cherry MX look-alikes for dumping prices and dumping quality, not MX-compatible switches at reasonable prices and quality!


Compare this to Alps clones from Matias or others.


To me, Gaterons are the fake Rolex of the keyboard world!

guk wrote: ↑They will get stuck/jammed on some of the >1u keys.

shreebles wrote: ↑The housings are not a good copy either. Proper Cherry keycaps keep getting stuck on the top housings, so you have to sand them down or change them for genuine Cherry. Wtf??

They are horrendous for this, I find this is a problem consistently on about 80-90% of my switches. Apparently they fixed it with the Zealios, but I ordered some from China recently and I still get the problem

I can't vote switches "best switch 2015" before really having tried them, and I would find it kind of ridiculous to see a switch win that most voters cannot possibly have tried for themselves, voting just based on the hype.

I have a few single Gateron (not Zealio) switches, and they do seem fine and smooth, but not "best switch 2015" fine.

This is a good year for Alps with the V60 and V80 boards and various project boards that support the switches.

The vote closes on Monday 14 December at 20:00 UTC. Vote now!

The two nominees with currently the most votes are (in alphabetical order):

Oh my, and I thought this was year of the Alps! Maybe next year!

I can tell this one is going to be close though. BS are timeless and everyone loves a good Model M or F. Zealios are the first switches designed from community feedback and take the already commendable Gateron and soup it up.

Don't vote for fake switches!


Vote for the real thing! Vote IBM!

One bad point about the Zealio switches is that apparently the melting point of the plastic used for the lower housing is a bit low. Several builders have experienced it melting when soldering.
I think I'll put the sliders and springs into vintage Cherry housings when I make my build... I'm not a fan of backlighting anyway.

Don't vote for cheap crap!

Vote for the real thing! Vote IBM!

7bit wrote: ↑Don't vote for cheap crap!

Thats not possible , cherry where not nominated

Alps SKCM is totally gonna.. Nope! Good luck to the other switches. If any of them need walking canes, I've got a few tooth picks left over from opening Alps switches.

Alps are only the flavor of the month, IBM has dominated this category for good reasons.

guk wrote: ↑Alps are only the flavor of the month, IBM has dominated this category for good reasons.

Disagreed. Strongly.