Which Mechanical Keyboard Switches are BEST? Blind Test!

you finally gave in to peer pressure from your geeky friends and you're getting a mechanical keyboard but what key switches should you get now I'm on the record saying that Cherry MX switches are the gold standard but there are tons of keyboard enthusiasts who strongly disagree with that statement so today we are conducting a blind test he's no nowhere near me as a with no less than twenty two of the most popular key switches to see which ones people including me like clacking on best ruggable rugs are spill and stain resistance and also machine washable they'll stay in place with their non-slip pads and you can use code line is 15 to get 15% off your order and free shipping at the link below some of you may remember that we did do a blind key switch test in a previous video but today's test is way better and basically every way we're testing way more key switches all on the same board with the same key caps and with a way bigger sample size bar weird quirky test subjects oh I don't like this chair now we could have simply arranged all 22 keyboards around the room and let people wander around free range but we figured they would get too tired and unfocused to rigorously test each board so here's what we're gonna do instead we've divided the switches into three main categories tactile linear and clicky switches so each participant will actually do three rounds of testing that's right and within each round you only ever have two keyboards in front of you at any given time you just tell me if you prefer keyboard a or keyboard B and then I take away losing board and give you a new one and we use a random number generator to determine which order you experience the keyboards in to remove even more bias so you wanna get started I do alright then we'll begin with round one all the tactile keyboards hmm these are not the same what how are these even the same class this is surprisingly different so I'm so much more subdued quiet stealthy oh oh no oh oh yeah yeah he's even mechanical hmm it's kind of nice it's soft but not mushy I mean this this might as well just be a membrane Oh beautiful Oh am I gonna pick this one even though I didn't like it right away if her brutal no thank you I don't know this one this is my keyboard - Islands silence what's that this is okay this feels familiar very familiar easier to type on smoother these almost feel like they're more premium it's okay it's the Tesla I don't like this one quite as much I can't quite describe why this one's kind of chunky still feels a little membrane II that's my board Z Leo's v2 neat it's not like overpowering in the noise it's smooth it's very comfortable this one sings to me you hear that so much twanging this listen to that he feels a little I don't know thin maybe it's just a mechanical sound or the metal sounds wool that's heavy uh so he's gotta have some strong fingers they use this baby this one's weird it like takes more force to push down right away like the tactile bumps at the top but then it's kind of takes a lot of force throughout there's a lot of resistance which i think is what makes it feel mushy have you always felt like quality to me but I never liked typing on it as much that would be annoying for me I couldn't type on this all day I like them but there's no way I'd be able to type on them comfortably all day oh I hate that don't like that I don't like this one nope I feel like I'm at my eye exam all over again and you don't know if the answers you're saying or right but it's just all subjective so it doesn't matter unless there is a read wrong this is terrible I feel like I'm a typist in a courtroom drama stenographer this one's mildly more satisfying I I can't decide oh pretty similar maybe of tactile it's pretty light in the press it just doesn't feel like it takes as much pressure to type it's really easy ironing opposite I was saying if I'm typing I would like this one more and I have to choose this one yeah this one feels pretty good but I'm pretty sure it's a clone much maybe just like totally wrong I'll be pretty funny what Terry Brown nailed it oh really no I'd like Jerry Brown what a coincidence sweet yeah actually I think the keyboard that Linus has at home that I really like is a brown okay what what category we in then your linear cool this can be a tough one I can pretty much guarantee I'm gonna hate them all what was the relative death sort of like you know do you want poop or diarrhea like oh this is easier to type on than this one this is a bit more of what I wanted like a linear switch like really low force oh these Dilek was I mean they're not but they feel like it oh man you could really press these down quick keyboard v feels really premium for some reason it's like the switch just like has a tighter tolerance so it just goes in smooth and light quickly very smooth very easy to press you doesn't feel like a little bit more refined almost like this stroke is just smoother overall it feels so tight and just more premium for some reason right off the bat I like this one just like just the feel of it and what is my champion cold Oh six to nine tangerine Oh 62 grams I disagree then no huh yes yes I am a genius of a keyboard genius baby huh the sound and like it just feels like slightly smoother maybe I don't know if that's right but these are really easygoing I could type on these all day are they expensive new one oh is this um do you remember that oh my god okay these are very soft holy crap Wow fully typing on boobs oh god no nope [Music] yes I don't remember typed on something like this before it's fighting me it's kind of nice yeah it feels really nice I don't know so quiet stealthy it's like a stealth keyboard these are much heavier tiring and what she Wow so I guess some people must really like having a lot of resistance on their keys a what have I chosen let's play the lottery the rosa resilience was a Leo's like if I was out of Beach and I needed a keyboard to type on a keyboard this would be the one sounds like the way I know I don't think I like this either and my Dead or Alive I don't know just feel like blacks or something too much actuation for cool that is a detron ink black black ink oh boy really light there's kind of a gritty feeling to this I don't know does this feel as you're actually quite similar to this one over here mmm oh oh this is this is a tight race is this though similar these might even be the same thing for all I know oh these are really close but I guess I'm gonna stick with a Tullius I've never heard of that what's that like if you like linear cherry keyboards that's probably great I don't I just like things that are easy to type on and don't require much force is this a common one - oh can I go back to the one with the red ones on the bottom oh we didn't click he next you know I used to like a few chords I really don't anymore they're all out hey just the way people like them right it's like if you were like if you were like trying to type without bothering somebody and you're like I really do not like cookies which is Oh some more Jake's thing this is gonna be the best category yeah I already love it luckier stronger faster whoa whoa a sharp click the click on this is very noticeably different if it was cherry I would be very surprised I really like keyboard B it really gives me that very sharp feedback that I'm actually hanging things I was trying to piss off my roommate fool definitely this one this one's like I'm just pressing down and it's like okay yeah you're pressing boom all right that's fine this one's like engaged I have a feeling this one was polarizing cuz the click is very like affirmative yeah yeah I don't want to engage thrusters every time I click you're gonna run out of fuel that way it's like short-throw but like so nice something nope the more I type on it the worse it gets their mind okay these ones are slightly lighter than this keyboard what a monster and I think I'm like thanks they are a little bit faster but they do have a nice definite click you should try to live alone I'm sorry this one's definitely more cookie and part of me really likes that all right what do we got here sherbert sure bet sherbert sherbert sure bets sherbet sherbert sherbert sherbet sherbet sherbert sherbe sherbert that's a nice sounding switch it feels good stabilizations nice yeah they feel great where this one's like almost like grainier these feel a lot like blues the click is so emphasized that I would almost say that they're like fake blues I think oh yes I like I like clicky a lot more is a bit more familiar feeling I think this one definitely feels more like keyboards that I have experience with I'm trying to keep that bias out of the picture I think that these are blues but I don't know if you told me one of these was a cherry I would guess that it was this one I'm gonna guess that these are like the box Jade's or box Navis now this sound kind of hollow if I'm gonna pick a keyboard based on what it sounds like it better sound good this is a kale blue sure I think quite a few oh because they didn't have enough force oh this one really gets to feedback like you can really feel that you're typing this feels familiar oh the click on these switches wow that is aggressive it's like I'm on a typewriter it just makes you feel like you're getting into the mainframe it's almost fatiguing to listen to in the same way that when you listen to like really accurate high-resolution headphones that can be fatiguing because it's like too realistic it's so satisfying to click oh my god very heavy like brake force like there's a lot of resistance before it goes I think it's all in the way it just like travels down this feels are really tight I think if I had these switches in like my control and shift that would be cool or like on a numpad but I wouldn't want to be typing on these all day this feels horrible keep it okay done I don't know let's see box Jade I'm happy with that that's sick a new contender enters the ring oh so much louder though these are very obnoxious it's like if you want your co-workers to hate you oh the sound of those are brutal that is one generic ass clicky keyboard you like that nope Oh cherry goes to show you how personal a decision this is these are cliquey but not obnoxious the very swab I like them don't like that this was more like a oh I feel like I was writing it'd be good but I don't write that much yeah it's okay a little mushy I think this one right here also kind of weird it has the same sort of like not very much force lots of force not very much that feels odd nope just from a gaming perspective I would definitely go with B again is it the box white cool Oh seems pretty good I've never felt happier I still would not pick this actually because I like the other one better but silence they go back to cookie and then get a divorce that was actually a ton of fun and I am floored by the results that we got we saw a lot of the same switches winning again and again pretty much regardless of the participants apparent enthusiast level and then oddly enough cherry switches almost never won in the linear and clicky categories but the MX browns were by far the most popular among the tactile switches I don't know if that's because of weaker competition in the category or if it's because lots of participants we're familiar with browns so they just feel like home or maybe it's just plain old a good switch or some combination of the three funnily enough even though ideally Drive Browns I was one of the ones that didn't end up choosing Browns now guys of course we couldn't test every switch in existence we would have really liked to have included Logitech's room orgies for example but those switches use a different key cap mount so we would have needed a custom solution so in the end we asked the community and we tried to source most of the popular ones that they asked for big thanks to drop comm for sending over 25 of their control keyboards full of switches as well as Mykel at novel keys Henry at zeal generation and Jason at the key company for providing all these awesome enthusiast switches you guys are heroes and I'm positive there's gonna be a lot of people at our office rethinking their keyboards now that they know what's out there feel like my mind is open open to a message from our sponsor the Auris geforce r-tx 2080 Super has eight gigs of DDR six three HDMI ports three DisplayPort ports and a USB type-c their win 4 stack 3 X 100 millimeter cooling system helps keep your card cool and naturally of course it features RGB which is customizable through their RGB fusion 2.0 software given that it's r-tx it's got ray tracing for more realistic rendering of lighting and shadows and you can check it out today at the links in the video description so thanks for watching guys if you enjoyed this video and you're looking for you know what let's do a throwback call out why don't you check out our tour of the omron factory that we did with logitech where we checked out the creation of their romaji switches you know why don't we link the cherry factory tour as well I'd be pretty sweet how are these things made now you'll know is my head like oriented up in a weird way I almost feel like Stevie Wonder if you don't put that in

Channel: Linus Tech Tips

Views: 3,341,635

Rating: 4.7975841 out of 5

Keywords: mechanical, cherry, keyboard, switch, key, kailh, gateron, topre, tealios, tangerine, zealios, box, jade, navy, white, red, test

Id: dqai0_nnTgs

Length: 18min 28sec (1108 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/kcrackatoa]

TL:DR everyone prefers different switches so explore your options and have fun 🤷‍♂️

[u/josmu]

"may as well be membrane"

Me: uh oh

[u/GetMekd]

most liked tactile switch: brown

Oh boy

[u/PotatoPink]

ITT: People getting butt hurt because blind tests are a real kick in the groin to their biases. I'd bet over 90% of you gatekeepers would pick a different switch over what you think is your 'favorite' key switch.

[u/iamjoric]

A lot of enthusiasts hate brown switches. They be all like "nah bro browns are TRASH I can't even FEEL the tactile BUMP and the SOUND PROFILE is so God damned MUSHY you have to fucking go to MASSDROP and wait for 8 fucking YEARS after pre-ordering the zeelios burnt navy translucent blue box panda ROYALS then de-solder them and replace the base with royal black SPRINGS and LUBE them up with hg7364 if you USE hg7363 you're a FUCKING IDIOT I literally can't type on anything ELSE because everything else is FUCKING TRASH and RGB is for fucking KIDS and I'm a fucking ADULT that collects fucking KEYBOARDS."

but really the browns are pretty good.

[u/akimbra]

I don't think they should have added the enthusiast rating on the side, they are just memeing themselves at this point.

[u/ReiLurker]

I hope they release that desk mat. It's pretty nice

[u/mintiefresh]

I like browns.

[u/ModmobsOnReddit]

12:08 "Stabilization feels good-"

RUBS SPACEBAR