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38 Sold
Product Description
Named after the Arctos bear native to California, these switches pack a powerful punch. Tactile by nature, they come in two variants: a 65- and 72-gram variety Read More
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I didn't buy these through drop but and I'm not a tactile switch person but I actually really enjoy using these switches. I feel like the transition from the tactile bump onward is a really smooth transition. And the feedback though the upstroke feels really immediate compared to some of the other tactile switches I've felt. Maybe they've made some corrections since they were sold on drop, I got mine through Kebo.
Alright, so I bought the pack of 110x72g of these because I wanted to replace the switches of a cheap full-size keyboard without lubing all of them myself (spoiler: I had to lube them anyway). First off, the switches themselves came loose in the shipping box, like literally cut open the cardboard box and you see the receipt from Massdrop, a sticker featuring the mascot(?), 2 of those plastic air pouches for padding (they're now deflated because the pins of the switches poked them flat), and the switches all over the place. Kinda concerning provided that I'm paying a fairly premium price for these guys, at least keep them contained in a reasonably sized ziplock bag. So I'm playing with them now, putting it up against my ear and I then hear that nasty spring ping, which I fucking hate, so I need to open them up and lube their springs. Granted, their site doesn't say that the spring is lubed, just the stem at certain locations. They're also fairly scratchy, but it's a tactile switch so I'll cut some slack there (I shouldn't though because they're $0.61USD/switch !!!). I tried lubing the stem with Tribosys 3204 and Krytox 206 in the same manner as shown in "How I Lube MX Switches with Thin Lube" by Taeha Types in an effort to reduce scratchiness and experimented with lubing and not lubing the legs, but they're still just as scratchy lmao, so I just stuck with only lubing the spring to remove ping. As I'm typing this out, I've lubed around 60 switches, and lemme tell you this: there's no quality control at all. 12.5% of them should not have passed quality control at all, they're just duds that are basically scratchy linear switches, and another 12.5% I can't get rid of the spring ping no matter what. A few switches' pins have split into 2 (imagine this), like how does that even happen? The tactility is also not consistent, and I believe that is caused by the inconsistent factory lubing and inconsistent leaves. The only redeeming quality is the "medium" amount of tactility that they have, which only occurs when you wipe off the inconsistent lubing on the legs and when the leaf isn't shit either. More than MX Brown, Pro Purple, Aliaz 70g (which are basically linears to me), but less than Zealios 67g V2, Box Royal, and T1 (all the tactile switches that I have touched). At the end of the day, I'm thinking that I could've bought a $1 ice cream from McD, every day, for the entirety of summer, instead of these shitters, and I live in Canada too, so that's not like 74 days of ice cream, that's like 100 days of ice cream.
OK, I've lubed enough switches, and now I've soldered them on. They're basically MX Browns, so scratchy af, but they actually have tactility now. Also they have this stupid tendency to not want to completely reset after you press them, as if something was holding it back. An appalling typing feel, and an absolute waste of money and time. Never again.
The R1 of this switch was so notoriously shit that once I tried them I didn't even think they were worth the time to type a review. They're "Factory Lubed" in the way that Corsair keyboards use "Aircraft Grade Aluminum." The fact that at least 36 people were suckered into buying these abominations is well beyond my mental capacity. I feel bad for them.
TLDR: They're shit.
PS: lul, 37 now. The poor sap.
Forgive my ignorance but how does plating a spring in rose gold make any appreciable difference? Does rose gold have significantly different properties than yellow gold?
I'm a purchaser of the R1 Arctos switches. Namely the 65g variant. They're not very nice to use. Scratchy, weird bump and displeasing sound. Unless they've changed the tooling for this round, I suggest you avoid purchasing these switches for they only belong in the trash can.
xKasterborousJeez. Some people on Reddit liked this, but enough also had your experience. Happy I went with some T1s, even if I think they're overly heavy. I have some 55g and 62g springs to experiment with.
rampantandroidGood to know. T1's are nice zealio alternatives. The people praising this switch were just inexperienced/or paid for by the maker for good reviews. I honestly can't see how anyone can give Arctos positive reviews.
A comment on a reddit thread about these:
"The 65g Arctos are the most unsatisfying and scratchy switches I've used so far. Sometimes it has trouble going up on the upstroke as well."
The thread has other people calling them scratchy. I guess a positive is that the company seems responsive - don't know if they resolved any of these issues.
If you want cheaper tactile, get some T1s instead.
ChiragRPIt seems like the factory lubing is wildly inconsistent, what is said of the arctos in the review is probably not true of everyone's experience, myself included.
We need comparisons! Force graphs, comparisons with MX Browns, MX Clears, V2 Zealios, Aliaz...we know nothing other than the fact that these are tactile, and presumably not clicky.
Since they’ve moved away from a purely group-buy model, “Drop” should be selling testers with each of these drops. I know you can get them elsewhere but since many people are introduced to new switches through here, this would make total sense and you’d probably see more people join these drops after trying a sample. It’s a better alternative to relying on purely anecdotal accounts from other people with different typing habits and preferences. Force curves would be helpful too, but don’t find them totally reliable and says nothing about scratchy ness and sound. Nothing tells you more about a switch than actually using one.
StreakInTheSkyGreat idea! The "Mech Keys" community—sorry, "Interest"—is pretty impoverished compared to others. It usually has well under 20 drops at a time (there are 13 right now). I think having a (Mass)drop-branded switch tester on permanent drop would make a ton of sense, in addition to including even a cheapo tester with all switch purchases.