Not All Linears Are The Same!
Figure 1: Not even all of these (mostly) KTT-made linears are the same! After all of my years of collecting, reviewing, and obsessing over switches, I can say with certainty that linear switches are the most misunderstood of all of the switch types. No, I’m not talking about mechanically either, as all of the claims of them “just going straight up and down” are somewhat kind of true. (Not too much though, don’t get that excited.) The part that is often misunderstood, though, is usually in what is being implied when people say that these switches just go straight up and down – “All linears might as well be the same.” If the title of this article didn’t make that obvious enough to you, I find that sort of idea to be completely and utterly wrong. The people who make these implications wouldn’t say that a Cherry MX Black is the same as a Novelkeys Cream switch? They also certainly wouldn’t ever claim that every Gateron-made linear is the same as every fancy TTC one out there...
May 29, 2024
I do a mix of writing text, coding, and gaming. I like a noticeable tactility, but low force; typing on my old rubber-dome boards is just torture anymore, and even the Alps scissors in my Thinkpad T60p feel like excessive work to me these days.
I'm looking at this as I've never had the opportunity to really try out Topre-style switches before (and real Topre is way too spendy for that kind of experimentation for me). One of the things I'm looking for an improvement in (besides lower force) is faster repeated keypresses... from a shorter travel and/or an actuation point that's easier to flutter around (the actuation being just below the tactile point in the blues makes this just awkward for me, I basically have to do a full stroke).
So... anyone think I'm likely to be particularly happy or unhappy with this board?