Alright...here is my quick and dirty love letter to Cherry Corp.
I will be letting my little bro test them out tomorrow was well, he is visiting from Cottbus and my first convert. Hes dying to try reds. Hes well on his way with the g80-3000 with blues, the g80-3000 with clears, a g80-1800 with blacks, a g80-11802 with browns from my different hauls. Ill post his thoughts as well, if hell let me.
Originally I was planning to make a simple list from most to least favorite, but I hate to go by the norms (kind of funny, considering im studying engineering, the field with the most norms and regulations...), so I decided to do this as a little story-ish essay including my entire life history (concerning keyboards).
My first mech was an old Apple II in grade school...never knew it was anything special. My first conscious mech was a board I picked up this february, when I decided to jump on the overclock.net bandwagon and try a mech board (yes, Im an OCN infidel originally). So I started with a Dell with black ALPS, switched to MX blacks...played with those for a while, then decided to ignore the girlfriend and just go with the blues. Then I found a 1390133 Model M...and that graced my desk for weeks. A month of alternating between boards followed until I nabbed a g80-11802 on ebay and found browns, which I thought were the best switch for me. Sadly, thanks to Ceesa that is no longer the case (damn you).
To the switches:
I wanted the box to try reds, the rest was more of a meh, whatever situation. Id already tried blacks, blues, browns, and clears...but I was incredibly surprised when I tried the ergo clears. More to them later.
Quick and dirty:
MX Black: hard switch, helped me learn to stop bottoming out, decent feel until I tried something tactile, now only used when I need something different. Fun for gaming.
MX Blue: incredibly fun to type on, audible and tactile feedback boost my productivity, fun stuff. Used solely for typing + work related PC work.
MX Brown: fun like blues without the "annoy the girlfriend" factor. My favorite allrounder, I can game, type, surf, and work on browns. I will be modding my G80-1800 with the browns off my 11802.
MX red: smoooooooth, a tad too light for me, but I think I could get used to it. I can see how some people love the switch, but I think with my sausage fingers using reds on my daily driver would end with me going batshit insane.
Ghetto Red: definite difference to true reds. Slightly stiffer feel, but more then that just a different feel...its hard to describe, but I think the easiest way to describe it is that I feel that the force curve is NOT exactly linear, but gets stiffer faster by a tiny bit then the true reds.
Clears: too stiff for me, my bro loves them...Ive always thought they feel...dirty. Just not right.
Ergo clears: this is my holy grail...Ive been considering keeping the pcb^^. They feel incredible. The tactile bump is definitely more pronounced, yet the actuation force remains at a brown level. Im going to have to make a board with ergo clears now, im considering swapping my entire g80-8200 switches out now.
Thanks you very much CeeSA, its your fault im going to spend more money again.
edit: Bro here.
Let me make this clear (teehee): Cherry Clears were alright for me for a while but I agree, they do feel too resistant somehow. I prefer Blues for typing and Browns for most other stuff. The Clear board is seeing little to no use these days. It just seems like Clears try to cater to too many needs and somehow don't meet any of them. They are nicer to type on than Blacks, better than some to game on and not as annoying to neighbors as Blues but altogether make for a mediocre feel under the fingers.
Anyway, here goes my take on these.
Ghetto Reds: feel like they will be incredonculous for gaming, but seem to have just a slightly less smooth feel than the
Reds: I feel they live up to the hype!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
Clears: great to learn how to not bottom out with a tactile switch but I have grown out of these. Not my cup of tea.
Blacks: Gamers who like linear switches and have muscular fingers will like these, coiuld be too stiff for some
Blues: it's always nice to know when your keystroke has triggered and unless you're listening to grindcore on your headphones at full volume you will hear it as well
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
Just kidding. They sound pleasant and seem to change pitch slightly when they age. Maybe older switches are different. Dunno.
Browns: hard not to bottom out but once you get the hang of it it's really nice. I prefer typing on the Blues but these are good for those late-night-papers you need to finish. Unless you like to keep your roomies awake. I've heard it happens
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
Clears with Brown Spring: somehow punchier than Browns. Want to try a full board with these. They give better feedback than Browns and have more resistance than Blues. Seems to me like this might be the best quiet typing switch. Definitely intrigued!
That's all, see ya folks!