An introduction to Kailh switches, including Kailh BOX Switch

Cherry MX switches are the heart of many mechanical keyboards. However, Cherry is not the only company that manufactures switches today, and Kailhua switches from Kaihua Electronics of China are becoming increasingly popular.

Like Cherry MX switches, different Kailh switches have different colors and features. We will treat them one by one and explain how their design differs and how they are used.

Kailh manufactures switches whose operation is almost identical to Cherry's original designs. If you know Cherry switches, these Kailh alternatives require only a brief introduction: blue is a touch switch and a click, brown is a touch switch and red is a bright linear switch.

According to an Input Club test, there are some differences between the average Kailh switch and the average Cherry switch: the red switches require a little more power, the blue switches a little less, while the brown switch looks slightly different. More tactile Despite these changes, the typing experience is quite similar.

While Cherry manufactures a shortened linear switch, Kailh has created four different shortcut switches in Speed ​​Silver: Silver, Copper, Bronze and Gold.

The Kailh Silver switch is similar to Cherry Speed ​​Silver: an extremely light linear switch (27cN) with shorter run ranges (3.5 mm) and actuation paths (1.3 mm).

The Kailh copper switch is a soft touch switch with touch lift and an actuation point of only 1.1 mm over a distance of 3.6 mm. In combination with its light command force (40cN), it has a switch that is ideal for games and extremely fast writing, certainly the one you should try.

Kailh's bronze and gold click on the speed switches. This is interesting because the Kirsch click button, the Blue one, is also one of the heaviest and requires the greatest force to operate. In comparison, bronze and gold switches provide the same audible click feedback, but they have short acting paths and the minimum acting force of other speed switches: great!

The Kailh Gold has a more traditional construction, resembles a blue switch, but requires less power and can be used faster to make it more suitable for games.

The bronze switch is newer, with a second spring that provides the real click sound effect. The resulting switch is somewhere between blue and blue with respect to the required force (30cN, 40cN and 50cN) and the tactile shock distance (1mm, 1.4mm and 1.5mm).

Identifying a Kailh box switch is simple: look for the body of the box that surrounds the well-known cross-shaped MX bar. This housing protects the switch from dust and moisture and provides IP56 protection. However, the mechanism means that they are only compatible with SMD LEDs and not with (a little more common) via LED.

So far, there are four different varieties, each with different colors: Box Red, Box Brown, Box White and Box Black. If you know the standard switches, you can guess the features: Box Red is a lightweight linear switch, Box Black is a heavy linear switch, Brown Box is Touch and White Box, clicky.

It is interesting to note that each switch has the same movement and operating distances: 1.8 mm for activation and 3.6 mm in total. It is a bit shorter than standard switches, and you may feel a small difference in speed.

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