Kailh Box Switch Tester Mechanical Keyboards Retooled Sampler 9-Key Switch Testing Tool, with Keycap Puller and 18 O Rings, Navy Jade White Red Black Brown Yellow Blue Orange Switches

So if you know anything about mechanical switches, you know that the biggest brand is Cherry with their mx style switches. Now alot of other designers type of mechanical switches are direct copies of cherry's design, including some other Kailh type switches. These type of switches however, are rather unique and bring alot to the table that innovates making them arguably better than something like cherry's clicky based switches. Box switches are switches that are housed in.. you guessed it a box that encloses the switch. This reinforced stem leads to supposed better dust and water resistance. While this design sounds like it would be more longer lasting than cherry, which it may very well be, in terms of feel the switch is alot more stable and free from the play that cherry switches have and wobble. With most clicky switches from Cherry and other copycats use sliders that are separate from the stem in the form of a "click jacket". While this design provides decant enough feedback, it also introduces hysteresis, a phenomenon in mechanical keyboard switches where the actuation point is lower than the reset point. This makes the switch plainly really bad for double tapping and thus bad for gaming or for fast typing. Thus cherry mx style switches have always felt like they have a-lot of "play" since you have to let the switch all the way up almost before you can reactivate the switch again. For the Box switch, the slider is in one piece and uses the case to strike against a metal leaf to generate the click, called a clickbar. As the clickbar is mounted on directly to the housing of the switch, it does not disrupt the smoothness of travel and since the slider is one single piece, the Box switch does not have to rebound higher than the actuation point to reset, the feel is both more responsive and crisp when compared to the Cherry MX Blue switch. The activation point and total travel distance is shorter than Cherry, being 1.8m and 3.6m distance vs Cherry's 2mm activation point and 4mm travel distance. The sound is also alot more pleasing, not as loud as well and it doesn’t rattle as much either. Also the click bar with its design, provides feedback on the down stroke but also on the upstroke. The linear and tactile (non click) switches in this tester are very good, but they function similar to other brands and Cherry's. If you want smooth linear, look at Gateron, I got also a switch tester for Gateron and was blown away by there quality in smooth linear options in direct comparison to Cherry's. The star of the show is the Clicky variants. With all the qualities mentioned above, I think hands down they are much better than say Cherry Mx blue. In direct comparison to Cherry Mx blue is the Kailh Box white switch with both having very similar force curves. The box white just being better in every way though in terms of feel and sound. Perhaps my favorite switch of the whole group is the box jade switch. The box jade and box navy have a thicker click bar. The thicker click bar provides alot more feedback on both the downstroke as well as the upstroke. There tactility is crazy strong and puts others switches tactility to shame. The difference between the two thick clickbar options, is that the jade has a lighter spring than the navy. The keyswitches come in a nice plate system that keeps them secured down well (actually more secure than other switch testers). It also comes with a keycap puller which is nice because not all keyboards now a days come with that. Also comes with o rings which is also nice feature to test how you like the feel of them with the different switches. O rings will make the sounds more dampened, the feel of bottoming out more dampened as well, but also will slightly shorten the travel distance of the key switch push. This also happens to be a great fidget toy. My girlfriend and my sister love to borrow it and push the different keys and feel the differences between the switch types. They could care less about keyboards and switch types. I guess it's just relaxing/calming for them and anti stress inducing.

Not only did the tester come with the switches, but it also came with clear caps which made it easy to distinguish which switch is which. This set helped me finalize on my decision on which switches to get. This set also came with 2 pairs of o-rings which was a good bonus. Packaged nicely, and good quality plate that the switches stand on. Would definitely buy again. A+ seller and A+ product

THIS KIT: 4x clicky, 3x linear, 2x tactile. Throwing down switch specs below. It does the thing, switches are easy to remove, o-rings are provided, as well as a puller. Good kit. Bit costly for what it is, but it's a normal price. Format (hopefully it looks fine): Switch color Weight/Type Travel mm actuation/bottom Force operating/bottom Black Red Brown h lin l lin tactile 1.8/3.6 1.8/3.6 1.8/3.6 60g/75g 50g/60g 60g/60g White Pale Blue Dark Yellow l clicky vh clicky vh lin 1.8/3.6 1.8/3.6 1.8/3.0 50g/55g 70g/80g 70g/80g Burnt Or Jade Navy tactile lm clicky lh clicky 1.8/3.6 2.0/3.6 2.0/3.6 70g/80g 50g/60g 60g/90g More options would be great! Would prefer options with the full assortment of specific types. For example, I already know I like clicky switches. Kailh has a ton of clicky options, so zeroing in on a choice could be "in between white and pale blue" which should be a BOX pink, but there are no testers out there that cover all the options. A similar tester would be great across different manufacturers. MX Blue vs Gat Blue vs Kailh Blue vs Panda Blue, etc. Since the chassis for the tester already exists, it'd just be switches, at that point. Maybe something these guys could pull off.

This set is actually quite different from the cherry mx set which I’m really happy about. You can tell the difference in sound for most of them which I’m sure will vary when you put it in an actual keyboard. Quality is nice and while I’m not a fan of clicky switches on my keyboard it’s still really enjoyable to play with.

The switches are great and the switch holder is also very well made. The switches are held in tightly with no wobble or movement, but are still easy enough to pop out if you want to remove/rearrange them (press fitted, not latched into place.) I put all the linears in the top row, tactile on middle and bottom left, and clicky in the remaining 4 slots, all arranged by increasing force. My order goes: Red-Black-Dark Yellow Brown-White-Pale Blue Burnt Orange-Jade-Navy I appreciate that they provided clear keycaps, so that you can see the switches, and that they also provided 2 different batches of o-rings, as well as a keycap puller. This definitely helped me learn more about different switches as I build my first mechanical keyboard.

This is wonderful and exactly what I needed. I'm interested in jumping into the keyboard building hobby and this was a great place to start! I would recommend this product to whomever wanted to test Kailh switches for keyboard builds. They are all smooth and the tactile feeling of them are really satisfying. The construction is pretty solid. The rubber dampers are pre installed though.

I mean, it is a fine way to test what switches will feel like, but man, it's pretty expensive for that. I learned I like the jade (clicky) switches... so that's that. 15 bucks to know that the jade switches are what I prefer. Really wasn't worth the investment for me, but hey, now I know. It does it's job, but 15 dollars feels like overkill. Maybe like 8 dollars would sound about right.