Thoughts on Switches Part 8: Gateron Brown

Firstly, I feel I should mention as amusing as it is I’ve never owned any Cherry MX Brown switches or keyboards. I found them always lacking tactility when I would test the keyboards in stores and would opt for other switches instead. Mind, part of it was also that when I was looking at prebuilt keyboards this was all prior to Cherry retooling their manufacturing so they were also frustratingly scratchy.

That brings us to today, where I’ve had my RK61 for quite some time and opted to get it with Brown switches rather than Blue or Red. I did this to add variety to my switches and to have a Brown-type baseline for future comparisons. For their keyboards this means Gateron switches for their keyboards. This is obviously nice to see as Gateron tends to produce some of the better switches on the market over some of the other MX clones. It also makes my research easier as Gateron data sheets are easy to find anywhere.

So, to the specifications. They’re a very lightly tactile switch with the typical 2mm operating point and 4mm bottom. They have a 55g actuation force and a 65g bottom out force. They’re noticeably heavier to, say, Red or Silver, switches but on the low end for tactile switches. The tactile bump is subtle, but fairly smooth for a dry switch. The tactile event is also at the actuation point so they are pleasant to use for that and won’t offer a disjointed experience where the tactility mismatches with actuation.

Gentle typing and a light touch is where Brown switches really shine. In my case I have a heavier hand when it comes to typing and find myself missing the tactile feedback when I’m on a typing spree. It’s why I liked my Cherry MX Clear switches when I had a keyboard built around those. They were still more subtle but having the heavier weighting matched better with my typing style. For typists with lighter fingers, I imagine they will find Gateron Browns as a pleasantly tactile experience.

As far as sound goes, these switches are higher pitched than other, more expensive and more tactile, options. They’re not entirely unpleasant but aren’t my favorite sounding switches, more middle of the road, I think. The greatest negative I notice is when typing there is fairly considerable spring ping with a handful of them. Most don’t have as strong ping to them but for the handful that do have that pinging it’s very up front and noticeable. I think part of that is that the ping itself isn’t very regular with a variety of pitches occurring with them. It’s the higher pitch springs that are most acute and irritating for me. Spring crunch is much less intense thankfully. But, for those keys with ping they are very pingy with the switch resetting.

For construction the switch housing is good. Not excellent, but far less wobbly or rattly than some other switches such as Gateron’s first revision of Ink switches. Stem wobble is what I would describe as typical with the east-west wobble being stronger than the north-south wobble for most of the switches. As there are multiple types of Gateron Brown switches it’s important to know these are their RGB switches. They have a white nylon bottom with an LED lighting cutout and a clear housing on top. For their full nylon, all black, switches or their “milky” switches in a milky white material, these qualities will be different. This also means they are of the three-pin variety rather than the 5 pin. Overall, the tolerances are adequate for a good experience but nothing to laud about.

I think this well describes the switches in whole really. They’re mostly quite nice, especially for their price, generally between $0.20-0.25 a switch. But they also suffer from uniformity issues. You will end up with a handful that feel rougher than the others. Or that sound worse or stand out from the rest. Some will wobble more than others. If you want a well matching set of switches for a keyboard, you’ll likely want to order extra switches even beyond what you might normally order. For such cheap switches this isn’t too much a bother, but it is still something to keep in mind when building a keyboard built from Gateron’s mainstream switch line.

Ultimately, Gateron’s mainstream switches are worth their value. They’re good clone designs of Cherry’s ubiquitous MX Switch lineup. They’re also far cheaper than Cherry’s own switches which are typically $0.35 a switch. I do want to get some Cherry Hyperglide switches in the future, to see how the new tooling has affected their quality as I’ve heard they are improved. But I have no qualms suggesting these as a good starter switch. I think with a bit of work, such as spring lubrication to cut down on the spring ping, they are a great option for lighter typists. If, however, you want heavier switches or stronger tactility, you’ll want to look elsewhere.