What about smoothness when lubed ? Do we get a better than average ( lubed gatheron,outemu,cherry) smooth feel ?
Unfortunately, I’m not set up for lubing yet. And BOX switches don’t always take nicely to lubing. So I think we’ll have to wait for some more reviews and experimentation to trickle in.
What about stock smoothness ?
They are actually fairly smooth.
They are a little scratchy because of the dampening materials, but the actual keypress and feel is smooth.
I don’t know if the materials used are as smooth as Zilents, but because the BOX Silent Brown have a lesser tactile bump than the Zilents, they end up maybe feeling smoother.
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Ah, interesting! I’ll admit that when these went up I didn’t order them, despite being an avowed tactile fan; whether it was the years catching up to me or a legitimate data misconfiguration that was fixed after I looked, I recall looking at them and going “huh, weird that they only launched two silent switches that are both linear, and one of them is brown but labeled as a linear?” and going along my way. Ordering some to try out now!
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Tell me how the bump is, especially compared to say, Cherry brown - a silent, medium-tactile switch could be very nice.
The bump on a Cherry Brown is in the middle of the key-press, compared to BOX Brown.
The bump on a BOX Brown / Silent Brown is more like a ceiling at the top of the switch that has to be ‘broken’ before the switch plunges towards the bottom.
The bump on a Cherry Brown is kind of like an oval or circle when you press over it, like a popcorn kernel. But it is often granular and indeterminate. The BOX Brown is more definite, simply a resistance right at the top. Unlike Cherry Brown, there is no pre-travel with the BOX Brown. You feel the resistance as soon as you apply pressure to the switch.
In terms of tactility, I would rate the Cherry Brown at 3/10, BOX Brown at 4-4.5/10, and BOX Silent Brown at 4.5-5/10.
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Regular BOX Browns are already one of my favorite switches to use in actual practice, so the idea of a dampened switch that’s otherwise the same has me pretty interested.
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BOX Silent Browns are smoother than Cherry Browns, although maybe not as smooth as Zilents V2.
There is a scratchiness present in the BOX Silent Browns, but it is not as intense as Cherry tactiles, so it seems smoother by comparison.
Someone put up a video of lubed vs. unlubed BOX Reds.
According to this person,
The stock switches were pretty scratchy, a quality I could feel and even hear when typing slowly In my opinion, lubing them made them feel 25% better and sound 10% better.
Neither I nor others found the BOX Silent Browns particularly scratchy, but there is a scratchiness present in them somewhere, maybe a shuffling caused by the dampening material.
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I just got my hands on some silent box browns today, and there are at least a couple things I find really interesting.
1.) They are noticeably more tactile than regular box browns, which appears to be a conscious choice on the part of Kaihua. The reason for the higher tactility is a different leaf in the “box”. The bottom housings are the same as and interchangeable with those of regular box switches - and even though the top half of the stem is a different shape, the bottom half fits right in with other box bottom housings. So - when you put the top half of a silent box brown onto the bottom housing of a regular box brown, they feel a lot more similar.
2.) The top-housings have a different profile than most other mx-compatible switches, and at first glance it looks like this would eliminate the concern of north-facing switches vs Cherry profile / GMK caps. I’ll come back with some more definitive results soon, but this seems like a fantastic adaptation for a silent switch - as the ticking against the housing of north-facing silent switches is exactly what stopped me from using GMK sets on a couple of my boards.
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Yeah, the silencing aspects seem relatively-well thought-out here. And I find the new stem very interesting.
It took me some testing back and forth to realize the BOX Silent Browns are more tactile than the regular BOX Browns. It’s a problem for me though, because I find that when I clear the greater tactility of the Silent Browns, the stem slams to the bottom faster than with the BOX Browns.
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I’ll be making a more complete write-up soon, but I can confirm that North-facing BOX Silents play nicely with GMK / Cherry profile caps. Noice.
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Teardown:
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Here’s an evaluation by “Riverman” on another forum:
I just finished soldering these into a Das Keyboard 4 last night. I have to agree with a lot of what’s been said before. They’re very tactile right at the top, considerably more so than Cherry browns, but then they just collapse. After typing on them for a while this morning, my silenced Topre Type Heaven feels almost linear. The box browns really have that much of a bump at the top. These are definitely quiet enough to have in the office. They’re not quiet as Cherry browns with QMX Clips, but the travel isn’t reduced as much, and the box browns obviously silence the upstroke and downstroke, regardless of the keycaps used. I can’t say that about the QMX Clips. They don’t silence the downstroke on far too many keycaps I’ve tried. For now, they’re keepers, and I’m not instantly dying to replace them, which is how I felt about Cherry silent blacks on this same keyboard. The weight seems about perfect. The tactility will just take some getting used to. One thing I noticed is that these are easier to solder in crooked. It seems like the large alignment nub on the bottom of the switch is shallower than the one on Cherry switches, or possibly not quite as big in diameter. The zero key on the numeric keypad was crooked enough to make the stabilizer inserts bind, so I had to unsolder it and straighten it out. One Alt key is a little crooked, too, but maybe not enough to get me to disassemble the keyboard to correct it.
You can see a consistent theme that people comment on its greater tactility relative to the original BOX Brown. Also, the bottom-out is swift and hard for some, because of the greater tactility at the top.
I think that the tactile profile of the switch means that it will not be for everyone, as even BOX Brown is a relatively more gentle switch.
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Indeed. I do find it a little confusing they didn’t use the same leaf as the normal box browns, and the offer these higher tactility ones as another color, say clear.
Guess they’ll have to make a “Silent Light Brown!”
Hi there, first of all, thanks for providing all your test results, it is really helpful!
I am new to the hobby and I am experimenting with switches and looking for a silent linear switch for an office keyboard. I tried a sample of the silent Inks and REALLY loved them. I think they feel awesome and they are not even lubed/filmed yet. Regular Gat silents, not so much. I’d love to try silent alpacas, but they are pretty much impossible to find here. I am really intrigued with gazzew’s silent linears, but unfortunately I cannot give them a try unless I bought a set of switches. Now that you’ve tried the Silent inks, how would you compare the two? I know you’ve only tried the stem in a different housing then his, but still… Thanks!
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Greetings @stuk0v!
As far as the Outemu silent linears vs Gateron Silent Inks, here’s what I can tell you:
The Outemu’s are more quiet, but will have a less crisp, less stable feel, and will also have a softer-feeling bottom-out.
The Inks are more smooth and stable, and manage to retain a satsifyingly-crisp bottom-out. The trade-off is that the Inks make more noise when bottoming out.
On balance, I’d choose the Inks in most situations, and they’ve become one of my very favorite switches. I now use them in my office board and I haven’t gotten any complaints or comments, and I share a single office room with a few others, so I’d say they are safely quiet enough for work.
Aside: I’d also love to try Silent Alpacas - but alas - unobtanium! I finally managed to snag some Creams today - I wonder how fast they’ll sell out this time… ha! I got the Creams to put the stems in Black Ink housings; “Creamy Inks” are one of the most pleasant switches I have ever used - though of course they aren’t silent.
If somebody made a stem that was essentially identical to a Cream stem and with dampeners like Outemu silents or even the standard ones… we’ll that’d be really nice.
One more quick note - I just got some Outemu U4 silent tactile stems - newer versions of the ones I tested above - and they are significantly different. They appear to be specifically designed for housings like Pandas; they felt awful in Halo housings, but legit excellent in Red Panda housings. Once I properly have them in a board I’ll share some more info.
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Are the Inks better than Zeal’s Pink Rosélios & Sakurios?
TL;DR: Generally, I’d put Inks and Zeals on the same level of quality - but for reasons I’ll explain, I’d still recommend the Inks over the Zeals for now unless you prefer Zeal’s colors enough to spend more.
Gateron manufactures Zeal’s switches anyway, so it’s not too surprising to see them cater to the enthusiast community with their own products.
I have a few sample Zeal switches, but haven’t gotten to use them in a full board yet. Comparing individual ones, though, the smoothness is so close I can hardly tell a difference.
However - I’ll note that the example Helio (just like Sakurios, but 1.5g heaveir) switch I’m using has a flaw in common with all the other silent Zeals and normal Gateron silent switches I’ve seen - the top dampener pad is too short, allowing the stem to sit too high in relation to the housing and leaf, in turn negatively affecting the travel and feel of the switch. The Inks, however, do not appear to have this issue. (I imagine that subsequent runs of Zeal switches will have fixed this as well but that’s just speculation on my part.)
Most people don’t seem to notice or be bothered by this issue, but I’ve confirmed it with a few others and personally it drives me nuts - so just be aware of that possibility with Gateron-made silent switches excluding the Inks. (Gateron Silents, Aliaz, Zealios, Helios, Sakurios, Roselios)
One other note about the Helio that I have; the play is very minor, but there is a tiny bit of wiggle between the top and bottom housings. This can be fixed with switch films - but that’s more cost on top of the already expensive switches. The Inks that I have fit snugly together and don’t need films.
Even if they were identical, I’d go for the Inks because they’re at least ~20% cheaper. That said, we’re essentially talking about picking between two of the best possible options, so I don’t think you can go wrong here.
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