Cherry is introducing a new model of keyswitch for inclusion in its own and partner-made mechanical keyboards. The Cherry MX RGB Nature White is a linear switch with an actuation force of 55g but without an audible or tactile pressure point. If you have experience of typing upon various Cherry MX switches you will find these new White switches to offer the same experience as MX Black and MX Red but sit between these two types - in the amount of pressure required to register a keypress.
For reference I have put together a bullet point list showing how the Cherry MX RGB Nature White sits among the different MX switches available from Cherry:
- Cherry MX Grey switches: linear, 80g actuation force
- Cherry MX Black switches: linear, 60g
- Cherry MX Nature White: linear, 55g
- Cherry MX Red switches: linear, 45g
- Cherry MX White switches: tactile soft pressure point, 80g
- Cherry MX Clear switches: tactile soft pressure point, 65g
- Cherry MX Brown switches: tactile soft pressure point, 55g
- Cherry MX Green switches: audible click pressure point, 80g
- Cherry MX Blue switches: audible click pressure point, 60g
Some of the most popular keyswitches above are also available in RGB lit and 'silent' versions. The newly announced Cherry MX RGB Nature White is, as you can tell from the name, available initially as a 16.7 million colour RGB lit keyswitch. As with all Cherry MX switches, it employs Gold Crosspoint technology, offers a short bounce time for fast typing and is rated for over 50 million keystrokes. These self cleaning keyswitches offer consistent lighting via their scattering surface lens and are engineered and made in Germany.
The Cherry MX Black and MX Red are especially popular in the gaming community. The non-click design and fast bounce time lets gamers register multiple keypresses extremely quickly. Cherry thinks that offering a 'Goldilocks' switch between the Black and Red keyswitch designs might prove popular with keyboard makers and users and keep it ahead of the competition.
If you think people might be confused between the MX RGB Nature White and MX White keyswitches – Cherry has already thought about that: "In naming the new switch, CHERRY has consciously opted for the complex designation 'MX RGB NATURE WHITE', to further push its linear and natural-looking properties to the foreground. This avoids confusion with the tactile MX WHITE, which is now discontinued from the CHERRY portfolio," said a Cherry press release.
We've seen Cherry chose a 'launch exclusive partner' before, Corsair got 6 months exclusive permission to use the Cherry RGB switches and the 'Silent' switches, when they were first launched. With the MX RGB Nature White switches Taiwan-based keyboard specialists Ducky will be Cherry's launch partner. The first product to use the new linear switches will be the Ducky Shine-5 keyboard.
