Why "Less Than Perfect" Switches Are Perfect For Your Mechanical Keyboard

The mechanical keyboard community has always obsessed over the newest, shiniest keyboards out there.

Never content to stick with the boards, caps, or switches from just a handful of months or years ago unless they were exceedingly popular, there's always a driving undercurrent to get the newest iteration or version of any given component.

Of all of the parts of a keyboard, I would argue this is most evident in switches as there have literally been multiple thousands of them produced in just the last 8 years, all largely based on the same Cherry MX switch design from the 1980s.

While this variety of offerings and constant improvements is great for consumers because it allows them to easily get their hands on exactly what they want every single time they go to build a keyboard, I'm not entirely sure that this drive for perfect switches is really necessary.

"Less than perfect" switches have a lot of benefits to them that you miss out on in the chase for the cutting edge, and I think the community generally doesn't stop to consider what cheaper, less perfected switches have to offer them.

In the event that you don't believe me, here's a couple of reasons why these "lesser" options may actually be the greater choice for you:

Switch Cost

While keyboard switches are far from the most expensive component of a fully customized build striving for the best of everything, for beginners they can be quite a substantial cost.

At a 'premium price' of ~$0.65 per switches, costs which aren't unreasonable for modern, high-end switches, 110 switches can end up costing almost $72.

This is a price I see newcomers to the hobby unwilling to pay for keycaps, let alone switches!

With budget-friendly, less premium offerings such as Gateron's EverFree line or Akko's entire lineup of switches, switches can be as cheap as $0.28 per switch at vendors like Kinetic Labs or even cheaper used on the secondary market.

In the event that you are worried that this might limit your options, though, it's worth pointing out that these budget friendly switch lines have only been getting more and more popular with each year, with manufacturers like KTT and HMX sprouting up in recent years to really fulfill this niche.

In this day and age you can get almost every type of linear, tactile, and clicky switch you want at a cheaper price point than what the bleeding edge has to offer.

Getting switches at half (or less) of the cost of what's popular right now is achievable with just a tiny bit of searching.

Modability

But Goat, if I buy switches that are obviously more scratchy, have more top housing wobble, or just sound 'worse' than what I want, doesn't that mean my keyboard will never be as good as I want it to be?

Not at all!

The nice part about buying more basic, cheaper switches is that they are generally more easily modifiable than their higher end counterparts.

Switches that are scratchier often come unlubed or very, very lightly lubed from the factory making them incredibly easy to open up and lube over top of without having to fully clean out each part like a more heavily lubed premium switch.

Top housing wobble and sound can just as easily be perfectly tuned to your tastes with switch films as well.

And that's before you even try 'frankenswitching' before you mix and match parts from switches to get one truly unique to you – something which could even net you two or more unique switches if you mix the right parts together.

While it might seem like modding switches will ultimately cost you more money than just buying perfect switches the first time around, this isn't the case.

At first the tools to modify your switches such as lube, film, and a switch opener might cost you ~$30 from a company like Kinetic Labs, but they can be used over and over again to modify multiple sets of switches.

So in reality you could buy two sets of switches at half the cost of a premium set, tack on an extra $30 for tools and end up with two perfect-for-you sets of switches with just a tiny bit of effort and time.

Unique Character

Both of the previous points above fundamentally assume that all users want perfectly smooth and stable switches that are the pinnacle of keyboard technology.

And while most people may want that at first, not everyone wants truly perfect switches.

In fact, most users who have been around for many years prefer the "less than perfect" options after a long time in the hobby.

Switches which are perfectly lubed tend to all feel and sound the same as one another.

Tactiles all largely became the same as one another back when they were incredibly popular from 2020-2022 as well.

But you know what still stands out as unique all of these years later? The scratch and depth of Cherry's switch housings. The depth, roundedness, and decent smoothness of Gateron's opaque switches.

These unique features even extend to tactiles too with classic Cherry MX Browns and dirt cheap Gateron Aliaz switches have tactile bumps that have yet to be replicated all that well to this day.

While each of those switches and types named above have clear and obvious flaws with them, the more subtle imperfections make them unique and enjoyable in their own ways.

After having tried almost 4000 switches myself I still use unmodified Cherry MX Blacks on my work keyboard because I enjoy their weight and love how they've slowly begun to shift in smoothness and weight over years of me working with them.

There's a uniqueness to the imperfections that make switches not just more memorable and enjoyable to the specific user, but also cement their legacy in keyboard history!

After this short list of reasons about why less than perfect switches may be perfect for you, I'm not sure how you could come away wanting to spend top dollar on switches again.

Unless they're truly unique in what they offer, which does still happen among premium switches today, the cheaper, discounted, or even "old" switches from previous years still have a lot of room to offer for you to get exactly what you want.

Even if you don't want to modify them, just enjoying them for what they are is perfectly acceptable too.

If you did want to modify your switches though, or even just learn more about switch offerings that exist out there, consider checking out some of my other articles here on Kinetic Labs such as Lubing Keyboard Switches: Tips & Techniques or Keyboard Switch Testers Are Underrated!