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.
