Mechanical keyboard specialist Cherry recently announced a new switch that delivers the characteristics of conventional Cherry MX switches in a low-profile format.
The Cherry MX Low Profile RGB switch measures just 11.9mm tall, significantly shorter than the 18.5mm of standard Cherry MX switches. They're also slightly smaller in terms of width and depth, checking in at 15.0mm and 15.0mm, respectively (compared to the 15.6mm x 15.6mm of conventional MX switches).
The German manufacturer notes that although the actuation characteristics remain almost the same, travel has been reduced from 4.0mm to 3.2mm.
Cherry's new switches, the first variant of which will be Red, also feature the company's Gold-Crosspoint technology with self-cleaning and anti-corrosive contacts. They're guaranteed to withstand more than 50 million keystrokes with no loss in quality. As an RGB product, the switch comes in a transparent housing for use with SMD LEDs (the kind that sit directly on a board's PCB).
Most people probably don't care much about the height of their desktop keyboard. Where a product like this becomes appealing is on the mobile side as the idea of cramming quality mechanical switches into a reasonably-sized notebook will no doubt appeal to many.
That said, the first product to feature Cherry's new switches looks to be the Blade Air desktop keyboard from Ducky Channel. No word yet on when it'll launch or for how much but in the interim, you can check out Ducky's Facebook page for more details.