Cherry Viola switch delivers mechanical feel at membrane pricing

[Shawn Knight]

What just happened? Mechanical switch maker Cherry waited until the final day of the Consumer Electronics Show to announce its latest product. The new Viola mechanical switch is a value-oriented product built on a solder-free design that offers 2mm of pre-travel, 4mm of total travel and 45 cN of actuation force.

The Viola switch uses an industry standard cross-stem design for attaching the keycaps. They are hot-swappable and fully compatible with LED lighting systems that seem to be all the rage with gamers these days. The team at Cherry spent over a year designing the new switch, we’re told, and will be building them in Germany alongside their other switches.

In testing, TechCrunch said the switch resembled a quiet MX Brown switch. Tom’s Hardware noted that it had a less tactile and clicky feel than other mechanical keyboards and was somewhat quieter, too. Despite those characteristics, it didn’t have a mushy, low-profile feel like a membrane keyboard, the publication added.

Cherry hasn’t yet provided guidance with regard to how many keystrokes the switches will be rated for although that will likely come as we get closer to launch. The first Viola keyswitch-equipped keyboards should be coming down the pipe soon starting around the $50 mark.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/83498-cherry-viola-switch-delivers-mechanical-feel-membrane-pricing.html

 

[Axiarus]

Or just go Kailh.

 

[yRaz]

What about noise level? I remember in highschool when I took "keyboarding" I held the record at 192 words per minute. The noise the keyboards made at that speed was absurd. 15 years later, I type at a more reasonable speed of 60-70, lol.

I memorized the lesson and didn't have to look book, because those were things we still used in highschool

 

[Lew Zealand]

I cheated in HS typing class and looked at my fingers. The only time I didn't was to look at how the Selectric ball was able to position itself to impact all the different letters onto the page. Still can't type worth a damn though I buy mechanical KBs to make me feel better about myself.

Don't cheat in school, kids!

 

[captaincranky]

I cheated in HS typing class and looked at my fingers. The only time I didn't was to look at how the Selectric ball was able to position itself to impact all the different letters onto the page. Still can't type worth a damn though I buy mechanical KBs to make me feel better about myself.

Don't cheat in school, kids!

I was commenting on this the other day. Way back in prehistoric times, when we rode the big yellow dinosaur to school, they really didn't stress typing for the boys. They sent we, "encourageables" off to wood and auto shop.

Which brings me to the punchline. Micro Center sells mechanical keyboards for $3.99..! I can't type worth sh!t, once the paint wears off the letters either. But with the letters intact, I type twice as fast, with a quarter the mistakes.

And you know what, when you dump your coffee and jelly from the donut all over on of these four dollar wonders, you heave it in the trash, and crack out a new one.