When Input Club and Massdrop - oh, sorry, I meant Drop - had a feud on mechanical keyswitches, Input Club settled and made their own 'Hako' flavor of tactile switches. What I have here today is the Hako Violet by Input Club, one of the lightest if not the lightest tactile switch I have ever used in my life, at just a 50g bottom-out from what I researched online about this particular switch.

The Hako Violet is the brother of Input's Club Hako line, next to its siblings, the Hako Clear and the Hako True. All three of them are tactile switches and share the same Kailh Box design used in similar switches such as the Kailh Box Jade, Kailh Box Navy, and Kailh Box Heavy Burnt Orange, so they all include a remarkably boxy stem to prevent dust and moisture from entering the housing. My Kailh Box Jade review of which you can read here.

As mentioned earlier, the Hako Violet is a tactile switch. Opening up the switch and taking a look at the stem, there is a noticeable dip in the leg of the Box stem. In my opinion, the Hako Violet isn't noticeably more tactile than an MX Brown, but is still soft enough to be satisfying and indicative of actuation. I believe this is due to the inherently lightweight nature of the entire switch as a whole which emphasises the sharpness of the tactile bump.

My favorite thing about choosing this tactile switch over a mainstream MX Brown is the consistency of the switch's actuation. The Box stem is great for minimising stem wobble as well as promoting as consistent actuation on the keypress across an entire keyboard, as there is so much more surface area for the stem to slide down, making them extra smooth.

Out of curiousity, I lubed the sides of the stem with thin Tribosys 3204 lube and I found that it did not enhance the smoothness of the switch in any way. I believe this may be because the switch is inherently smooth thanks to the design, and also that the Box stem sticks further out which leaks out lube when not pressed down.

Input Club have done an excellent job at creating a switch which is smooth and tactile and that is all thanks to the Box-style switch. While I don't think the tactility is any better than a standard MX Brown, nor is it more extreme than a Zealios V2 switch, the switch's strong point lies in the consistency of actuation and smoothness of actuation.