They are not cherry switches which is a personal thing, I have cherry mx Blues and I love them, some argue that gateron are the same but I have never tried them in person to know, the thing about massdrop is that it takes forever to ship stuff, I bought my mouse from them and it was over a month so if you are set on that one I would get it on Amazon instead if it is the same price. With that keYboard I do not think the backlighting can change from that I thInk it will always be that rainbow color, up to you if you want that or not.