optomechanical key switches: useful, or marketing gimmick?

[dstarfire]

bought a Corsair K100 with "optomechanical" key switches. These activate somewhere near the bottom of max travel, but there's NO feedback or feel to where that actuation point is. Are there any scenarios or use cases where this is BENEFICIAL? Or is it just a marketing gimmick so they can include "mechanical" in the description without having to actually pay for expensive (due to demand) switches?

 

Quite a few times I inadvertently fired off an ability just by resting my finger on a key in preparation for using it.

[RONOTHAN##]

2 minutes ago, dstarfire said:

but there's NO feedback or feel to where that actuation point is

You're describing Cherry MX Reds. It's not a bug, it's a feature. 

 

Some people like the feel of a linear switch. I'm not personally one of them and you'll have to pry my MX Blues from my cold, dead hands, but I know people who really enjoy typing and gaming on switches with the linear feel since it makes it easier to feather the actuation point once ou get used to it . 

 

4 minutes ago, dstarfire said:

Or is it just a marketing gimmick so they can include "mechanical" in the description without having to actually pay for expensive (due to demand) switches?

They are mechanical switches though. They have stem, individual springs, and overall a very similar design to MX reds, it's just that the actuation is caused by breaking a laser beam instead of metal contacts making contact. Due to that laser it would likely be more expensive to produce than a normal MX red, so price likely isn't the reason why it's implemented. 

 

I'd expect them to be slightly more consistent than MX reds, though I wouldn't expect them to be noticeably better to 99% of people. It's a bit of marketing IMO, but at the same time it might have a longer life span since metal won't get worn down (don't know for sure, it's been a while since I've looked into those types of switches).

[saintlouisbagels]

Uh wow RONOTHAN## really thoroughly answered your question.

 

17 minutes ago, dstarfire said:

These activate somewhere near the bottom of max travel, but there's NO feedback or feel to where that actuation point is. Are there any scenarios or use cases where this is BENEFICIAL?

It sounds like you don't like the 'linear travel' of MX Red-type mechanical switches. You should looking into MX Brown for a 'tactile bump' or MX Blues for a 'clicky' actuation. Keep in mind that blues are very audible and should not be used in a shared space. Also those colors are the original color archtypes. There are now dozens to pick from, but linear, tactile, and clicky are the defining 3 traits.

 

19 minutes ago, dstarfire said:

Quite a few times I inadvertently fired off an ability just by resting my finger on a key in preparation for using it.

I have the same issue when I'm mindless browsing the internet. It's more of a feature than a bug. You need to be aware of the amount of actuate force required when making a keyboard purchase. For example, MX Blacks are a stiffer version of MX Reds.

[dstarfire]

Thank you for the explanations. I HAD thought all mechanical switches had some sort of feedback at their actuation point, that this was the whole point of mechanical switches: you could feel where the actual actuation point was. Ah well, another lesson learned, albeit a very expensive one.

[saintlouisbagels]

5 minutes ago, dstarfire said:

Thank you for the explanations. I HAD thought all mechanical switches had some sort of feedback at their actuation point, that this was the whole point of mechanical switches: you could feel where the actual actuation point was. Ah well, another lesson learned, albeit a very expensive one.

It's typically why people are recommended to try Cherry MX Switcher Testers since it can be unintuitive to read about all of these descriptions without understanding how they all feel (and sound!!). But yeah, welcome to the world of mechanical keyboards!

[Brian McKee]

Optoelectric switches are usually linear since they're at heart contactless. Good thing about this is they're absolutely buttery smooth compared to contact based linear options from cherry or others. I used linears for a while before switching back to tactiles, the feedback with linears is the bottoming out lol.

 

I'd say give it a chance, you might grow to appreciate it.