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Rubber Dome
Rubber domes are used in 99% of keyboards. Under each key is a rubber dome at the center of which is an electrical contact pad. When the key is pressed this contact is forced down onto other contacts which then completes a circuit.
Pros:
- They are extremely cheap to manufacture.
- They make very little noise when typed on.
Cons:
- They provide no tactile feedback (more on that later).
- The key must be bottomed out in order for the key to activate.
- They have a very short life, typically they fail in about 1 to 2 million operations. The electrical contacts get dirty preventing full contact. Also the rubber breaks down and eventually starts to tear.
- The rubber dome is slow to rebound after being pressed, this makes really fast typing difficult if not impossible.
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Scissor Switches
Scissor switches are not true mechanical switches, they are a hybrid switch. A typical keyboard has 4mm of travel for each key, but laptops need keys with less travel. The scissor switch has a rubber dome surrounded by plastic scissor-like braces. These provide additional "springiness" to the key and also helps to stabilize the key cap.
- They are cheap to manufacture.
- They make very little noise when typed on.
- They offer very short key travel.
Cons:
- They provide no tactile feedback.
- The key must be bottomed out in order for the key to activate.
- They have a short life although slightly longer life than plain rubber dome keyboards.
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Topre
Topre is a Japanese-patented switch which is another hybrid switch. It is a rubber dome with a spring underneath. There is no electrical contact pad, instead the spring itself completes the electrical connection as the key is pressed. Topre switches have the smoothest action of any switch. They are also rare and very expensive. A keyboard with Topre switches runs a minimum of $230.
Pros:
- They have very smooth action.
- They make very little noise when typed on.
- They have long life, estimated at 20 million operations.
- They provide limited tactile feedback.
- The key rebounds quickly making faster typing possible.
Cons:
- They are extremely expensive.
- They are hard to find, I'm only aware of two keyboards that use this switch.
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Buckling Springs
Buckling Springs (BS) were invented by IBM in the 80s. These are the switches used in the IBM Model M keyboards. Below is an animated GIF of the action of a BS switch. As the key is pressed the spring provides resistance until a certain point at which the spring completely buckles. At this instant several things happen. 1) The switch is activated. 2) The resistance provided by the spring greatly drops off, this provides tactile feedback to the user that the key activated. 3) As the springs smacks the side of the case it produces a "clicking" noise which provides auditory feedback that the key was activated.
Pros:
- They have smooth action, though not as smooth as Topre.
- They have long life, estimated at 20 million operations.
- They provide excellent tactile feedback.
- The key rebounds quickly making faster typing possible.
Cons:
- They are expensive, at least compared to rubber domes. BS switches are the cheapest mechanical switch keyboard.
- They have a very loud clicking noise. The loudest noise of any switch.
- They require the most amount of force to activate. They require 70 grams of force to buckle the spring, this is twice as much as some other key switches. The additional force means typing on BS switches for a long period of time causes fatigue.
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Alps
Alps is a company that used to make keyboard switches. Their switches operate on a similar principle to BS switches but the design was refined and improved upon. Although Alps no longer manufactures them, several companies now make clones of Alps switches. There are multiple Alps switches out there with minor differences such as spring resistance and noise level. Each different variation is identified by the stem color in the switch. The most common Alps switches are either white (clicky) or black (silent).
Pros:
- They have long life, estimated at 20 million operations.
- They provide excellent tactile feedback.
- The clicking noise is greatly reduced from BS switches. The black version makes almost no switch noise.
- The force required is greatly reduced from BS switches.
- The key rebounds quickly making faster typing possible.
Cons:
- They are expensive.
- All versions (including the black) are louder than rubber dome keyboards.
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Cherry
Cherry is a German company which manufactures keyboard switches. As with Alps, they operate on a similar principle to BS switches but with an improved design. Cherry uses gold-plated switches for extremely long life. There are several variations of the Cherry switch again noted by the stem color. The most common in keyboards are blue and brown.
Pros:
- They have extremely long life, estimated at 50 million operations.
- They provide excellent tactile feedback.
- The clicking noise is greatly reduced from BS switches. The browns version is a "silent" switch and makes almost no noise.
- The force required is greatly reduced from BS switches.
- The key rebounds quickly making faster typing possible.
Cons:
- They are expensive.
- All versions (including the brown) are louder than rubber dome keyboards.
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There you have it, everything you never wanted to know about keyboard switch technologies. If you wanted to get a mechanical switch keyboard it will most likely be an Alps copy or a Cherry. You can't go wrong with either, they both have a similar feel and sound. I've seen polls on the Internet and most people prefer Cherry over Alps, but not by much. Also, the Cherry Blue switch is more popular over the Cherry Brown - the difference being Brown is a slightly lighter switch (too light in my opinion) and makes less noise than Blue.
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