Silent Keyboard Switches,Kailh Box Silent Brown Switches for Mechanical Keyboard,3-pin 45gf Tactile/Typing&Gaming/Waterproof Switches(72Pcs,Mute Brown)

Wonderful switches for me. I have very little to complain about when it comes to typing and gaming on these. Like I said, it's a soft tactile so it should be similar to the Cherry MX Brown switches. This is not the switch to get if you want a heavier force to push your finger on, it is very light and almost performs like a linear but still has that subtle bump. The noise is nearly silent, compared to the Pandas and Reds I was on before. Very suitable for gaming at night without waking up people in the room. I also type more accurately and quicker than those two switches.What sucks is that these switches did not sit flush on my board because the pins were getting bent when I pushed them in. This is because my board (MSI Forge GK310) is Outemu-based and not compatible with Gateron, Kailh, or Cherry switches. Painfully expensive lesson learned but you should be fine if you have a modern and above average board. Mine was cheap and I paid the price for it with bent pins :'(

I like tactile switches. I also wake up 90 minutes before my partner and type while drinking unhealthy amounts of coffee and they are a light sleeper. So, I wanted a tactile switch that is relatively quiet. These are on my short list of favorite "silent" tactile switches (along with Kailh Deep Sea Whale and Gamakay Pegasus).They are quiet, with a modest tactile bump. The ones I have aren't scratchy, and have relatively low amounts of stem wobble. I'm using these without lubing them and out of the box, I think they are fine. They are not the quietest of the silent switches but the noise profile is inoffensive. If you don't like your tactility right at the top, there is enough pre-travel on these to satisfy.The Good:- Quiet, but not too quiet.- Much less scratchiness than other "brown" switches.- Consistent feeling tactile bump.The Bad:- Could be quieter.The Meh:- Moderate tactility. The bump feels like a new Cherry brown without the scratchiness.

I have been “doing keyboard stuff” for about 6mo, and have packed a lot of learning, building, and general experience into that time. I’ve tried countless switches of all varieties, and I have… oh geez, 5 boards now?Clacky linears were solidly my favorite (e.g. Baby Raccoons, Smoothies, Marble Whites, etc.)… until I fell prey to the praise for electro capacitive keyboards and wound up with two NiZ Atom 68 boards, at which point, EC mechanical domes became my go-to. Whoops.I really love my hot-swap MX-style boards though (Tofu, Neo, Zoom, all 65%), so I wanted to find some way to continue using them and not let them fall to the wayside. I read about silent tactiles feeling as close to EC as you can get with an MX-style switch and ordered a sample pack to try.They all felt discouragingly mushy… except for these magical Silent Whales. Instead of a “mush,” they have a satisfying “thud” that declares the (very responsive) actuation of the key. These not only made me like silents (or at least ONE silent), but also made my preference lean from linear to tactile.Please note that they are not totally silent like many other silent switches. They have a pleasant “rainy” quality to them, but are certainly quieter than any other switches I have (see video).They’re on the more expensive side, only about $10 less than the “cream of the crop” Boba U4’s (which I have on the way for one of my other boards. I haven’t tried them yet so I cannot compare the two), but worth it for the delectably sharp tactility and lovely, quiet sound (it grows on you, I promise). I’ll include a video of the sound when I get the chance.What I can compare them to are EC dome switches. They’re more sharply tactile than HHKB (and NiZ, which are known to feel almost linear to some depending on the dome weight), but the key travel is shorter. The feel of EC cannot be reproduced in MX-style switches (…yet), but these come pretty darn close — I now use my Neo + Silent Whales just as much as my 35g & 45g NiZ Atoms (crazy, right?).The only thing I’d change is the coloring — the transparent blue & brown just clash to me. The Silent Islets are nicer looking with just blue and clear, but those missed the mark for me, and the sound & feel are much more important than the looks, considering they’re usually covered by keycaps.On that note, the tolerances are very tight within the switch itself so they do not have horizontal wiggle, they fit every board I have nicely, and every keycap I’ve tried on them have popped on & off as they should with no extra strain. They feel really solid & high-quality to type on.Regardless of my opinion, if you’re just stepping into silents, I recommend getting a sample pack to try before committing, as silents are definitely very divisive in the community. But if you like your sharp tactiles and need a non-mushy almost-silent switch, these just may be the ones for you!

Switches are almost silent and have a great feel. I’d never done a hot swap before but it was simple. Great value and I haven’t had any issues with daily gaming use since purchase.

Update: I ended up returning these. While they're still decent switches, mine developed a leaf ping issue, in which a small click sound could be heard during keypress. This is mildly annoying on what is supposed to be a silent switch.If you're considering buying these but a bit spooked out by the third-party seller: do not worry, these are legit Kailh Deep Sea Silent Whales. They even come in a Kailh branded box.With that out of the way, here are my thoughts:First, the sound. It's not completely silent, no, but it's quiet enough. Rather than the usual "clack" or "thock," you instead get a gentle "thud," like raindrops falling against the window; it's quite pleasing to listen to. The only loud-ish sound is the upstroke of the stabilizers on the backspace, shift, and spacebar keys on my K8 Pro - and even that isn't all that bad.The tactile feedback is also quite satisfying. Unlike the MX Brown and its clones, the tactile bump is at the beginning of the keystroke, and then a smooth linear-like glide down afterwards. I'm presuming these are reasonably well factory lubed, as I haven't noticed any significant scratchiness. The bottom out, while not solid, is not mushy either; instead, it's a unique, soft pillowy feel that is hard to describe.These are also very similar in feel to another premium-tier silent tactile: the TTC Silent Bluish White, although the Bluish Whites have a more gentle, rounded tactile bump and are lighter on the bottom out. You cannot go wrong with either of them. I'd recommend going with whichever one is more readily available or less expensive in your region.