Cherry MX Honey Switch Review

What have all of you been up to on your weekends as of late? Whereas in previous years I would be reveling in the opening weekends of college football and trying to enjoy as many games as possible on Saturday before the inevitable chores and household responsibilities of life take over on Sundays, this past month I’ve been up to something entirely different instead – catching birds. Well, if I have to be technically correct about it, it’s more like freeing caught birds than it is catching them. In addition to the baking, arthouse movie enjoying, and stints of grinding MTG that I’ve all shared with you in the past as some of my outside of keyboard adventures, I can now pretty squarely add volunteering for a bird banding operation to that list to make it even more of an eclectic list than it probably already was. For the entirety of the fall season, my girlfriend and I are volunteering at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory out near Oak Harbor, Ohio helping a team of researchers continue a migratory bird banding and measuring operation that has gone on for well over 30 years now. Having caught and tracked over 250,000 birds in this span of time, this operation sees passive catch nets being used during migratory seasons in the spring and fall to catch birds so that they can be measured, given a fancy identification band, and catalogued for future health and lifecycle studies prior to their release. Since birds are apparently fond of the midday nap, or at least that’s what I’m convinced they’re doing in the middle of the day, this adventure has us getting up very, very early on Saturday mornings, driving the couple of hours over to the nature preserve, and then putting in a good 4-6 hour shift doing whatever it is the team needs of us. In recent weeks this has included me not only getting to help pull specific types of birds out of the nets like Swainson’s Thrushes, Catbirds, and some of the larger warbler species, but also holding and handling them for some weighing and releases. Being one of the busiest netting operations in North America this time of year as well, it means we get to see 50+ birds per shift and the site itself sees in excess of 300-400 per week depending on the weather and wind. And if all of that wasn’t strange enough to hear me share, it also means that I’ve gotten the repeated and still very unique experience of being bitten by a bird more than the vast majority of people will be able to reasonably say in their lifetime. (Don’t worry, it doesn’t really hurt at all for most of the birds. Turns out that they don’t take too kindly to what I assume from their perspective might as well just be a full on extraterrestrial abduction!) If you ever have an opportunity to volunteer for something like this near you, I honestly can’t recommend it enough. Even if you only do it one time it definitely makes for a cool set of stories that you’ll be able to tell for the rest of your life.

Figure 1: The very Red-eyed Vireo that got me.

Switch Background

Things are changing quite a bit in the modern mechanical keyboard switch world. While I can imagine that that feels a bit redundant for me to explicitly say given that it feels like each successive review is getting longer by the week with the sheer weight of background information that I am adding, I really do actually mean this on a broader sense. New manufacturers come and go, sure, and we’ll always be faced with unique, novel switch designs or mechanisms, but Cherry changing the kinds of switches they put out and how they operate is a true sign of just how different things are today than they were a handful of years ago. I’m not even talking about Cherry’s April 22nd financial announcement discussing their restructuring plans that will see the closing of their Auerbach switch production facility to transfer production to “a partner in China” either – I’m just talking about their recent release of a batch of non-OEM switch products for effectively the first and only time in their history. (Or at least it’s the only time for now…) Much like with being bitten by birds, the concept of an authentic, truly made by Cherry “MX Yellow” switch coming to life was a thing I never really expected to encounter. OEM-style yellow colored switches have always been a hallmark of Gateron’s product lines and despite some other manufacturers making them as well over the years, it’s inarguable that most community members would think of an all-black, nylon housing switch with a yellow stem as likely being emblazoned with a ‘GATERON’ nameplate. Though if I had to ever guess what an official Cherry MX Yellow switch might look like, I’d have to assume it to be a linear, right? After all that’s what all of Gateron’s famous Yellow switches have been over the years. Much like my initial shock in finding out that birds will actually bite you, I was equally blown away by the fact that the Cherry MX Honeys, the true first “MX Yellow” switches, were not only not linears but also Cherry’s first silent tactile switches that they’ve ever produced as well. Two entirely unique ‘firsts’ in one switch from a company that has been historically known for everything but doing modern day ‘firsts’. If I had to compare this revelation to the very narrow comparison window of getting bitten by birds, this would have to be something akin to getting bitten by a bald eagle or great blue heron, I guess. However that’s not to say that all of these editorial overlaps between bird bites and the discovery of the Cherry MX Honey switches are just being done just to tie this review together with some strange narrative – they also share common ground in the sense that it’s exceedingly unlikely to think that you’d ever see it happen to you, but not impossible. After all, there’s always been at least a few reasons to think Cherry MX Yellow switches do exist out there…

Figure 2: Cherry's April 22nd, 2025 announcement of changes in production facility location from their website.

Figure 3: yab8433408/Brother Dragon's first Cherry switch family photo from 2012.

Figure 4: First series of individual switch photo from yab's Cherry collection.

Figure 5: Second series of individual switch photos from yab's Cherry collection featuring MX Yellow, Alps Mount Blue, and Alps Mount Black switches.

Figure 6: Final wide image of yab's collection showing a range of Cherry switches and their components. Note that the clear-stemmed switch fourth from the right is actually a Taiwan Jet Axis switch.

The series of images above detailing a Cherry switch collection meticulously detailed on top of a lightly wooden colored backdrop are a series of images that I’ve returned to dozens, if not hundreds of times over my years of collecting switches. First posted on the Deskthority forum by a user by the name of ‘yab8433408’ on March 8th of 2012, this series of photos documents one of the earliest amalgamations of loose Cherry MX switches in a single location. Commented on in the original posting by quite a few names of note from the early modern keyboard switch hobby such as webwit, 7bit, and even ripster himself, this user who is also sometimes referred to as “Brother Dragon” was unfortunately very short on details and hardly even answered affirmatively if these photos could be used for the Deskthority Wiki where I would encounter them many, many years later. This lack of detail is excruciatingly unfortunate, though, as Brother Dragon’s collection feature a few noteworthy switches which effectively have no other proof of life ever with the exception of his photos. It’s also increasingly unlikely that we will ever discover the true origins of these switches either as old forums that hosted mechanical keyboard discussions like these, as well as repositories of knowledge at large like the Deskthority Wiki itself, are quickly sliding into obscurity or off of the internet entirely. While quite a few of you probably can pick out the Alps Mount Cherry Blue and Alps Mount Cherry Black switches above as key example of switches that invoke the question of “What the hell are those?”, the ones that always stood out the most to me as a young collector were those of the Cherry MX Yellow switches. Never mind the fact that his KBC macropad of Cherry switches seemingly features Cherry MX Yellow switches with completely blank nameplates while all of his other photos do show switches with nameplates, is it possible that such switches could exist and have actually come from the production floor at Cherry? While there are trace amounts of other documentation out there regarding the existence or potential origins of Cherry MX Yellow switches, what little does exist hardly substantiates these as real at all.

The only other documentation that largely exists/existed out there detailing Cherry MX Yellow switches are those of the original Deskthority Wiki page on the subject from Daniel Beardsmore, a vintage keyboard switch enthusiast and substantial contributor to the knowledge that existed on that Wiki over the years. In summary, these notes detailed two different “variants” of Cherry MX Yellow switches that existed side by side in a Chicony KB-5191 produced from 1992. While it should be noted that this board also has been known to contain Aristotle-made switches, a manufacturer that was known to have made facsimile Cherry MX clone switches with yellow stems and dubiously branded housings around the same time, the photos presented are more than enough to make the find worthy of the documentation. The “Type A” variant MX Yellows, shown in Figures 7 and 9 below, were among those that fit in line with known production practices from Aristotle featuring exterior components that look a whole lot like Cherry… except for the very butchered nameplate. The “Type B” variants of MX Yellows were much more thoroughly explored on the DT Wiki page as well, though external as well as internal measurements and notes lead Beardsmore to believe these to also partially reproductions, replicas, or at the extreme least not entirely produced by Cherry despite the similarities in their designs. This is even after going as far as to get in contact with Cherry to not only try and determine the origin of these switches, but also confirm that the bottom housing exteriors at least were authentic in origin. (Beyond confirming the housings to be authentic, Cherry could not and would not speculate on the origins of the stems.) And so much like the original Cherry MX Yellows which first showed up in yab’s collection all of those years ago, the only other examples of MX Yellows always seemed to pull up just short of entirely valid and confirmed, even if surrounded by a fair bit of convincing details otherwise.

Figure 7: "Type A Cherry MX Yellow" switch as documented on the Deskthority Wiki.

Figure 8: "Type B Cherry MX Yellow" switch (Left) compared with its leaves against that of a Cherry MX Grey (Right) from the Deskthority Wiki.

Figure 9: Image of the Chicony KB-5191 that contained Cherry MX Yellows as documented on the Deskthority Wiki. Type A and Type B switches, as discussed on that page, are labeled.

More contemporaneously, the idea of a Cherry MX Yellow switch has also humorously been acknowledged by Cherry in the form of their regular April Fools jokes that their social media team takes part in. Announced on April 1st of 2019, Cherry’s Twitter team announced new Cherry “BS” switches as part of their Banana Series. Aimed at giving users a chance to “feel the curve”, these MX-like switches featured 12.5 degree and 30 degree bends to them that would make for a more than interesting time in mounting keycaps. Stretched via aftermarket rendering and curved to appropriate degrees to match their differently curved specs, the stems of these switches were also tinted Yellow to match that of name for these switches. They even went as far as to include a bit shortened ‘Rick Roll’ redirect, something that I not only did not remember existed in the original posting but am also ashamed to admit that I fell for in 2025. While this rendering is even doubly humorous when you recall that there are very real vintage keyboard switches that feature angled stems and occupied the sides of keyboard modules that didn’t just lay flat and parallel to the desk, the existence of the Cherry BS Yellow switches was ultimately nothing more than a community supporting rendering joke that left me amused but ultimately a tiny bit sad. For a very long time this is effectively as close as I, or any collector short of Brother Dragon or that unknown owner of the Yellow switch Chicony (potentially Blaise170?), has ever come to getting Cherry MX Yellow switches.

Figure 10: Cherry BS Banana Series switch April Fools announcement from Twitter.

It wasn’t until a mere seven years later in mid-2025 that the community finally got the chance to experience a real, authentically made Cherry MX Yellow switch. Released under the name ‘MX Honey’ alongside the ‘MX Blossom’ and ‘MX Falcon’ switches, these final rounds of community inspired designs produced by the Auerbach facility appear to be a continuation of Cherry’s long running attempt to reconnect with the modern mechanical keyboard scene at large. After having largely not responded to it at all for many years, many years through its peak during the COVID-19 pandemic and even afterwards, previous years have seen resurrections of fan favorite vintage switches like Nixies and Hirose Oranges in the modern forms of Cherry ‘Clear Top Blacks’ and ‘MX Oranges’ as well as a community collaboration with the content creator Glarses in the form of ‘MX Purples’. (Editorial Note: How could I forget the MX Northern Lights too!) Supported as well by the roll out of the ‘MX2A’ switch platform to show new and improved manufacturing capabilities by Cherry, those switches as well as the trio of MX Honey, MX Blossom, and MX Falcon all on the surface feel as if they would belong to really any other manufacturer than Cherry, though are a sign of how things are progressing in the keyboard scene at large. Even the parallel announcement of Cherry’s new ‘IK’ induction line feels strangely out of place despite Cherry having historically made plenty of switches outside of the MX platform, including most recently the MV Viola switches. No less, this trio of switches was first announced in May of 2025 as later being available in June at prices ~$0.50 per switch depending on where they were purchased from. While the community at large did not seem to reasonably get access to these switches until sometime around mid-August to September of that same year, they do seem readily available through a few different sales channels at the aforementioned price point. Plans regarding specifically the roughly 45 gf bottom out silent tactile Cherry MX Honeys, which are both the first MX Yellow switch and the first silent tactile that Cherry has ever produced, are unknown as of this time, though all other switches which Cherry has released as part of their larger community driven initiative still appear to be being produced and widely available multiple years down the road. I’d imagine that these will continue to be supported even as the Auerbach facility fully transitions to production in China.

Figure 11: 'New Era' Cherry switches as debuted at Computex 2025 including from left to right Cherry MX Blossom, Cherry MX Honey, Cherry MX Falcon, and Cherry IK Analog switch.

Figure 12: Family photo of modern, custom community-aimed Cherry MX switches from personal collection.

Honey Performance

Note: While I can not readily find any articles that discuss whether or not the Cherry MX Honey switches utilize Cherry’s new MX2A platform that has been discussed a couple of times over on this website, I am under the assumption that these – as well as all other “MX” style switches that they’ll be producing for the forseeable future – are made using this design platform.

Appearance

At the highest level, the Cherry MX Honey silent tactile switches come in a clear over milky yellow-white “RGB style” housing scheme with bright yellow stems that very clearly and directly align with their namesake food. (Also because Cherry MX “American Cheese” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the same.) While I personally think that it would have been much more sleek to see the contrast of the yellow stems against Cherry’s iconic all-black nylon housings, these still more than do the trick of standing out on brightness alone while still striking the classic ‘OEM style’ look. Unfortunately, though, despite the actual brightness of these stems they’re very likely to be recognized as actually being Cherry switches from a distance, with most users who would encounter them likely assuming them to be of Gateron origin given the historical precedent. After being shocked by the fact that these are both Cherry made switches and silent tactiles upon picking them up, these users will much more recognize them as modern, Cherry-made switches for a slew of features of their MX2A platform that has been noted in several review on this website before. While there is thus a strong degree of overlap between the features of the MX Honeys and others previously covered here, there are still details of note worth going over on a sub-part level in the event there’s some future argument where someone is adamant that a yellow, silent tactile stem in a Cherry housing has to be a frankenswitch. All of these details of note can be found discussed in the paragraphs and photos below.

Figure 13: Cherry MX Honey switches and their components.

The clear, assumedly nylon top housings of the Cherry MX Honey switches are entirely through and through copies of the MX2A switch platform as was first introduced in August 2023 and documented in my Cherry MX2A RGB Black Switch Review. Externally, the only feature which clearly denotes them as having been part of the MX2A platform is that of their inverted, bubble letter ‘Cherry’ nameplate with a logo after it. While it likely is assumed by some people that the step pyramid-like feature over the LED/diode slot of these housing is also indicative of the MX2A platform, some modern MX platform RGB switches also feature these as well. Internally, the housings feature two details of note which are distinguishing of the newer switch design platform – their straight, uncurved north side guider rail and the finer lined mold marking on the left hand edge of the housing. Previous iterations of Cherry switches also tend to have mold markings in this same position as noted here, though they historically have been of a larger font size and are more centered in this position as opposed to the MX Honeys and other MX2A-platform switches. As for the guider rails, this was described in initial marketing by Cherry in helping to reduce stem wobble in the housings, though it is ultimately one of those details that are small enough that it makes their overall impact questionable, or at least of questionable impact to those that don’t know about its presence.

Figure 14: Cherry MX Honey top housing exterior showing inverted 'CHERRY' nameplate and covered LED/diode slot.

Figure 15: Cherry MX Honey top housing interior showing three-digit mold marking on left-hand side of the housing and straight, uncurved guider rail underneath the nameplate of the housing.

Moving next to the bright yellow, assumedly POM Stems of the Cherry MX Honey switches, these too feature an almost bit-for-bit detail similarity with other MX2A platform silent switches like those of the MX Northern Lights, save for their tactile stem legs. This laundry list of features worth noting include, but are not limited to, non-tapered slider rails, a large, rounded center pole, deep mold ejector holes on the front plates of the stems, a squared off cape with semi-circular indent in the top, and also Cherry’s through-stem rubber dampening system for their silent switches is visible in multiple places of the stems. Much like with the MX Northern Lights and other MX2A Cherry switches, the MX Honey switches come with a decent amount of well dispersed factory lubing that can be felt on all sides of the stems as well as occasionally can be seen in the deeper recess of the stem where the center pole connects with the main body of the stem. Additionally, it should be noted for users concerned that even in spite of their tactile nature the MX Honey stems to do not appear to have the diagonal bridges between legs of the keycap mounting posts that act as “keycap breakers”! As for the tactile bumps legs, themselves, they seem much more aggressively shaped than what other conventional Cherry tactiles have appeared like, something which directly aligns with their differences in tactility versus convention noted in the ‘Push Feel’ section below.

Figure 16: Front and back sides of Cherry MX Honey stems showing non-tapered slider rail, slightly tiered center pole, through-switch holes in the front plate, a good amount of factory lubing, and Cherry's embedded stem silencing mechanism.

Figure 17: Cherry MX Honey stem side profile.

Finally arriving at the milky yellow-white, again assumedly nylon bottom housings of the Cherry MX Honey switches, these too appear to be thorough copies of the existing MX2A switch platform. Internally the MX Honey housings feature barely padded slider rail bases, mold ejector circles in the base of the housings, and trace amount of factory lube that can be lying around. While each switch is a tiny bit different from the rest in terms of where the stock factory lubing tends to bunch up, it should be noted that I feel as if more of the MX Honeys that I opened featured lube grouped up around the upper lip of the center pole hole than around it’s base, something which was the opposite in my experience with the MX2A platform silent linears in the MX Northern Lights. I sincerely doubt, though, that this is due to any subtle differences that may exist between the silent tactile stems here versus the silent linear stems there. If anything, this leads me to believe that Cherry may be trying to further tune or modify their MX2A lubing process. Externally, the housings very much look like other Cherry MX2A switches, featuring PCB mounting pins, a squared and slightly recessed area in the bottom center for through-switch LED lighting, and a sideways, two- or three-digit mold marking emblematic of all Cherry switches.

Figure 18: Cherry MX Honey bottom housing internals showing similar design features to other MX2A platform switches and a large amount of factory lubing concentrated around the lip of the center pole hole.

Figure 19: Cherry MX Honey bottom housing externals showing PCB mounting pins, recessed square hole for through-switch LED lighting, and sideways numbered mold marking in bottom right-hand corner of the housing.

Push Feel

Historically, Cherry has never been particularly fond of upsetting the status quo of either the types of switches they offer nor the designs of said switches. While this review is absolutely rife with references as to just how different the MX Honey switches are than basically everything else Cherry has put out in recent years, there was always some implied expectations amongst the community that the MX Honeys would just be silent < insert other Cherry tactile here >. You know, like silent Ergo Clears or silent MX Browns. Even the newest and most recently exciting tactile releases of factory made Cherry MX Ergo Clears and Cherry MX Purples were just new springs and a coat of paint slapped on top of old designs, so why would the MX Honeys bee (ha) any different? And if a new switch color and type by Cherry wasn’t enough changes for this review, I’m excited to say that the Cherry MX Honey switches also feature a tactile bump unlike that of anything else Cherry has produced before. Punching at the absolute start of the downstroke with a just over medium tactile force that is quick, just shy of snappy, and fluidly rolling into the rest of the stroke, the MX Honey switches have a bump that feels surprisingly modern of Cherry. In the past, MX Clears and MX Browns have always had tactile bumps that start after a tiny bit or a lot of pre-bump linear travel, though there may as well be none in the Cherry MX Honeys. Don’t believe me? See how they actually stack up against Cherry’s classic tactiles in the comparative force curve below:

Figure 20: Downstroke comparisons between Cherry MX Honey, Cherry MX Ergo Clear, and Cherry MX Brown switches.

Figure 21: Force curve diagram for the stock Cherry MX Honey switch.

In spite of the refreshingly updated tactility of the MX Honey silent tactile, there really isn’t much else about the push feeling of these switches that makes them feel quite as with the modern times. Even when directly compared with Cherry’s most recent silent linear switch releases in the MX2A platform in the form of the MX Northern Lights, the MX Honeys feel a bit like a step backward on top of the two steps forward that the Northern Lights took. For once, the dampening ability of the silencing pads in the MX Honey switches just isn’t as strong in hand as those of the Northern Lights. While it is entirely possible that this difference is entirely contrived and due to the proximity of the very obviously felt tactile bump in these switches only handful of millimeters before the bottom out, I just can’t quite feel them in the same way. Sure, the dampening pads on the sides of the MX Honey stems do have a tiny bit of compressive squish to them that can be felt, though I would not have been likely able to physically (or audibly for that matter) instantly recognize these switches as being ‘silent’ in hand. This is even more so true when combining similar notes with the more plasticky, noticeable topping out as well. Another portion of the ‘one step back’ design of the MX Honey switches is the fact that they are clearly not anywhere nearly as smooth as the MX Northern Lights. While I am certain that this is due in some decent part to the tactile nature of these switches as a large part of the medium grain, obviously scratchy feeling in these switches comes from the contact between their stem legs and leaves, even the post-bump linear regions just feels scratchier on a head to head basis. Perhaps this, in tandem with noted different locations of factory lubing in the bottom housings above, is actually indicative of Cherry still attempting to modify and/or home in their MX2A factory lubing processes.

Sound

Even though every other facet of these switches explicitly screams new and historically relevant as well as implicitly refined and better than before, the sound of the Cherry MX Honey switches is the one area where Cherry has managed to remain in their status quo. All of the famous issues that could be had with the sound of stock Cherry MX switches, from their obviously overbearing medium-grain scratch to their inconsistent and forceful housing collisions are all noticeable in the sound profile of these switches and significantly more grating than in the push feeling notes above. It is true that the MX Honey switches do attempt to be silent tactiles – something that can be ascertained by their flat, soft rubber stamp like bottom outs – though it is still significantly more audible than any switch deserving of the ‘silent’ name should be. Another large feature of the sound profiles of the Cherry MX Honeys that make them a less than stellar listening experience is that of the actual tactile bump, or more specifically the contact between the stem legs and leaves of these switches. Long, drawn out, and sandpapery in tone, these tactile bumps sound much more prolonged, much more torturous, and much less enjoyable on the ears than underneath the fingers, giving these switches the majority of their predominantly scratch-forward sound profiles. At the least I can say that these are fairly consistent from switch to switch across the batch that I received. Any real attempt at making the MX Honey switch’s sound profile live up to the modern switch standards that they’re trying to compete within will require additional aftermarket lubing on top of the fine, evenly dispersed amount that was already present.

Wobble

Very much like the other MX2A platform switches from Cherry, the Cherry MX Honey switches feature an above average stem wobble not only for the manufacturer but across the entirety of the switch scene at large. Slightly greater in the E/W direction than in the N/S one, the MX Honey switches have a small and almost certainly unproblematic amount of stem wobble that won’t bother any users except those particularly picky about their stem wobble.

Measurements

If you’re into this level of detail about your switches, you should know that I have a switch measurement sheet that logs all of this data, as well as many other cool features which can be found under the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking on the card above. Known as the ‘Measurement Sheet’, this sheet typically gets updated weekly and aims to take physical measurements of various switch components to compare mold designs on a brand-by-brand basis as well as provide a rough frankenswitching estimation sheet for combining various stems and top housings.

Figure 23: Numerical details regarding the force curve for the stock Cherry MX Honey switches.

Have you ever wanted to be bombarded with more switch data than you’ve ever seen at any point in your life before? Consider checking out the ‘Force Curve Repository’ hosted on my GitHub that contains all force curves that I take both within and outside of these full-length reviews. In addition to having these graphs above, I have various other versions of the graphs, raw data, and my processed data all available for over 1500 different switches for you to use however you see fit. Check it out via the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking any of the force curve cards above.

Break In

Break In Notes

17,000 Actuations

- In spite of all reasonable assumptions I could have made about the MX Honey switches, the batch that were broken in to 17,000 actuations actually improved compared to their stock, out of the box siblings. Most notably is that of an increase in overall smoothness and decrease in the intensity and grain of the scratch of these switches. Likely due to factory lube migration upon break in, the 17,000 actuation MX Honey switches have a much smaller, more subtle scratch that actually feels overall improved compared to Cherry’s historical performance.

34,000 Actuations

- At 34,000 actuations, the improvements on largely seem to continue with the MX Honeys. In addition to remaining smoother than their stock counterparts like the 17,000 actuation batch, those broken out to 34,000 actuations also began to also have decreased presence of starch in their sound profile and even sounded quieter overall as well.

- Even though the MX Honey switches appear to radically improve throughout the breaking in process, and perhaps better than almost any other switch that I’ve ever subjected to this testing before, they are still somewhat fallible with a slightly increasing N/S and E/W direction stem wobble.

51,000 Actuations

- At 51,000 actuations, the MX Honey switches aren’t appreciably different than that of the 34,000 actuation batch. Despite this, though, they are still substantially better than the stock MX Honey switches. I am genuinely impressed with just how far these switches managed to move throughout this break in process given how generally bleak their stock performance was.

Figure 25: Comparative force curve diagram showing no substantial change in the force curves of the Cherry MX Honey switches throughout the break in process.

Comparison Notes to Other Notable Silent Tactile Switches

Note – These are not aimed at being comprehensive comparisons between all factors of these switches as this would simply be too long for this writeup. These are little notes of interest I generated when comparing these switches to the Cherry MX Honey switches side by side.

Figure 26: Switches for comparison. (L-R, Top-Bot: Red Velvet, Kinetic Labs Turtle, Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer, Haimu Whisper, MODE Anthracite, and Glorious Silent Panda)

Red Velvet

- While the Red Velvet switches and the Cherry MX Honeys are comparable in terms of their E/W direction stem wobble, the Red Velvets have noticeably more N/S direction stem wobble.

- In terms of their tactility, the comparative force curve between these two switches below more than tells the story. The MX Honey silent tactiles are stronger, more forceful, and punch right out of the gate and feel significantly more present than the smaller, softer, and more centered bump of the Red Velvets.

- Even though the Red Velvet switches have a bit more of a squishy bottom out sound than the MX Honeys, they are far and away the more quiet of the two. The MX Honeys, by comparison, have louder housing collisons, are scratchier throughout their stroke, and are just missing those deeper bassy tones that the Red Velvets have.

Kinetic Labs Turtle

- In an overall sense, the Kinetic Labs turtles feel and sound like a more well put together, refined version of the Cherry MX Honey switches. Boasting a similar tactile profile that punches right out of the gate, the Turtles are snappier through their bump but still smooth and with more evenly dampened housing collisions than the MX Honeys.

- Whereas the Cherry MX Honey switches are overall much more scratchy and have a larger, sandpapery like sound profile in their stock form, the Turtles’ main issue is a rather noticeable spring ping that can be heard when typing on the switches fairly aggressively.

- There is a tiny bit less E/W direction stem wobble in the Cherry MX Honey switches than that of the Kinetic Labs Turtles.

Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer

- The Invokeys x Alas Daydreamer have some noted inconsistencies across batches of switches that were produced and yet still come across as the more silent, bass heavy, and compacted sounding of these two switches. The tactile bumps of the Daydreamers are even more smooth and snappy in tone than those of the MX Honeys.

- Despite what the comparative force curve between these two switches would suggest, the Daydreamers feel quite a bit more ‘fast’ and forceful through their bump than the MX Honeys. At risk of using ‘snappy’ as a second descriptor in a row, that really is the main thing that the Daydreamers have that the MX Honeys are missing – just a solid bit of a bite to their bump.

- While these two switches are comparable in terms over their overall stem wobble, the Invokeys x Alas Daydreamers are symmetrical about this point as opposed to the asymmetric, more wobbly in the E/W direction stem wobble of the Cherry MX Honeys.

Haimu Whisper

- While these two switches are the most comparable to one another out of any comparison on this list in terms of their overall volume, the Cherry MX Honey switches have an extra degree of scratch to their tone that the Whispers are missing, making it fairly easy to separate them by ear.

- There is noticeably less stem wobble in both N/S and E/W directions of the Cherry MX Honey switches than there is in the Haimu Whispers.

- Despite what the comparative force curve between these two switches would appear to suggest, the more long, drawn out nature of the Haimu Whispers spreads the strength of their tactile bump out wider than that of the MX Honeys and makes them feel softer and less forceful underneath the fingers.

MODE Anthracite

- The larger contrast in force between the peak of the tactile bump and post-bump linear region of the MX Honey switches makes them feel substantially more tactile and snappy than the MODE Anthracite switches, despite their nearly identical peak tactile force.

- The stem wobble in the MODE Anthracites is more symmetrical than that of the Cherry MX Honeys, though this leads to the Anthracites having comparable E/W direction stem wobble and a greater N/S direction stem wobble than the MX Honeys.

- In terms of their overall sound profiles, the MODE Anthracites are far and away the more silent of these two silent tactiles. They’re less scratchy, have softer housing collisions, and even have a tactile bump which is distinctly less audible than the scratchier, louder sound of the Cherry MX Honey’s tactile bump.

Glorious Panda Silent

- While these two switches have fairly similar feelings based on their comparative force curve below, the Panda Silent switches have a sort of overlubed or overly-toleranced ‘stuffiness’ that makes them feel less fluid and usable than the MX Honeys, despite being smoother.

- Like basically every other switch on this comparison list, the Glorious Panda Silent switches are quieter and more deserving of the ‘silent tactile’ switch label than that of the Cherry MX Honey switches.

- Surprisingly there is less N/S and E/W direction stem wobble in the Glorious Panda Silent switches than there is in either direction of the Cherry MX Honey switches.

Scores and Statistics

Note – These scores are not necessarily completely indicative of the nuanced review above. If you’ve skipped straight to this section, I can only recommend that you at least glance at the other sections above in order to get a stronger idea of my opinion about these switches.