Cherry Intros MX2A Mechanical Switches, Rated for 100 Million Actuations
Comprehensive key switch redesign debuts alongside Cherry XTRFY K5V2 keyboard.
Keyboards and key switch maker Cherry today announced its MX2A mechanical switches. The new switches indeed look like a significant rework of the full-sized MX switch, with improvements to many key facets including: smoothness, lubrication, debounce time, and guaranteed lifespan "exceeding 100 million clicks for select switch types". Cherry also launched the XTRFY K5V2 keyboard, which serves as a platform to showcase the new MX2A (red) switches.
Cherry produces some of the most popular mechanical key switches for PC keyboards. However, in the last few years there have been some notable challengers and upstarts delivering compatible switches with certain refinements and advantages compared to the Cherry originals; the introduction of the MX2A design looks like a concerted effort for Cherry to re-establish a lead.
Today, Cherry is attempting to reclaim its hegemony of the PC keyboard switches market. Changes include:
- Application of high-precision ring lubrication for smoothness, stability and removal of any scratchiness
- A new barrel spring design to ensure the spring maintains its original form better
- Cherry’s updated stem geometry is claimed to improve key press consistency, stability an precision
- Optimized sliding surfaces within the switch. In particular advanced stem guidance is claimed to ensure steady, non-scratchy actuation.
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Important features that are retained from previous designs are the switch to PCB connections (3- and 5-pin variants will be available), the “industry leading” gold crosspoint contacts, and the standard cross keycap fit.
Taken together the above improvements plus retention of best in class tech means users can expect benefits to actuation, debounce, operation, noise, and reliability / endurance. The new “lifespan exceeding 100 million clicks,” leapfrogs many rival designs which had outgunned the original Cherry MX switches durability claims (50m).
Cherry hasn’t gone a million miles away from its long-lasting key switch design with the MX2A design. It hasn’t created a new optical or hall effect, for example. But many small and thoughtful changes to its long enduring design might pay dividends for keyboard enthusiasts. We'll have to go hands-on with the switches to be sure.
Cherry XTRFY K5V2, a 65% Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Cherry has also launched the Cherry XTRFY K5V2 keyboard with these MX2A (red) switches as a pre-install option. The product page is live, and you can see it is a pretty standard looking 65% design with RGB LED illumination. Potential users will be happy to read that the installed MX2A reds are hot swappable, and the more graceful new switches should feel at home in this double layer foam sound dampening keyboard.
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On the product page, Cherry’s XTRFY K5V2 keyboard is configurable with MX2A switches and is listed as “coming soon” at $149. Clicking into the customize options, it looks like you can also choose MX2A switches with Blue (clicky) Brown (tactile) and Black (linear) characteristics, too. Stock will be ready by “late 2023,” according to the product page.
Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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Charogne 100 millions activation, or pressing the switch every 3 seconds for the next 10 years. how useful is it to know how many times at that level?Reply -
Findecanor All these improvements except for the lubricated spring are supposed to have been part of the standard MX1A/MX3A production line since November 2019 according to the previous entry on their blog.Reply
It is unclear whether the Cherry logo is upside-down in the new revision. They are in one of these promotion-images, but not in the datasheets on cherrymx.de.
If they were, then that could have been a tell to distinguish these from the previous revisions.
("MX3A" are the previous "Silent" switches. The new "Silent Red" switch is in the MX2A series) -
Kamen Rider Blade I still think the "Halls Effect" switches that SteelSeries market as "OmniPoint" are some of my favorite.Reply
That programmability is really nice in terms of how deep do you want the activation.
It's either "Halls Effect" or "Optical" Switches are the ones that really impress me. -
thestryker I'm somewhat surprised that Cherry hasn't made a competitor to the Lekker switches that are used by Wooting for their keyboards. Those were custom designed by Gateron and Wooting, but it should be possible to make something similar though from my understanding the Hall Effect aspect does require a specific keyboard design so perhaps that is why.Reply -
kjfatl Reply
Years ago, between 1978 and 1984, my dad serviced an installation where Cherry Hall Effect keyboards were used. Periodically someone would spill coffee with cream and sugar on a keyboard. A few weeks later when it got nice and crusty and moldy they would call him to fix the 'bad keyboard'. He would disassemble the keyboard matrix from the electronics, run it through the dishwasher at home, then reinstall the keyboard which was good as new.Kamen Rider Blade said:I still think the "Halls Effect" switches that SteelSeries market as "OmniPoint" are some of my favorite.
That programmability is really nice in terms of how deep do you want the activation.
It's either "Halls Effect" or "Optical" Switches are the ones that really impress me. -
Sleepy_Hollowed Reply
They're only nice if you like soft switches in my opinion.Kamen Rider Blade said:I still think the "Halls Effect" switches that SteelSeries market as "OmniPoint" are some of my favorite.
That programmability is really nice in terms of how deep do you want the activation.
It's either "Halls Effect" or "Optical" Switches are the ones that really impress me.
While I don't mind soft-ish, I have a hard limit and Brown is on the low end, those are softer so quite a no, even with the modified activation location.
To be honest I rather like the Green switches and ones that hard are no longer popular it seems.