Kaihua Makes Latest Thin Mechanical Switches (Choc PG1232) Official

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The latest round of low-profile Kailh switches (no, not those), which we first saw at Computex this summer, are now officially available. We also have some specifications to share.

The new switches (Choc PG1232) feature a total travel of just 2.4mm (+/-0.5mm), with a pretravel of 1.2mm (+/-0.5mm). For such slim switches, they’re rather heavy--60gf (+/-15gf) at the click and 50gf (+/-) at the actuation point--although they bottom out with 70gf, which is a little lower than what you’ll find on most mechanical desktop switches.

For comparison, the low-profile PG1350 switches have a travel of 3mm (+/-0.5mm) and 1.5mm pretravel. Earlier, they were listed as requiring 60gf at the actuation point, but the official listing has them pegged at 50gf. It’s likely that, like the PG1232 switches, the clicky and tactile version of the PG1350 require 60gf at the bump.

The PG1232 switches promise a lifecycle of 25 million keypresses. We’re on record about how little the lifecycle ratings matter in real life, but in this case it’s worth noting that 25 million presses is half (or less) of the promised lifecycle of all other mechanical desktop switches. However, considering that a key application of these switches is in laptops, which consumers typically don’t hang onto for all that long, the 25M rating makes more sense. (Here’s a curveball, though: The PG1350 switches promise a lifecycle of 70 million presses.)

We do, however, expect some enterprising keyboard makers to develop standalone keyboards with these switches. Small shops are just starting to put these together, as evidenced by the Meira group buy and some other small projects that have begun to appear online. The Meira, though, uses Kaihua’s earlier slim switch, the PG1350. The PG1350 and PG1232 have compatible stems, though, so we could see there being a tiny niche for slim caps that aftermarket enthusiasts can apply to either switch.

For now, the PG1232 is available in White (clicky) only, but if there’s market demand, Kaihua said it will make additional colors/types, such as Red (linear) and Brown (tactile).