‘Silent’ mechanical keyboards are coming

Cherry keyswitches are the de facto gold standard for mechanical gaming keyboards, and up until now, they’ve been notoriously noisy. In a press release issued today, Wisconsin-based Cherry Americas says they’ve cracked the code and are now shipping noiseless keyswitches into the manufacturing channel.

Cherry Americas

Both the Cherry Silent and Cherry Silent RGB light-emitting keyswitches come in red and black versions. However, both will feature a 45 centinewton actuation pressure. That appears to mean that they’ll be a bit softer than your average Cherry blue switches, which come in at 50 cN, and in line with classic Cherry reds.

But here’s the interesting part. Both will feature an “integrated, patent-pending noise reduction feature.” We don’t have any idea what that means, and Cherry uses quotes around the word “silent” more than once. So we’ve reached out for more information, and to see about scheduling a test drive some time soon.

Our list of the very best mechanical keyboards has received a few updates for the holiday season. Be sure to reference it when you start tallying up your holiday gift cards.