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Famed switch manufacturer Cherry is making its own silent mechanical keyboard

Famed switch manufacturer Cherry is making its own silent mechanical keyboard

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Today at CES 2017, Cherry announced the new MX Board Silent, an updated version of the company’s classic G80-3000 mechanical keyboard. It uses MX Red Silent and MX Black Silent switches that claim to offer the same satisfying resistance (45 cN of force for the Red, 60 cN for the Black) as their noisy counterparts, but with a dramatic reduction in noise.

Cherry MX switches have long been the gold standard for mechanical keyboards. But as with most products in this category, they have one fatal flaw: the iconic click and clacks that accompany any typing on them.

Cherry actually released the quiet versions last year. But the silent switches were limited to a timed exclusivity deal with gaming keyboard manufacturer Corsair, meaning that they were limited to a specific subset of gaming keyboards. Corsair’s exclusivity recently expired as of 2016’s end, meaning we could soon see a whole host of mechanical keyboards with the quieter switches joining Cherry’s new model in the near future.

The MX Board Silent will only come in the international EU layout for now and costs $149, and comes in either black or grey color schemes.