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Dongguan City Kaihua Electronics Co., Ltd, more familiarly known for the Kailh brand, had their own booth at CES in the design and source section far away from the rest of the consumer-centric show floor. Indeed, this section was more for brands to get B2B relations onboard but that did not stop us from visiting the switch maker that is now responsible for providing switches to more brands than any other today. Kailh had not one, but four new switches under the so-called China style moniker. These are limited edition switches that presumably were made with certain specific customers in mind already, possibly to specific requests to be used with limited edition keyboards as well. The China style BOX switches include the linear Chinese Red switch rated at 45 gf actuation, the tactile and clicky Noble Yellow rated at 65 gf actuation, a lighter weight tactile and clicky Glazed Green switch at 50 gf, and a much heavier linear Ancient Gray switch at all of 95 gf actuation. All four switches have interesting names in common, along with a rated 1.8 mm actuation distance and 80 million keystroke lifetime.
Kailh reps were not confirming one way or another whether these switches were actually going into production, or whether they were just to show that the company can manufacture new switches on a whim. They did hint, however, that the construction inside was an update to their popular BOX series of switches so presumably this heralds a new generation of those switches across their product line. Indeed, this is supported further by noticing that the Chinese Red and Glazed Green switches have the same rated specs as their own BOX Red and BOX White switch, respectively. Keychatter also reports that the cross-stems are updated for increased keycap compatibility, although this needs to be tested further for us to be sure.
The rest of their booth had two giant switches, one BOX style and one that I can only say is a low profile version relative to the former giant BOX switch. These two make the NovelKeys Big Switch (also manufactured by Kailh) seem like a small toy by comparison. The increased space with these clearly trade show-only switch prototypes also means it is easy to add in several LEDs inside the switch, as was the case here. Rounding off the booth were switch samples and testers to take a look at all of Kailh's current switch offerings- which number a lot, as we can see below!
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
Kailh reps were not confirming one way or another whether these switches were actually going into production, or whether they were just to show that the company can manufacture new switches on a whim. They did hint, however, that the construction inside was an update to their popular BOX series of switches so presumably this heralds a new generation of those switches across their product line. Indeed, this is supported further by noticing that the Chinese Red and Glazed Green switches have the same rated specs as their own BOX Red and BOX White switch, respectively. Keychatter also reports that the cross-stems are updated for increased keycap compatibility, although this needs to be tested further for us to be sure.
The rest of their booth had two giant switches, one BOX style and one that I can only say is a low profile version relative to the former giant BOX switch. These two make the NovelKeys Big Switch (also manufactured by Kailh) seem like a small toy by comparison. The increased space with these clearly trade show-only switch prototypes also means it is easy to add in several LEDs inside the switch, as was the case here. Rounding off the booth were switch samples and testers to take a look at all of Kailh's current switch offerings- which number a lot, as we can see below!
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
