- 煉 as the 'refined' switch for being tactile, not loud but not purely linear - a refined middle ground.
- 逸 as the 'relaxed' switch for being linear, lighter to the touch making for a relaxed typing experience.
- 韻 as the 'rhythmic' switch, its clicks giving sound to the rhythm of your typing. Or gaming. Whatever you use your keyboard for.
- 詭/絕 as the 'sneaky/strange' ('sly' would work too) switch because it's very light and very quiet; as if one was sneakily in-a-maybe-creepy-way typing, but also strange, mysterious, being so light and airy to type on.
1 July 2022 (edited 29 July 2022)
Today, a peculiar keyboard that also comes from the Guang Hua electronics district. This time, an i-Rocks keyboard with their own switch, designed in collaboration with alps.tw! An Alps-like switch with an MX mount, it sets the expectation of an Alps-ish feel with MX keycaps.
The box is nothing special, just normal packing with cardboard and foam sheet padding. There is a manual and 4 sheets for customizing the look (I'll get to that). i-Rocks also has a template for cutting plotters here.
The keyboard is fairly well-built, with a metal plate, clear plastic (polycarbonate?) outer shell and white plastic inner shell.
The keycaps are doubleshots; standard sort of cheap PBT/ABS inner-shot type keycaps. The Cangjie and Zhuyin sublegends are lasered onto the keytops.
Now, perhaps the most interesting part of the keyboard: the switches. i-Rocks switches are extremely intriguing as both an Alps-style switch and an MX mount switch. They are plate incompatible with Alps by less than a millimetre as well as Cherry MX; 15.8 × 13.4 mm according to ai03's plate generator, and confirmed by Mandarbmax's tests with samples. They are PCB-incompatible with Alps or Cherry MX because of the centre pole requiring a hole in the PCB, but the layout of the pins is Alps compatible. They fit MX/Alps hybrid PCBs and somewhat tightly in hybrid plates. They are indeed Alps pinout, and the i-Rocks keyboard even fits Alps switches.
The switch's contacts are visually similar to alps.tw type T9
Of note is the spacebar switch - visually, the slider is a cream/ivory colour instead of a translucent white, and internally the spring is heavier than the rest of the board's switches.
I bought the keyboard with 煉 'Refined
Two additional versions were once available; i-Rocks' website has since removed references to them and internet archives are either lacking photos or too late. One is concretely documented
The K76M family of keyboards has a feature in common with the R3 Realforces: a removable top plate. On the K76M Custom (my board) and K76M Plus, the top cover is clear which allows the user to use sheets underneath it to customize the look. On mine, I just removed the sheet because I like the look without it. I think it's a neat, if not entirely practical, feature. On the K76M Fun (also labelled as the K76M RGB on their site).
I love these switches. They feel very similar to Matias Quiet Clicks (even that distinct secondary contact bump) and have that nice damped switch sound. They even feel less mushy. These switches would probably appeal to very certain people; people that like SKCM Ivory and Matias Quiet Click would probably find these very enjoyable. But: off-centre presses have a slight powdery-ness to them, and who knows how they'll feel after long-term use. I rate these 4.5 click leaves out of 5 verbose Deskthority forum members.
The board is fairly understated in its design, and I like it. The caps are the worst part; they don't look the greatest because of the way the plastic is shot without enclosed spaces in the letters, but they're functional.
Chyrosran22's video on the 韻 blue-housing switches, timestamped at 4:41
alps.tw's comparison of multiple Alps and Alps-clone components
