Switch Specifications:
Linear | 4.00mm Travel | 54g Actuation | Plate or PCB Mount | ~£0.60 per switch
Cherry MX Blacks are the heavier counterpart of Cherry MX Reds switches. They are linear with an actuation force of 54g at just over 2mm. These were amongst the very first mechanical switches available to the mass market, but Cherry has made design changes to them over the years, so not all of them feel the same. Many say, the older, the better.
Here’s the video review if you prefer watching content:
Smoothness: 3/10
Sometimes I wonder if Cherry ever tested their switches. I get that it’s one of the very attempts, but the MX Blacks in the 7G keyboard are very scratchy. In rare cases, you may encounter them binding! Honestly, these would be somewhat decent switches if it wasn’t for its rough key feel.
Weighting: 7/10
It should be no surprise now that I lean towards heavier switches; I just find them a lot more comfortable to type on. The weighting is pretty good, though I wish they made it a little heavier towards the bottom to encouraging not bottoming out. I would still pick these over MX Reds any day.
Sound: 5/10
Bleh. They sound quite muted on the 7G chassis, and you can hear the scratchy sounds as you type, especially when done slowly. It kind of reminds you that you’re not typing on high quality switches, which is the MX Black is supposed to be.
Typing Performance: 6/10
It’s a decent switch to type on. The biggest points are its weighting (for me anyway), but everything else is just…meh. You can deal with both the scratchiness and sound by adding lube of your own choosing, but as a stock switch, its just decent. If you like the weighting, and you’re willing to put work into lubing them, you can definitely make the switch comparable (or better) than Gateron Blacks.
Gaming Performance: 5/10
Even though these switches weren’t designed for gaming in mind, they performed better than I expected. Of course, this time around, the heavy weighting is a downside. Just to note, I only really play up to 3 hours per sessions nowadays, so definitely not very long, so the switch didn’t hinder me that much. I can only imagine that the longer the session, the more my fingers will feel sore.
Oh, and yes, during slow key presses (e.g. creeping forward in a stealth game) you can feel the horrible scratchiness of the switch.
Final Score = 26/50 (52%)