Kailh is probably the most popular mechanical keyboard switch manufacturer after Cherry in terms of design wins. The company has a formidable lineup of keyboard switches across all popular form-factors, and technologies. We begin our tour of their Computex 2024 booth with the Chocolate switch. The casing of this switch appears like the trapezoid pieces of a chocolate bar. This switch is typically meant for low-profile keyboards. There are three variants of these switches based on actuation force, actuation point, and key travel.
Kailh brought both Hall Effect switches and Magnetic (Reed) switches to Computex. They’re both analog key switches that let you configure actuation point, and have several applications to the analog input, but have different mechanisms from each other. Kailh has several variants of both kinds of switches based on tactile feedback. Next up, are Kailh’s digital (regular) key switches, which include Box-type conventional mechanical switches, and optical keyboard switches. The optical switch has the least latency among all key switches. The box type switches use a mechanism that converts electrical contact a spring-loaded switch to actuation.