A little while ago, Mike from Novelkeys revealed that he’d be coming out with a new tactile switch
which got a lot of people hyped up, including me.
A lot of us were expecting a replacement to the expensive Zealios, but what was delivered
was a little different
These are the new Box Royals.
And before we get any further, let’s have a listen.
These are on a Weaven, which has a carbon fiber plate.
This is another switch that Mike From Novelkeys worked with Kailh to produce.
It released not too long ago, and it comes with this new tape on the box, as well as
a neat little sticker.
The switches themselves come in these special bags with gold print, which is cool.
Just a quick tour of the outside, the housing is pretty similar to other box switches.
The only big difference I see is with the top.
Box switches usually have a smooth slope on where LEDs go usually, but these ones have
a cutout.
Interestingly, there is no hole in the cutout to actually let LED legs through, so I’m
not really sure why it’s there.
The stem is this dark purple color.
I think royal purple is technically a lighter shade, but nobody really cares.
Inside, the bottom housing seems mostly the same as other box switches.
The lid to the box portion seems to be a different mold as it has these two little bumps.
Under the lid is actually something different.
I don’t know how well it’ll show on camera, but the metal leaves on the Box Royals are
actually thicker than the ones in other box switches.
This should in theory translate to a more tactile switch, because this is part of what
determines the intensity of the tactile bump.
I’ve confirmed this by putting a Box Brown stem into the Royal housing, and the tactility
was significantly more than a regular Box Brown.
Speaking of stems, the Royal stems look very similar to Brown stems.
It seems that the bump profile is largely the same, except that it is raised up further
away from the main housing, which I assume contributes to higher tactility.
I also tried a Royal stem in a Box Brown housing, and it was more tactile than a regular Box
Brown, but not anywhere close to stock Royals.
This leads me to believe that most of the tactility in Box Royals comes from these altered
contact leaves.
This is actually similar to the hyped Holy Pandas.
Panda housings use a stiffer contact leaf, which contributes to intensified tactility
when used with Halo stems.
Along the same vein, people have been making Royal Hakos, which is Hako stems in Box Royal
Housings, but I don’t have any Hakos with me, so I can’t evaluate those at this time.
Moving onto the keyfeel, the Box Royals don’t really feel like any other MX style Switch
that I’ve tried.
Do note that I haven’t tried Holy Pandas, but have tried a ton of others.
In terms of the size of the tactile bump, Zealios and Mod switches don’t even come
close.
I’d probably say that the tactile event on the Royals are anywhere between 50 to 100
percent larger than any other tactile switch, which is sort of impressive.
But it doesn’t really make sense to make this comparison, since the tactile characteristic
is so different.
In the past, I’ve likened the bump on traditional tactile switches to driving over a speed bump.
The box Royals don’t really take well to the whole driving analogy, but if I had to
make one, it’s sort of like going over a big pothole.
Like other Box tactile switches, the bump is pretty high up, but there is just a tiny
bit of pretravel, which isn’t seen in Hakos.
But when you encounter the bump, it’s like hitting a wall, and to break through, you
need to use quite a bit of force, which then leads to either bottoming out or getting very
close to it.
It’s somewhat similar to popping bubble wrap in that until it breaks, there’s virtually
no more travel, and when it does pop, you’ve been applying enough force that you’re probably
going to hit the table.
Another similar feeling thing is if you were poking through an index card laying on some
cushion, with a somewhat dull object.
Something like a BIC pen isn’t too sharp, and it takes a bit of force to get it through,
and once it does go through, you don’t really have enough time to stop yourself before it
hits the bottom.
All of these examples are vague and probably pretty hard to relate to, but I was lucky
enough to have a keyboard that feels pretty similar.
You might not have expected it, but it’s the HHKB Type-s with BKE Light domes
These are actually shockingly similar to each other.
But they are vastly different mechanisms, so here are the differences first.
The bke domes are obviously some rubber material, so the bottom out is soft.
Also, the Type-s has dampening, so the upstroke is also soft, but that’s pretty much it.
Check out my BKE light review if you haven’t seen it, but the sharp tactility, and the
high difficulty of not bottoming out are features shared between these very different switches.
I’d say that the BKE domes are still slightly more tactile, but it’s not by much.
This is pretty interesting because Input Club has been pushing for switches that mimic Topre,
but I think this comes much much closer than Halos or Hakos ever will.
Also similar is the sound.
This is of course going to vary based on what keyboard they’re installed in, but when
installed in my Weaven, the Box Royals have several characteristics that mimic Silenced
BKE Domes.
The bottom out has sort of a deep sound, and the return noise is best described as a thock.
Of course, just by the nature of the design, there is going to be some plastic-on-plastic
collision noise, but it’s drowned out by the primary sounds.
One thing that stands out about the sound is that like other Box switches, there is
quite a bit of ping, particularly on the upstroke.
This is pretty inconsistent across switches, and is worst for me, on the J switch.
Have a listen
This can be made better by lubing, and I think generally, applying some thicker lube to the
sliders will get the sound even closer to Topre.
So all of this brings me to what I think of the switch.
And as was with the BKE Lights, this is too much of a good thing for me.
This amount of tactility is just a huge distraction when I’m trying to type normally, and I
found that it slows down my typing speed over milder tactile or linear switches.
It’s my opinion that tactility should be more of a background event, but the Box Royals
put it really right up in the foreground
Typing a word is no longer just typing a word.
Each keystroke must be deliberate and becomes its own ordeal.
This kind of discretization in typing is just not for me, as I really prefer a more fluid
experience.
So I guess in that way, the Box Royals deliver on their promise of being a non-clicky version
of the community favorite Box Navies, but I think the result just ends up being a brute
force approach to getting what you want.
Sure it’s satisfying to type on, but in a keyboard, each switch feels like its doing
its own thing, and the cohesion in experience is gone.
So if you just want more tactility at any cost, these are going to be for you, but just
know that in a keyboard, these are really going to be stealing the show, and maybe not
in a good way.
If you want a more cohesive experience, I think switches like Zealios or Outemu Ice
V2s are still unmatched in their balance.
I’m interested to hear what you guys have to say about these, and about other super-tactile
switches in general.
Is more always better or do you guys also have a limit?
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