Identify the switch

[JohnZD]

Hi folks.

After hastingly editing the Deskthority wiki entry for 'Cherry MX dark blue', a member of another forum brought to my attention that the switches I found under the keycaps of my ancient 8088 laptop might also be 'Cherry MX pale blues'.

It never occured to me they could be anything other than dark blues. In fact, I just heard the first time about the pale blue variant.

Here are some pics in comparsion to the current MX blues in a modified DAS:

Closeup w/o flash

IMG_7111.JPG (1.55 MiB) Viewed 2479 times

Closeup w/ flash

IMG_7112.JPG (2.14 MiB) Viewed 2479 times

With a little distance and flash

IMG_7115.JPG (2.28 MiB) Viewed 2479 times

With a little distance and w/o flash

IMG_7116.JPG (1.81 MiB) Viewed 2479 times

It's puzzling, I've never seen different switches so similar in color, although they are obviously not the same. I can't tell if the laptop switches are darker, paler or even brighter than the new MX blues; maybe this is a job for a spectrometer. It had to come to this.

Any ideas?

[Chyros]

They look basically identical to me. I have both the Navy and Sky versions but neither look like normal blues at all.

[seebart]

There are plenty of Cherry MX clones out there also.

[JohnZD]

Now someone just listed a Bondwell B310 (of which all known devices sport indeed dark blue Cherry MX switches) on EBay, including a reference to the 'dark blue' switches, although the auction pictures are showing a switch which is very similar in color to the obscure Cherrys in my Bondwell B200: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bondwell-B310 ... SwBt5ZJ5V2

[Chyros]

I'd be ver surprised if those are Navy switches. All the ones I've seen are almost black.

[JohnZD]

I'd be ver surprised if those are Navy switches. All the ones I've seen are almost black.

Although I have never seen the dark variant in RL, all the pictures confirm your impression. I just changed the wiki back to its previous state, except for the reference to the Highscreen versions of these laptops.

Anyways, if the B310 listed on EBay has the same switches as my B200, and those switches are no navy/dark blue Cherrys, then this particular B310 would be the first one without the darker switches.

Maybe back in the days, Bondwell simply used what was on the shelves.

If the price was not that ambitious, I would consider buying it just to compare the switches - but $99 is ridiculous imho.

[Chyros]

Maybe back in the days, Bondwell simply used what was on the shelves.

Probably - basically everyone did so.

[Myoth]

Now someone just listed a Bondwell B310 (of which all known devices sport indeed dark blue Cherry MX switches) on EBay, including a reference to the 'dark blue' switches, although the auction pictures are showing a switch which is very similar in color to the obscure Cherrys in my Bondwell B200: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bondwell-B310 ... SwBt5ZJ5V2

Those are Normal Cherry MX Blue, lokk at how dark they should be if they were Dark Blue :



This is not the best quality picture but you can still manage to see clearly the difference.