Diamond Avalon Switch Review

Perhaps it is because academia and research related work is more goal oriented and rapid-fire deadline driven than real world production and factories, but man these last two weeks since the Moyu Studio x XCJZ Snow Grape Switch Review have absolutely flown by. With each day feeling vaguely similar to the next save for the amount of papers of future work to be done piling up on my desk, I sort of lose track of the weeks until I’m vaguely reminded again that I’m supposed to be doing a full-length switch review for that weekend rapidly approaching. While I was in no way, shape, nor form going to forget about this week’s review thanks to all of the lovely people I talk to about switches on a weekly basis, I would be lying if I couldn’t summarize the writing process for the beginning of this review with a simple Calvin and Hobbes strip.

**Figure 1:** Calvin and Hobbes is the best comic strip of all time and you can't convince me otherwise.

Keeping all of that joking about missing review weeks just realistic enough in the event that it eventually does ring true when I fully slip into dementia at some point, I do feel obligated to remind all of my readers here that I am also doing regular writing work outside of theremingoat.com! In addition to the full-length reviews and scorecards which I routinely upload to GitHub, I’ve spent the better part of this year doing shortened articles on Drop, Kinetic Labs, and Dangkeebs, all of which feature shorter and slightly more beginner-friendly takes than my run on sentences and ultra-technical breakdowns here. If you’ve not gotten a chance to stop by and see any of these articles yet, a full list of the ones I’ve completed, as well as all of my other previous full length switch reviews, may be found under the ‘Archive’ tab in the top right-hand corner of my website. While I am of course a touch partial to my own work, there has been quite a few articles which have been a blast to write over the course of the past year and so if you must only pick a few, consider ‘If I Had to Start Frankenswitching’, ‘How Long Do Keyboard Switches Actually Last?’, or a much shorter ‘Basic Guide to Force Curves.’ Any readership of these not only helps these companies’ willingness to keep me coming around and flooding their sites with shortened articles, but also helps keep me sane and not repeating the same structure of writing week in and out. So please check them out if you’re ever bored and want to read even more about switches!

**Figure 2:** Or swing by the entirely free to use photo vault if you're over on the 'Archive' tab as well!

Switch Background

You know, I’m not even entirely sure why I keep the ‘Switch Background’ around as a required part of the switch review structure anymore. Aside from the fact that I’m running out of ways to make this meta commentary joke at the start of my review work as it is a horse that was once paste and now is practically atomized, the switches themselves seem to be getting only more and more mysterious. The Diamond Avalons are not only a continuation of this mystery but damn near apex of this strange switch behavior as they are simultaneously incredibly well known and recognized by the wider keyboard community and still entirely lacking on fundamental, basic details about them. Even after having delayed my review for several weeks and the switches having made their way around to over a dozen combined content creators and vendors, we still know next to nothing about the basics of these provocative blue switches. The mysterious, out of left field shape to their stems and top housings, the unknown blended housing material used in those housings, and even the still nameless ‘man(ufacturer) behind the curtain’ making these switches all escape us as of the time of writing this article. However, for as unknown and poorly understood as these switches are at a fundamental level, they are sure getting around quite a bit in their first few months in the limelight…

Initially introduced in late July of 2023 by NLandkeys, a fairly new Chinese keyboard vendor with a strong western-facing storefront and community involvement, the Diamond Avalon switches were debuted as a premium “diamond shaped” redesign of the traditional MX-style switch structure. Paralleling the release of KeyGeek Avalon switches in an identical three-tone blue colorway, it is assumed that the ‘Avalon’ name was directly related to the release of these switches even though they were manufactured by a different production house than KeyGeek. Sensing a fairly large potential interest from the community about the revised, diamond shaped design of these switches, the ensuing month following their initial announcement saw videos and streams from a slew of content creators featuring the Diamond Avalons as well as a vendor list supporting their debut sale grow from just NLandkeys to include nine other regions in the US, CA, EU, AU, SK, Indonesia, VN, SG, and the UK. Marketed initially as only being a small preorder of approximately 15,000 switches produced from an unknown manufacturer, the subsequent preorder sale of these switches stretching across all of those regions from September 5th to 25th of 2023 as well as the community excitement surrounding them leads me to believe that this sale size may have been stretched quite a bit further. Priced at $0.70 per switch, the unique design of their housings as well as coverage by Alexotos, who is at the time of writing this review arguably the largest streamer in the mechanical keyboard hobby space, the discussion and community intrigue surrounding these switches was no doubt higher than most other that have been released this year.

**Figure 3:** Fancy view of some Diamond Avalon switches and a meta-aware caption to help break up the wall of text.

To say that the community intrigue surrounding the geometrically sculpted housings of the Diamond Avalon switches has been recognized by other vendors and brands, though, would be putting it lightly. While many switch manufacturers and brands are quick to mimic subtle changes in designs of other brands if not altogether recolor and re-release variants of popular switches for themselves, they often do so on the scale of months rather than weeks. Even with only being a week after the closing of the preorder sale for the Diamond Avalon switches as of the time of writing this review, there are currently two other versions of the diamond shaped switches being sold including a ‘BRONZE Switch’ version in a disparate pale green color and a ‘Buri Diamond’ version in a brown color. Priced similarly at about $0.70 per switch in both of their respective store fronts, the hype surrounding the release of the Diamond Avalon switches and rapid successor releases leads me to believe that we may be seeing a lot more of this design in the coming months and likely well into 2024. (Like all good switch one-ups as well, it’s only a matter of time until the increasingly impressive switch housing dyesub processes make their way onto the enlarged canvases that these diamond top housings afford.) While the hope was that these alternative variants of switches released in the diamond-shaped housing form would yield some more information regarding their mysterious mold markings and origin of manufacture, this detail still remains just as foggy as when the Diamond Avalons were released those long few weeks ago…

**Figure 4:** KeyBay BRONZE Diamond switch promotional photo.

**Figure 5:** KPRepublic Buri Diamond switch image from sales page.

Diamond Switch Performance

Note: NLandkeys’ own Aregs, who appears to be an owner and/or the leader of the western-facing portion of the company, reached out to and sent me these switches of their own accord. I did not agree to do a review of these switches in return for product nor did I receive any compensation for such either. All opinions expressed here are of my own (overly pedantic) accord and Aregs/NLandkeys had zero editorial say in my review here.

Appearance

At the highest level, the Diamond Avalon switches are incredibly unique in their design and absolutely unmistakable in their appearance. Whereas many traditional modern, MX-style switches may blend together with a half dozen other offerings unless they are truly featuring a unique aesthetic concept or colorway combination, the diamond-shaped housings of the Diamond Avalons are a first in their generation in having a unique overall shape. As for the colorway, these switches nearly identically match KeyGeek PBT Avalon switches with a 3-tone blue colorway with tealish-aquamarine stems, a light blue top housing, and medium blue bottom housing. Made with a custom nylon blend material for the housings, these PCB mount switches are marketed as coming lightly prelubed from the factory with a light, 58 gf. bottoming out spring weight. While the switches are visually stunning from a distance, the execution of their design at a mold detail-based level is even more fascinating as you will see in the coming paragraphs and photos.

**Figure 6:** Diamond Avalon switch and its components.

Looking first at the eye-catching top housings of the Diamond Avalon switches, they first appear to be 8-sided in design with trapezoidal north, south, east, and west edges connected at the edges by triangles and with an octagonal flat top to them. However, upon closer inspection the trapezoidal faces are actually made up of three thinly off-set triangles that are only apparent up close and at a high angle relative to the face. Not counting the top side where a nameplate would normally be, this gives the top housings 16 sides to their design which is incredibly interesting as single cut vintage round diamonds have 17 facets in total with a single cut 8/8 design to them. While the top facets of these types of vintage cut diamonds are slightly different as they feature 8 trapezoids rather than 16 triangles, it is fun to think that these switches are perhaps more true to their name than anyone may have intended. Beyond this tangent into single cut melee diamonds, the external design of the Avalon Diamonds is otherwise unadorned and does not feature any nameplate nor directionality to their design. Internally, the housings are entirely unique in their design as would be expected. While the pictures below will have to speak more volume to their engineering than most, a few key points stand out as particularly interesting. First, the stem-hole is octagonal in shape to match the octagonal body of the stem though there appears to be only slider rail grooves in the cardinal directions. Next, the mold marking for the top housing comes in the form of a single capital letter and number on the north side edge of the top housing facing inwards. This edge is the more restricted internal side of the housings and also the one which the leaves are placed into when the switch is in closed position. In fact, even though the housings externally do not have directionality, the top housings can only attach to the bottom housings and close in one fashion making these housing directional… but without directional markings. I would imagine opening and modifying these switches will be a pain in the ass purely based on their reassembly process as a result.

**Figure 7:** Angled promotional image which vaguely shows triangular faces within the trapezoidal east side edge of the Diamond Avalon switch.

**Figure 8:** Diamond Avalon top housing internal design showing upside down mold marking on upper edge, octagonal stem hole, and other unique structural features.

Moving next to the stems of the Diamond Avalon switches, these too appear outwardly like strange adaptations of the traditional MX-style stem design. While not explicitly stated in the paragraph above for the top housings, a clear presence of traditional top housing designs can be felt even with the more faceted exterior, and the stems more or less feel exactly the same. Even with an octagonal cylinder-shaped main body, the Diamond Avalon stems have a pair of normally positioned stem legs which branch outwards from the main body in chicken-wing like fashion. Following more traditional designs, the stems also feature thin, non-tapered slider rails and a strong tiered center pole making them feel very familiar even if they are quite different. And before you ask, no, they do not fit in any traditional MX-style housing that I had lying around to try this with, regardless of their familiarity. It’s sort of like the frankenswitch equivalent of mule in that regard.

**Figure 9:** Diamond Avalon stems featuring octagonal shaped bodies, protruding stem legs, non-tapered slider rails, and long, tiered center pole.

Finally arriving at the bottom housings of the Diamond Avalon switches, these too are strange but not nearly as unique nor geometrically inclined as their previous two components. Internally there is significantly more space than a traditional MX-style housing, with increased slider rail gaps that appear comical when lined up with the actual stem width as they serve no functional purpose. Rather, the increased body width appears mainly to help support the appearance of the more bulky, diamond shaped top housing. At the base of the housing there is not only a south side spring collar but also mold ejector markings on the spring collar itself, making a sort of two-in-one design quirk that I’ve not encountered before in any other switch. Aside from this and the oddly unused slider rails, the internal mechanism and design of the leaves appears more or less perfectly in line with traditional, MX-style switch bottom housings. Externally, the Diamond Avalons continue on their normalcy, featuring a wide-open LED slot, a pair of PCB mounting pins, and a pair of mold markings. Just below the left-most PCB mounting pin is a two-part mold marking consisting of a single capital letter and number pair and in between the two metal PCB pins is a sideways, piecemeal ‘W’ shape. Assumedly connected to the manufacturer of this switch in some capacity, this mold marking has never been seen on any other switch to date and I, as well as all the other switch collectors I know of, are confused by what this is indicating. This is, for all intents and purposes, indicating a brand-new set of molds if not an entirely new manufacturer altogether.

**Figure 10:** Diamond Avalon bottom housing internal structure showing wide regions where slider rail guides are normally located, south side spring collar, and numerous mold ejector circles.

**Figure 11:** Combination photo of Diamond Avalon bottom housing and stem showing lack of functionality that the wide stem guide rail sections have.

**Figure 12:** Diamond Avalon bottom housing external design showing pair of unique-to-manufacturer mold markings, PCB mounting pins, and wide-open LED slot.

**Figure 13:** Enhanced view of the unique 'W' shaped mold marking located between the metal PCB pins that has not been documented before outside of Diamond-shaped switches.

Push Feel

While the Diamond Avalon switches are quite striking in their out of the box appearance, their out of the box performance leaves a decent bit to be desired. These switches are, on average, smooth and without scratch though just barely lubed enough in order to get rid of whatever scratch is there. To a degree, I feel almost as if I can feel the subtle feedback of the scratch through the lube in some portions of the strokes of these switches without actually feeling the sandpaper-y kick of the scratch itself. In the most vaguest and incoherent of terms, these switches almost feel like ‘Krytox La Croix’ linears. Stepping outside of the average-ish performance of the single, average Diamond Avalon switch to consider their cross-batch performance metrics, though, we’re met with a decently wide swathe of variability in terms of their general smoothness. I’d say roughly 10-20% of the switches that I received had some form of scratch at one or more points throughout their strokes, though none were entirely scratchy or appeared to come from the factory altogether unlubed. Where that variability is more noticeable though is in the housing collisions, and especially that of the topping out. In general, the housing collisions of the Diamond Avalons are surprisingly thin feeling with a subtle, slightly plasticky feeling to them that is more noticeable at higher actuation speeds. While I recognize that the marketing states that these are made out of a special nylon blend of material, I could just as equally be convinced from experience that these were majority polycarbonate in their construction. The noted variability cross-batch and cross-speed though is highlighted at topping outs which feel sometimes ‘sticky’ and as if there is extra friction in some switches than in others. Surprisingly, the light bottoming outs of the Diamond Avalons don’t seem to suffer this same fate, leading me to believe that it must be a function of quirky top housing design and/or its connection to the weird stem shape.

**Figure 14:** Force curve diagram of Diamond Avalon switches.

Sound

Like many a switch which has been reviewed here before, the sound of the Diamond Avalons closely matches up with its push feeling, quirks and all. These switches are definitely on the louder side of linears, starting with a flat, low tone that pitches up and becomes increasingly more sharp at higher actuation speeds and in cases with more hollow designs. The noted ‘just not quite rough enough to be scratchy’ feeling doesn’t manifest much in the way of the sound of the switches, however the thinness and more plasticky tones in the top housings are especially apparent. In fact, the aforementioned sticking phenomena is so noticeable by sound that switches which are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ about this performance quirk can very easily be sorted from one another just on this point alone. While these sticking issues, as well as the significant variation in tone and pitch with faster actuation speeds does appear to improve quite a bit with aftermarket lubrication and/or modification, the out of the box performance on these points alone definitely leads me to believe more in the story that these were made by a newer manufacturer. Even though there are plenty of manufacturers which still struggle with the sound characteristics of some of their cutting-edge releases, the variability in this is not something we often see with more established, recognized brands.

Wobble

Even though the internal design of the Diamond Avalon switches is clearly oriented and not directionally independent, the stems of the switches have an equal magnitude stem wobble in both N/S and E/W directions that is barely noticeable and not likely to be problematic to most users. There is some degree of variability in this, as well, though it is much smaller than the switch-to-switch changes in sound or push feeling noted above and is more likely to be indicative of common manufacturing variability.

Measurements

**Figure 15:** Numerical details regarding the Diamond Avalon switch force curve diagram.

The latest in the content-adjacent work that I’ve picked up, the new ‘Force Curve Repository’ is now hosted on GitHub alongside the Scorecard Repository and contains all force curves that I make both within and outside of reviews. In addition to having these graphs above, I have various other versions of the graphs, raw data, and my processed data all available for each switch to use as you please. Check it out via the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking any of the force curve cards above.

Break In

Break In Notes

17,000 Actuations

- While the Diamond Avalons did change in all three categories of break in testing after just 17,000 actuations, it is worth noting that all of those changes are fairly minor and were definitely borderline as to whether or not they should be counted at all.

- The noted variability in the stickiness at topping out as well as the feeling and sound-based housing thinness only becomes more prevalent at 17,000 actuations. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that without aftermarket lubrication these switches will change quite rapidly in any keyboard that they are being used in and especially so with heavy usage.

- As is common for most switches which have been put through the break in gamut, these switches increase ever so slightly in terms of stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W directions.

34,000 Actuations

- At 34,000 actuations, the biggest change in the Diamond Avalon switches appears to be some subtle lube migration in some of the switches broken in. The migration results in some switches becoming either noticeably more textured in their push feeling if not altogether scratchier in some spots where the lube has run thin.

- There were no more significant changes to the sound of the switches nor their stem wobble at 34,000 actuations than there were at 17,000 actuations.

51,000 Actuations

- In perhaps the weirdest change I have ever seen to date, the overall consistency of the sound of the Diamond Avalon switches did a complete 180 degree turn and improved compared to their stock variants at 51,000 actuations. While there was some scratch present now in the sound that was present in stock form, the more consistent tones which did have deeper highlights to their sound really did make them sound like a much more solid and firm switch. I’m almost inclined to think that this change is not actually real and perhaps a lot-to-lot variation in the switches that I broke in, but it was just too strange to not mention. Your mileage will almost certainly vary on this point.

Comparison Notes to Other Notable Linear Switches

Note – These are not aimed at being comprehensive comparisons between all factors of these switches as this would simply be too long for this writeup. These are little notes of interest I generated when comparing these switches to the Diamond Avalon switches side by side.

Moyu Studio x XCJZ Snow Grape

- While these two switches sound quite similar to each other, the Snow Grapes have a much more full bodied and rounded sound to them than the comparatively more singular and pointed sounding Diamond Avalons.

- Both the Moyu Studio x XCJZ Snow Grape and Diamond Avalon switches are smooth, however the Snow Grapes showed a much more consistent application of lube both within each switch as well as across the entire batch which I received for testing in my review.

- The stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W directions is fairly comparable between the Snow Grape and the Diamond Avalon switches.

Huano Pineapple

- The Huano Pineapples are not only significantly louder than the Diamond Avalon switches, but they also have a much more clean, singular, and precise sound to them as a result of their bottoming out onto a long stem pole. Discounting the housing collisions and just considering the linear stroke portion of their sound, the Avalons are a touch more quiet and smooth sounding.

- The Diamond Avalon switches are a bit better than the Huano Pineapples in terms of both their N/S and E/W direction stem wobble.

- Of all of the switches on this comparison list, the Diamond Avalons and Huano Pineapples are the most similar in terms of their stock, out of the box smoothness and factory lube application. That being said, though, the Pineapples do still edge out the Diamond Avalons a bit in terms of their consistency on this point

Cherry MX2A RGB Black

- Even with the improved factory lubrication process used in the manufacturing of Cherry’s MX2A line, the MX2A RGB Blacks are noticeably more scratchy than the Diamond Avalon switches both on a one switch comparison as well as considering an entire batch.

- The Diamond Avalon switches are also better than the MX2A RGB Blacks with respect to their N/S direction stem wobble and especially their E/W direction stem wobble.

- The housing collisions of both of these switches do carry that sort of potentially sticky, plasticky feeling to them as discussed in the review above, though the occurrence of this is much more frequent in the Cherry MX2A RGB Black switches.

Obsidian Pro

- The Obsidian Pro switches are not only significantly louder than the Diamond Avalon switches, but they also have a noticeably higher pitch to their housing collisions which makes them come across much more sharply.

- In terms of stem wobble, the Diamond Avalon switches beat out the Obsidian Pros in both the N/S and E/W directions.

- While both of these switches carry the same sort of ‘barely lubed and yet kind of smooth’ consistency to their push feeling, the Obsidian Pros are much more consistent in switch and across a batch than the Diamond Avalons.

Invokeys Black Sesame

- Honestly, there’s hardly any competition to be made here with respect to smoothness. Even though the Black Sesames are significantly more lubed than the Diamond Avalons, their effortlessness in their stroke makes them feel as if they are in an entirely different ballpark of smoothness than the Diamond Avalons.

- The Invokeys Black Sesame switches also have significantly less stem wobble in both N/S and E/W directions than the Diamond Avalon switches.

- While I know that I am a particular fan of the Black Sesame switches and seemingly anything that Invokeys puts out, I probably fucked up in putting this switch here for a comparison because it is just hands down significantly better than the Diamond Avalons across the board.

Gateron Oil King

- Much like with the Black Sesame switch comparison above, the premium lubrication on the Gateron Oil Kings makes them significantly more smooth than the Diamond Avalon switches.

- Surprisingly, even though the Gateron Oil Kings are one of the more impressive switches that Gateron has put out over the course of the last couple of years, they have a comparable amount of N/S and E/W direction stem wobble to the Diamond Avalon switches, which were manufactured by an unknown and assumedly newer production house.

- The Gateron Oil Kings are on the opposite end of the scale from the Diamond Avalons when it comes to switch sound, having more of a deeper, bass heavy tone as compared to the thinner, lighter sounding Diamond Avalons.

Scores and Statistics

Note – These scores are not necessarily completely indicative of the nuanced review above. If you’ve skipped straight to this section, I can only recommend that you at least glance at the other sections above in order to get a stronger idea of my opinion about these switches.