Gateron CJ Switch Review

One of the more interesting things about being back in classes for school, and especially ones which have an insanely high rate of course material, homework, and exams, is how time warps like no other. On a day-to-day basis, I feel like I sit through hour long lectures that stretch on for days and then I’ll blink and accidentally open my eyes two weeks later when it’s about time to write another switch review. While many people do find this time dilation rather distressing, I’ve honestly come to enjoy it as it means that I’m just moving that much mentally faster through thermodynamics and fluid mechanics courses that I really don’t want to be taking again, for a second round. (Though yes, I recognize their direct applicability and completely understand why I am taking them.)

Figure 1: Tack an equation sheet on the wall and throw some switches in the corner and this is basically my brain right now. — **Figure 1:** Tack an equation sheet on the wall and throw some switches in the corner and this is basically my brain right now.

Another thing that makes this time dilation so interesting is that it completely removes all of my mental free time sitting about and twiddling thumbs over switches, keycaps, or keyboards in the mail. I feel like just yesterday I wrote this last review on the Ajazz x Huano Banana switches, and I’ve not only gotten these switches in the mail that I’m reviewing today, but also a rather interesting mailday that I shared earlier this week. For those of you who don’t follow me on either Instagram or Twitter, which I’m going to blatantly fourth wall break right here to shill for it, I picked up a set of rather unique vintage MX-style switches last week, one of which has never been documented prior. Needless to say, I am absolutely going to tell you about it before getting into the switch review as I’m still giddy about them five minutes after they’ve arrived. Or has it been five days?

KeyWorld Mechanical Keyboard Switches — **Figure 2:** KeyWorld switch lot rescued from an SKB-5150C keyboard.

The switches pictured above are a set of vintage, Cherry-MX style clones known as ‘KeyWorlds’ that were harvested from an SKB-5150C keyboard that was destined for the desolder pile anyhow due to severe case damage. Chippy, who many of you know as a moderator of the friend-of-the-website Cannonkeys Discord server, was kind enough to offer me one of these KeyWorld Blacks as well as the different variation of spacebar switch for my collection as he was planning to desolder them for personal usage anyhow. The KeyWorld Black, pictured on the left of the above image is rather reminiscent of a Cherry MX Black style switch, and similarly weighted as well, with only minor cosmetic differences between it and other clones such as the completely blocked off LED slot, wonky looking nameplate, and extremely barren underside of the switch as well. The switch in the center, featuring the whiteish stem as well as the empty nameplate is the spacebar from the SKB-5150C, which like many vintage keyboards before it, came significantly more heavily weighted. While I don’t have specific numbers at hand, my best guess is that this spring bottoms out around 150g to 200g of force which is a real workout for the weak fingered individuals like myself. However, the third switch on the far right of the above image is even more interesting than the spacebar switch and surprisingly even rarer as well.

The white stemmed, KeyWorld nameplated switch on the far right of the image above is actually what is known as a ‘Stabilizer Switch’. A type of switch that I’ve previously discussed in my ’25 Switch Facts You May Not Know’ article, stabilizer switches are a rare variant of vintage style switches which were used to help support long spacebars and Big Ass Enter (BAE) keys in certain keyboard layouts not unlike the modern stabilizers we use today. Of the stabilizer switches documented, it’s a toss-up on whether or not they have a spring within the switch, as the slider mechanism is the only necessary component needed for the switch to act as a stabilizer and to keep the keys from wobbling from side to side during actuation. Additionally, not wanting to add undue spring weighting to crucial keys such as enters or spacebars, the ones that do have springs often have super light ones, though those are quite few and far in between even for stabilizer switches. This KeyWorld White Stabilizer switch is not only branded, differently colored in the stem than normal KeyWorlds, and has a lighter spring, but this is also officially the only one that has been documented anywhere thus far. Funny enough, as well, Chippy had no idea this switch was on his board when he had offered to toss a few of these switches to me to document and add to the collection, and this is now probably the official Webster Dictionary definition of ‘serendipity’ as a result.

KeyWorld Dummy Stabilizer Switch — **Figure 3:** Interestingly as well, the stabilizer switch did not come with a leaf in it at all. (Contrast increased to better show bottom side design features.)

5 minutes, 5 days, or even 5 months down the road I am almost certain that I will continue to treasure this as one of my more interesting and historically impactful vintage switches, and for that I can’t possibly thank Chippy enough on this one. I’m really glad to both have as well as to get to be the one to share it with all of you here who hopefully like switches and aren’t just hate reading me to call me out on tyops or article structure issues. As well, if you are interested in looking a little bit more into either the board or the small amount of documentation photos that Chippy took of this before desoldering it, please check out the ‘Further Reading’ section at the bottom of this article! With that in mind, though, I am still cognizant of the fact that you are here for me to actually review something new, so I guess I’ll just move on with it since I can only fangoat out for so many paragraphs about an interesting mailday switch in a review for something completely different.

Switch Background

One of the rather neat things about reviewing new switches is that they don’t have all that much background history for me to necessarily keep up with. That being said though, one of the bad parts of this is that my general verbosity usually pushes me to talk about other tangentially related things in order to better fill this space as a result of such. Directly speaking to the background of the Gateron CJ switches, they are in fact one of the newest released switches from Gateron as of the time of writing this article initially. First teased in the west via Gateron’s Twitter on September 5th of 2021, the tweet contained images of a translucent blue top housing over opaque light blue bottom housing MX mount switch as well as a slightly more darker shaded dustproof version which were both simply referred to as ‘CJ switches’. Additionally, this initial tweet contained some minor performance details in Chinese script as well as a general force curve for both switches. The normal, MX mount version appeared from this information to be a ~60g. bottom out linear switch with a full 4.0 mm travel distance, whereas the dustproof variant would be lighter around ~55g. of bottoming out force with a reduced travel distance of 3.4mm, similar in ‘vibes’ to that of the Gateron Ink Yellow switches previously released.

Gateron CJ Switch Announcement Tweet — **Figure 4:** Initial Gateron CJ switch Twitter announcement from 09/05/2021.

Beyond this initial information, a later marketing tweet was also made on September 16th by Gateron clearing up some of the general mystique surrounding the name choice of “CJ”. According to the tweet, the name is short for ‘ChinaJoy’ and is a direct reference to the ‘ChinaJoy Digital Entertainment Expo Conference’, which I believe to be something similar to CES but for China based upon the Wikipedia article for such. However, of the details in both this tweet and the one prior, one rather interesting detail stood out to many and quickly buzzed about the more switch oriented community. In the initial tweet photos, both the stem and bottom housings were purported to have been made of POM, with the top housing being made of the same material as the Ink switch line. While POM stems actually constitute the majority of stems made out there across all modern mechanical keyboard switches, this would be officially the first switch with POM in the housing that Gateron would have released, finally catching itself up with Kailh and Durock/JWK with respect to this material housing offering.

Following the tweet-based announcements of these switches by Gateron, it was shortly thereafter that they began making their appearances in several western vendors I’m almost certain. The ‘almost’ is entirely due to my laziness about moving past the first page of Google results as this isn’t a middle school book report that I’m desperate to find sources for. (In all reality though, I’ve seen at least 6 different vendors both in EU and NA who are selling these switches currently.) Across the board, it seems that the general pricing of these switches were set at $0.65 per switch, which is definitely higher than ‘stock’ Gateron OEM options and yet still a bit under what I’ve seen the Ink family of switches sell for prior.

Indirectly speaking to the background, a bit, the new Gateron CJ switches seem to be coming amidst a wave of newer releases from Gateron in general. While I am fully aware that my aforementioned time dilation may be playing a serious role in this matter, and a few of my proxies have assured me that this is just all in my head, it certainly feels like there has been a noticeable uptick in production of new switches from Gateron as a whole, lately. Yes, there have been upticks across the board from everyone, and I’m well aware of such, though I do want to point out that this may be something to keep in mind if you’re a Gateon fan. Shortly following the release of the “newly” molded Pro line as well as the Azure Dragons and Vermillion Birds in mid 2021, Gateron has not only released these CJ switches, but has released or announced collaborations with Keychron, Famicom, and community designer Dalesnail in the form of the new ‘Linney’ switches. Hell, there’s even been rumors on my radar of further Gateron releases coming down the pipeline, and I am rather surprised about this given their seeming general hesitancy to work with the community on custom switches after the initial wave of custom colored KS-3 style switches. So in order to wrap up this historical tangential point just a tiny bit, I really think the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 may prove to be Gaterons new ‘time to shine’ amidst a relatively KTT and Tecsee heavy 2021, and I’m rather interested to see what may come of it.

Gateron Linney Prototype Render — **Figure 5:** Gateron ‘Linney’ Ink switch render from @dalexsnail on Instagram.

Gateron CJ Switch Performance

Note: Even though it should be rather blatantly obvious if you’ve made it through all of the photos of the CJ switches to get to this review, this review is of the normal, MX-mount version and not the dustproof ones. I’m still making this note here, anyways, because at least one of you will surely have missed that point.

Appearance

As stated previously, they’re blue. To be quite honest I’m not entirely certain how to sum up their general appearance without getting all pointed and detailed about molds anymore, but the most defining feature of these switches is simply the extent and shade of their general blueness. While I don’t exactly have a RAL book to bust out here for comparisons, these definitely have a warmer, more light feeling blue than something like the Aqua Zilents and Tecsee Sapphires, yet are still closer to a denim-colored blue than the various Giant family switches out there. Coming with matching opaque blue stems and bottom housings, the top housings are also actually a translucent blue color rather than the clear top housings that the initial renders in the marketing tweets seemed to imply. What is also implied there, as well, is that the dustproof variants appear to be a shade or so darker than the normal, MX-mount style ones though unfortunately I don’t have any for direct comparison. Beyond this, the normal MX-mount versions come as 5-pin, PCB mount switches with a golden spring of both normal length and threading pattern.

Blue Mechanical Keyboard Switches — **Figure 6:** Gateron CJ Switch (center) color comparison to (L-R) Tecsee Sapphire, Akko CS Ocean Blue, Gateron Giant V1, and Aqua Zilent switches.

Moving on to the more detailed and interesting facets of the design of these switches, the first place to look is the rather pretty blue, translucent top housings. The most immediate striking feature externally is the use of the inverted Gateron nameplate, which has seemed thus far to be associated with the new molds of recent Gateron releases. As well, these top housings feature a bifurcated LED slot with relatively large rectangular regions not unlike Gateron releases of the past. Internally, there is nothing that strikes me as particularly odd, exciting, or different from other switch releases of the past that I’ve pored over in this section prior, save that the mold number is located in the upper right-hand side underneath where the nameplate is located in similar fashion to some Durock/JWK molds for top housings. I’m still including a photo of it below though in the event that my brain has entirely smoothed over and I’ve missed some interesting micro feature that I will want to touch on later.

Gateron CJ Top Housing Externals — **Figure 7:** Gateron CJ switch top housing external design showing upside down nameplate and bifurcated LED slot.

Gateron CJ Top Housing Internals — **Figure 8:** Gateron CJ top housing internal design.

Looking next to the stems of these switches, they appear yet again rather unadorned and basic. These linear stems come with an ever so slightly tapered central pole, a pair of flat, squared off slider rails, and a set of medium sized mold circles on the front plate directly above the connection between the front plate and the stem legs. In the various switches opened, I noted no factory lubing anywhere, even on the legs of the stem which is occasionally provided by factories in order to prevent leg-leaf ping or strange interactions over usage time.

Gateron CJ Stem Wide Shot — **Figure 9:** Gateron CJ stem wide shot showing slightly tapered central pole, squared off slider rails, and medium, wide set mold circles.

Finally stopping at the bottom housings of these switches, internally these are yet again a general snoozefest with respect to new and exciting design choices. Present are a slew of commonly used and widely accepted features including padded bottoming out locations for slider rails, a north and south side spring collar, a set of four mold circles around the upper lip, and a divided LED slot region for both diodes and through hole LEDs. The underside of these bottom housings, though, is where a few of the rather more interesting features shine through. Aside the obviously recognizable sideways ‘Gateron’ anticounterfeit measure between the pins of the switch, these new bottom housing molds featured letters just between the horizontal line drawn between the PCB mounting legs and the central stem. With one, single, capital letter markings on both sides of the switch, this is not only different than the initial marketing image but also a relatively new mold marking for Gateron switches as far as I am aware. Another interesting difference noted in the marketing is that according to the image provided, the dustproof variant of the CJ switches not only is 3-pin rather than 5-pin mount, but also features an entirely more open, less restrictive through-hole LED design. The exact rationale for this is still a mystery to me, at least.

Gateron CJ Bottom Housing Internals — **Figure 10:** CJ bottom housing internal structure with artificially increased contrast to show off features.

Gateron CJ Bottom Housing Externals — **Figure 11:** CJ bottom housing external design demonstrating mold markings and ‘GATERON’ anticounterfeit mold mark.

Push Feel

What I find rather interesting about the push feeling of these switches is that I have heard reports from people that absolutely corroborate some of my opinions here and some that are rather different in regard to such. To that end, please feel free to openly flame me if you are of the disagreeing lot, especially with the sort of conspiratorial thought process that I am out here trying to intentionally trick you or deceive you into liking switches for some reason. And before you ask if this diatribe is rather warranted, I’d certainly say so given that I still, for some reason, continue to get shit about the Everglide Water King V3 switches since some people had issues with theirs. I review what I get in my hands, and it’s plain and simple that much. I am as subject to random sampling bias as is literally everyone else in this hobby so please kindly take not only what this section but all of my reviews with a grain of salt if you’re not already within that camp of people who do.

In the category of things that I seem to agree with the general public on, one of the less satisfying things about these switches are the housing collisions. While the Ink line of switches has never quite been known for its deep, firm feeling housing collisions as compared to something ala the opaque KS-3 line of Gateron switches, these feel notably thin and plasticky feeling in the topping out of the switch. This thin sharpness is ever so slightly less present in the bottoming out than the topping out, but not by all that much to make a significant difference. On a sort of qualitative note as well, the bottoming out doesn’t quite “feel” like other POM bottom housings I’ve tried previously, which makes me mildly skeptical of the claim of POM being used in them. While this could easily be chalked up to differences in manufacturers or even thickness of the bottom housings rather than just a straight one to one material comparison with known POM switches, I still think it’s a bit necessary to note here.

Feeding further into that skepticism about the POM housings, as well, is how quite smooth I find these switches. Many people will initially recoil at the sales pitch of POM bottom housings almost entirely as a function of NK Cream switches, though to honest I don’t get any of that stereotypical POM scratch at all. Even without factory lube, these switches all seem to be consistently smooth both throughout the stroke as well as across the batch of switches that I’ve tested. This general feeling, though, seems to depart from the experiences of some users who have tried these switches and claimed ‘stick slip’ and scratch issues akin to the POM-on-POM nightmare that bad NK Cream switches can be. So, without any of the prevalent POM-on-POM issues that seem to affect other switches of similar material, I really do wonder how much POM is actually in these housings given that I am sincerely doubt that Gateron just so happens to have the magic, super-secret injection molding technique to make POM that much better.

Gateron CJ Force Curve — **Figure 12:** I didn’t think it was all that necessary to discuss weighting due to it being in a fairly common linear weight, but have a force curve diagram anyhow.

Sound

Following along the ever-present trope in these reviews, the sounds seems to follow the push feeling of these switches in terms of both good and bad notes. While there is no scratch noise present in any of the switches that I’ve tried, the housing collisions and especially those of the topping out are rather thin, high pitched, and a tiny bit plasticky as well. Without making any sort of qualitative comparison to them while writing this section, my gut instinct is that these are definitely a bit higher pitched and thinner sounding than the normal Ink line of switches. As well, some of the switches have very minor amounts of spring ping at higher activation speeds, but it’s not as if it is overwhelming nor distracts from the other noises present in the switch in any way.

Wobble

One of the biggest reasons I’ve been in love with the newest iterations of Gateron molds is the fact they seem to have incredibly improved upon stem wobble relative to their previous releases of switches in general. To that end, I think that the Gateron CJ switches are definitely better than previous stock releases but not necessarily the best of the new mold improvements. While there is noticeable amounts of stem wobble in the E/W direction, it is rather minor and not likely to cause much of an issue for most users unless they’re particularly sensitive to wobble. The N/S direction is nearly the same only perhaps ever so slightly lesser wobbly. The top housings have no wobble at all, nor give in any direction.

Measurements

If you’re into this level of detail about your switches, you should know that I have a switch measurement sheet that logs all of this data, as well as many other cool features, that can be found under the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking on the card above. This sheet typically gets updated weekly on mail days, and has been a subtle project I’ve been developing for some time now!

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 pieces to the Gateron CJ switches side by side.

Various Mechanical Keyboard Switches — **Figure 14:** Switches for comparison. (L-R, Top-Bot: Novelkeys Cream, Durock POM Linear, C3 Equalz Tangerine V2 (62g.), KTT Strawberry, Raed, and Gateron Ink Black V2)

If you would like to learn more about these switches, I’ve already completed reviews or scorecards for some of them. If the names below are highlighted in a grey color, click them to be taken to my other content or reviews on them!

Novelkeys Cream

- Noting the differences in push feel in particular between these switches, the Creams feel not only more solid and ‘thick’ than the CJ switches, but also feature that same leathery scratch that is polarizing about POM-on-POM designs.

- While both switches are quite loud overall, they sound of the CJ switches is much more clean without the scratch, spring ping, or general graininess that the Creams bring to the table.

- As well, the CJ switches are noticeably better than the Novelkeys Creams in terms of both stem and top housing wobble, though the top housing wobble of Creams is rather inconsistent from my own personal experience outside of reviewing.

Durock POM Linear

- Unlike the Novelkeys Creams above, the Durock POM linears have a significantly thicker overall feeling to them than the CJ switches, but they’re also much closer in terms of overall smoothness. The Gateron CJ switches do have them beat just the slightest bit in that regard though.

- Overall, the stem wobble between these two switches is fairly comparable and I would venture to guess that many people wouldn’t see much of a difference between the two even past initial inspection.

- The overall sound of the Gateron CJ switches is not only significantly louder than the Durock POMs at all typing speeds, but it is also significantly more higher pitched as well.

C3 Equalz Tangerine V2 (62g.)

- Interestingly, of all of the switches on this list, I feel like the topping out of these two switches happens to be the most similar. On that metric alone I think that many fans of the Tangerine V2 switches out there would be delighted by the Gateron CJ switches if they tried them out.

- The Gateron CJ switches are a tiny bit more quiet than the Tangerine V2 switches, though it is most especially noted when it comes to the absence of spring ping that is a driving feature of the stock Tangerine V2 sound.

- While the stem wobble in both N/S and E/W directions of these two switches are within the same ballpark, the CJ switches definitely still do edge out the Tangerine V2s with respect to that metric.

KTT Strawberry

- While I think that these two switches have comparable smoothness, the KTT Strawberries feel more akin to ‘hand done’ lubrication than the CJ switches, which have a bit more of the underlying switch character present beyond just ‘smooth’.

- In terms of overall sound and housing collisions, the KTT Strawberries are in almost a completely different world with how quiet they are compared to the Gateron CJ switches.

- The KTT Strawberries definitely do edge out the CJ switches with respect to wobble, though it should be noted that of all KTT releases that the Strawberries are definitely the shining example of wobble from that factory.

Raed

- Much like with the Novelkeys Cream switches, the Raeds have both a slightly thicker as well as more leathery scratchy feeling to them throughout their stroke than the stock Gateron CJ switches.

- The overall sound of the Raed switches is significantly more bass focused and overall flat sounding as opposed to the hire pitched sounding CJ switches.

- The CJ switches are overall both a tiny bit better and more consistent with respect to stem wobble than the Raed switches.

Gateron Ink Black V2

- While the general pitch between the topping out of these two switches is quite similar, the Black Ink V2s have a slightly more flattened muted sound than the CJ switches with respect to this.

- The general push feel smoothness of the CJ switches, though, is definitely noticeable when compared to the relatively scratchier Ink Black V2s.

- General stem wobble on the CJ switches is a bit better than the Ink Black V2s, though looking back I am rather impressed with how well the stem wobble was on them for the time in which they were released.

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.