Gateron UHMknown Switch Review

After a bit over a month of being in my new, very adult lifestyle and job, I must say that I feel like I’m beginning to settle in fairly well. While I always could be doing more content in my free time and cranking through more force curves each and every day, I finally feel as if I’ve gotten a solid pace of life underneath me and am back on top of the content train as it exists today. Absolutely disregard the fact that I’ve missed a couple of mailday posts on Wednesdays in the past month – those were for completely valid, work-related reasons and definitely not a function of me having forgotten in the midst of eating lunch. All jokes aside though, it has been going fairly well for me and I feel like I am in a much better space, overall, than I was a year ago at this time. One thing that is also nice about a big boy job, as well, is that I get paid time off, which means…

**Figure 1:** Tickets to the Cannonkeys and Novelkeys meetups!

… I will officially be attending the Cannonkeys and Novelkeys meetups here later this year! While I have yet to fully pin down hotels and there’s plenty of time between now and these meetups for some life emergency to pop up, I am fully well expecting to attend both of these meetups later this year. In addition to hopefully getting to meet more readers than I have at some previous meetups local to where I was at the time, I will also be dragging the vast majority of the switch collection with me for people to get to try out live and in person. So, if you happen to be attending one or both of these meetups in August or September this year, you should absolutely stop by my table (and a half) that I will likely be covering entirely in switches and say hello. I’m super excited to finally have a chance to make it out to both of these meetups, as I’ve never been to anything quite as large since I first joined the hobby all the way back in late 2017/early 2018.

Switch Background

I am fully well aware that the major marketing point which the Gateron UHMknown switches are currently pivoting around is the custom designed UHMWPE only stem mold that was made by Gateron for these switches. While previous attempts at high molecular weight polyethylene stems by Gateron relied on using other stem molds to a less than stellar result, these switches ideally will be better performing as the tolerances for their stems should be better than previous iterations of Gateron-made UHMWPE stems. However, my brain has decidedly latched onto the ‘Ink Thermoplastic’ being used in the bottom housings of the UHMknown switches as one of the more interesting trends that I’ve seen in Gateron switches as of late. So, rather than spending this entire Switch Background section talking about the more obvious material choice in the UHMknown switches, lets take a look into ‘Ink Thermoplastic’ material and why you feel like you’ve been hearing about it more and more recently.

**Figure 2:** Basically my decision making when drafting this article.

First introduced along with the Gateron Ink line of switches in 2017, ‘Ink Thermoplastic’ material is the technical term ascribed to the unique material blend housings found in Gateron Ink switches as per Gateron’s specification sheets for their switches. While the bright translucent colors and premium construction certainly helped sell the success of the Ink Family of switches, there’s no doubt that the sound signature brought out in the Inks, and especially Ink Blacks, was the largest driver in their success and why they are still mentioned as serious contenders to date. Even to this day in 2023 you will find new keyboard content creators making videos about either Gateron Ink Black V2s and/or their keyboard builds using them. In spite of this continued success for half a decade, though, there hasn’t been much more progress made in unraveling what exactly is ‘Ink Thermoplastic’ material as far as I am aware, at least. While part of this is a fact that very few of us are analytical chemists and recognize that burn tests are a completely brainless attempt of trying to guess material composition of a switch, a not insignificant part of this lack of progress has been the lack of switches which have seen the use of ink thermoplastic materials in either halves of their housings. Or, at least, it doesn’t seem as if there have been all that many switches. As far as I can recall, here’s a run down of where ink thermoplastic material has shown up in switches over the past handful of years.

OEM Switches

**Figure 3:** Keychron's Gateron Phantom Yellow, Brown, Blue, and Red.

While not the first time which Gateron has gone out of their way to fulfill a custom OEM switch offering for a company before, the Keychron Phantom line of switches is rather unique when considering that no other large manufacturers is carrying out a similar line of premium materials switches as such with such a large prebuilt keyboard brand. First introduced in mid 2021, the Gateron ‘Phantom’ switches are a series of Red, Brown, Yellow, and Blue switches featuring fully ink thermoplastic housings and used exclusively by Keychron and in Keychron prebuilt keyboards. While similar colors of Red, Blue, and Yellow are shared between the Phantom line of switches and the original ‘Ink Family’ of releases, the Phantoms distinguish themselves from the original releases by way of inverted nameplates (which imply updated molds) as well as an opaque bottom housing in matching color as opposed to the entirely translucent color scheme of original Inks. As of the time of writing this, these switches still remain purchasable from Keychron and likely will for many years to come in the future given Keychron’s tremendous success with the introductory levels of the hobby.

Premium Gateron Switches

**Figure 4:** Premium Gateron offerings with ink thermoplastic material including Gateron Kangaroo Ink, CJ, and Oil King.

Over the span of the last two to three years, Gateron has been beefing up their premium switch offerings with improved molds, factory lubrication, and design language as well. While not all of these switches have necessarily seen odd material choices thrown in with their upgrades, some switches have seen the inclusion of ink thermoplastics in some or all of their housings. Switches which fit into this category and include full ink thermoplastic housings include the Gateron Kangaroo Inks, 8008 Inks, and Baltic Inks from 2020 and upcoming glow-in-the-dark Luciola switches in mid to late 2023. Switches with partial ink thermoplastic housings include Gateron CJs, which have only top housings made of ink thermoplastic, and the incredibly successful Oil Kings which feature ink thermoplastic bottom housings. While most of these switches feature increased pricing as a result of their premium material choices and design, sometimes referred to as ‘ink tax’, there is no broad rhyme nor reason as to which halves of housings get the ink thermoplastic treatment. It is worth noting, though, that of all switches which feature only one housing half with ink thermoplastic, the vast majority are bottom housing only.

Custom Designed Switches

**Figure 5:** Custom designed Gateron switches with ink thermoplastic material including Root Beer Float, Cream Soda, Malvix Studio Irene, Mizu Mink, and Blue Bubblegum.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody who has followed the mechanical keyboard hobby over the span of the past few years, there are also a slew of custom-ordered switches from Gateron which feature ink thermoplastics in some of their housings, the majority of which have been released in the past year or two. The two most easily recognizable ink thermoplastic switches which have been custom designed in the past two years are those of the Gateron Cream Soda and Root Beer Float switches, which were not only designed by PuNkShoO but already covered extensively in my Gateron Root Beer Float Switch Review. It is worth noting here, though, that of all of the switches on this list which feature ink thermoplastic material in their design, these are the only two to use it for the stems as well as the bottom housings. Other custom offerings have come by way of vendor requests, rather than individual designer choices, and include Keebhut’s Blue Bubblegums, Cannonkeys’ Mizu Minks, and Malvix Studio’s Irene switches, all of which feature ink thermoplastic bottom housings.

Following on the trend of vendor-designed ink thermoplastic containing switches, the UHMknown switches are the latest to follow this trend. Designed by Divinikey and pre-sold through cooperative vendors in April of 2023, these premium Gateron switches feature nylon top housings, ink thermoplastic bottom housings, and an UHMWPE stem. As mentioned previously, while this housing material combination has seen success in Gateron Oil Kings before, the major sales point for these switches revolves around the custom mold designed explicitly for the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene stems. These factory lubed, 57g bottom out linear switches are available via Divinikey as well as cooperative vendors, such as AshKeebs and MechMods UK, for a price of $0.65 per switch.

UHMknown Switch Performance

Appearance

At the highest level, the Gateron UHMknown switches are opaque grey over black linear switches which come with a traditional length stem and elongated, approximately 19 mm. black spring. Externally, these switches feature very little in the way of immediately recognizable features aside from their color, as they share nearly identical mold markings to at least the Gateron Root Beer Float switches, if not several more Gateron-made switches before them. The materials used in the UHMknown switches include a nylon top housing, ink thermoplastic bottom housing, and UHMWPE stem, the latter of which is a milky white color. As for the finer details about the switch:

**Figure 6:** Gateron UHMknown switch and components.

Looking first to the top housings of the UHMknown switches, these grey, nylon, four pin top housings are fairly unremarkable relative to Gateron’s entire catalogue. The two most notable features include a normal orientation ‘GATERON’ nameplate and a severely restricted LED slot, which features room only in the centered circle cutout used to support a very specific type of through-switch LED. Internally, the UHMknown switches are again fairly in line with previous Gateron offerings which look similar on the exterior. Like those switches, these feature sets of rectangular mold ejector pads along the upper rim of the inside of the top housing as well as a pair of single capital letter mold markings in the upper right- and left-hand corners of the housing underneath the nameplate region.

**Figure 7:** Gateron UHMknown top housing external design showing normal facing nameplate and extremely restricted through-switch LED slot.

**Figure 8:** Gateron UHMknown top housing internal design showing mold ejector rectangles and single capital letter mold markings in upper corners underneath nameplate region.

Aside from the UHMWPE composition of the stem itself, the design of the stem is fairly plain and features very little in the way of ‘premium’ design offerings which have become commonplace within the last year or two of switch production. These standard features include non-tapered slider rails, a non-tapered nor tiered center pole, and only a small pair of mold ejector circles located on the front plate directly above the stem legs which interact with the leaves in the bottom housing. While these features, in and of themselves, are rather representative of the ‘average’ design of the sum total of modern mechanical keyboard switch stems, when compared to the recent onslaught of tapered slider rails, long stem poles, etc., it is a bit odd to see such a simplistic design in this day and age. Without any sort of information to back this up, it does make me baselessly speculate if these ‘special molds for UHMWPE stems’ were not simply repurposed from a set of molds previously used in Gateron’s production from many years ago.

**Figure 9:** Gateron UHMknown stem front and back showing front plate mold ejector circles, non-tapered slider rails, and short, untapered center pole.

Much like with the top housings, the bottom housings of the UHMknown switches are fairly in line with other ink thermoplastic-based releases in previous years. Perhaps indicating that these features are a part of a mold used specifically and only for ink thermoplastic bottom housings, these design features are nearly identical to the most recently released Gateron Root Beer Floats. Internally, the bottom housings feature a small pair of circular, centered outcroppings at the bottom of the slider rails to dampen the bottoming out as well as a set of four mold ejector marks in the base of the bottom housing. Externally, these five pin housings also feature the sideways, anticounterfeit ‘GATERON’ mold stamp and pair of single, capital letter mold markings after the first and third LED/diode pins. All of these features have been thoroughly explored before here in previous reviews and thus I don’t feel much of a need to explore them any further here.

**Figure 10:** Gateron UHMknown bottom housing internal design showing mold ejector circles, padded bottoming outs at bottom of slider rails, and closed in LED region.

**Figure 11:** Gateron UHMknown bottom housing external design showing 'GATERON' anticounterfeit stamp and pair of capital letter mold markings between LED and diode pin outs.

Push Feel

On the whole, the Gateron UHMknown switches perform well as a modern Gateron offering, and generally do well to mark many of the boxes people are looking for this type of switch with its construction. However, this is certainly one of those switches where the devil lies in the details, and its the tiniest bits and pieces of features which seem to be missing and preventing this switch from truly aligning itself with the upper end of Gateron’s premium offerings. First considering the smoothness of the switches out of the box, they are decently lubricated and it is evident that the factory lubing is quite consistent across the batch that I received. That being said, though, it is definitely on the lighter side of lubrication as compared to premium offerings a la Gateron CJs, Oil Kings, etc., and it is especially more noticeable in the migration of this lube and its associated effects during breaking in the switches as shown below. As for the housing collisions, they are fairly well balanced with a medium to medium-light firmness and the topping out being a touch thinner than the bottoming out. Typically this is a result of assumed mechanical thickness differences between top and bottom housings. As for the devil in this detail, there is a slight degree of stickiness to the bottoming out which can occasionally feel like ‘popping’ upon return from bottom out when typing at lower speeds. While variation with respect to this point is fairly minor across the batch that I received, there are about 10% of switches which have distinctly thinner topping outs than bottoming outs as well as slightly more noticeable ‘popping’.

**Figure 12:** Gateron UHMknown stock switch force curve diagram.

However, those 10% of switches which did have distinctively thinner topping outs and popping prevalence did not necessarily just stop there in terms of their differences in feeling, either. While I am still not entirely sure of what is causing the differences between them, a couple of them feel as if they have either a different stem mold or some sort of leaf issue which lends a more springy feeling switch with more aggressive housing collisions. Curious if I was able to actually see a difference between these switches by force curve and not just by hand, I actually measured five different UHMknown switches, with 2 (#3 and #5) being switches indicative of the average, 2 (#1 and #4) being indicative of these springy, problematic switches, and 1 (#2) being a random switch from the batch at large. While it may not seem like much of a difference at first, Figure 13 below shows a clear separation in good and bad force curves between 1.00 and 2.00 mm, with the ‘more springy’ switches taking on an almost tactile-like bump with them as well. I do want to stress that this is only a tiny number of switches out of the total batch that I received, though admittedly this is the first time that I recall having felt a subtle difference in switches that was actually able to be demonstrated by force curve machine and not just a slight change in smoothness, travel distance, etc. While minor at best, it still stands as one of those tiny devils in the details of the UHMknown switches.

**Figure 13:** Comparison of force curve diagrams between Gateron UHMknown switches of varying quality.

Sound

For being a consistently lubed and decently constructed Gateron offering, the UHMknown switches do leave a bit to be desired when it comes to their overall sound profile directly out of the box. Coming in with a softer, just shy of mid-range volume overall, the sound profile is primarily driven by the decently balanced housing collisions. Here, the slight stick in the bottoming out which lead to the aforementioned poppy feeling return is a bit more noticeable, though it ultimately blends in with the slightly thinner topping out to provide a bit more contrast from the bottoming out, alone. While there certainly isn’t any scratch to this switch in its feeling, there is a very subtle undertone of scratch to the sound which is somewhat present in the stock form of the UHMknown switches, though admittedly not all that much with the exception of the 10% batch which had more issues than not. The largest note about the overall sound of these switches comes in the break in section below, in which their volume and pitch dramatically increases even over just 50,000 actuations on the break in machine. While I do not necessarily score and review switches which are not stock, I would be remiss I did not strongly indicate here how much the sound profile of these switches changes upon breaking in.

Wobble

All things considered, the weakest stock performance metric of the Gateron UHMknown switches is that of its stem wobble. Especially keeping in mind that a pivotal marketing point of these switches was in the custom designed molds for the UHMWPE stems, these have a stem wobble in the N/S and E/W direction that is incredibly reminiscent of early KS3 recolored switches. With the recent development of and release of premium offerings with incredibly well tolerance housings and very minor wobble, this is demonstrably below the quality of what Gateron has shown that they can mold and produce in 2023.

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 which can be found under the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking on the card above. Known as the ‘Measurement Sheet’, this sheet typically gets updated weekly and aims to take physical measurements of various switch components to compare mold designs on a brand-by-brand basis as well as provide a rough frankenswitching estimation sheet for combining various stems and top housings.

**Figure 15:** Numerical details regarding the stock Gateron UHMknown 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

- At 17,000 actuations, the UHMknown switches really do not change much, if at all. The only noticeable difference is that some of the ‘stickiness’ that was noted above with respect to the bottoming out begins to disappear a bit, which I would consider an overall improvement.

- Like most other switches, I do think there may be some increase in stem wobble in the UHMknown switches at 17,000 actuations, but if there is it is so minor as to make it hard to decide either way.

34,000 Actuations

- In addition to hitting on both the stem wobble and slight improvement to bottoming out stickiness noted at 17,000 actuations, at this point in the break in testing, the switches also begin to change quite a bit with respect to sound. Comparing the 34,000-actuation batch to the stock batch of UHMknown switches, the broken ones are significantly higher pitched, louder, and more plasticky sounding with me left unsure as to how exactly this happened.

- Beyond the most notable change in housing collision pitch and volume, the switches don’t appear to change much beyond 17,000 actuations, save for the small increase in both N/S and E/W direction stem wobble that is certainly deserving of a notice at this point.

51,000 Actuations

- At this point in the break in testing, the UHMknown switches further down the pitch and volume increase path to the point that they don’t even sound remotely the same as the stock switches. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the volume and pitch of a switch swing so far with so little breaking in time relative to their total lifespan, and it leaves me assuming that something more must be going on beyond subtle lube migration which is often the root cause of volume changes in lubed switches.

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 UHMknown switches side by side.

Gateron Oil King

- While the stock forms of the Gateron Oil Kings and UHMknown switches have similar volumes to each other, the bottoming out of the Gateron Oil Kings has quite a bit more bass-y tones to it and sounds overall more deep than the UHMknowns, even though they are made of the same material.

- Likely as a result of the UHMWPE stems in the UHMknown switches, the UHMknowns have a bit more N/S and E/W direction stem wobble than the comparatively top tier (lack of) stem wobble in Gateron Oil King switches.

- The stock smoothness of these two switches is quite comparable, all things considered. If I absolutely had to pick an answer as to which one was smoother as if my life depended on it, I would say the average Oil King switch is marginally more smooth.

Obsidian L

- In stock form, the Obsidian switches both sound and feel much more plasticky and thin in their housing collisions than the Gateron UHMknown switches. Interestingly, though, I would say that the stock Obsidian Ls are most similar to the 50,000 actuation UHMknown switches mentioned above than any other switch on this comparison list.

- The Gateron UHMknown switches slightly edge out the Obsidian Ls in terms of N/S and E/W direction stem wobble, but with much less room to spare than one might expect from a recently made, premium Gateron switch.

- Much like with the stem wobble, the UHMknown switches also edge out the Obsidian Ls in terms of fresh out of the box smoothness.

Cherry MX ‘New Nixie’

- Without much competition, the Cherry MX ‘New Nixie’ switches are much more firm, muted, and solid sounding than the Gateron UHMknown switches and also are significantly better in terms of N/S and E/W direction stem wobble as well.

- For all the performance metrics that the ‘New Nixies’ beat out the UHMknown switches in, the New Nixies don’t quite seem to be as smooth out of the box – something which might be expected by many in a Cherry versus Gateron premium switch matchup.

- While I very rarely compare broken in variants of switches against each other, the New Nixie switches fair much better throughout their breaking in course than that of the Gateron UHMknown switches.

EMT V2

- Of all of the switches in this comparison list, the EMT V2 switches are by far the most similar to the Gateron UHMknown switches in terms of their out of box smoothness and factory lubrication amount.

- One notable difference between the feeling of the EMT V2 and UHMknown switches, though, is that the bottoming out on the EMT V2s is quite a bit more aggressive and pointed feeling than the UHMknowns, a direct function of its longer stem pole at 13.53 mm in length as compared to the UHMknown’s 12.56 mm.

- While the two switches are fairly comparable to each other in terms of E/W direction stem wobble, the Gateron UHMknown switches are a bit less wobbly in the N/S direction by comparison.

TTC Neptune

- Surprisingly, even though the TTC Neptune switches are the only comparison on this list with a bottom out weight lower than that of the UHMknown switches, they feel the most similar in terms of spring weighting. This is even in comparison to a switch like the Obsidian Ls which has a much more similar bottoming out weight.

- In terms of stock smoothness, there isn’t much competition here as TTC’s latest and greatest as of the time of writing this review absolutely beat out the Gateron UHMknown switches.

- While the topping out of these two switches is quite similar to each other, the TTC Neptune’s bottom out is much more muted if not entirely absent as compared to the Gateron UHMknown switches.

NK Silk Mictlan

- While these two switches have a similar tone to their housing collisions, the Gateron UHMknown switches are a tiny bit lower pitched in the topping out than the NK Silk Mictlan switches. Mind you, this comparison flips quite readily upon breaking in the UHMknown switches.

- The NK Silk Mictlans are much better than the Gateron UHMknown switches in terms of both N/S and E/W direction stem wobble.

- With regards to their stock, from the factory smoothness, I would definitely hesitate to claim that either of these switches are neither smooth nor consistent. However, I would say that the factory lubing application in the Kailh-made Silk Mictlans feels much more consistent across the batch than that of the Gateron-made UHMknowns.

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.