Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Switch Review

What a week it has been! In addition to a rather hectic work week in the lab which has had me working multiple 16-hour days in order to run reactions, the past week has been filled with a slew of exciting news keyboard wise for me. First and foremost, I am now honored to be sponsored by Kinetic Labs who have been great supporters of reviews and my content for some time now. In addition to them supporting me behind the scenes, you can help both me and them out when you check out their website using my affiliate link under the ‘About’ page of my website or at the bottom of any of these reviews moving forward! It’s worth noting that announcements like these come mid-week via my Instagram and Twitter accounts, which many of you already follow in order to get updates whenever new reviews drop or on some of my fancy mailday packages. While I don’t know if the “YouTuber Growth for Dummies” book I’ve been reading in my free time directly applies to this website in written format, I suspect that this is the point where I introduce what is known as a “call to action”. So uh, go follow my Twitter and Instagram accounts… or else (?)

In addition to the exciting announcement about Kinetic Labs joining as a website sponsor, a few of you met me over this weekend at a keyboard meetup! While it was not quite as high profile and fancy as that of the Cannonkeys meetup, I was more than excited to drag the testers out to the Minnesota Mechanical Keyboard Meetup to meet all the awesome community members new and old alike. Even though this was a review weekend, I definitely enjoyed the chance to spend even more of my free time talking about switches as that’s pretty much all I want to do anymore when the lab hours stretch on late into the night. However, in order to perhaps prevent myself from rambling too much, I figured I’d include some photos from the meetup that I was able to take in order to give you all a taste of just how awesome it turned out! (As well, a picture is worth a 1000 words they say, so I’m really bumping up my word count on this one)

40% Cerakoted Mechanical Keyboard

Figure 1: 40rmie with Zombie Green and splatter cerakote by Jake of P3D.

Mechanical Keyboard Switch Artisans

Figure 2: Just some of dustinhxc's awesome artisan collection. (I love seeing this one every year at the MN Meetup!)

Mechanical Keyboard Artisans

Figure 3: Some specially casted, never publicly released Booper caps from HoffmanMyster's collection.

Rubrehose Mechanical Keyboard DCS Deadbeats Keycaps

Figure 4: Seeing DCS Deadbeats in person makes me realize just how stupid it was of me to miss out on this set...

Matrix Project F Mechanical Keyboard

Figure 5: A sneak peek of Ryanticz's Project F board in an incredible purple colorway. Insanely jealous of this keyboard...

Clack Factory Keypacitor Mechanical Keyboard Artisan

Figure 6: A rarely seen Clack Factory Keypacitor from HoffmanMyster. While I don't expect my general audience to care much about these, those who do know about these are aware just how rare of a sight this is.

Switch Background

Normally, this is the part where I drum up some sort of funny punch line or roundabout way of drawing out the idea that these switches don’t have all that much history to them. After all, these were only released a few weeks prior to me writing this review, and they certainly didn’t carry much marketing hype with them. Regardless of the pictures above technically bumping up my word count by way of the classic old adage, I’m still going to type more than enough here to make this ‘Background’ section worthwhile. While I don’t have much historical context about these switches to cover, I’ve been rather graciously placed in a unique position by Invokeys Co in order to discuss the pre-release history of the Blueberry Chiffon switches. Due to the fact that the crew over at Invokeys has provided me several rounds of prototypes of the Blueberry Chiffon switches, I figured it would be neat for us to step through some of the design history that led to the switches sitting in front of us today.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Prototypes

Figure 7: Please allow me to insinuate that these are suspiciously small bags...

Going all the way back to the earliest Discord messages I have with the owner of Invokeys, who goes by the name of JaiMeJames, the idea of the Blueberry Chiffon switches actually stretches back quite some time before their release in late July of 2022. The idea to stock a tactile switch alongside that of the Matcha Lattes came rather briefly after the Matcha Latte release and subsequent overwhelming community response in December of 2021. In a direct quote from JaiMeJames, “When we thought about what type of tactile to do, the first thing we thought of was ‘what if we took an MX Cherry Brown and modernized it with a long pole, dustproof stem?” With this desire in mind, and an already established design relationship with Aflion, it was not surprising that the prototyping began with Aflion around March of 2022.

Taking on the goal of producing a tactile bump inspired by Cherry MX Browns, the first Blueberry Chiffon R1 prototypes were produced by Aflion with updated ‘INVOKEYS’ raised text nameplates identical to those as seen on the final release switches. Whereas Aflion has prior demonstrated an ability to produce stronger tactiles such as those of the Aflion Black and Orange and Aflion Panda switches I’ve previously documented, no such known switch from them truly reaches into this low tactility end of the spectrum. To that end, the R1 prototypes are incredibly indicative of this result. While the force curve below comparing the R1 prototypes to the release switches certainly shows a tactile bump, in hand the prototypes feel about as close to linear as one could possibly imagine a tactile switch to be. (Yes, even enough to put the MX Brown meme to shame.) In fact, this wasn’t just my opinion as well as JaiMeJames had described the initial R1 prototypes as having a bump that was “near non-existent” to them as well. An additional interesting point worth noting about these R1 prototypes is that the bottom housings appear noticeably darker than that of the release bottom housings.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Prototype

Figure 8: R1 Prototype (Left) and Release (Right) Blueberry Chiffon switches.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Prototype Measurements

Figure 9: Force curve comparison of the R1 Prototype and Release Blueberry Chiffon switches.

However, I would be doing you a disservice by implying that the prototyping process of any product, much less switches, was truly a linear process. As is common when working with relatively new manufacturers such as Aflion, or in the event of trying brand new technologies such as in the Zeal 3-in-1 Clickiez switches, its not uncommon for vendors and/or designers to order multiple different first round prototypes. Variations in color, top housing nameplates, spring weights, and even factory lubrication are all often considered prior to making the finalized design choices and make up some of the most fun switches in my collection when I can get my hands on them. Leaning into the ‘what could have been’ nature of these prototype designs which never reached fruition, I was also excited to receive an additional R1 Blueberry Chiffon Prototype featuring an HDPE-based stem. Rather than the traditional POM material for stems, these HDPE-based dustproof stems but were ultimately scrapped due to “still being a rather new material for the manufacturer… and didn’t have properties that placed them distinctly above their POM counterparts.” As well, these HDPE prototypes also feature the darker bottom housings seen in the more normal R1 Prototype Blueberry Chiffons.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Prototype

Figure 10: R1 HDPE Prototype (Left) and Release (Right) Blueberry Chiffon switches.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Prototype Measurements

Figure 11: Force curve comparison of the R1 HDPE Prototype and Release Blueberry Chiffon switches.

Mechanical Keyboard Switch Prototypes

Figure 12: Other alternatively colored prototypes from my collection including Harimaus, an unreleased AEBoards yellow switch, and the original KBDFans T1 Prototypes.

In the second (and final) round of Blueberry Chiffon prototypes, the switches made rather drastic shifts in both colorway as well as overall intrinsic feeling. Unlike the R1 prototypes, which featured housing colors and nameplates relatively similar to that of the release switches, the R2 prototypes came in clear over cloudy housings with a white dustproof stem and the classic ‘AFLION’ nameplate. Ostensibly due to the fact that Invokeys was more or less happy with the colors from the initial prototype rounds, these clear Blueberry Chiffon prototypes featured an “increased bump size” as well as “revised polishing on the molds”, and to great effect at that. While the tactile bump is noticeably just a hair bit wider on the force curve shown below in Figure 14 than either of the R1 prototypes shown above, it was enough to step outside of the near-linear realm and into the very light-tactility one. I could imagine that based on this similarity, these prototypes ultimately are what led to the design of the final Blueberry Chiffon switches having the distinctive feeling that they do.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Prototype

Figure 13: R2 Prototype (Left) and Release (Right) Blueberry Chiffon switches.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Prototype Measurements

Figure 14: Force curve comparison of the R2 Prototype and Release Blueberry Chiffon switches

Officially announced for sale on July 24th of 2022 by way of a Discord announcement in Invokeys’ Discord server, the Blueberry Chiffons made a similarly structured debut as that of the Matcha Lattes before them. Coming in packs of 70, 90, or 110, the Blueberry Chiffons have options of Lubed or Unlubed from the factory at prices of $0.65 or $0.55 per switch, respectively. Stated as being PC over Nylon in design with a long stem pole and tactility inspired by that of MX Browns, these switches are currently in stock as of the time of publishing of this review with an expected indefinite shelf life at Invokeys. Whether or not there will be ‘B Stock’ Blueberry Chiffon sales in the future in line with that of the Decaf Matcha Lattes is also uncertain to me, as well.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Sales Page

Figure 15: Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon switch sales page as of the time of publishing this review.

Oh, and as an additional side note before jumping into the actual meat of the review, I figure it may be ever so slightly interesting to share that they also sent two other prototype samples along with these Blueberry Chiffons…

Figure 16: Who could possibly know what these may end being...

Blueberry Chiffon Switch Performance

Note: There are both lubed and unlubed Blueberry Chiffon switches stocked by Invokeys as of the time of writing this review. This review will be focused on the factory lubed Blueberry Chiffon switches and any references to the unlubed switches will be explicitly stated.

Appearance

At the highest level, the Blueberry Chiffon switches come in a three-part colorway featuring light, baby-blue nylon bottom housings, white polycarbonate top housings, and dark blue, dustproof POM stems. Similar in color scheme and material design choices to that of the Invokeys Matcha Latte switches, with the exception of the darker colored dustproof stems, these switches are the second to feature an Invokeys nameplate. As can be seen below, though, they are newly updated nameplates as compared to that of the aforementioned Matcha Lattes. Additionally, the switches come with conventional, 15mm length silver springs that are rated for 60g of bottoming out force. While factory lubed and unlubed options are indistinguishable externally, internal and performance differences below will make these classifications evident.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Nameplate

Figure 17: Nameplate comparison between the Invokeys Matcha Latte (Left) and Blueberry Chiffon (Right) switches.

Looking first to the top housings of the Blueberry Chiffons, they internally and externally appear different than that of previous Aflion switches which I’ve covered on this site. Externally, as can be seen above in Figure 17, the top housings feature a new raised text nameplate for Invokeys similar in size and depth to that of the classic, thin ‘AFLION’ nameplates. Internally, as well, there is an entirely new layout of mold ejector circles as compared to that of the Matcha Lattes. Whereas those switches featured 8 total mold ejector circles around the upper rim with two on each side, the Blueberry Chiffons feature only 3 sets of 2 mold ejector circles with the north-side edge underneath the nameplate featuring only a depressed rectangular box instead. Additionally, some of the supporting architecture around the nameplate region internals has been increased in terms of thickness and presence. A final point of note about the top housings, as well, is that they no longer appear to carry a singular letter mold marking on the internal region of the wide rectangular LED slot, instead opting for no distinguishable mold marking which I can find.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Top Housing

Figure 18: Blueberry Chiffon top housing externals showing updated 'INVOKEYS' nameplate and wide, rectangular LED slot with central circle cutout.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Top Housing

Figure 19: Blueberry Chiffon top housing internals faintly showing mold ejector circles around upper rim and increase structural support underneath nameplate region.

Looking next to the stems of the Blueberry Chiffons, it’s quite obvious that these are different from those of the Matcha Lattes. Slightly long in length at 13.40 mm in total, the stems have ever so slightly tapered slider rails and incredibly subtle tactile bumps in their legs. It is worth noting that while there are also no discernable mold markings on the stems, there are subtle ‘seams’ that run along the corona of the stem as well as in a pair of parallel lines along the backplate of the stem. While I sincerely doubt that these functionally provide any differences in the performance of the switch, I felt it was interesting to note as a byproduct of the manufacturing process. With respect to factory lubing, a rather small but well distributed amount is able to be seen on all sides of the stem. Appearing slightly thicker in consistency than what I recall having seen previously on other factory lubed switches, I am rather curious as to whether this is more akin to ‘grease’ than ‘lubricant’, though I have no idea how one could make that distinction by sight alone. It still performs more or less the same, regardless.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Stem

Figure 20: Wide shot of the Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon stem showing slightly tapered slider rail as well as faint mold-made lines on the backplate.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Stem

Figure 21: Profile shot of Blueberry Chiffon stem showing faint tactile bump on stem leg.

Finally arriving at the bottom housings of the Blueberry Chiffons, its no surprise that these too also drastically differ from that of the Invokeys Matcha Latte switches. Internally, they have a set of 8 upper rim mold ejector circles, with those on the north and south sides being significantly more close together and centered than those on the east and west sides. While these switches do not feature extra material at the bottom of the slider rails which is rather uncommon among most modern switches these days, they do feature a south side spring collar that is rather large in size. Upon inspection and testing, I noted that some of the insides of the bottom housings actually had a tiny amount of factory lubing which I found strange. Trying to determine why this was the case, I actually noticed after about my fifth switch that the springs in the Blueberry Chiffons are ever so slightly ‘donut dipped’, which is what has led to the trace amounts of lube on the insides of the bottom housings. On the external portion of the bottom housings, strangely enough these too do not feature any discernable mold markings. While I’ve often seen components here or there without mold markings, these are among the first ‘mainstream’ modern switch I’ve seen that has not a single mold marking in sight.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Bottom Housing

Figure 22: Blueberry Chiffon bottom housing interior showing faint mold ejector circles on upper rim and large south side spring collar.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Spring

Figure 23: Upside-down Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon spring image showing factory lubrication around bottom side of the spring.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Bottom Housing

Figure 24: Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon bottom housing design showing PCB mount pins and stark absence of identifying mold markings.

Push Feel

With respect to the push feel of the Blueberry Chiffons, the attempt made by Invokeys in producing a lightly tactile, MX Brown inspired switch was one rather well executed. The tactile bump on these switches is incredibly light without much strength in force nor size, and is also situated more into the downstroke than the vast majority of other modern tactile switches. Even though there is nothing inherently wrong with putting tactile bumps at the very top of the downstroke, the placement of a soft bump such as these around 30-40% of the way through the downstroke invokes the much more MX Brown-like feeling that Invokeys was directly aiming for. As well, in their stock lubed state, the Chiffons actually have rather impressively well balanced and firm feeling housing collisions. Slightly thinner feeling topping out aside, these hit the topping and bottoming outs with a wide and soft landing which comes out just on the borderline of ‘mushy’ in some switches that appear to have more generous factory lubing.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Figure 25: Lubed Blueberry Chiffon force curve diagram.

As for the factory lubing of the Blueberry Chiffons, I will admit that it is rather cleanly done while still managing to be surprisingly independent of the performance seen in the Invokeys Matcha Latte switches. Whereas the more heavy-handed lubrication in the Matcha Latte switches was slightly polarizing though acceptable for a linear switch, in not wanting to lose the subtle tactility of this switch its evident that they intentionally pulled back on the lubing application. (This was also later directly confirmed by JaiMeJames upon being asked about the differences in lube application between the two.) As a result, these switches have much more character to them and even a tiny amount of subtle scratch in some, while still walking the textbook definition line of ‘smooth’. Do note, however, that this is rather notably changed upon breaking in these lubed switches substantially as is shown below in the ‘Break In’ section. Regarding the lubrication consistency cross batch, much like with the Matcha Lattes Aflion and Invokeys did a pretty stellar job at reducing batch wide variation. While some is still present, it is mostly a sound-based feature and not one that drastically affects switch feel performance.

Sound

In a rather surprising fashion, the actual tactile bump of these switches contributes basically nothing to the overall sound of the Blueberry Chiffons. Especially more noticeable when testing these in boards, the entirety of the sound profile is based on the topping and bottoming out with only a minor amount of scratch-like character behind both of those. While this lack of overall contribution is most certainly a function of just how small the tactile bump is, as it is capable of producing the tiniest amount of sound when testing way below normal typing speeds, it is still surprising to have a tactile switch that sound strikingly like that of a linear switch.

As for how the linear-like sound of the Blueberry Chiffons comes across, it very much falls into that ‘smooth but with character’ description I’ve provided before on several other lightly lubed switches. Sounding more scratchy than they actually feel, the light factory lubing allows for a subtle scratch sound that accentuates rather firm and muted bottoming and topping outs. Much like as is described above, these housing collisions feel wide and soft, almost as a complete opposite end of the spectrum from what people have come to expect of bottoming outs onto long pole stems. While the overall volume and general pitch of these switches are minorly susceptible to change as typing speeds increase, they are much more affected by the break in period as noted below in the ‘Break In’ section.

Wobble

I’ll put it plain and simple: There is very little stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W direction of the Blueberry Chiffon switches. Across a batch, this feature stays rather impressively consistent and I would imagine that anyone, even those more concerned about stem wobble, would have an absolute blast using these switches on that metric alone. Additionally, the batch that I received had no top housing wobble in any of the switches which I had tested.

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.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Figure 27: Lubed Blueberry Chiffon switch 'butterfly style' force curve diagram.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Figure 28: Numerical details regarding the stock Lubed Blueberry Chiffon 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

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Break In Notes

17,000 Actuations

- All things considered, these switches are surprisingly incredibly resilient to break in testing out to 17,000 actuations. With only the most minor change in the bottoming out feeling and sound becoming a bit more firm and less subtly mushy, these are incredibly hard to pick out from stock switches when blindly attempting to identify them.

- As mentioned above, the sound does ever so slightly change at the bottoming out point to one that is slightly more deepened, firm, and pointed as opposed to the ever so slightly mushy bottom out sound in the factory lubed Blueberry Chiffons.

34,000 Actuations

- All things considered, these switches are surprisingly incredibly susceptible to break in when testing them out to 34,000 actuations. In fact, these are quite night and day difference from the lightly used Blueberry Chiffons in that there is a much more present scratch throughout the stroke and inconsistency with respect to the bottoming out feeling across the set which I had broken in.

- As is expected, the stem wobble difference between the stock switches and those broken out to 34,000 actuations became much more noticeable. While the E/W direction was only very minorly affected, the N/S direction noticeably increased in stem wobble as well, though not to any appreciable point as to likely cause issues to many users.

51,000 Actuations

- The same features as noted above in the 34,000 actuation tested samples appeared to persist into 51,000 actuation territory. Interestingly, though, the issue regarding an increase in scratchiness as well as inconsistency in the push feeling was more or less eliminated by this point, leading to a slightly scratchier and thinner housing collision-based feeling, but one that is ultimately more consistent across batches.

- While I have already hinted at just how much the sound and the push feeling change with actuations in the Blueberry Chiffons, above, at 51,000 switches these almost sound like entirely different switches than stock form with a consistent, stroke-wide scratch sound and higher pitched topping out. It’s not particularly bad overall, just quite different than where the switches initially started.

Other

Rather than utilizing a much more customized and stylized packaging flair like with the Matcha Latte switches, the Blueberry Chiffons come in relatively unadorned black box with an identifying sticker on the top and switch sticker on the inside. While this may perhaps be designed to evoke the idea of a carryout or to-go box for Blueberry Chiffon desserts which Invokeys has stated was the inspiration for this colorway and switch name, I wouldn’t know as I never have tried such in my life. I even had to google it at the start of this review because I kept trying to call it ‘Chiffron’ mentally for some reason.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Packaging

Figure 30: Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon switch packaging.

Comparison Notes to Other Notable Tactile 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 Blueberry Chiffons switches side by side.

Mechanical Keyboard Switches

Figure 31: Switches for comparison. (L-R, Top-Bot: Akko CS Lavender Purple, Chosfox x JWICK Voyager, Ajazz x Huano Banana, Momoka Shark, Zealio V1 Redux 62g, and Neapolitan Ice Cream)

Akko CS Lavender Purple

- Regardless of what the force curve below may indicate, the tactile bump of the Akko CS Lavender Purple switches feels significantly greater than that of the Blueberry Chiffon switches. The difference is so striking, in fact, that I truly am uncertain as to how it could be this different from what its force curve feels like.

- In terms of stem wobble, the Akko CS Lavender Purples are just a tiny bit less wobbly in both N/S and E/W directions than the Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon switches.

- With respect to their overall sound, the Akko CS Lavender Purples are quite noticeably louder than the stock Blueberry Chiffons and are much more susceptible to activation speed-based pitch shifts.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon and Akko CS Lavender Purple Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Chosfox x JWICK Voyager

- Even though the tactile bump of the Chosfox x JWICK Voyagers is located more towards the front of the downstroke than the tactile bump on the Blueberry Chiffons, it does feel as if it has a greater force to ‘overcome’ the initial tactile feeling.

- While the bottoming out of both of these switches is a bit sharp and pointed feeling, the bottoming out of the Voyagers feels noticeably more sharp and firm as compared to thicker, fuller feeling bottom out of the Chiffons.

- In terms of stem wobble, there is a marginally greater amount of both N/S and E/W stem wobble in the Voyagers than there is in any of the Blueberry Chiffon switches.

Ajazz x Huano Banana

- In terms of overall sound, the housing collisions of the Ajazz x Huano Banana switches are not only a bit louder but more high pitched and plasticky in tone. The Blueberry Chiffons, on the other hand, have a much more ‘muted’ sound in their stock lubed form which does become less dampened and slightly higher pitched as the factory lube is broken in.

- There is noticeably more wobble in both directions of the stems of the Banana switches than there is in the Blueberry Chiffon switches.

- Interestingly, when testing these blindly before creating the force curve comparison, the Banana switches definitely felt as if they had a stronger tactile bump than that of the Blueberry Chiffons. I suspect this may be a difference in the length of the tactile bump making the Bananas feel more ‘substantial’ than that of the comparatively short, low intensity Blueberry Chiffon bump.

Momoka Shark

- With respect to both the housing collisions as well as the actual tactile bump of the Momoka Sharks, they feel both significantly more pointed and sharp feeling than that of the comparably dulled, blunted collisions in the Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon switches.

- In terms of stem wobble, these two switches are the most comparable out of any on this list. Perhaps the Sharks ever so slightly edge out the Blueberry Chiffons in terms of wobble, though I’d be inclined to consider this almost a function of increased spring weight rather than true mold/tolerance-based differences.

- Without any surprise whatsoever given the statement on their push feeling above, the Momoka Sharks are significantly louder than the Blueberry Chiffons with respect to nearly every aspect about them.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon and Momoka Shark Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Zealio V1 Redux 62g

- While the linear, pre-bump region in both of these switches is more or less identical in terms of length, the lighter weighting of this region in the Zealio V1 Redux switches causes it to blindly feel ever so slightly longer and more drawn out than that of the Blueberry Chiffons.

- In terms of overall sound, the Zealio V1s are much more pingy, thin, and higher pitched sounding throughout all aspects of the switch than that of the relatively subtle, dampened stock Blueberry Chiffon switches.

- Without much surprise for those of you who have tried the Zealio V1 Redux switches, or their V1 Zealio counterparts which they were based on, both directions of the stem wobble are significantly greater in the Zealios than that of the Blueberry Chiffon switches.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon and Zealio V1 Redux Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Neapolitan Ice Cream

- In terms of both push feeling and sound, the housing collisions of the Neapolitan Ice Creams are much more punchy and strong than that of the Blueberry Chiffon switches.

- There is noticeably less N/S and (especially) E/W stem wobble in the Blueberry Chiffon switches than that of the Neapolitan Ice Creams.

- Even though these switches bottom out at very similar weights to each other, the shortened travel distance and perhaps increase ‘abruptness’ to the bottoming out in the Neapolitan Ice Creams makes them feel noticeably more heavy at bottom out than that of the Blueberry Chiffons.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon and Neapolitan Ice Cream Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

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.

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Mechanical Keyboard Switch Review Score

Push Feel

Lightly factory lubed Cherry MX Brown-inspired switches are truly few and far between in their attempts. In their execution, though, I don’t think many of them have pulled it off quite as well as Blueberry Chiffons. Coming with a very light tactile bump 30-40% of the way through the downstroke, these somewhat smooth switches really do nail that light tactile feeling. While some scratchy ‘character’ is still present as a result of the factory lubing, the firm, well balanced, and large soft housing collisions more than make up for it.

Wobble

There is barely any stem wobble in the N/S or E/W direction of the Blueberry Chiffons and they are incredibly consistent across the batch on this metric as well. There is no trace of top housing wobble in any of the switches which I tested.

Sound

While far from bad, the overall sound of the Blueberry Chiffons is probably their “worst” quality. Not having any noise from the tactile bump in the slightest due to its small size, the housing collisions are firm and deep sounding while sandwiching a smoothly scratchy sounding stroke. As well, these are slightly susceptible to pitch and volume changes with higher actuation speeds.

Context

Being the sophomore custom switch release from Invokeys, there was absolutely no slump in the design of these switches. The sheer amount of design effort that clearly went into these switches, their ready availability at strong price points, and unique niche they fulfill all are truly great indicators of a great switch. I do feel there is just the tiniest bit more they can squeeze out of Aflion in terms of performance, however.

Other

The production of a seldom made lightly tactile switch by a newer manufacturer and with good quality is certainly a sight to see among other contextual points mentioned above. 

Statistics

If you are looking at this statistics section for the first time and wondering where the hell are the other 186 switches that I’ve ranked are, or what ‘hard’ versus ‘soft’ ranks refer to specifically, I’d encourage you to head on over to my GitHub linked in the table above or at the links in the top right hand of this website to check out my database of scorecards as well as the ‘Composite Score Sheet’ which has a full listing of the rankings for each and every switch I’ve ranked thus far.

Final Conclusions

When I had initially picked up my package of Blueberry Chiffon switches, I have to be truthful in saying that I hadn’t read a single thing about them. Knowing that I absolutely did want some for the collection, and that they were the new tactile release from Invokeys, I hardly put much thought into what exactly they would feel like or even what they were aimed at being. In fact, I probably just sort of implicitly assumed these would be another early-in-downstroke, high strength tactile bump from whatever manufacturer hasn’t gotten tired of those yet. Upon opening the packaging and trying them out, though, I was actually quite shocked to realize that they were the latest light tactile switches attempting to fulfill the niche only recently challenged by switches such a the KTT Mallos and Pewters. Further on top of that, I was even more surprised that this coming from Invokeys, as their manufacturing partner in Aflion had not prior demonstrated an ability or willingness to make switches with this little tactility. And for all of the implicit thought, trials, and effort that would go into that undertaking, the switches pay off.

While the Blueberry Chiffons still have a bit more room for improvement at the finer detail level, these check off all of the major boxes for what someone would want in a new lightly tactile switch. In stock form the housing collisions are wide, firm, and muted, the switches are smooth but not overly smooth, and there is a nearly mid-stroke, lightly tactile bump that simply isn’t offered in many if any places right now. Additionally, the same impressive level of cross-batch consistency that was noted previously in my Invokeys Matcha Latte Switch Review also appears to have traveled on into the design and manufacturing of Invokeys’ second custom switch. Even though I am uncertain of what exactly may lie in the future for Invokeys, and whether or not they will be choosing to make more switches, I know for a fact that they could stop here with these two and have an insanely clean record for switches released thus far. The Blueberry Chiffons are certainly interesting options now, and will continue to be so long as they choose to stock them, but they only make me even more excited for what is going to come next from Invokeys as they just simply don’t seem to miss.

Sponsors/Affiliates

Mechbox UK

- A wonderful UK based operation which sells singles to switches that I’ve used above in my comparisons for collectors and the curious alike. Matt has gone out of his way to help me build out big parts of my collection, and buying something using this link supports him as well as my content!

KeebCats UK

- A switch peripheral company based out of the UK which sells everything switch adjacent you could ask for, they’ve been a huge help recently with my film and lube supply for personal builds, and they want to extend that help to you too. Use code ‘GOAT’ for 10% off your order when you check them out!

proto[Typist] Keyboards

- An all-things keyboard vendor based out of the UK, proto[Typist] is a regular stocker of everything from switches to the latest keyboard and keycap groupbuys. While I’ve bought things from the many times in the past, they also are a sponsor of my work and allow me to get some of the great switches I write about!

MKUltra Corporation

- We may have stolen a few government secrets to get this one together. MKUltra is a US vendor that truly fills all the gaps other vendors simply don’t offer and is continuing to expand their switch and switch related peripherals by the day. Use code ‘GOAT’ for 5% off your order when you check them out!

Divinikey

- Not only do they stock just about everything related to keyboards and switches, but they’re super friendly and ship out pretty quick too. Divinikey has been a huge help to me and my builds over the last year or two of doing reviews and they’ll definitely hook you up. Use code ‘GOAT’ for 5% off your order when you check them out!

ZealPC

- Do they really need any introduction? Zeal and crew kicked off the custom switch scene many years ago with their iconic Zealios switches and the story of switches today couldn’t be told without them. Use code ‘GOAT’ (or click the link above) for 5% off your order when you check them out!

MechMods UK

- A rising vendor based in the UK, Ryan and crew have been a pleasure to work with and have nearly everything you’d need to build your first or fourteenth keyboard. Go build your latest or greatest one right now with them by using code ‘GOAT’ at checkout for a 5% discount!

Dangkeebs

- A longtime supporter of the website and the collection, Dangkeebs has quite possibly the widest variety of switches of any vendor out there. Not only is their switch selection large, but it rotates and is constantly adding new stuff too. You’re going to need 5% off your order with my affiliate to save off the cost of all those switches!

SwitchOddities

- The brainchild of one my most adventurous proxies, SwitchOddities is a place where you can try out all the fancy, strange, and eastern-exclusive switches that I flex on my maildays with. Follow my affiliate code and use code ‘GOAT’ at checkout to save 5% on some of the most interesting switches you’ll ever try!

Cannonkeys

- Does anybody not know of Cannonkeys at this point? One of the largest vendors in North America with keyboards, switches, keycaps, and literally everything you could ever want for a keyboard always in stock and with an incredibly dedicated and loving crew. Follow my affiliate link above in their name to support both them and I when you buy yourself some switches!

Kinetic Labs

- One of the most well-rounded keyboard vendors out there, Christian and crew have been supporters of all my switch and switch-adjacent needs for some years now. I’m honored to have them as an affiliate and think you should check them out using my affiliate link above to support both them and I when you check out their awesome products!

Further Reading

Invokeys Blueberry Chiffon Switches

Wayback

TofuTypes’ Blueberry Chiffon Switch Review and Sound Test

Testo Testerson’s Blueberry Chiffon Typing Test

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Lubed Black Geon Switch Review