JWICK Semi Silent Switch Review

Over the course of the past weeks since the last review, I’ve restarted my fervor for collecting force curves of switches that I have coming in the mail. Or, more likely, I’ve just finally gotten past this penultimate round of exams during the semester and I am just back to my normal pace of enjoying switches. With having just passed the 1800 switch barrier with these recent packages I’ve gotten in the mail, I feel more compelled than ever to try and document every switch’s force curve that I am able to in due time. As these have also leaked their way into a usable and appreciated part of my full-fledged reviews, the repository (which is linked through my GitHub in the top right-hand corner of the site) has grown to just about 400 different switch force curves since I was first gifted this instrument by Drop earlier this year.

While I know that digging through force curves likely isn’t everyone’s favorite way to spend their weekends or nights after a long day at work, I still think it is an incredibly powerful repository and hope you all check it out. Aside the fact that this can immediately help support me and my content, you’ll find that each force curve not only has a summary sheet but all raw and processed data available for you to check out in case you want to do comparisons for yourself, check my work, or just see what the data looks like at the most fundamental level. Even though I am not entirely sure of how I want to implement it, I’ve also been looking into further analyses of the force curves that I have collected to try and make out more useful trends in the data that could help inform your switch choices further. Rest assured that I will get around to sharing these mad ramblings at some point, though for the time being, processing and attempting to interpret that much data into something useful is a lot harder than I had initially thought it would be. You’d have thought I’d have learned by now as a graduate student.

**Figure 1:** And it looks exactly like 90's sci-fi movies would have you believe.

Switch Background

JWICK, short for Jingweike Electronic Technology Co., has come to be recognizd pretty readily by the community as one of the many brands of switches to be manufactured by Durock/JWK. However, given the quality and price point of some of the earlier releases under the JWICK branding name, many people have come to associate this name with that of a ‘budget’ line of switches in comparison to some of the more pricy, premium offerings that the company has also produced. While I don’t necessarily think that this intuition is wrong based on these early releases alone, recent offerings under JWICK branding including the Ginger Milks, Taros, and Semi Silents are beginning to show that this is far from a budget line in terms of both quality and performance. However, I think it is worth reminding everyone that this branding is significantly older than what you might think of it as.

JWICK Mechanical Keyboard Switches — **Figure 2:** Some of the first evidence of JWICK-branded switches ever.

Stretching all the way back to June of 2019, the first signs of life of the JWICK branding came by way of a sales page on a Chinese vendor website, DYQ, offering “Microtech Electromechanical Keyboard Switches.” Upon closer inspection of these switches in the photos, its clear that they carry the same ‘JWICK’ nameplates used to date in their all capital, slightly italicized font design. While I’m sure you’re willing to accept this sans much questioning, and especially so because I’ve provided the sales page in a ‘Further Reading’ link at the bottom of this page, I suspect it is because you’ve not entirely remembered the history of Stealios and Durock’s rise to fame in the community. June of 2019 was six months before Stealios ever happened. Proof of these switches are, thus, some of the very first evidence of Durock/JWK existing as a manufacturer, and it took almost half a year before anybody noticed.

While the JWICK branding of switches predate more famous Durock/JWK releases by more than a half of year of time, it is still entirely understandable that the wider community wasn’t aware of this branding at the point in time when Stealios blew up. In fact, some of the earliest known Durock/JWK switches to make their way into the west that weren’t Stealios not only didn’t feature JWICK nameplates, but featured no nameplates at all. Furthermore, the ‘JWICK’ branded nameplates and marketing name wouldn’t begin to be seen until their earliest releases around the middle of 2021, in the form of the ‘Budget T1s’ and ‘Budget Blacks.’ From there, this branding has somewhat sat in the shadows versus more customized, premium Durock/JWK offerings by vendors in the west, and hasn’t really seen all that many releases until around Q2/Q3 of 2022. So, in order to sort of both establish the majority of the offerings that the JWICK branding has seen, as well as sort of set the dividing line between ‘budget’ and ‘premium’ within such, here’s how I at least mentally break down the JWICK brand family:

Budget

JWK JWICK Mechanical Keyboard Switches — **Figure 3:** Current 'budget' JWICK offerings.

Among the first JWICK switches to be released around that of August of 2021 were those of the ‘JWICK Black’ and ‘JWICK Blue Black’ switches. With the ‘Blue Blacks’ more recently being referred to as ‘JWICK T1s’, these first switches took off especially well amongst beginners in the community due to their incredibly low cost between $0.20 and $0.25 per switch. Coming in opaque, slightly more grainy textured housings, this linear and tactile duo provided beginners all the things they sought for in switches minus as much care put into the factory lubrication of the switches. More recently, in addition to supporting these ‘Budget Blacks’ and ‘Budget T1s’, JWICK has also released a Red, White, and Yellow linear trio featuring clear top housings and milky bottom housings. Still priced in a similar range as that of the first budget duo, if not a few cents higher, these boast a slightly better factory lubrication application and are honestly a fantastic recommendation for someone looking into beginner linear switches, or at the least to get them to stop using Razer Yellows.

In Between

Unfortunately, when switches are manufactured and released by companies over several years, its rather difficult for them to stick exactly to a single narrative of ‘budget vs. premium’ with their releases. Completely disregarding the nonsense that outwardly appears to be Chinese manufacturing standards and switch design choices, JWICK has released some slightly more premium offerings than that of the true budget line of switches in the JWICK Ice-Jades, Pink-Jades, and Ultimate Blacks. The first two are a duo of translucent pink linears and jade-ish-blue tactiles which also contain that same ramped up quality of factory lubrication as the JWICK Red, Whites, and Yellows, while also coming in a more uwu-centric colorway. The Ultimate Blacks, on the other hand, appear to be a direct linear improvement over that of the original ‘Budget Blacks’, featuring a clear top housing and improved factory lubrication at a minor price per switch increase to around $0.30 per switch, which is about the same price as that of the Ice-Jades and Pink-Jades.

Premium

More recently throughout 2022, JWICK has stepped up the production of their switches and has begun pushing out more and more ‘premium level’ offerings in addition to continuing to support their more budget oriented switches. Being introduced at a new rough price point of between $0.55 and $0.65 per switch, these switches feature new designs such as dustproof stems, improved factory lubrication, new silencing techniques in the case of Semi Silents, and even custom, vendor-specific offerings in the Chosfox x JWICK Voyagers. While the intricate details of each of these switches is unfortunately a bit too much to cover in the background section of this review, it’s worth noting that all of these options are notably better performing than the Budget and In Between options, though with an equivalent price per performance to match.

Focusing specifically on the JWICK Semi Silents, though, since they are the focal point of this review, their debut came about via ZFrontier in March of this year with very little extraneous information besides the name and grey/cream color combination they were working with. Two months later in May, these switches went up for sale first on Alibaba and later in the year through various vendors such as Divinikey, Dangkeebs, and Kinetic Labs, all of who are incredible sponsors of mine. Priced right about $0.60-$0.65 per switch, these upper end of the JWICK premium family are notable as they are the first switches to feature a ‘half silent’ stem, coming with a rubber dampening pad only in the top half of the stem and not the bottom half. Since I have first talked about them on this website in my Kinetic Labs Gecko Switch Review, it appears that they have taken off somewhat in popularity and occupy a unique, niche offering in silent switches that quite a few people have come to appreciate. In fact their uniqueness, as well as some less than kind words I had said about them prior, is what has encouraged me to go back to review these interesting silencing mechanisms…

Semi Silent Switch Performance

Appearance

Coming with a cream/grey/cream colorway, the JWICK Semi Silent switches are effectively the latest non-vendor specific JWICK switches to be manufactured with dustproof style stems as of the time of writing this review. With an odd mashup of features such as coming in PCB mount, winglatch style top housings, and a brand-new silencing mechanism these switches are rather unique in the details if they don’t outwardly appear so at first. Further compounding the interesting nature of these switches is that their mold markings, mold locations, and overall internal structures are unique from anything I’ve recorded on the site prior, and are definitely worth the deeper dive below.

Durock/JWK JWICK Semi Silent Mechanical Keyboard Switch — **Figure 6:** JWICK Semi Silent switches and their components.

Looking first at the grey, polycarbonate top housings, these come in a winglatch style fashion similar to that of Kailh’s claim to fame design and early KTT switches. Additionally, the Semi Silent’s top housings feature a bifurcated rectangular LED slot as well as an additional centered circular indentation to support common types of aftermarket LEDs in switches. On the nameplate there is a stylized, capital ‘JWICK’ logo in extremely thinly raised font similar to that of the Ginger Milks and Taros which were released prior to the Semi Silents. Two rather unique points regarding the exterior of the top housing though come just underneath the nameplate as well as on the front next to the LED slot. The unique point beneath that of the nameplate is the subtle pair of bumps on the edges of the lateral stem hole cut. Whereas the inner bump is commonly there in switches and is connected to the north side guiding rail, this is the first time I recall having seen a secondary set as well. As for the feature of note next to the LED slot on the switch, it’s actually the mold markings. Rather than being on the inside, the east side of the LED slot features an inward-facing two number mold marking whereas the western side has an outward-facing, single capital letter mold marking.

Durock/JWK JWICK Semi Silent Mechanical Keyboard Switch Top Housing — **Figure 7:** JWICK Semi Silent top housing exterior design showing JWICK nameplate, odd mold marking locations, and bifurcated LED slot.

As for the interior of the top housings, I don’t entirely know how to describe just how much more ‘boxy’ and squared off the features inside appear versus that of more conventional switch designs. One easy thing to point to that leads me to this conclusion is that of the south side mold ejector circles, which while being in the usual spot of the corners of the top housing, are also located in shallow square indentations. Furthermore, there are ejector mold markings on the north side of the top housing underneath the nameplate region, but they are slightly more downshifted onto the sides and are not symmetrically located as is commonly seen in most switches. This N/S asymmetry also applies to a second interior set of mold ejector marking circles on the inner lip of the LED slot region, as well.

Moving next to the cream-colored POM dustproof stems, these too feature a unique design much like that of the top housings above. Regarding the more mundane features, first, these are dustproof in design with no slider rail taper and a longer, staged central pole which goes beyond 13.00 mm in total length. Where the strangeness begins with these stems, though, is that they have both no markings on either the front or backplates as well as significantly thinner slider rails than that of most other switches, clocking in at only 1.63 mm as opposed to widths which sit at an average 1.90 mm, based on the other 198 switches I’ve measured to date. Perhaps the most unique feature of the Semi Silent switches, though, is that of the half silencing mechanism in the form of the blue silicone dampening pad affixed only to the top of the slider rail. Held into the rail by a pressure fit (and possibly adhesive based) design as can be seen below in Figure 9, this mechanism works to dampen only the topping out and not the bottoming out of the switch in any capacity. As I had pointed out in previous discussions of this switch as well, this not only opens the door for future customization of switches via offering different rubber dampening pads as such, but this design implemented at the bottom of slider rails could, in theory, allow for a sort of ‘two tone’ silencing with different hardness dampening pads.

Durock/JWK JWICK Semi Silent Mechanical Keyboard Switch Stem — **Figure 9:** JWICK Semi Silent stem showing narrow slider rail, upstroke silencing pad, and long, tiered central pole.

Leaving no stone unturned, even the nylon bottom housings of the JWICK Semi Silents are unique in design and definitely different internally than anything I’ve documented on the site. First and foremost, the entire interior basin sits on a split design, with the slider rail bases being noticeably deeper than that of the central third of the base where a south side spring collar as well as the central hole lie. An additional point of note here is the that south side spring collar actually contains the ejector circles, rather than that of the upper edge of the bottom housing, which otherwise only features a pair of polished rectangular pads on the south side near the wide-open LED slot hole. Externally, these switches feature a rather common looking design except for two details. First, and much more subtly, is that that of the slightly raised edge between the two metal PCB pin platforms which is otherwise absent in other switches. The other feature of note is that of the upside-down, three-digit number mold marking located under the left, higher set metal PCB pin. To date, I can not recall any other switch having a mold marking in this same location.

Durock/JWK JWICK Semi Silent Mechanical Keyboard Switch Bottom Housing — **Figure 10:** JWICK Semi Silent bottom housing interior design showing tiered interior section as well as lack of upper rim mold ejector circles.

Push Feel

To make the transition into this section as abrupt and awkward as possible, not considering the start of this sentence nor the unnecessary comma-based aside in the center, the JWICK Semi Silents feel more or less right in line with what you would expect from switches designed in this fashion. The topping out is almost entirely unnoticeable in these switches which is directly opposed by a singular, pointed, and medium thickness bottoming onto what feels like the long stem pole. Given that the bottom housing is nylon, though, these switches do have a fairly decent feeling bottom out with some level of heft that isn’t as aggressive nor thin and pointy as some long pole switches have gained a reputation for in time. As well, the slight amount of factory lubrication present on the stems provides an otherwise smooth, but not overly smooth experience that really lets the housing collisions shine as the main focus points in the feeling of the switch.

While the experience of a small number of JWICK Semi Silents is relatively nice, there is some minor cross-batch inconsistencies which may affect their overall usability depending on how you type. The main inconsistency I felt when testing these switches was surprisingly not the factory lubing, but instead was the bottoming out sharpness between switches. In about 20-30% of the switches that I received (which came from multiple vendors, for the record), the bottoming out felt slightly more mushy and muted, and not up to the same level of crisp, sharp ending as the other portion of the switches. While this wasn’t as noticeable at slower actuation speeds, faster typists or ones who are more heavy handed with their switches may be more keen to these inconsistencies in these switches.

Regarding the force curves for the JWICK Semi Silents, which is shown below in Figure 12, these are very much in line with expectations for silent linear and linear switches. On the topping out where the switches are dampened, there is a slightly more curved, less vertical line that is often seen in silent switches as a function of the dampening pad. Often times, with respect to the downstroke, this leads to a much more parabolic curve in shape due to the extended time in which the dampening pads undergo compression. As for the rest of the linear region of the switch, it more or less appears in line with expectations and caps out just a bit beyond the common 4.00 mm travel distance.

Durock/JWK JWICK Semi Silent Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements — **Figure 12:** JWICK Semi Silent stock force curve.

Sound

I can’t lie to you here: previously in the Kinetic Labs Gecko Switch Review, I may have initially pinged these as being a relatively poorly implemented mechanism due to just how different their housing collisions at either end sound. That being said, however, as I’ve both contemplated and tested these switches out further, I want to honest in saying that it is actually a quite genius idea that completely escaped my prior two-head take. First and foremost, the relatively firm silicone dampening pads more or less make these switches entirely silent on the upstroke. Since you cannot effectively force the pads into the top housings with anymore force unless you are pulling your stems up from their bottoming out position with prejudice for some odd reason, you simply can’t make the topping out of these switches produce any noise under normal typing conditions. Furthermore, this puts the entire emphasis on the medium-deep pitched, stem pole bottoming out that constitutes the entirely of the sound since these have no other scratch present due to their factory lube.

The further genius of this design though, aside the fact that it prevents users from ‘breaking through’ the silencing mechanism like in traditional silent switches, is that it also entirely circumvents the fact that the top housings are polycarbonate. Whereas a polycarbonate top housing in most switches produces a topping out noise jarringly different from something like a stem pole bottoming out onto nylon, with these switches you could use basically the shittiest material housing you have and it still wouldn’t make a sound because of the dampening pads. Never mind the fact that this opens a world of possibilities with respect to customizability, two tone dampening, or alternative top housing materials, these as they are implemented now sidestep a common manufacturing issue with polycarbonate housings while focusing solely on a type of bottoming out sound that quite a few people in the keyboard community are a fan of. Whereas I am one to previously state that this design was poorly implemented, in practice it actually has turned out to be one of the more unique and nuanced sound designs in a switch that I’ve encountered thus far, regardless of whether it was intentional or accidental.

Wobble

With perhaps the least to say out of any of the design features in these switches, the stem wobble in the JWICK Semi Silents is good without being overly great. While there is a slight bit more N/S than E/W stem wobble present, its likely to such a small degree that it won’t bother anyone who isn’t hypersensitive to wobble, it is still there to some degree. Otherwise, the winglatch housings provide no top housing wobble whatsoever, even after having opened these switches a handful of times. Both of these wobbles, as well, do not appear to vary to any real degree across the batches that I received.

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.

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

- In a very surprising fashion, it’s damn near impossible for me to separate the JWICK Semi Silents which were actuated out to 17,000 actuations from those that are stock. While I did note some minor inconsistencies with respect to sound in this batch of broken in switches, it didn’t come across any more or less prevalent than that of the stock switches and thus it clearly isn’t an effect of the break in testing.

34,000 Actuations

- To no surprise, after this initial resiliency period out to 17,000 strokes, the JWICK Semi Silents begin to show some wear at 34,000 actuations. In particular, the switches picked up a subtle, small grain scratch sound and feeling that is not present in the stock form. Perhaps amplified by the presence of the of a slightly greater overall sound as well, its worth noting that this gained feature is still pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

- Additionally, as is expected from home break in machine testing, the JWICK Semi Silents picked up an extra bit of N/S and E/W direction stem wobble as a result of 34,000 actuations on the break in machine.

51,000 Actuations

- With respect to the stem wobble as well as the scratchiness noted at 34,000 actuations, these features are also still present at 51,000 actuations. It is worth noting, though, that they certainly don’t appear to any greater detrimental extent after the increased break in time.

- One difference noted between the switches broken out to 51,000 actuations and the other stock and lesser broken in groups is that the Semi Silents begin to pick up a bit of a noticeable volume to them. While they are far from something like a clicky switch still, the volume has shifted from a silent linear to one that is akin to a thicker housing switch which naturally dampens its housing collisions as a function of the thickness of the material.

Comparison Notes to Other Notable Silent Linear Switches

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

Mechanical Keyboard Switches — **Figure 17:** Switches for comparison. (L-R, Top-Bot: Kailh Midnight Pro Grey, Gateron Silent Ink V2, Silent Coral, Haimu Heartbeat, Sakurio, TTC Silent Red V2)

Kailh Midnight Pro Grey

- The topping out of these two switches sounds fairly similar to each other in terms of noise as well as overall volume, though its worth noting that the Midnight Greys have a bit more of a stickiness to their sound than the JWICK Semi Silents.

- The subtle scratch profile of these two switches is pretty much the most comparable of any of these two switches on this list.

- In terms of both N/S and E/W direction stem wobble, the Kailh Midnight Pro Greys are just ever so slightly outclassed by the JWICK Semi Silent switches, though it is quite a thin margin on a batch wide comparison of the two.

JWICK Semi Silent and Kailh Pro Midnight Grey Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Gateron Silent Ink V2

- Surprisingly, out of all of the switches on this list, these two are the ones that sound the most similar to each other. Do not get me wrong here, though, there is still an especially noticeable bottoming out punch that is present in the Semi Silents that the Gateron Silent Ink V2s can’t quite live up to, even though they are still louder at bottoming out than what else is here.

- While comparable to each other in terms of E/W stem wobble, the JWICK Semi Silents edge out the Gateron Silent Ink V2s in terms of N/S direction stem wobble.

- In addition to sounding quite similar, the JWICK Semi Silents and the Gateron Ink V2 switches are also comparably smooth to each other.

JWICK Semi Silent and Gateron Silent Ink V2 Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Haimu Heartbeat

- To the surprise of nobody who has ever tried these before, the Haimu Heartbeats are hands down not only the quietest switch on this entire list but put either end of the JWICK Semi Silents to shame in that regard.

- The JWICK Semi Silent switches are a bit better than the Haimu Heartbeats in terms of stem wobble, and especially with cross-batch consistency.

- In terms of smoothness, while both of these switches are definitely smooth, the JWICK Semi Silents are smooth with that unlubed sort of character that I’ve mentioned in several prior reviews, whereas the Heartbeats are smooth in a hand-lubed way.

JWICK Semi Silent and Haimu Heartbeat Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Silent Coral

- Even though the topping out of both of these switches is hardly audible, if present at all, the JWICK Semi Silents just edge out the JWK Coral switches for a truly silenced topping out sound.

- Whereas the primary sound of the JWICK Semi Silents comes from its pointed bottoming out, the primary sound of the JWK Corals comes by way of a sandpaper-like scratch sound that isn’t present otherwise in the push feeling of the switch, strangely enough.

- The Semi Silents have significantly less E/W stem wobble than the JWK Corals, and a slightly lesser but still present improvement on the N/S stem wobble comparison between the two.

JWICK Semi Silent and Silent Coral Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

Sakurio

- While slightly ‘stickier’ in terms of its housing collisions, the Sakurio switches are a noticeable bit more quiet than that of the JWICK Semi Silent stems when it comes to bottoming out but not topping out, as is expected with the “Semi” silent stem design.

- Even though the Sakurios come from an era of improved Zeal and Gateron molds, they still have more N/S and E/W stem wobble than the Durock/JWK made Semi Silents.

- In terms of stock smoothness, both of these switches are smooth in an overall sense but suffer from some underlying scratch that detracts from their linear stroke. Whereas the Semi Silents is smaller and harder to notice, the Sakurios have a much larger grained, noticeable scratch to them.

JWICK Semi Silent and Sakurio Mechanical Keyboard Switch Measurements

TTC Silent Red V2

- To the surprise of nobody who has tried non-premium TTC offerings before, these switches are not only scratchier than the JWICK Semi Silents, but are also more scratchy than anything else on this comparison list.

- While the JWICK Semi Silents have a less audible topping out sound than the TTC Silent Red V2s, the much more noticeable sound-based differences comes by way of a scratch and audible spring ping that is present in these TTC switches.

- While the stem wobble on these TTC switches is surprisingly minimal in both N/S and E/W directions, it is still greater than that of the Semi Silents.

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.

Durock/JWK JWICK Semi Silent Review Score