Momoka Shark Switch Review

One of the questions I rather routinely get from people who read this website, DM me on my various social media accounts, or happen to catch me shitposting in random Discord servers revolves around wondering how I stay on top of all of the new switches being released. To the average viewer, I can understand how this may seem like the case as I love to share new, strange, and relatively unknown switches on my Instagram and Scorecard Sunday posts every other week. Leobog this, Meirun that, and a dozen more manufacturers and brands that I’m not even all that well aware of most certainly make the modern state of switches seem rather daunting even to people who are already in the hobby. Hell, most people who routinely read my reviews probably haven’t even heard of the Momoka Sharks yet, as they were only announced less than a week prior to the posting. So, I figure that the introduction of this article in particular would be a great way to share some of my tips and advice for keeping up with the latest and not-so-greatest switches. The first, and most important piece of advice is simply this: Come to grips with the fact that it is impossible to keep track of all switch releases.

Various mechanical keyboard switches — **Figure 1:** At this point, the switches per square foot in my apartment is reaching an uncomfortable number.

I’m absolutely serious in saying that not even I can keep track of all of the switch releases out there, and that is for a laundry list of reasons at that. The first non-comedic reason for this is due to the fact that there are dozens of private, low MOQ switch releases that are conducted in China and are only accessible by QQ-related purchases and communication. Being that you more or less need to be Chinese or be from China in order to have a QQ and participate in such sales, even the marketing of many of these switches fall completely under the radar even for diehard collectors. The second reason that I can’t keep track of all the new switches out there is because even for western-facing releases there’s simply too many vendors to keep track of anymore. In order to help manage this, I usually frequent places such as my Switch Collector’s Discord and the SwitchModders Discord, as both of these places are usually on the cutting edge of western-based releases and make announcements for when new switches are released or interest checked. Even though they might not be the most regularly updated when it comes to switch announcements, these resources have been a massive help in growing my collection throughout the entirety of their existence and you should absolutely check them out if you like switches, as well.

Momoka Shark switch announcement post — **Figure 2:** An example of the SwitchModder’s Discord announcement for these exact switches!

Finally, another subtly appreciated reason I don’t actually keep up with all switch releases is because I simply don’t have to. Community members, supporters of the website, and other collectors have all been more than gracious in alerting me to new switches and allowing to buy out of their extras piles to supplement my collection literally since the very beginning of my time as a collector several years ago. While this isn’t necessarily accessible to everyone, there are two vendors in particular who have been formed by collectors, been long time supporters of this website, and are constantly stocking samples of new, exciting, and strange switches for testers and collectors – Mechbox UK and SwitchOddities. Even though I am very much affiliated with them, and by extension will receive a tiny kickback in support if you purchase anything using my affiliate links above, I would regardless recommend these two places for anyone seeking to find some of the niche switches that I post about each week. Both of the guys who run these sites are incredibly well versed in switches, awesome to deal with, and are a big reason why I get asked all the time how I can keep up with all of the switches that I show off.

Switch Background

As is to be expected after being directly stated less than a few paragraphs ago, there is quite literally no background on these switches. The Momoka Sharks were first announced less than five days ago as of the time of first publishing this article via a combined ZFrontier post by Momoka (MMK) as well as a TaoBao listing for their sale. Additionally, there was exactly one typing test of the switches provided by Momoka on their YouTube channel, which more or less rounded off my background research for filling out the ‘Further Reading’ section at the end of this article. I’m being serious, that’s the sum total of coverage and discussion about them at this point in time. I guess I’ll just fill in the rest of this background section on a discussion of Momoka’s switches then? Are the armchair editors at home okay with that?

CollegeHumor Grammar Nazi skit — **Figure 3:** From *whom* did you get these switches, Mr. Goat?

In a fashion rather common for many vendors based out of China, the exact date of origin of the Momoka brand is still unknown, though assumed to predate their first western-facing switch releases. First popping up on western enthusiasts’ radars in mid to late December of 2020, the company has sustained an outward growth in both their keyboard-related offerings as well as community wide awareness. This is due, in no small part, to the company’s apparent willingness to interact with western-facing content creators as well as vendors for distribution negotiations, something of which is rather uncommon among vendors based in China. Regarding Momoka’s offerings, what originally started out as primarily the Momoka Frog V3 switches has grown into a wide array of options including keyboards, budget-oriented keycaps, and keyboard accessories with clear indication of continued expansion in all of these directions. Of these various options, though, Momoka has seemingly gained the most western-facing community appeal as a result of their switches, primarily that of the Momoka Frog V3 switches which I previously did a complete review on exactly one year ago as of the day of publishing this review. Wanting to do justice to both the word count of this article and historical accounting, the switches released by Momoka as of the time of publishing this review include:

Momoka Frog V3

First officially debuted in March of 2021 according to Momoka’s own website, the Frog switches were the first switch to be released and purportedly manufactured by Momoka. Coming with a teal-ish dustproof stem with a clear top housing over grey bottom housing colorway, the Frog switches were a 62g. bottom out, polycarbonate over nylon linear which packed a rather substantial amount of design character and performance for the price that they had commanded. In addition to reviewing these points in my Momoka Frog V3 Switch Review, I also note the existence of V1 and V2 variants of the Frog switches which were not released to western audiences and are no longer being manufactured, as well as a V4 prototype variant which has seen no further development to the best of my knowledge. An additional detail worth noting here is that according to MMK’s Twitter feed there is actually a ‘pre-V1’, alternatively colored prototype of the Frog switches which I have yet to obtain for my collection, but am very much interested in getting my hands on.

Momoka Frog switch prototypes — **Figure 5:** Alternatively colored, ‘pre-V1’ MMK Frog prototypes as per a post on Momoka Keyboard Gadget’s Twitter.

Momoka Flamingo

The Momoka Flamingos are the second linear switch to be manufactured and released by Momoka, first making their appearance in July of 2021 shortly following the success of the Frog V3 switch releases to western audiences. Similar in physical design traits to that of the Frog V3s, the only noteworthy differences between the two switches comes down to the slightly heavier, two-stage spring at 67g. of bottoming out force as well as the very aptly pinkish colorway in the Flamingo switches. While the Momoka Flamingo switches are currently available ‘loose’ from vendors such as KeebsForAll and KeebMonkey in smaller pack sizes at around $0.58 per switch, the MMK storefront only sells the Flamingos in packs of 90/110 or as the prebuilt option for the Momoka Ergo keyboard that they sell.

Momoka Flamingo switch in ergo keyboard — **Figure 7:** Half of a Momoka Ergo keyboard with Flamingo switches preinstalled.

Momoka Christmas Switch

The third and most recent linear switch release from Momoka is that of their Christmas Switch, which was rather aptly announced towards the end of November of 2021. Due to the fact that I have not yet acquired these switches for the website, as well as the fact that they’ve sustained the least amount of interest from the community at large for a Momoka-made switch, very little is known about them save what is listed on Momoka’s sale page. The sparse amount of information on this page indicates that the Christmas Switches are identical in design to that of the Flamingo switches, though with a different lubing application and supposed “better smoothness” as a result. Unlike both the Frog V3 and Flamingo switches, the Christmas Switches are currently available from Momoka in more conventional pack sizes of 70/90/110 at $0.70 per switch at the highest price.

Momoka Shark

The latest switch to be released by Momoka, the Shark switches were first announced in June of 2022 and were the first tactile switch to be designed by Momoka. Moving away from their iconic boxy dustproof style stem design, the Shark switches featured a dark blue, traditional MX-mount stem in a clear top housing and light blue bottom housing. Retaining some of the design language often associated with MMK switches, such as the uniquely curved LED diffuser region in the top housing, the ZFrontier announcement page indicates vaguely that some new molds were used in the design of this stich. The Shark switches come with a polycarbonate over nylon housing design and with a double-staged spring rated at 60 gf. at bottoming out, in a similar fashion to that of the Flamingo switches save the tactility and bottoming out weight. Currently available in China at $0.39 per switch in packs of 50, no western vendors have announced the stocking of these switches as of the time of publishing this review, though I suspect some will given the popularity of previous Momoka switches.

Momoka Shark Switch Performance

Note: I received these switches from Momoka prior to their announcement and sans any sort of request on my end. Due to the relatively unique timing of these switches, I was informed that my switches did not actually go through the full, entire manufacturing process as the final assembly machine had not been operational yet. While the rest of the parts were manufactured using the same assembly line that the release switches will be manufactured on, I do want to note that this hand assembly may potentially have an impact on the review below. I do not suspect it will substantially impact such, though.

Appearance

At the highest level, the Momoka Shark switches appear to continue along the company’s previous thematic releases bearing an animal name and a colored stem, clear top housing, colored bottom housing configuration. Coming in a dark blue color, the stem is the first of Momoka’s switches to not feature their iconic pixel-like dustproof style stem mount. The housings are reported as being clear polycarbonate over light blue nylon and contain a double-staged, silver spring rated at 60 gf. at bottom out. While factory lubrication was not discussed in the ZFrontier announcement to the best of my Google Translate abilities, the stems in the samples I received appear to be dry save for tiny amounts of lubricant applied to the stem legs to ostensibly prevent unwanted stem-leaf ping.

**Figure 10:** Momoka Shark switch and its components.

Looking first to the top housings of the Momoka Shark switches, it appears they use extremely similar, if not identical molds to that of the Frog V3 switches which I’ve previously covered. Externally, they feature an inverted ‘MMK’ nameplate preceded by the four vertical bar logo of Momoka’s company all within a shallow rectangular cutout. While appearing otherwise fairly normal, the other extremely unique identifying feature of Momoka branded switches is the still-present use of the curved LED slot bubble which I imagine acts as an LED diffuser. Internally, the design features are identical to that noted of the Frog V3 top housings, down to that of the single, capital letter mold marking found in the upper-right hand side underneath the nameplate region.

Momoka Shark Top Housing Externals — **Figure 11:** Momoka Shark top housing externals showing inverted MMK nameplate as well as uniquely bubbled LED diffuser.

**Figure 12:** Momoka Shark top housing internals showing underside of bubbled LED diffuser as well as a single, capital letter mold marking in the upper right-hand side.

Unlike the top housings, the stems of the Momoka Shark switches are demonstrably unique in design and almost certainly were the product of new molds due to several features. Aside the obvious differences in the Sharks given their tactile stem legs and lack of dustproof covering around the keycap mount, the front plate of the stem is significantly busier than that of switches I’ve previously covered in reviews. In addition to the front plate mold circles above the stem legs, which in and of themselves are non-uniform in depth, there is a faint seam line connecting the two and extending around the circumference of the stem. Additionally, a vertical seam runs along the corona of the stem in similar fashion to other stems covered in reviews from other manufacturers. The coronal seam noted here is not something traditionally noted in dustproof stems, and thus by extension previous Momoka releases. As stated above, there is a slight factory lubing on the tactile legs which interact with the leaf of the switch, though it is much more noticeable on the leaves.

Figure 14: Side profile of Momoka Shark stem showing unique tactile bump shape.

Moving finally to the bottom housings of the Sharks, these components split the difference between the stems and top housings and contain some minor differences from that of previous Momoka releases. Internally, the bottom housings of the Sharks appear identical to that of the Frog V3 switches including such notable features as four mold ejection circles around the upper rim of the housing, rectangular padded bottoming out regions around the slider rails, and an aggressive south and north side spring collar that is quite large. An additional feature worth noting here is that while the factory lubrication the Sharks appears much more controlled and less random than the Frog V3 switches, there is still a rather amount of heavy lubrication on the leaves, which does occasionally migrate to other locations within the switch. Externally, the single, inwardly facing number mold marking as well as the wide LED region of the Sharks is identical to that of other Momoka releases. The most noteworthy difference is that of the PCB mounting pins making these not only the first tactile Momoka-released switch, but also the first PCB-mountable switch as well.

Momoka Shark Bottom Housing Internals — **Figure 15:** Momoka Shark bottom housing internals showing factory lubrication on leaf, padded bottoming out regions, and large N/S side spring collar.

Push Feel

While the push feeling of the Momoka Shark switches is broadly exciting to discuss being the first tactile switch designed by an otherwise strongly performing switch manufacturer/brand, the tactile bump itself is what peaked my curiosity in reviewing this switch. Punching with a strong force, the tactile bump of the Sharks is located at the very top of the downstroke region with absolutely no pretravel region whatsoever. Once the tactile bump is initiated, though, it is over rather quickly in a fraction of a millimeter, followed by a sort of ‘rush’ to the linear post travel region. While at higher activation speeds this all blends together into a cohesive, aggressive, and poppy feeling tactile bump, upon extremely slow actuation speeds one can actually feel the distinct regions of the force curve as can be seen below in Figure 17. Specifically regarding the ‘rush’ feeling, I believe this lies between 1.00 and 2.00 mm in the downward stroke in which the force is lesser than that of the bottoming out weight, leading to a ramping back up in force as one approaches the linear post-travel region midway through the downstroke.

Momoka Shark Force Curve — **Figure 17:** Momoka Shark force curve diagram.

Regarding the other components of the push feeling besides that of the tactile bump, the switch is okay but far from Momoka’s best work. While I am uncertain if the factory releases will be lubricated, the samples that I received were not on the slider rails and did have some very fine grain, consistent scratch that neither varied throughout the strokes nor across the batch that I received. As well, it should be noted that the sharp and punchy feeling of the tactile bump actually does help hide some of this feeling as well in normal usage. As for the housing collisions, the bottoming out is virtually unnoticeable relative to the aggressive topping out which is extremely close to that of the tactile bump. Upon the return of the stem to the resting position in the upstroke, the tactile bump is actually so close to the top that it produces a singular sharp collision point rather than a tactile bump followed by a separate topping out. While this tactile bump/topping out fusion is still incredibly pointed due to the size and strength of the tactile bump, in a way this almost masks the poor reputation that some polycarbonate top housings have gained for feeling thin and pointed at the point of topping out by simply lumping the entire feeling in with the main attraction point for this switch.

Sound

Unlike most other tactile switches which I’ve covered on this website up to this point, the sound of the switch is largely a function of the upstroke tactile bump. Whereas the downstroke bump and/or housing collisions often play a major role in how a tactile switch can sound, the upstroke bump in the Sharks provides a rather loud, medium to high pitched, and short popping sound which is almost entirely what is heard. While the bottoming out is completely unnoticeable in much the same way as noted in the ‘Push Feel’ section above, even the downstroke tactile bump has a rather dulled and muted bump when compared to the upstroke bump sound. Underneath the upstroke bump sound, as well, there is some scratch and an occasional sharp tone from either the spring or leg-leaf interactions.

In fact, while the sound of the Momoka Shark switches is rather interesting from a design and uniqueness standpoint, there are some general inconsistencies across the batch that I received. Likely due in large part to migration of the stem leg/leaf lubrication with usage and/or manufacturing variability, the sharp tones noted in the previous paragraph show up rather randomly across the batch that I received. As well, some switches appeared overall much louder than others ostensibly due to this difference in factory lubing on the stem legs/leaves ‘muting’ some switches over others. Whereas batch wide sound variation is normally a fairly minor thing and often not noted here in reviews, it definitely is prevalent enough in the batch that I received to note such.

Wobble

The stem wobble on the Momoka Shark switches is slightly noticeable in both the N/S and E/W directions and is roughly equivalent in magnitude. Unlike the variability in sound noted above, there doesn’t appear to be any substantial variation in stem wobble across the batch of switches I received, nor sporadic top housing looseness, either. It is worth noting that while prior dustproof Momoka switches were only a tad bit better than the average switch with respect to stem wobble, this design change away from the dustproof design didn’t entirely do much to improve upon that point and may have made the Sharks slightly more in line with other modern switch releases.

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.

Momoka Shark Force Curve Diagram — **Figure 19:** Momoka Shark ‘butterfly style’ force curve diagram.

Momoka Shark Switch Details — **Figure 20:** Numerical details regarding the stock Momoka Shark 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 variability with respect to factory lubrication noted in the review above began to become more obvious in switches where it was lacking. While not all switches began to have a slightly more scratchy and pingy sound to them, those that did lack this adequate lubrication became much more noticeable at this point.

- Very much counter to both intuition as well as prior reviews in which the break-in cards have been present, there was effectively no significant change in wobble in the Momoka Sharks after 17,000 actuations.

34,000 Actuations

- At 34,000 actuations, all of the switches in the batch appeared to ‘equilibrate’ to the extent that the lubrication in each of them had migrated to its final resting place. While this didn’t necessarily eliminate all variability throughout the batch, it certainly evened it out a bit more.

- One surprising detail about breaking the switches in this far is that they don’t appear to improve much in terms of smoothness. In fact, counter yet again to many other switches, these became ever so slightly more scratchy than their stock form at this length of break-in time.

51,000 Actuations

- More or less, the same notes made comparing the stock Sharks to the ones broken in out to 34,000 actuations holds true here as well, though the smoothness does begin to get a tiny bit worse. I am tempted, however, to consider this perhaps a function of batch-to-batch variability than truly a result that would make sense.

- Scratch my above comment in the ‘Wobble’ section about this stem design change seemingly making the stem wobble worse. While it may be slightly worse in the stock form, the resiliency of the stem wobble of these switches at even 51,000 actuations is damn impressive.

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 Momoka Sharks side by side.

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

Zealio V2 AC (62g)

- The tactile bump of the Momoka Sharks not only feels slightly more towards the top of the downstroke, but also feels noticeably stronger in terms of force than the 62g. Zealio V2 switches.

- In terms of negative sound aspects, the Zealio V2 sound has more issue with respect to spring ping whereas the Momoka Shark switches have more of an issue with general scratch sound.

- Without much competition, the Momoka Shark switches are notably better than the Zealio V2 switches in terms of stem wobble.

Gateron Holy Panda X

- While the overall force of the Gateron Holy Panda X tactile bump is quite similar to that of the Momoka Shark switches, the HPX bump feels much more round and solid than the relatively short and sharp Shark bump.

- There is a significantly greater amount of depth to the sound of the Gateron HPX switches as compared to the relatively higher pitched, sharper sounding MMK Shark switches.

- The Holy Panda X switches have noticeably better stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W directions than that of the Shark switches.

Neapolitan Ice Cream

- The topping out of both the Neapolitan Ice Cream and Momoka Shark switches are relatively similar in terms of impact, though the feeling of the Ice Cream topping out is slightly more ‘scratchy’ and dulled compared to the more clear, singular Shark topping out.

- The Momoka Shark switches are much better than the Neapolitan Ice Cream switches when it comes to both N/S and E/W direction stem wobble.

- Comparing these two switches is a rather interesting juxtapose given that so much of the Neapolitan Ice Cream feeling is dictated by the long pole-based bottoming out, whereas the primary feeling is on the complete opposite end at the topping out for the Shark switches.

C3 Kiwi

- Out of the gate, there is a significantly more stand out spring ping in the Kiwi switches compared to that of even the worse off Momoka Shark switches. Perhaps this due to the fact that there’s less harsh of a tactile bump in the Kiwis to hide behind as compared to the Sharks.

- The C3 Kiwis are significantly better than the Momoka Sharks in terms of stem wobble in both directions.

- The Momoka Shark tactile bump is significantly stronger but only a tiny bit smaller in terms of size as compared to the Kiwi switches when comparing them in hand.

Novelkeys Cream Tactile

- In terms of scratch, ping, and all manner of sounds one wouldn’t want to hear in any switch, the Novelkeys Cream Tactiles are much worse about all of these things than the Momoka Shark switches.

- The tactile bump of the Novelkeys Cream Tactiles is both significantly softer and larger than that of the Momoka Shark switches, which instead occupy a strong, small tactile bump at the top of the downstroke.

- Regarding housing collisions, the Novelkeys Cream Tactile switches are much more balanced than that of the starkly different Momoka Shark housing collisions. That being said, I don’t think that makes nearly as much of a difference here as I would have noted in tactile switches other than the Sharks.

KTT Marble

- The KTT Marble switches are on the complete opposite end of the tactile strength scale as compared to the Momoka Shark switches, but still have a relatively early-in-downstroke tactile bump that was worthy of comparison.

- The Marble switches, in terms of both sound and push feeling, are much more soft, muted, and subtle when compared to the sharp, short, and relatively in-your-face style tactile bump of the Momoka Sharks.

- The KTT Marble, however, absolutely blow away the Momoka Sharks in terms of stem wobble in both N/S and E/W directions.

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.