Naevy V1.5 Switch Review

My final undergraduate semester is finally winding down. I’m left with nothing but a handful of requirements left and they’re mostly exams that I quite frankly wasn’t going to study for anyhow. So, what should I do with all of this new free time? Sit down and finally catch up on the expanding Netflix list of stuff to watch that is making my switch collection look small? Perhaps relaxing drunk in bed on a Saturday morning is in order? (Don’t worry, it’d be whisky because I’m sure as hell not paying for champagne and orange juice just to drink myself back into bed.) Absolutely none of the above. Instead, I I’m thinking writing an extra-long review that takes up most of the weekend’s free time. I still did it drunk, in bed, and on Saturday morning though so I think it works out as a win-win in the end.

Figure 1: Not quite this far, but this is a good working idea of what it was like. — **Figure 1:** Not quite this far, but this is a good working idea of what it was like.

A Talk About Molds

Rather than having a lengthy background section and detailed historical factory run through to really pad this word count out to 10,000 words, let’s have a discussion about molds and JWK. Very recently, there has been some commotion from the community on many fronts regarding molds of switches and JWK. Namely, what has put a spark to this pile of kindling is that MyKeyboard.eu recently ran into issues in which a batch of Alpaca V2 switches contained “V1” as well as “V2” molds mixed together as delivered from the factory. Upon opening a line of discussion with NecromanX, who is one of the owners of MKEU, I was left with mixed feelings about his statements. Most importantly, he had informed me that a lot of the customers that were experiencing issues were coming to him and the crew referencing my Alpaca V2 switch reviews.

While this wasn’t necessarily done by the patrons of MKEU in any sort of spiteful capacity, it prompted me to have some conversations with other vendors who I thankfully have great working relationships with. Much to my chagrin, I found that this quoting of my reviews has also held true in the past with several vendors including HoltenC of PrimeKB and JB of 1UpKeyboards. While absolutely none of these people are at fault, and all of them worked within their communities to correct these issues and clarify what exactly was going on, there was and is still one whole barnyard animal whom hasn’t addressed this in any of his recent postings. Thus, here we are.

As a result of prompting by some of these aforementioned vendors, who are all great people to buy from, JWK has quite recently addressed this issue and it has been restated within those specific communities. For those of you who were not aware: JWK does not recognize “V1” or “V2” molds by these names – to them, these are simply just alternative mold designs and are not believed to be any better than each other based on the mold designs alone. The reason that switches such as Alpaca V2s, for example, are notably better than the V1s in my and many people’s opinions are the usage of a better factory lubing technique, not a differentiation in molds.

Figure 2: Greetings weary traveler. Enjoy a strangely formatted text break to rest your eyes a bit; It’s safe from the words here. — **Figure 2:** Greetings weary traveler. Enjoy a strangely formatted text break to rest your eyes a bit; It’s safe from the words here.

With that message about how JWK views the molds that they use out of the way, many of you are likely still wondering how exactly this justifies or explains the mixing of molds found in MKEU’s batch of Alpaca V2s. That, according to the statement put out by MKEU, is entirely JWK’s faults and the factory owned up to it in the form of correctly molded replacements. The reason that this likely happened is because when a company like MKEU orders a large batch of switches, say north of 100k, 500k, or even a million switches, a smaller production house like JWK may struggle to be able to put product together in that amount of time, and thus would try and use any molds that they have on hand in order to fulfill these orders more quickly. While this may seem dishonest or a slightly bad practice on their end, consider that this is not only the factory that created Stealios in the first place, but also that this is the first time within the scope of this hobby that people are tearing apart every switch that they get in order to inspect the molds down to the mold markings. Given the less than honorable practices of many manufacturers out there in the past, I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if this type of behavior has occurred in large batches of OEM or stock switches before and we would have simply just never noticed it prior.

With all of this in mind about how molds are being discussed more, and that JWK is now being put under a microscope like never before, and that vendors are getting shafted by angry customers for things they can’t control, I think its high time I take some blame in this. First of all, I genuinely despise the thought that I’ve grown to such a point that people will wield my words as weapons of ‘truth’ in conversation as if I am a sole source or authority on anything. That being said, I am not unaware that a lot of people read these documents, and in particular have read some of my more recent ones discussing “V1” or “V2” JWK molds. At the time in which I chose to classify these molds in this fashion, I had genuinely felt that they were the best means of doing such, but I recognize now that they have caused more problems than harm. Thus, here is the list of things that I will do to address this moving forward:

- From now on, “V1” mold features will be referred to as “A Type” features, “V2” features will be referred to as “B Type”, so on and forth.

- I genuinely have an interest in making an Excel table or sheet of JWK molds which could be used to dictate which components of each switch contain which molds.

- In order to address this issue from previous reviews, I do not feel it is in best documentarian or historical practices to go through and completely re-edit these documents. At the time they were wrote, that is how I chose to classify them and I feel that sudden changes would misrepresent the time in which they were written. Thus, I will edit in the following notice at the top of every review in which V1 and V2 molds have been discussed, linking to here:

“At the time in which this article was written, I chose to classify molds based on versions as this was what I thought was in the best interest of the community. These are no longer how I refer to them, and I instead discuss them in terms of ‘A’, ‘B’, etc. type features. For an explanation of what these are, please visit here. I have chosen to not make these edits for historical accuracy but am leaving this notice for future readers.”

Please see the following Excel table below which helps in this “renaming” process and should hopefully help clarify exactly how I will be referring to molds from here on out. Please note this is more of a “let’s fix the previous issues before moving forward” than it is a “this is how things will be referred to from here on out”. Like everything in life and these reviews, this will be a growing process.

Thank you to you all for (hopefully) understanding why I am making these changes and why I am going about such in such fashion. As well, I want to extend my sincerest gratitude to the vendors who have had to listen to handfuls of “But that’s not what Goat said!!” over the recent weeks as we’ve reached a climax with this issue. Hopefully, moving forward, this will be a better system for all of us and will be a great way for me to continue to explore JWK molds without causing too many more issues with respect to my readers and vendors of the community.

Switch Background

Yes, even after all of this we are still going to do a switch background section. After all, that’s why you’re here, right?

Naevy switches from AEBoards certainly have one of the more detailed and complicated histories of modern switch lines that exist out there. While part of this may be due to my close proximity to them and the fair amount of discussions I’ve had with Aeryxz (owner of AEBoards) about them, they still do have quite a history nonetheless. The first round of AEBoard’s Naevy switches made their debut in August of 2020 on AEBoards as well as a few proxies in other markets outside of Australia such as Cannonkeys, Keyboard Treehouse, and iLumKB. Originally, these first round of Naevies were marketed as 67-gram, POM stemmed tactile switches made from Tecsee, the factory which Pandas and Panda derivatives come from, though they were marketed as intentionally having a different style tactile bump than Holy Pandas. Alongside these milky-clear colored stems in the aptly dark navy-colored housings, additional aftermarket Naevy tactile stems made with UHMWPE were sold in separate add on packs. According to my Cannonkeys announcement email which I was simply too lazy to clear from my inbox, the V1 Naevies were only sold in packs of 110 at $71.50 per pack, or $0.65 per piece. The additional, aftermarket UHMWPE Tactile stems came in packs of 140 for $30.

Figure 4: V1 POM, V1 UHMWPE, and V1.5 Naevies (Left to Right) — **Figure 4:** V1 POM, V1 UHMWPE, and V1.5 Naevies (Left to Right)

Aside packing an entire extra vowel purely to piss off the idiots who do longform, written reviews rather than choosing to become a famous YouTuber where they’d get so much more attention and love for saying things like “MX Brown Bad”, Naevy V1 switches didn’t bring in that much excitement following their release. While they did receive moderate scorecard points in the brief encounter I had with the switches, many people in the community had mixed feelings about the V1s given the strong amount of stem wobble as well as general inconsistency in moldings and shapes of the aftermarket UHMWPE stems. Not deterred by this, however, even shortly before shipping out all of these orders, Aeryxz had told me that he was planning on running future runs with alternative materials for stems at some point.

Due in large part to COVID-19, what only felt like a short time later in March of 2021 the Naevy V1.5 switches made their debut announcement with a fair amount of changes to them. While the deep navy-colored housings remained with their Nylon bottom and Polycarbonate top housings, the most immediately noteworthy change was the move away from both POM as well as UHMWPE tactile stems to a custom mixed polyethylene blend referred to as MPE. The reason that MPE was chosen over POM and UHMWPE was stated as being that it had a great intermediate between the two different plastic properties without suffering from the (not just cold) shrinkage that UHMWPE stems suffered with. As well, in addition to the changes in the switch itself, V1.5 Naevys also featured a new supporting cast in the form of Raed switches, which are Red colored, MPE stemmed linear switches rather than just another set of aftermarket stems. Being sold towards the start of April 2021, both the Naevy and Raed switches were $0.65 per switch as well as run through the same set of non-Aussie proxies as previous V1 runs.

In addition to a final note about Naevy switches in that future, 5-Pin versions are being planned by Aeryxz, I also have an additional neat historical point to cap off the complete other end of the Naevy switch history. Thankfully, Aeryxz has in the past granted me some of the original Naevy V1 switch prototypes to add to the ever-growing prototype collection. To give some neat insight into how these were made, below you will find photos of the first set of prototypes in which the stem molds were being tested. Since the performance aspect alone of the stem alone was being tested, you’ll note that these feature clear-topped, Invyr-stamped housings as Invyr, the original Panda brand, were made at Tecsee. In addition to being an interesting tie in historically to the production lines of the factory’s past, these are also among the only clear-topped Invyr branded housings in existence as this nameplate has only ever publicly been used for original, white colored Pandas. Feel free to be as astounded as I was, as it’s pretty fucking cool.

Figure 5: Clear, INVYR Topped Naevy V1 Prototype. — **Figure 5:** Clear, INVYR Topped Naevy V1 Prototype.

Naevy V1.5 Switch Performance

Appearance

Unsurprisingly, these switches come with a housing that is… navy in color. Not being a man of the color wheel myself, this ‘Navy’ appears as quite a dark blue that comes out almost black-ish in certain, less-than-lightbox conditions of lighting, which definitely sets it apart from other blue colored switches out there. As well, it comes with a solid white colored stem which is significantly more opaque than the more milky, translucent colored V1 POM and UHMWPE stems. As well, this is the same color of white that is seen in the Raed switches that came for sale adjacent to the Naevy switches, though those feature a deep red colored housing that is just shy of maroon. After writing this section, I feel mildly obligated to pick up a RAL book or raiding the local Home Depot paint chip section as describing colors with words kind of sucks. I’m not entirely sure how Crayola has managed all these years.

Given the god forsaken introduction that led into this review discussing molds, I feel the need to continue upon my mold exploration of the Naevy switches even though they are from Tecsee and not JWK. Looking first to the stems, we’ll note that they are quite interesting in their little technical details as compared to some previous switches we’ve discussed prior. First, and definitely most normally we’ll notice that these have a set of tapered, factory unlubed slide rails as well as a normal looking pair of tactile legs. Secondly, and quite interestingly, the center mast of the Naevies is actually double tapered, with an initial very subtle taper about where the bottom of the slider rails end and then a stepped, rather than sloped, final taper at the bottom of the center mast. Finally, there are two different sets of mold circles worth noting with a pair of large, flat ones on the front side and a high set, tiny injection sprue point on the backplate of the stem which is definitely a more unique feature relative to the Gateron and JWK molds we’ve explored prior.

Figure 6: Center pole double taper with single, high set backplate mold sprue mark. — **Figure 6:** Center pole double taper with single, high set backplate mold sprue mark.

Much like with the sprue injection point as well as the double tapered stem, the Naevy V1.5 top housings are also quite strangely different looking than I’ve noted before. While the outside appears quite normal, the inside of the top housing has significantly more flat real estate surrounding the edges of the switch and especially the LED slot region. As well, it features a set of 8 mold marking circles in pairs on all four sides of the switch as well as a pair deep within the housing on either side of the main stem hole. While mold markings on this are not nearly as evident, it does appear that in the center of the inside flat portion of the LED slot that there is a small symbol that they would use to denote mold markings, which is again a rather unique place to do such.

Figure 7: Internal top housing mold circles and mold marking that looks like a goose? Sort of? — **Figure 7:** Internal top housing mold circles and mold marking that looks like a goose? Sort of?

Rounding off the mold discussions with the bottom housings, we end up with a perfect clean sweep of oddities. If JWK molds are all about the circles, then the Tecsee molds used in the Naevy V1.5 switches are their rectangular-centric counterparts. On the edges surrounding the LED slots, at the bottom of the inside of the bottom housing, and on the underside, we see sets of either raised or rectangular mold markings where we previously only saw circles. While I have off-handedly seen the bottom side rectangular polishing marks from other Tecsee switches, I’m really playing up the oddity of it here as if we are discovering it together for the first time. Immersion is definitely a key when getting people to read through longform content. As well, the mold markings on these bottom housings are in probably my favorite spot I’ve ever seen them before in the bottom left-hand edge in a raised, single number fashion.

Figure 8: Internal bottom housing mold markings with single number marking on bottom left-hand lip. — **Figure 8:** Internal bottom housing mold markings with single number marking on bottom left-hand lip.

Figure 9: Bottom of Naevy bottom housings with rectangular mold regions. — **Figure 9:** Bottom of Naevy bottom housings with rectangular mold regions.

Push Feel

Overall, while I generally like to refrain from making qualitative comparisons to other switches in this section, I definitely feel like these Naevy V1.5 switches are a marked improvement in terms of clarity of tactile bump over their V1 predecessors. Even though there is a slight bit of scratch to the stroke of the switch that kind of degrades the in-face pop of the tactile bump, it’s a high-in-bump, mid-range tactile bump that definitely sits comfortably in the middle of the tactility spectrum. As well, it is fairly mid-sized in bump length coming on not too quickly but also not really drawing out a larger tactile bump to not make it feel as strong. To me, these stand as a fairly great example of a mid-range tactile bump in a switch in terms of magnitude and length of bump and I’d not hesitate to use these as an example for anyone who would ask.

Now, that being said about the praises for the tactile bump, there are still some gripes that I have regarding the push feel of these switches. The first, and probably largest issue I have is that these switches bottom out on the longer stem pole in a much more jarring, solid fashion than I personally would have liked in this instance. Even though this may be more in line with Aeryxz’s desire in terms of bottoming out experience, I would think that a less harsh, lighter tactile switch would benefit from a square, muted bottoming out as opposed to something sharp and aggressive like Moyu Blacks, which also bottom out on the stem pole. Contrastingly, though, the topping out experience is fairly solid feeling which only further compounds my annoyance with choosing to move away from a similar feeling in bottoming out feeling. (That shouldn’t necessarily sway your opinion, though. I know many a fan of stem-pole bottom outs.)

Sound

Of all of the features of this switch which surprised me the most, the sound of them by far was the biggest surprise. Even though the sound fairly reasonably matches the push feel with respect to scratch as you can definitely hear it in activation of the switch, the bottoming and topping out definitely do not belay such. First of all, while the bottoming out is definitely a bit louder and more sharp than one would expect for a nylon material bottom housing, which tend to be deeper and more muted, it’s still fairly muted for a bottoming out that occurs on the stem pole. Secondly, and even more surprisingly, is how solid and firm sounding the topping out experience is. Many, many, many switches genuinely struggle with using a polycarbonate top housing as it can cause a high pitched, thin, and plasticky sound to the topping out, all of which the Naevy V1.5 switches manage to avoid.

Personally, my speculative point as to how these switches manage so well in avoiding some of the high pitched and thin notes commonly found in the topping out of polycarbonate houses has to do with the mold design. As we saw above in the Appearance section, the relatively small inner cavity of the top housing as well as the high surface area contact between the top and bottom housings through the external edges as well as the LED slot may have something to do with how the sound travels. Even though it could just as easily be the result of Tecsee using a differently stepped on polycarbonate than other manufacturers, I’d like to think that mold shape and internal structure also must ultimately play some role in how switches sound, regardless of whether or not that is a discussion the community is ready to have yet.

Wobble

Unsurprisingly, even though the stem wobble of the Naevy V1.5s qualitatively feels like it has improved over the V1s (and especially so for V1 UHMWPE stems), it’s still not exactly up to where I feel like it could be. Surely part of the reason that there are some potentially noticeable amounts of stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W directions is due to the fact that the MPE material stems contain some amount of UHMWPE which is prone to shrinking. That being said, though, the top housings are fairly firmly affixed even after multiple openings and closings, and show no sign of giving to top housing wobble after such.

Measurements

If you’re confused as all get out as to what each of these new measurements are, then click either on the image above or here to find links to the new ‘Measurements’ Sheet which I will be continuing to expand in addition to scorecards and full fledged reviews. While it’s not up yet, sometime in the next week I’ll add a link to this on the Archives page, as well as another fun thing I’ve wanted to release for awhile.

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 pieces to the Naevy V1.5s side by side.

Figure 11: Switches for comparison. (L-R, Top-Bot: Gateron Kangaroo Ink, Zealio V2 (67g), Penguin, Naevy V1 (POM), Okomochi V2, TTC Blueish White)

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!

Gateron Kangaroo Ink

- Overall, the tactile bump on the Gateron Kangaroo Inks is much stronger and sharper in both feeling as well as overall volume of sound.

- While some Gateron Kangaroo Inks have a slight bit of top housing wobble that isn’t noted in the Naevy V1.5s, they do have an otherwise comparable amount of wobble with regards to the stem. Comparing multiple sets to each other, its possible that on average the stems wobble in the Naevy V1.5s just a hair more, but it’s not by much.

- The tone of the sound produced by the collisions with the housings as well as the tactile bumps in the Naevy switches is much more muted and deeper sounding, in addition to being overall more quiet.

Zealio V2 (67g)

- The Zealio V2 switches have a significantly stronger, quicker, and more punchier tactile bump than the Naevy switches. Based on this comparison alone, I wouldn’t classify them in the same realm of tactility.

- Comparing the stem wobble between the two switches in both the N/S and E/W directions, I am fairly surprised with how similar that they are coming from such a significantly different time in manufacturing and from distinctly different companies.

- Even though the Zealio V2s are technically factory lubed unlike the Naevy switches, I would say that the Naevys are only a hair bit more scratchy throughout the stroke, which is a positive point for the MPE material stems.

Penguins

- In a weird, qualitative sense, the tactile bump of the V1.5 Naevies feel just like a slightly toned-down version of the Penguins. If someone I knew liked Penguins, but wasn’t a fan of how harsh they were with respect to the tactile bump, these would be an excellent recommendation to move them to.

- The one notable difference in the sound quality of these switches, though, is that the Penguins are much more susceptible to a notable spring or leaf pinging noise that just isn’t present in the Naevy V1.5s.

- The Penguin switches definitely do take an edge over the Naevies though in terms of overall lack of stem wobble in both directions. Both do have rock solid top housings though, with no wobble in sight.

Naevy V1 (POM Stem)

- The most immediately noticeable difference between the V1 and V1.5 Naevies is simply how much more scratchy the V1s are. I would be hard pressed to believe with eyes closed that these two switches were related in any way based on this metric.

- As well, there’s a solid amount of pinging noise that comes from the V1 Naevies that is, much like the scratch, completely missing from the V1.5s.

- While potentially just my brain being my brain, I genuinely feel like the V1.5s are just a hair less tactile but with a similar style and overall magnitude of tactile bump.

Okomochi V2

- Much like with the Naevy V1 switches, there is a significant amount of pinging noise noticeable in these that is not noticeable at all in the Naevy V1.5s.

- While these two switches feel comparably scratchy in hand, the scratch sound of the stock Okomochi V2s is much more pronounced than in the Naevy V1.5s.

- The topping out sound and feeling of the Naevy V1.5 switches is much more firm and cushioned than the Okomochi V2s, which not only sound but feel quite thin and sharp.

TTC Blueish White

- The tactile bump on the Blueish Whites is not only a bit more strong than the Naevy V1.5 switches, but it is also located a tiny bit higher in the downstroke than the Naevies.

- Even though both of these switches have a similar muted sounding tactile bump as compared to other tactile switches on this list, the Blueish Whites overall are a bit louder on all fronts compared to the Naevies.

- The topping out of the Blueish White switches is quite a bit more harsh and flatter feeling than that of the Naevy V1.5 switches.

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.