Sillyworks x Gateron Type R Switch Review

Despite how seemingly normal this review is likely coming across to you all right now on this normal, perfectly expected Sunday morning, it was anything but normal for me to prepare. Hell, I’d even go as far as to say that it was incredibly strange for me both to write and do all of my normal preparation work for. See, my normal workflow for reviews that are posted on any given Sunday starts on the Monday six days ahead of the posting and slowly unfolds over the course of the week leading up to the post. On Monday and Tuesday, measurement get taken, force curves get collected, and I begin my note taking process for the general review structure and underlying story that I may try and weave into it. On Wednesday and Thursday nights, graphs get made and notes are shuffled around into their proper places as well as some thorough soft outlining of concepts that I want to write about but may struggle to do from just the semi-incoherent notes I collected from the nights before. (Think of the ‘Background Section’ for example.) And then finally, Friday night rolls around after work and I get to sit down for the bulk writing process where all of the notes and outline pieces get fleshed out into massive paragraphs with plenty of run on sentences. This is then touched up on Saturday morning, with some photos taken that morning tossed into the review, and then polished off for uploading to the website for its Sunday morning debut. At least that is the normal workflow of things when college football doesn’t decide to have the two most important playoff games of the year on Thursday and Friday nights.

Figure 1: Internet hatred about the incorrect use of a cactus here be damned, it is a slick looking ad for Ohio State.

Having not only been born and raised in the state of Ohio, but also lucky enough to have attended The Ohio State University for my undergraduate degree, I can pretty confidently say that I’ve been a big fan of Ohio State football for the entirety of my life. Whenever autumn rolls around, I absolutely have to watch all of the OSU games all the way through, no matter how crazy, screwed up, or poorly coached they may be. Thankfully over the last handful of years there haven’t been too many games which were poorly coached, and thus it’s often that Ohio State stays a relevant team in national championship contention well past the normal end of college football for most teams. This season is certainly no exception to that. However, given the strange shifting around of the college football landscape and the introduction of a 12-team playoff to feed into the national championship, Ohio State found themselves poised to face the Texas Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl in the semifinal of this playoff on this past Friday night at 7:30 PM – the time when this review (and all other reviews that I’ve done for the past five years) would have been written. This, as you could imagine, put me in a bit of a stressful situation as I absolutely could not miss the chance to watch this game and also simultaneously could not skip a normal review writing weekend for switches as interesting as these. So instead, I crammed all of that review preparation process into just the first couple of days of the work week. Monday and Tuesday’s work was condensed into a very late Monday night. Wednesday and Thursday’s outlining and structuring was crammed into Tuesday night. And then, against all of the routine I’ve built up over the last few years, the first draft of this review was shoddily thrown together on Wednesday night. Ultimately knowing the result of how the Ohio State game went in a magical twist of Saturday-morning editing, I can say the stress and cramming was beyond absolutely worth it. I am not normally one of those people who yell at the television set, but the second that fumble in the fourth quarter bounced into Jack Sawyer’s hands I had to have woken up the neighbors. Irrespective of this more than worth it decision on my part, my strongly implied tone I wrote prior to the start of the game should be telling you that I likely won’t be doing this sort of review juggling again any time soon. It also threw off my internal workweek clock so much that I almost entirely forgot to set my alarm Wednesday night for work as I have mentally conditioned myself to think that writing night is the end of the week. So, if you notice any weird structural issues or typos in this one, you will have to go just a little bit nice on me. (It may also be because I’m editing this one through a celebratory hangover, as well.)

Figure 2: This is the exact moment that made all of the early week work worthwhile.

Switch Background

Whereas the last couple of months have had full length switch reviews featuring switches that came entwined with convoluted histories of manufacturers or totally not specific brands which often switch through numerous different manufacturers for every single switch release, this review here is going to take us back to a wholesome, much more simple tie-in for a background section – switch designers. Names like Invyr, Punkshoo, C3Equalz, 43Studio, and quite a few more that I’ve yet to cover in depth in a review all come to mind when thinking of switch designers, and equally as many have unique, twisting backgrounds which add a certain contextual flavor to their switches that are otherwise missing from bland, lifeless offerings from larger nameless corporations. Sillyworks, who has been referred to in some places as ‘Siliworks’ as of late, is certainly no exception to this list of individuals as they are both the designer of the Type R switches which have brought us together here today and a character in and of themselves. I myself have certainly came across this name more than a couple of times since they first popped onto the switch scene in 2022, though admittedly I was just quite missing out on a singular, solid opportunity to get around to detailing their background in one of these switch reviews. While their Type R switch collaboration with Gateron was certainly more than deserving of a review based on its physical attributes along, this strange week of review preparation shuffling that I’ve had to take on has also justified a recounting of Sillyworks’ history. This is because unlike most of the other named individuals in that list of designers above, Sillyworks has been overly forthcoming about their history, background, and plans moving forward – opting for out-of-the-gate publication of their origin and all of their thoughts about their switches making my research for this background section substantially more easy than it normally is.

On May 16th of 2022, an interest check was posted to ZFrontier offering a pretty mundane headline debut of a new switch by the name of ‘Sillyworks Hyacinth Axis’. (Axis being the Google translated Chinese to English word for “switch”.) While this medium-light weight linear switch to be made by KTT is certainly worth mentioning and will have some pretty important historical implications further on in this section, it’s actually the start of this post that stood out to me significantly more than any specifications of the switches themselves. Rather than starting off with some fluff or sales pitch about these switches, ZFrontier user ‘Sauceinmyveins’ introduced themselves as both A Xi as well as the owner of the Taobao store by the name of ‘HYPERBORING’. Ironically fitting of their original company name, this individual of many names went on to share that they had started HYPERBORING not only out of general boredom but an interest and enjoyment of designing keyboard-related products. Ostensibly done with that name as quickly as they introduced it in writing, this was then tossed to the wayside with the user stating their new name from hereon would be ‘Sillyworks’… and then they went right in to introducing their switches. No villain origin story, no sales pitch, and damn near nothing to be said save for a straightforward introduction of every name they’ve ever gone by and seemingly will go by moving forward. Despite the rather unique and nominally descriptive nature of this introduction, the remainder of the interest check post was actually surprisingly enlightening and thorough, with Sillyworks not only stating all of the specifications for the Hyacinth switches, but also their explicit desires and interest behind why they chose certain details for the length of the stems, housing materials, choice in manufacturer in KTT, etc. At the tail end of the post, they then went on to share a photo of some of the first prototypes of the Hyacinth switches which had already been developed prior to the release of the interest check. Featuring light yellow dustproof stems and a light purple over dark purpose housing way, Sillyworks stated that the final production run of the Hyacinths would not quite look like this, and instead would feature normal, non-dustproof stems in a green color as the dustproof stems “still felt a little rough when pressed at some angles”.

Figure 3: Photo of the KTT-made Hyacinth V1 prototype switches from Sillyworks' initial interest check post on ZFrontier.

Despite not having a specific groupbuy post to point to on ZFrontier for the original Hyacinth switch sale, its fairly evident through their trickling into western keyboard markets on top of all of the other switches you’re soon to read about from Sillyworks that this initial switch debut and personal rebrand was an overall success. Arguably these switches were so successful that Sillyworks was comfortable enough to announce their second switches not just as an interest check but a dual interest check and groupbuy announcement on January 7th of 2023. In this post, Sillyworks debuted the KTT-made ‘Waverider’ switches. While I could have spent probably a tiny bit more time looking into the commercial success of these Waverider switches, the subsequent non-interest check and non-sale post by Sillyworks a few months later on May 19th convincingly stole much more of attention during the planning of this section. Rather than talking about new switches (or even yet another personal rebranding) Sillyworks instead filled this post with a pretty slang-heavy accusation leveled at a prebuilt keyboard company/brand by the name of Metaphyuni. In this post, which is a tiny bit hard to parse due to Google Translate struggling with the contextual nature of slang phrases, it seems as if Sillyworks accuses Metaphyuni of either directly ripping off Sillyworks’ Hyacinth switch renders in the marketing of their new prebuilt keyboard or maybe even copying the switches explicitly in the actual physical boards as well. According to what I can make out of the translations, Sillyworks was in the process of developing a Hyacinth V2 switch with KTT in the months leading up to this post, but it was postponed for some unstated reason. Without any restarting of work on this second iteration of switches by Sillyworks, they were greeted with this marketing post that pretty clearly seemed to implicate that the idea was still being worked on elsewhere, just without Sillyworks’ permission. Not wanting to have his idea completely stolen, only a handful of days later on May 31st, Sillyworks posted a nearly complete interest check for the Hyacinth V2 switches complete with renders, marketing, matching keycap sets, a deskmats, and the tiny bit of information that these switches would be made by HMX and not KTT. While the official claim by Sillyworks was that this was done because of HMX being capable of producing switches with tighter tolerances and using more precise molds than KTT, the proximity of this revelation to this drama post calling out the theft of their switches at least implies that there may have been some ulterior motives by Sillyworks in moving manufacturers.

Figure 4: Marketing image of the KTT-made Waverider switches from Sillyworks from combined IC/GB ZFrontier post.

Figure 5: Metaphyuni keyboard and switch marketing render claimed to be either partially or completely copying Sillyworks' KTT Hyacinth V1 switches.

With the drama pretty squarely addressed and moved on from following that pairing of posts, only weeks later in June of 2023 a Hyacinth V2 groupbuy post was made on ZFrontier featuring real product photos of samples made not only with a green stem and purple housing, but also a custom designed ‘SILLY’ nameplate made by HMX. Not content with leaving these switches as is, Sillyworks went on to iterate on the Hyacinth switch design one final time in the form of the ‘V2U’ switches only a couple of months later. In addition to having tighter tolerances worked into the design of the top housings at the direct request of the Chinese keyboard community, these switches also seemingly had entire new production tooling created, leading to them being produced with a matte finish to the housings as opposed to the glossy ones present on the Hyacinth V2 switches. In the event that that differentiation wasn’t enough, the color of the switches was also adjusted one final time to a fully purple colored stem to both “stand for ‘Unity’” as well as “being voted on by “you” the community” according to the ZFrontier post. Despite these being the final iteration of the Sillyworks Hyacinth switches first debuted over a year earlier, these were arguably just the beginning for Sillyworks when it came to switches. Well, the publicly facing beginning, that is. On October 29th of 2023, and only a handful of months removed from the end of the Hyacinth line of switches, Sillyworks announced the debut of a project that they had been working on in conjunction with Gateron since February of 2023, long before both the V2 and V2U Hyacinth switch iterations. Titled ‘Project Rehash: SLAY Series’, this 17 revision and more than 3,000 sample collaboration with Gateron was built upon Sillyworks’ idea of creating a revamped series of switch molds that would not only emulate the original, fully opaque Gateron KS-3 switch housings but do so with improved quality and tolerances across the board. With the supposedly lightly tactile ‘Type Y’ switch still pending as of the time of this debut (as well as the time of writing this switch review here), the Sillyworks x Gateron Type S, L, and A switches were all introduced as linears built from the same molds though using different spring weightings and stem lengths to differentiate their feeling and cater to a wide range of hobbyists. Priced at 2.5 yuan ($0.34) per switch with estimated initial run sizes of 40,000 switches for each type, the Type S, L, and A switches were released to the public on October 30th of 2023.

Figure 6: Marketing render for Sillyworks' Project Rehash: SLAY Series of switches as of their initial debut on October 29th, 2023.

Figure 7: Chart from Sillyworks' Project Rehash introduction which shows the similarities and differences between the Type S, L, and A switches.

Completely jumping over the nearly simultaneous announcement of a switch collaboration with Nap Works that was pushed out onto ZFrontier on October 26th of 2023, we arrive at the Sillyworks switch release which is actually being reviewed here – the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R. Building upon the original name and theme of ‘Project Rehash’, Sillyworks expanded the ‘SLAY’ acronym of switches into ‘SLAYER’, with the Type L, Type E, and Type R switches all being tactile counterparts to the Type S, Type L, and Type A switches. While this move seems somewhat deliberate in practice, or at least reasonably so, its sincerity as a long term plan that was devised all the way back when the project was first introduced is somewhat undermined by a vague discussion in the announcement of the Type R switches which suggests that their specific design fell out of prototyping attempts for the Type Y. Despite this also being supported by the lack of any further discussion of a Type E nor Type Y tactile switch, the Type R does at least follow the concept introduced alongside Project Rehash by using the same series of Sillyworks and Gateron developed, KS-3 inspired housing molds. Rather than just producing a lightly tactile switch as suggested of the original Type Y marketing information, the Type Rs appear to have been developed as part of a suggestion by a friend of Sillyworks that they make a switch that was “100% Tactile”, or completely devoid of any linear region in their stroke whatsoever. With reported success in developing a unique, never before seen tactile as such, the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches were not pushed to a future sales release like the Type S, L, and A switches but rather offered immediately upon posting of the thread on November 16th, 2024 at a price of 3 yuan ($0.41) per switch and with an intentional “longterm reail plan” in mind. (Note that prices do range from this point up to ~ $0.50 per switch depening on where they are sourced from.) Given the general availability of the Type S, L, and A switches through some western facing keyboard vendors to date, as well as the availability of the Type R switches through several stores such as Unikeys, KBDFans, and Milktooth, I suspect that these tactiles will remain available for quite some time into the future.

Figure 8: Marketing photo of the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches from their debut ZFrontier post. Note the tube packaging design in the back which was also similar to those used for the release of the Type S, L, and A switches previously.

Type R Performance

Appearance

At the highest level, the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches come in a fully red construction with a darker red housing and lighter red colored stem that is surprisingly mundane in their color palette and yet surprisingly sophisticated and modern in their overall appearance. The most recognizable feature of the Type R switches, and by extension the other released switches from Sillyworks’ ‘SLAYER’ series of switches is that of the closed over LED/diode slot. While certainly uncommon to see nowadays, MX-style switches with closed over LED/diode slots date back as far as 2016-2017 with the most prominent examples in my memory being those of the Gazzew-backed Outemu ‘no slot’ housings which were sold as parts to be configured into complete switches. This original design tactic was carried out by Outemu as a means of minimizing housing wobble, though with the general mold precision and production tolerances of a company like Gateron in 2024, it’s pretty evident that this design choice was purely driven by aesthetics. It should be noted, though, that the original KS3 Gateron switches that supposedly inspired the mold designs of the Type S, L, A, and R switches did not feature these ‘no slot’ style housings. The claim for this being purely aesthetic in nature is also driven by the presence of a stylized ‘S’ logo for Sillyworks being present on the housings on this covered LED/diode slot. As a result of these features, it’s hard to mistake these switches for others even from a distance, and even if the colors were changed entirely they would be easily recognizable as having come from Sillyworks’ ‘SLAY/ER’ series from a mile away. Despite the Type R’s easily identifiable nature, there are still plenty of other details worth noting in the construction and sub-part details of these switches. Discussion of these details may be found in the paragraphs and photos below.

Figure 9: Example switches which could have been constructed using the Outemu 'No-Slot' tops and other components sold by Gazzew in 2017.

Figure 10: Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches and their components.

Starting at the dark red, opaque nylon housings of the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches, we’re greeted with a slew of external features that make these switches easily stand out from the crowd and clearly demonstrate their unique mold development. Already discussed above is that of the Sillyworks-branded covered LED/diode slot, which is further interesting as making these (as well as the Type S, L, and A switches) among a small group of Gateron-made switches to feature either full or partial alternative branding. (Other examples being switches such as the Rantopad Oranges and Zeal’s 3-in-1 Clickiez, the ‘Everfree’ and NuPhy lines of switches, and Steelseries’ Omnipoint switches). Despite the fact that the molds are new and were clearly developed for Sillyworks and their the ‘SLAY’ series of switches released in 2023, the housings do not feature an inverted ‘GATERON’ nameplate – something which has been present in almost all Gateron-made switches with recently developed molds as of 2022. Interestingly, despite their ostensibly new design and construction, internally the top housings of the Type R switches do not have any features which stand out as unique. Even the mold markings for the top housings are still located in the upper corners underneath the nameplate region and feature two capital letter mold markings like most other Gateron switches. While it is certainly possible that there are more features in these top housings which could provide for better tolerances, a tighter fit, or aid in the overall feeling of the housings when it comes to topping out, none of those features are immediately apparent to me even upon close inspection.

Figure 11: Sillyworks x Gateron Type R top housing external design featuring closed over LED/diode slot with stylized Sillyworks logo and right side up 'GATERON' nameplate.

Figure 12: Sillyworks x Gateron Type R top housing internal design showing lack of obvious performance improving design details and standard capital letter mold markings in the upper left- and right-hand corners.

Moving next to the lighter red POM stems of the Type R switches, we are met with a few design features that are surprisingly simplistic and commonplace of Gateron despite the stems being assumedly developed from the ground up for these tactile switches due to their unique nature. In similar fashion as that of the right-side-up ‘GATERON’ nameplates on the top housings, the stems of the Type R switches feature non-tapered slider rails and a pretty thick tiered, but not tapered center pole to the switches. With a pair of mold ejector circles on the front plate of the stems and a minor, evenly distributed amount of factory lube on them, these stems wouldn’t look all that out of place for switches made by Gateron as early as 2020 to 2021. Strangely enough though, these more ‘classical’ design elements almost seem anachronistic compared to the advancements and general trends in design in switches over recent years. As for the tactile bumps of the Type R stems, which can be seen below in Figure 13, these too do not look all that unique or standout despite the fact that they were designed to deliver a feeling that is purely tactile and without any linear travel whatsoever. In fact I would be hard pressed to think that you could show a photo of these stems to anyone and convince them based on these features, alone, that these stems would be what can produce a sub-3.00 millimeter travel distance with all tactility in no linearity in a switch.

Figure 13: Front and back side of the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R tactile stems showing presence of factory lubing, lack of slider rail tapering, and thick, tiered center pole.

Figure 14: Side profile of the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R tactile stem.

Finally arriving at the darker red, nylon bottom housings of the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches, we finally encounter design features which clearly denote these switches as having been developed at some point past 2022. Internally, these housings feature a pretty large, curved south side spring collar, a pair of centered bumps below the slider rails that act as dampening pads, and a generous amount of thin, white factory lubing that clearly stands out against the dark red housing color. As well, the LED/diode slot below the closed over region from the top housing is completely filled out and features risers between the 1/2 and 3/4 LED/diode holes which would ostensibly prop up an in-switch diode if those were realistically still in use in modern mechanical keyboards. Externally, the Type R switch housings come in 5-Pin/PCB mount variety only and feature two capital letter mold markings close to the center pole as is common in collaborative Gateron releases. Additionally, the Type R bottom housings feature a raised, ‘GATERON’ anticounterfeit marking that runs sideways between the two metal PCB pins and has been seen in a wide number of their releases since the Stealios Controversy.

Figure 15: Sillyworks x Gateron Type R bottom housing internal design showing presence of factory lubing, portions of the sloped south-side spring collar, and dampening pads at the base of the slider rails.

Figure 16: Sillyworks x Gateron Type R bottom housing external design showing PCB mounting pins, two capital letter mold markings, and sideways 'GATERON' anticounterfeit marking between the metal PCB pins.

Push Feel

Of all of the switches that I could have possibly covered from Sillyworks in a full length review, the Type R switches were far and away the most unique switch to pick purely based on the premise that they were marketed on. For those of you who did not see any marketing or discussion about the Type R switches prior to making your way to this part of the article, the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches were marketed in their initial ZFrontier posting as being the first “100% tactile” switch. That’s right, a tactile switch that has absolutely no linear travel in it whatsoever – not before the tactile bump and certainly not after it, either. While I had thought I had genuinely heard of every possible marketing gimmick that could possibly exist for tactile switches after nearly 8 years of collecting switches, I can say with confidence that the thought of such a switch had never even crossed my mind. And yet, here we are. Despite my initial skepticism when I was first met with this marketing claim, in hand I am shocked to report that the Type R switches actually do feel as if they are truly only tactile. What’s more impressive than the fact that they feel this way is that they also have force curves that numerically back up these marketing claims as well:

Figure 17: Force curve diagram for the stock Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switch.

The Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches are medium to medium-ish tactile switches with a wide tactile bump that do, both demonstrably and subjectively, have a tactile bump that takes up the entirety of their downstroke. There is no linear pretravel nor post travel in these switches and the instant that you begin pressing down on these stems you’re set on a rapid course for two and only two feelings – the wide tactile bump and the snappy, firm bottom out. Throughout the downstroke these switches are not exactly the smoothest and do have some amount of small grain scratch to them despite the abundance of visible factory lubing shown above, though admittedly it is a bit hard to notice when using them under normal conditions as a result of the other much more pressing, attention grabbing features that the Type Rs pack in. For all of the mundane, commonplace things that there are to be said about these switches, there’s an equal amount of just pure strangeness that is a bit hard to contend with when using these switches for the first time. Arguably it’s not any less weird the more frequently you use them, either. There are three distinct features of the Type R switches which are not only infinitely more discussion worthy than any of the points above, but also distinct points of feeling that continue to weigh on my mind long after having finished the review for them. These are, in order from least to most baffling:

-1. The peak and bottom out forces measured for the Type R switches feel in hand as if they are reversed.

Looking at the force curve for the Type R switches in Figure 17 above, we can see that the switches peak out at a force around 62 gf and bottom out at a significantly lower value somewhere in the 45-47 gf range. Despite the tactile bumps being medium-ish, or maybe even medium-strong as a result of having a peak force that is quite a bit higher than where the downstroke of the switches first start, they don’t feel all that heavy on an absolute scale. Realistically, I’d have estimated the peak force of these switches to be around 45-55 grams prior to actually having measured these switches and I was a bit shocked to see it as high as it was. On the flip side, the bottom outs of the Type Rs are so aggressively snappy and punchy that the bottom out feels as if its hitting with a solid 60-65 grams of force, and not anywhere near the actual 45-47 gf range where they are. Speaking of the bottom outs, though…

-2. The bottom outs of the Type Rs are strangely aggressive and soft simultaneously.

One my biggest personal gripes with long stem pole switches and/or switches which bottom out onto their stem poles has always been that they often feel sharp, pointed, and just kind of needle you in a ‘pin-pricky’ way that doesn’t quite match up with the rest of the switch. The Type R switches most certainly do bottom out onto their stem pole as can be guessed by their insanely stunted total stem travel distance, and they also do so in a snappy, forceful manner that overpowers and dominates the more mild, meek tactile bump by comparison. And yet, these are nowhere close to sharp nor pointy feeling. Due to what I am assuming is the lack of tapering in the stem poles as seen above in Figures 13 and 14, the massive, almost cylindrical, can-like end of the stem pole contacts the bottom housings of these switches with such a large surface area that they just feel soft or almost dull, despite the force that they do strike with. While I’m not one to often resort to onomatopoeias or ill-defined vague conceptual descriptions of tangible things, the bottom outs of the Type Rs are the one instance where a ‘thunk’ like feeling of a massive, solid tree falling in the forest comes to mind over any more reasonable description.

-3. The travel distance on these switches are beyond impressively short.

Measuring in well below a sub 3.00-mm travel distance across all of the Type R switches that I measured in preparation for this review, the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches have among the shortest travel distance of any switches that I’ve collected force curves for before. That is also amidst a dozen or more low profile switches which physically have less space to operate in than the traditional, full sized MX footprint that the Type Rs are delivered in. While I conceptually can intuit that shortening the overall travel distance of the switch does help shore up any regions where there could be undesirable linear travel in a “100% Tactile” switch, I also feel like they could have just… made the tactile bump stretch on longer. I am certainly not against switches which have a short overall throw to them, despite my general distaste for aggressive and sharp feeling bottom outs, though the concept of a full sized switch having less room to press through than a low profile switch is a bit outside of the norm. It’s even stranger when testing them out in hand than you are led to think based on just knowing that fact in advance. Despite the marketing point of pure tactility being what you might be led to believe is the most imposing aspect of these switches, it’s actually the fact that they are basically operating as really tight low profile switches on stilts.

Figure 18: I mean seriously, it's insane. Out of 1,619 different force curves I've measured these are in the top 2% switches with the shortest total stem travel distance.

Sound

In spite of all of the complex mind games that are packed into the push feeling of the Type R switches, they are actually quite simple and singular in their overall sound profile. It turns out that the sound of these switches is not at all concerned with any of the pure tactility shoved into such a small window of travel distance, and is instead only focused on one thing and one thing only – the bottom out. Similar in description to the push feel notes above used to describe it, the bottom outs of the Type R switches are aggressively soft, with a snappy tone that is somewhere just above medium-pitched and loud enough in volume to alert those around you that you are using a mechanical keyboard. At faster typing speeds there is a bit of a more mean, firm edge that is picked up by the bottom outs of the Type R switches, though at a decent range of normal typing speeds, this sound stays more or less static. The tactile bumps of the Type R switches are for all intents and purposed non-existent here, providing nothing either positive or negative to distract from the sound of the bottom outs. In fact, really the only other ‘thing’ present in the sound profile of the Type R switches is a subtle, leathery scratch tone that can somewhat be heard as a backdrop to the bottom outs, but really only if you’re looking for it. With all of this in mind, the Type R switches are an excellent example of a switch that is sonically refined and has a sound that feels almost deliberately tuned and maximized for stressing only one characteristic in the switch.

Wobble

In spite of the fact that the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches very clearly have housing molds that were recently developed and could have been imbued with all of the precision that Gateron has demonstrated they are capable of in recent years, these switches have a marginally better than average stem wobble. Equal in magnitude in both N/S and E/W directions, it’s not likely that this will bother most users but it could for those particularly picky about their stem wobble.

Measurements

If you’re into this level of detail about your switches, you should know that I have a switch measurement sheet that logs all of this data, as well as many other cool features which can be found under the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking on the card above. Known as the ‘Measurement Sheet’, this sheet typically gets updated weekly and aims to take physical measurements of various switch components to compare mold designs on a brand-by-brand basis as well as provide a rough frankenswitching estimation sheet for combining various stems and top housings.

Figure 20: Numerical details regarding the stock Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches.

Have you ever wanted to be bombarded with more switch data than you’ve ever seen at any point in your life before? Consider checking out the ‘Force Curve Repository’ hosted on my GitHub that contains all force curves that I take both within and outside of these full-length 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 over 1000 different switches for you to use however you see fit. 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 most notable change in the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches comes in the form of the bottom outs both feeling and sounding much sharper than the bottom outs in the stock form of these switches. Due to what I can only guess is factory lube migration, the switches broken in to this point take on a bit more of an aggressive, more harsh feeling and sound than they had right out of the box.

34,000 Actuations

- After breaking in the Type R switches to 34,000 actuations, there weren’t really any changes to the push feeling, sound, nor stem wobble of the switches that wasn’t already noted above in the 17,000 actuation notes. Perhaps the only thing worth mentioning is that the increase in sharpness noted there was rather uniform and not really variable from switch to switch nor across the batch that I received.

51,000 Actuations

- Surprisingly, the variation in the sharpness of the bottom outs of the Type R switches that was first seen at 17,000 actuations did not really change all that much beyond that point. Even at 51,000 actuations these switches are undistinguishable from those only broken in to that earlier stage.

- The only notable change in the Type R switches broken out to 51,000 actuations was a slight increase in both N/S and E/W direction stem wobble. While not enough to really move the needle for any users who might be concerned about stem wobble, it was still noticeable enough that I felt compelled to mention it.

Figure 22: Comparative force curve diagram showing no substantial change in the force curves of the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches throughout the break in process.

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 Type R switches side by side.

Figure 23: Switches for comparison. (L-R, Top-Bot: Hojicha Reserve, Everfree Grayish Tactile, Cherry MX Purple, Drop Holy Panda X, Gateron Kangaroo Ink, and Tecsee Middle Switch Tactile)

Hojicha Reserve

- Despite the tactile bump of the Hojicha Reserve switches peaking earlier in the downstroke than the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches, they do feel as if they ‘hit’ slightly later in the downstroke than the Type Rs.

- In terms of their overall sound profiles, the Type R switches are substantially louder as a result of their bottoming out onto their thick stem poles. Outside of the bottom outs, the Hojicha Reserve switches also generally sound more thick and as if they are slightly more substantial than that of the Type Rs.

- The Hojicha Reserve switches have a bit less N/S and E/W direction stem wobble than the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches.

Everfree Grayish Tactile

- Of all of these switches on this comparison list, these two are the most similar in terms of their tactile bump strength and width and looking at their comparative force curves below, there’s really no surprise as to why. It almost seems as if the Type R switches are more or less Everfree Grayish tactile switches without their slight post-bump linear travel.

- Despite their similarities, though, the Grayish Tactiles have a bottom out that is a bit more pointed and sharp than that of the Type R switches. Looking back at my full length review for these switches, it’s almost certainly because their stem poles taper into a much finer point than that of the Type R switches.

- The Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches and the Everfree Grayish Tactile switches are quite similar in terms of their N/S and E/W direction stem wobbles.

Cherry MX Purple

- The Cherry MX Purple switches feel as if they have a tactile bump that is both later in the downstroke and more snappy than that of the Type R switches. Looking at their comparative force curve below, I suspect this is because of the tactile bump in the MX Purples coming after some flat, relatively unchanging linear downstroke as compared to the Type Rs which rocket up in force right out of the gate.

- While both of these switches are somewhat scratchy, as is to be expected the Cherry MX Purple switches are slightly scratchier throughout their downstroke than the Type R switches.

- In terms of their overall sound profiles, the Type R switches are significantly more composed, crisp, and clear sounding than the MX Purples. Mixed with an overall louder volume, this makes the Type R switches stand out and sound much more ‘premium’ than the MX Purples.

Drop Holy Panda X

- While it is a bit hard to tell, I kind of feel as if the tactile bumps in the Drop Holy Panda X switches are marginally more snappy than that of the Type R switches. Admittedly, though, when looking at the comparative force curves for these switches I’m left to ponder if this is something that is just in my head and not actually real.

- There is significantly less stem wobble in the Drop Holy Panda X switches than there is in the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches.

- If it wasn’t for the comparison with the Gateron Kangaroo Inks on the next comparison below this one, the HPX switches would be the most similar to the Type Rs in terms of their overall sound profile – with a snappy tactile bump and stem pole based bottom out that punches the ears a bit. That being said, though, the bottom out of the Type R switches both feels and sounds much more rounded, firm, and hefty than that of the HPX switches.

Gateron Kangaroo Ink

- In spite of what the comparative force curve between these two switches shows below, the tactile bumps of the Gateron Kangaroo Ink switches are significantly less punchy than the Type R switches. I’d even go so far as to say that the Kangaroo Inks here feel as if they’re less than half as sharp in their tactile bumps than the Type R switches.

- There is a bit less stem wobble in the Sillyworks x Gateron Type R switches than there is in the Gateron Kangaroo Ink switches.

- While you could probably have guessed that the Type R switches are fairly similar sounding to the Inks in terms of overall volume and aggressiveness from their stem pole bottoming out, you’d probably be surprised to find that there’s a significant amount of scratch and stem/leaf ping in the Kangaroo Inks that is otherwise absent from the Type R’s sound profile.

Tecsee Middle Switch Tactile

- While the Tecsee Middle Switch Tactiles are the only switches on this comparison list with a total stem travel that is shorter than that of the Type R switches, they do not feel as such as a result of their muted, soft bottom outs. The hard cut off of the stem pole around 2.850 mm in the Type R switches give them a definitive punch out at the bottom that cleanly and clearly mark the end of the stroke.

- There is a bit less stem wobble in the Sillworks x Gateron Type R switches than there is in the Tecsee Middle Switch Tactiles.

- These two switches are rather different in terms of their overall sound profiles, with the Middle Switches being much softer, muted, and more scratch driven as compared to the louder, crisper, and more full bodied sound of the Type R 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.