SP Star Sacramento Switch Review

**Figure 1:** A semester of graduate studies in the form of a meme.

You know, never before did I think my life could have been summed up so succinctly into so few words, much less an internet meme like this one. But after these past few months of classes which feel like they’ve drug on for several years now, I am ready to believe anything is damn near possible. Aside the time dilation that I’ve mentioned previously in the last review, I’ve seen such oddities as 40-page long homeworks, such miracles as cramming two and a half textbooks worth of graduate level thermodynamics into my head in the span of a week, and such mysteries as literal chaos theory. While I can’t possibly put into words how stressful the last semester was, in a sort of weird way it was really interesting to get to see all of the content that I did, learn all of the things that I learned in such a short time, and to really take the first substantial step in education that I’ve had in some time. That being said, though, thank fuck that it’s done for now.

With my newfound, only days old freedom*, I’ve been super excited to get back into the swing of content as well as getting back into the hobby that has been with me for so many years now. While I was only gone for a week and change, it effectively felt like I was missing something not writing reviews or scorecards. So in a weird, festive sort of sense still strung along by my egg-nog high that I’ve been riding since yesterday: I missed all of you, and I’m glad to be back. In the coming few weeks before I start my next semester (as well as actual research and not just homework), I will be releasing back-to-back weeks of reviews, continuing the scorecard update project which has been strongly lacking over the past few months, and prepare a slew of measurements and photographs to add to the measurement sheet and photo vaults, respectively. As well, even though I can’t give all that many hints as to what exactly is coming soon besides the content, I’ve been working on a couple of secret things behind the scenes which will hopefully not only improve all of this content but also surprise you all as well!

Novelkeys Mystery Switches sales image — **Figure 2:** Secrets even more mysterious than your Novelkeys Box Jades… I mean Mystery Switches!

*Terms and Conditions most definitely do apply.

Switch Background

Normally, I would start out the introduction of the Background section with something alluding to the fact that the switches being reviewed are either of historical importance for x, y, or z reasons or perhaps that they are the ‘latest’ of the releases from the company that designed them. When I initially got ahold of the SP Star Sacrementos a short while ago, back in that vague time that was the previous semester, I truly intended to leverage a bit of both of those points in the introduction ot this review. However, in the span of just about a month and half it seems as if SP Star is just pressing new switches at a rate unlike anything I recall having previously seen from a manufacturer before. This is even more rare considering just how relatively new to the game SP Star is as well. With all of these switches being released, though, and not much understanding in the west about SP Star and their releases, I figured this would be the time to get to actually go through their history, even if I am a bit late to the game with the switches in this review.

With the earliest known western-facing traces of them appearing first via Instagram, SP-Star Studios, short for ‘SUPER-STAR Studios’ first posted on April 23rd of 2020. In their brief introduction in Japanese via this post, the company shared that they were a joint studio from China and Japan that had grown out of a previous design studio focusing on automobiles and electrical components. The new focus of the company was stated in being ‘computer peripherals’ broadly, but to date only keyboards and keyboard related accessories have been sold to the best of my knowledge. Beyond this introduction, as well as what little information was available to collectors and vendors at that time, not much more was understood about the company beyond these initial posts and slight rumblings about a new manufacturer in China. While I can’t quantitatively demonstrate this, I do recall hearing speculation from multiple different collectors and even vendors at the time this was simply another offshoot from Durock/JWK in the same fashion that Durock itself came about according to the Stealios Controversy history.

SP Star Studios introduction announcement — **Figure 3:** SP Star Studios introductory Instagram post from April 23rd, 2020.

Wasting effectively no time after their introductory post, SP Star Studios (who I will shorthand as SP Star for the rest of this review) announced the sale of their second switch via Instagram not even two weeks later on May 4th, 2020. In this announcement, a render and force curve for their ‘Purple’ Star switches was posted with several other subtle details beyond this. Via a translation of the text alongside the post, these switches were to run in addition to that of a ‘Grey’ Star switch at a slightly different spring weighting and general type (tactile instead of linear). Worth noting here is that this announcement had switch renders which contained the first nameplate of ‘star’ used by SP-Star as previously mentioned in my SP Star Magic Girl Switch Review. Additionally, in the image post itself, there was also a ‘Leopold’ logo in the top left leading to further speculation that SP Star Studios may be an offshoot of Leopold, if not Durock/JWK. As well, it’s worth noting that this Instagram post implies that further announcements were being made elsewhere, though most likely via QQ groups or eastern-only accessible platforms that are unfortunately outside of my reach. In fact, even with these Instagram posts, the more switch-intensive individuals in the community didn’t even pick up on the existence of the company until mid to late August of 2020.

SP Star Polaris Purple sales advertisement — **Figure 4:** Star Purple initial announcement image with force curve and Leopold logo.

Only one month later on June 8th, SP Star went on to announce updates of their original Star switches teasing a new set of nameplates as well featuring a perfectly vertical ‘SP Star’ in roughly the same bubble lettering as the original star nameplate. These newer switches were told to not only have better tolerances on the top housings but also a change to a different lubrication method to not only make the switches smoother but also improve their overall consistency. These effectively became the second set of switches released by SP Star, though they were effectively only an updated version of the original set of ‘Star’ switches that they had ran with.

Shortly after the announcements about these updated switches, though, one of the more interesting posts of the earlier SP-Star era history was made. On July 18th, a ‘factory relocation’ update post was made discussing how shortly thereafter the SP Star manufacturing facility would be moving thus causing a small delay in manufacturing. The more interesting part about this post, though, came from the singular photo of a fairly mundane looking building except with the new, most modern SP-Star logo on a sign in the top right corner. This is particularly interesting both now and back at the time this was discovered as this not only demonstrates that SP-Star is their own independent factory and not simply a Durock/JWK alternative brand, but also the fact that this is one of the only times in which newer manufacturers have demonstrated “proof of life” beyond just their products. In fact, some of the only substantial looks at or inside switch manufacturing facilities have come about from the bigger manufacturing companies such as Cherry, Kailh, etc. and mostly via tours or promotional postings.

SP Star factory image — **Figure 5:** SP Star new manufacturing location photo from Instagram, posted on July 18th, 2020.

Following this ‘proof of life’ post and prior to that of the explosion of switch releases very recently which I’ve alluded to, a pretty sizeable amount of switches were released by SP Star which garnered them an increasing amount of attention with each subsequent release. This ‘Intermediary Period’ consisted of releases of the following switches at roughly the following times based on the announcements on their Instagram:

SP Star Konmomo and Nana Switches - (Aug. 30th 2020)

- Coming as the first truly customized switches released by SP-Star, this pair of switches was custom ordered by ‘Mr. York Chan’ and featured a tactile, 65g. translucent pink and purple stemmed switch known as ‘Konmomo’ and a 65g linear switch with opaque pink housings known as ‘Nana’. Another announcement was made regarding the Konmomo switches in late October of 2020 detailing a production color-matching issue and slight delay upon release.

SP Star Konmomo sales image — **Figure 6:** SP Star Konmomo initial teaser ender posted on Instagram on August 30th, 2020.

SP Star Nana sales image — **Figure 7:** SP Star Nana initial teaser render posted on Instagram on August 30th, 2020.

SP Star ‘Meteor’ Line - (Nov. 4th, 2020)

- Announced as a line of switch releases, the SP Star ‘Meteor’ switches featured dark blue housings with Purple (tactile), Orange (tactile), White (linear), and Grey (linear) stems. Additionally the render photo which demonstrated these Meteor switches also had another family of identically designed switches in white housings instead, though no mention of those was made in the text of the post. According to this initial sales announcement, the Orange and White stemmed Meteors were to be released on Nov. 11th, with future sales of Gray and Purple being done via in-stock sales.

SP Star Meteor White and Meteor Blue sales render — **Figure 8:** SP Star ‘Meteor’ sales line render in blue and white housings, first posted to Instagram on November 4th, 2020.

SP Star Magic Girl Switches - (Dec. 2020)

- Sold as a pair of switches in the form of SP Star Magic Girl Classic and Magic Girl Dark, these tactile variations of the Meteor line of switches were run by TKC in tandem with the running of the Magic Girl keycap sets and associated merchandise. A further detailed history of their release with an emphasis of the role they play in TKC’s history can be found in my SP Star Magic Girl Switch Review.

SP Star Magic Girl Dark and Magic Girl Classic — **Figure 9:** SP Star Magic Girl Dark (left) and Classic (right).

SP Star Luminous Switches - (Jan. 4th, 2021)

- First announced in January with further marketing posts made in the subsequent months, this pair of glow in the dark switches were the first substantial innovative step made by SP Star. Coming in ‘Cyber’ (Green and Black) and ‘Starry Night’ (Blue and Yellow) variants, no explicit sales date is stated in the announcements.

SP Star Glow in the Dark switches — **Figure 10:** SP Star Luminous Cyber (left) and Starry Night (right).

In addition to the aforementioned switch posts, a full size ‘SP Star MK 101’ keyboard was shown a handful of times in various formats and designs. While I don’t know much about this keyboard past the teaser announcements made, I definitely would love to if you happen to work for SP Star and are reading this now. (It’s for my office desk everyone, I swear.) Following this intermediary period of switch releases though, further teasers and switch releases from SP Star took a brief hiatus and didn’t effectively begin again until October of 2021, kicking off the most recent ‘Modern Leap’ of switch releases. In this Modern Leap, several switches were either announced, teased, or released sans much information. These include:

SP Star ‘RedBlue’ Switches - (Oct. 4th, 2021)

- First teased in October via both render and prototype picture, these switches had quite literally zero information posted with them. The only western facing sales point to include these switches (as well as a name for them for that matter) is that of Swagkeys in South Korea. According to their sales page, these switches are a 57g., polycarbonate based linear switch with no factory lubing.

SP Star Ayara Switches - (Nov. 22nd, 2021)

- Listed as “Lingra Color Matching” switches according to Google Translate, these 62g. linear switches with all-nylon housings were to be released on Nov. 25th of 2021. Again, much like with the RedBlue switches, these are being sold primarily via Swagkeys to western audiences. As well, it’s worth noting that ‘Ayara’ is the name which Swagkeys has provided for these switches and I’m uncertain as to how true to the actual Japanese name this is.

SP Star Duck Switches - (Nov. 24th, 2021)

- In much the same fashion as the RedBlue switches, these were teased sans any real information and are primarily sold through Swagkeys. These switches are listed as being lightly tactile (“very like Cherry [MX] Brown”) and are 58g., polycarbonate based switches with factory lubing.

SP Star Yanyu Switches - (Dec. 3rd, 2021)

- Teased as part of an ‘SP Star staff wallpaper challenge’ in which variations of switches and some of the mascots previously used in SP Star marketing were being posted regularly on Instagram. Sans any real details, these are being sold on Swagkeys as lubeless linear switches at a 48g. spring weight and with polycarbonate housings.

SP Star Sacramento - (Date Unknown)

- Unfortunately, the switches that this review are actually about are the only switches in the Modern Leap era of SP Star to not be previously mentioned anywhere via their marketing team. Based on the fact that the SP Star Magic Girl switches that they produced for TKC during the Intermediary Period also had no marketing to them whatsoever, it is implied but unconfirmed that the Sacramentos were thus a custom order.

**Figure 15:** SP Star Sacramento switch and components.

Thus, in a very long winded and listicle-esque fashion, we arrive at the end of releases up to the vague point at which SP Star released the Sacramento switches. It is worth mentioning that since these releases, there have been both a grey-housing version of the Meteor switches as well as a pair of custom SP Star linear switches from TKC that have been released. The reason I didn’t choose to include them in this list is left as an exercise to the reader.

At the time of release of writing this review, the SP Star Sacramento switches are the most available of any of the switches released during the Modern Leap era to western audiences. In addition to being sold via Swagkeys, further releases of these switches have also taken place via QwertyQop and Cannonkeys in Q4 of 2021. Across the board, these switches are being sold at $0.58 per switch, and feature a nylon over nylon housing and a 67g. weighting for an unlubed factory linear switch. While currently in stock at the aforementioned vendors, the planned longevity of these switches, and especially with respect to that of other recent releases by SP Star, is unknown.

SP Star Sacramento Switch Performance

Appearance

Coming across as one of the most tame colorways of recent switches released by SP Star, the Sacarmentos feature a dark, pine tree-like green top and bottom housing with a tealish-green stem and gold, standard length and threading springs. Comparatively, the green color of the switches is relatively unique compared to other recent switch releases with green housings, such as FEI Matcha V2, Durock Anubis, Akko CS Green, Nolive, TTC Wild, and Durock Moss switches which can be seen below in the comparison photo below.

Various green mechanical keyboard switches — **Figure 16:** Green switch comparison. (L-R, Top-Bot: FEI Matcha V2, Durock Anubis, SP Star Sacramento, Akko CS Green, Nolives, TTC Wild, and Durock Moss.

Moving onto the finer details of these switches, the exterior of the top housings features a pretty standard set of features including a right side up, modern SP Star nameplate, and long rectangular LED slot with circular impression for holding LEDs. It’s worth noting that compared to both other manufacturers as well as SP Star themselves that the lettering on the SP Star nameplates is quite thin and almost can’t be felt when running one’s finger over top of it. Beyond this, the only other remaining details are left to the interior of the top housings. Internally they feature ever so slightly raised edges on all four sides as well as an architecture identical to that previously documented in the SP Star Magic Girl Switches, meaning that molds or at least mold features from that era are continuing to be used to date. Additionally, the single letter mold marking is located in the top right-hand side underneath the nameplate as is fairly common for most switches nowadays.

SP Star Sacramento Top Housing Externals — **Figure 17:** SP Star Sacramento top housing external shot with wide LED slot and modern ‘SP-Star’ nameplate.

SP Star Sacramento Top Housing Internals — **Figure 18:** SP Star Sacramento top housing internals showing single mold number in upper right-hand corner.

Looking next to the stems of these switches, these tealish-green linear stems are fairly mundane by recent switch standards and feature a plethora of now ‘common’ features. These features, which are in line with those noted in the SP Star Magic Girl review, include large, wide set mold ejector circles on the backplate of the stem, tapered slider rails, and an aggressively tiered central pole. Perhaps one of the only other features that I don’t often mention but also notice is the indentation in top, front facing side of the keycap mount where the injection molding sprue was broken off. Again, though, this is a fairly common injection point for many modern switches.

SP Star Top Housing Stems — **Figure 19:** SP Star Sacramento stem wide shot showing slider rail and tapered central pole.

Finally moving on to the bottom housings, internally these switches are actually slightly different than that which I’ve previously noted for SP Star switches. The key distinctive feature between these and the SP Star Magic Girl switches is that the bottom of the slider rails features a ‘b/d’ shaped bottom out dampening pad in addition to an extra set of mold circles above this feature that aren’t there in the Magic Girl switches. Beyond this feature, internally the rest of the design is consistent with a lack of spring collars, a set of 10 mold ejector marks around the top rim of the switch, and a slightly stepped LED slot region. Externally, the only feature of note is the set of double-digit mold markings in the bottom right-hand corner of the switch between the third and fourth LED/diode holes.

SP Star Sacramento Bottom Housing Internals — **Figure 20:** SP Star Sacramento bottom housing internal structure showing mold circles on the upper rim as well as padded bottoming out regions under the slider rails.

SP Star Sacramento Bottom Housing Externals — **Figure 21:** SP Star Sacramento bottom housing externals showing double digit mold marking in bottom right-hand corner.

Push Feel

All things considered, the various features of the push feel of the Sacramentos led me to wanting to do a pro-con list, though the editor of these reviews (aka: me) felt that adding yet another list after that Background section would be a bit excessive. Starting off on the good side, these switches by and large are surprisingly smooth for not having factory lubed, quite well balanced in terms of housing collisions, and definitely have a lighter nylon touch to the bottoming out. Whereas something like Cherry MX nylon would be an ‘aggressive’ nylon bottoming out, these feel a bit lighter while still maintaining some of that firmness that is characteristic of nylon-based housings.

On the flip side of these brighter points, though, there are a couple of issues worth noting, although rather isolated at most. With respect to the batch size that I received (70 Count), approximately 10% or so had slightly thinner topping out feeling and sound when compared to the rest of the batch at large. As well, a smaller percentage of switches had a weird ‘sticking’ topping out, almost as if the tolerances for the top end of the stem led to a more tight and snug fit than others. It should be mentioned that these percentages were not necessarily mutually exclusive either as about a quarter of the 10% with topping out thinness also had this same ‘sticky’ feeling to them. Overall, though, both of these detriments did appear to improve quite substantially with aftermarket lubrication, including the ever so slight scratch present in all of the switches.

Sound

While by no means bad, the sound of these switches overall is definitely one of their less satisfying aspects. For the good switches, the switches are only ever so subtly scratchy sounding in stock form and have a decently mid-pitched pair of topping and bottoming out sounds. It’s worth noting here that this pitch definitely increases with typing speed, both on topping and bottoming out, leading to pretty distinctly different sounding switches at high rates of activation. As well, there’s a fairly decent amount of spring ping noticeable in a majority of the switches in my batch, though it’s not overbearing and again one of the detriments of these switches that appears to improve pretty substantially with aftermarket modifications.

Wobble

With respect to stem wobble, these switches are actually fairly solid with a likely unnoticeable amount of stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W directions. Distinctly comparing the two to each other, the N/S direction is greater in magnitude than the E/W direction but not by much. However, the larger point worth noting here in the wobble section is the slightly present issue of N/S top housing movement in the majority of the switches. While I would really hesitate to call this truly ‘wobble’, there’s some budging in the top housings that are indicative of less than perfect mold pairings between the tops and bottoms that I feel inclined to note for details sake. I’d be hard pressed to think that this N/S budging would likely matter in a plated build, and I’d feel even less inclined to think it would matter if you were to go about filming these switches.

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, that can be found under the ‘Archive’ tab at the top of this page or by clicking on the card above. This sheet typically gets updated weekly on mail days, and has been a subtle project I’ve been developing for some time now!

Other

An extremely subtle ‘Other’ point worth mentioning, assuming my memory truly hasn’t turned to mush, is that these switches are the first to be named after a city. While people love to meme up the animal, vegetable, and mineral based names of all of the various switch releases out there, I for one welcome the rise of city-based naming schemes. In all honesty, this not only helps break up the monotony a bit for collectors like myself, but also prevents the continuation of arbitrary letter/number/version naming schemes that have come about in recent years.

**Figure 23:** As well, I wonder what exactly this singular light green switch is on the Swagkeys sales page…

Comparison Notes to Other Notable Linear Switches

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

Various mechanical keyboard switches — **Figure 24:** Switches for comparison. (L-R, Top-Bot: Gateron Vermilion Bird, SP Star Meteor White, Novelkeys Box Cream, Durock Lavender, Akko CS Jelly Black, and TTC Wild (42g.)

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 Vermilion Bird

- Overall, the Gateron Vermilion Birds feel significantly more firm, and especially so with respect to the topping out experience. Comparing these in stock form, the large contribution to the overall feeling that the factory lubrication has in the push feeling of the Vermilion Birds is the likely explanation in this discrepancy between them and the dry Sacramentos.

- The SP Star Sacramentos definitely do have a bit worse stem wobble in both the N/S and E/W directions than the Vermilion Birds.

- In terms of sound, the Vermilion Birds are not only slightly more bass focused, but also significantly more quiet overall than the SP Star Sacramentos.

SP Star Meteor White

- The topping and bottoming out of these two switches are definitely comparable, but the Sacramentos feel as if they have a slightly thinner topping out experience. It’s worth noting that this feels rather counter-intuitive to me given that the Meteor Whites have a lighter spring weight than that of the Sacramentos.

- Again, surprisingly the SP Star Meteor Whites appear to be marginally better with respect to stem wobble than the SP Star Sacramentos. While this isn’t enough to substantially make a difference in your overall typing experience, it’s enough to indicate that they may be from separate molds or mold revisions.

- The smoothness between these two switches is identically similar enough that I wouldn’t notice any differences between these two in a blind testing situation on this metric.

Novelkeys Box Cream

- Not only do the Box Creams have a significantly thinner feeling topping out than the SP Star Sacramentos, but they also have a significantly thinner and higher pitched sound to them as well.

- The stem wobble on the SP Star Sacramentos is a bit better than that of the Novelkeys Box Creams, though the lack of housing budge from the clamshell housings of the Box Creams really does give these a competitive run at each other with respect to wobble.

- The smoothness is hardly a comparison between these two switches as well, as the SP Star Sacramentos, even at their worst in stock form, are significantly smoother than that of the Box Creams.

Lavender

- In terms of overall volume, the Lavender switches might as well be silent linears compared to the SP Star Sacramentos. This is considering both the topping out as well as the bottoming out sound.

- The stem wobble, in both the N/S and E/W directions are substantially better in the Lavenders than that of the SP Star Sacramentos, though not enough to truly call the Sacramentos ‘wobbly’ by any standards.

- For being stock unlubed, the Sacramentos are surprisingly comparable to the Lavenders in terms of smoothness for some of the better switches. While there is the small percentage in which this isn’t the case, aftermarket lubrication will definitely make the Sacramentos comparable to stock or modified Lavenders depending on your skill level.

Akko CS Jelly Black

- The Akko CS Jelly Blacks are both scratchier and ever so slightly more pingy than that of the SP Star Sacramentos, both of which are pretty determinantal to linear switch performance.

- The topping out experience in the CS Jelly Blacks is significantly thinner and more polycarbonate-like than that of the nylon Sacramento topping out, which even on its own is comparatively thinner than other nylon switches.

- Overall, the SP Star Sacramentos sound much more quiet and deeper than that of the CS Jelly Blacks which have more of a plasticky, slightly higher pitched tone to them.

TTC Wild (42g.)

- While the TTC Wild switches are only slightly quieter than that of the SP Star Sacramentos, they appear to have a much more pointed, singular sounding bottoming out than the ‘wide’ sounding bottoming out of the Sacramentos.

- In terms of overall smoothness, these two switches are fairly comparable on average. I would venture to say that the Sacramentos with the more prevalent issues are slightly scratchier than that of the Wild switches, though not in any significant enough quantity to likely matter.

- Overall, the stem wobble on these two switches is pretty comparable and definitely the most similar out of any comparison on this list in both the 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.