Thoughts on the Cherry MX2A Silent Black switches

2025-05-17

[ I am not affiliated with any of the companies I mention and I am not providing any links just to be sure. ]

I have been using the titular switches full time for the past ~3 weeks. They are the culmination of my evolving preferences with mechanical keyboards. Namely, (i) linear feedback, (ii) medium to heavy weight, (iii) steep force curve, (iv) sufficiently quiet, (v) barely noticeable stem wobble, and (vi) reasonably smooth out-of-the-box.

When I switched to a split mechanical keyboard a bit more than a year ago (the Iris revision 8 model by Keebio), I gravitated through trials and errors towards linear and lightweight switches, specifically the Keychron K Pro Silver. Their low operating force made it easier for me to type without hurting my hands. Over time, and while recovering from repetitive strain injury, I noticed how my fingers were applying increasingly more pressure to the switch, so I decided to switch to the Gateron G Pro 3.0 Yellow switches. Those are heavier than the Silvers, though not by much. I merrily used the Yellows for a few months. In the meantime, I regained the strength in my fingers and I naturally kept increasing the force I was applying to each key press. I thus decided to buy the even heavier Silent Blacks.

The Yellows offered me a fine typing experience overall. Their medium weight helps minimise accidental key presses while not compromising on the ease of typing. I think that they are an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to experiment with a linear switch. I could not notice any scratch in the key stroke and was accurate with my key presses. What I never got used to though was their rather high-pitched sound and noticeable stem wobble. The bottom out noise produced by the Yellows is especially loud for my taste. This was also a subjective weakness of the Silvers, though at the time I was not applying enough pressure to trigger a bottom out event frequently enough.

It is why I wanted a switch with a high bottom out force: to not reach that point and, whenever I would reach it, to not do so with a lot of excess force. Put differently, my experience with the Silent Blacks is that of a cushioned bottom out event. When it happens, it is comfortable rather than being an abrupt crash against the plate of the keyboard. I retain my momentum as I type and never feel like I have to slow down.

As their name suggests, the Silent Blacks are designed to stay quiet. No mechanical switch will ever be absolutely silent, such as how a phone’s keyboard is when the volume is at zero. The Silent Blacks are quiet enough to not be calling for my attention while I am typing. In fact, now that I am trying to notice what I am hearing, the fan of the computer and the birds outside are louder than my typing. Great! No distractions for me and for the forms of life all around me. Because of the silencing mechanism built into the switch, the bottom out event does not provide the audible feedback of a standard linear switch, like that of the Yellows and the Silvers. To me, this is exactly what I want, though it is worth pointing out for users of linear switches who have gotten used to that unmistakable sound.

In terms of smoothness, the Silent Blacks are a bit more scratchy than the Yellows. This is barely felt while typing. I can only sense the scratch when I press a key off centre and do it slowly. Such is not a real world scenario though and I will thus dismiss it as irrelevant to my experience.

The force curve of the Silent Blacks is steep, much like that of the Yellows. This means that the bottom out force is clearly higher than the actuation force. Whereas the Silvers have a fairly flat curve: the force post-actuation is practically constant (it probably increases by a little, but I cannot notice it while typing). The difference between the Silent Blacks and the Yellows in this regard is in terms of the force values, with the former being heaving at all stages. From what I find online, the Yellows actuate at ~50gf and bottom out at 67gf, while what I get for the Silent Blacks is ~60gf and 85gf, respectively. While I do not have the means to verify these values myself, I can tell empirically that the Silent Blacks are much heavier to the touch.

Stylistically, the Silent Blacks I got come in an opaque housing, which is black in colour. These switches would make for a poor fit in a build that is designed around backlight effects, as they inhibit light coming through the keycaps. I disabled that effect a long time ago and my caps are not shine-through anyway. I do not really care how a switch looks as I am not staring at the keyboard while typing. For what it is worth though, the all-black appearance appeals to me. But again, I would not mind if they were styled using some flamboyant colour combination: what I care about is the performance while typing.

I have read about the difference the housing materials make, such as how nylon produces different sounds than polycarbonate. Though I do not have a large enough sample size to make useful comparisons. Is nylon contributing to the low noise coming out of the Silent Blacks? Is the polycarbonate top housing of the Yellows and the Silvers partly responsible for their fairly loud audible feedback? I cannot tell unless I control for that factor.

In conclusion, I am happy with the Cherry MX2A Silent Black switches. They meet all my expectations as they feature everything I have been working towards over the course of 1+ year with a split mechanical keyboard. My preferences have evolved to reflect my recovery post-injury. I am now at a point where I enjoy typing as (i) there is no pain anymore and (ii) the keyboard is optimised for my sensitivities and is thus comfortable—indeed fun—to use.