Gateron Yellow Optical Switch Sample

Spring too short and feels cheapy

Gateron making mainstream optical switches should have been a good milestone, but unfortunately none of the optical releases are decent. This one is ULTRA light, so light in fact that the first 1/4 of mm of actuation doesn't have any weight.. almost like the spring isn't long enough to hold the stem up against the top housing so you get a weird wobbly top. I get that light springs are a preference for some but this just feels like a factory error. The rest of the switch doesn't help either, with it being optical, the bottom housing is extremely thin and hollow sounding, making the sound profile a strange tacky click. It's not even that smooth, which is daft as there's literally 0 contacts pressing up against the stem, that's an entire surface medium removed. Though, it doesn't have the classic 2-part linear movement of other switches, it's one long push with no difference in feel, which is rather nice. I'm now an optical skeptic lol.