Switching the Nuphy Air75 Switches

From Clicky To Quiet: Blue, Brown, Wisteria, Red

My Nuphy Air75 mechanical keyboard seems to drop keys occasionally. I ordered it with blue switches, the clickiest available. These blue switches also require the most operating force, which could explain the dropped keys.

Apple keyboards, in contrast, have short travel distances, and with scissor switches, don’t require much force. With muscle memory ingrained, my fingers just glide over the keys with accuracy and speed.

But mechanical keyboards provide better, even addictive, tactile feedback. They also offer auditory feedback which, on a subconscious level, helps with focus.

Operating forces from the Nuphy website:

Blue
operating force: 65±15gf
end force: 70±5gf

Brown
operating force: 55±15gf
end force: 60±5gf

Wisteria
operating force: 55±15gf
end force: 50±5gf

Red
operating force: 50±15gf
end force: 60±5gf

All switches have the same total travel distance of 3.2+0.2mm

Wisteria sits along side Brown, between Blue and Red. Wisteria’s end force, however, is the lowest, and reminds me of the Apple scissor switches, but with much greater travel.

Turn on your favorite tunes and budget an hour if you are new to removing key caps and switches. iFixit has a nice write up here. The key is to use a slight rocking motion until you hear a pop or click, but I still broke 3 blue switches. Ah, no matter. I didn’t plan on switching back to Blue.

The end result felt and sounded satisfying. And while the Nuphy Air75 still dropped keys, it happened less often. But was this enough to make my Nuphy Air75 my daily driver? A typing test was in order, and I went over to www.typingtest.com for a few one minute sessions.

The results confirmed what I was feeling in my gut, and I am torn. With the Nuphy Air75 Wisteria, I averaged 68 words per minute with three typos. Using an Apple keyboard, I got 76 words per minute with zero typos.

Nuphy Air: 68 wpm. Apple: 76 wpm

Oh well. I still enjoy the Nuphy Air. While it won’t be driving my Mac mini, it does have a place on my desk paired to a Linux machine. As for Wisteria switches versus Blue, I still prefer the tactile and audible feedback of Blue.