MOONDROP Lunalight Switches

In a perfect world, I would have covered these switches before my review of the MOONDROP DASH (the DASH75) keyboard which is the first retail keyboard to come from one of the more prominent Chinese audio brands today. See, MOONDROP came out of nowhere when it first announced keyboard switches a few months before the keyboard itself and I'd say that both announcements have not had the attention they deserved. The DASH75 in particular is an excellent keyboard that then goes further to add in a very nice DAC/amp for headphones inside the keyboard itself. It's only sold on Drop for the time being which makes it hard for people outside of the US to procure it. As it turns out, MOONDROP did the same with its switches too! There are two switches developed in collaboration with G-Square as previously mentioned and we examine the Lunalight first. These are sold in packs of 35 switches in better packaging than pretty much any other switches I've received over the years. The cardboard box uses a black base with MOONDROP on the front and a specifications sheet on the back about the switches in English and Mandarin. Slide out the inner box to find—you guessed it—a postcard with female artwork and then a thick foam sheet over the switches placed in individual foam compartments. The switches can work themselves loose if the box is knocked around on its way to you so MOONDROP might want to consider using a thicker foam sheet on the inside.


The MOONDROP Lunalight switches are apparently made by Haimu, a relatively new switch manufacturer that's quickly rising from having debuted as an OEM for smaller keyboard brands such as Velocifire to have their own branded switches. These switches are characterized by the white color used throughout the nylon housing and have MOONDROP branded on the top housing section. The stem has walls around it for added dust and spill resistance. This is a 5-pin switch so you can expect some extra stability in the socket compared to the 3-pin Cherry MX style switches. The opaque housing throughout means backlighting and RGB isn't high up the priority list for these switches.


The MOONDROP Lunalight switch is a typical Cherry MX style switch complete with a cross-point stem, but with multiple different modifications made to the various components that make up the switch. Take a look at that nylon top housing, for example, with a very interesting injection mold that allows for the stem to glide up and down vertically without much lateral movement. This specific housing design is one I have not seen used by others yet—especially on the injection points here—and helps make these extremely smooth in practice with the tight tolerances all round. The POM stem uses a longer slider piece that is lubed very well as with the stabilizers—and even not excessively so. This is a linear switch and thus there are no extra bumps to be found along the contact pathway of the slider itself as it meets the metal contacts in the nylon bottom housing. The spring is made of high-quality KOS stainless steel, employs a dual coil with an overall longer length that should make for more uniform resistance, and also comes lightly lubed where it meets the bottom housing itself. Switch actuation works the same way as all other such switches in that the stem pushes the two copper contacts together at the actuation point to complete the circuit that's read by the keyboard USB microcontroller, which in turn sends out the correct keystroke to the client device.


Using the MOONDROP Lunalight switches with the Akko MOD 004 kit is quite simple, especially as the socket is compatible with 5-pin switches out of the box; thus, you do not need to clip off two plastic pins per switch. Just ensure the metal pins are straight before aligning them with the openings of the switch socket and press down vertically until you hit a solid wall. Go in at an angle or with slightly off-centered or angled pins and you might encounter resistance sooner or even hear the scrunching of the pins being bent or crumpled further. It's at this point that I realized the pins on the switches coudl have been thicker, especially given the TTC hot-swap switch sockets on the MOD 004 kit have less tolerance compared to, say, a Kailh or Gateron socket. There were even some occasions where one of the pins ended up being pushed inward slightly that then prevented the stem from moving up and down consistently. It's a combination of the switch pins and the sockets itself but still I ended up having to repair ~15 switches out of the 98 installed here which was not fun. On the plus side, the housing around the cross-point stem, which is meant to add further dust and spill resistance, helps you hold on to individual switches. Once done, the switches by themselves don't match the blue color of the kit but meld into the white plate itself.


This is why I opted to add in some of the white replacement keycaps from the Epomaker Sailing keycap set to complete this build. Seen above is the default key layout for the Akko MOD 004 with the keycaps installed accordingly. Having previously covered the Akko MOD 003 and its other 98-key keyboards helped, especially in identifying which four keys go above the numpad. I had to go through all three layers of the keycap set to install all 98 keycaps here, and have to say that this color scheme looks even better in person than it does in these photos even if you may want to stick with the default colors as will be seen on the next page. The secondary (and tertiary) colors help break up the monotony, and I was otherwise pleasantly surprised by how well the base color matched the case even though I am sure the Akko Red & Blue Samurai probably would do so better. A look from the side also confirms the Cherry profile, which works fine with the switches here despite the use of north-facing LEDs on the PCB. There are the usual six rows with less contouring, a combination which makes for a keyboard that is not too tall and still easily usable without a dedicated wrist rest.


I have covered the MOONDROP Lunalight linear switches before, as previously mentioned, so this section was easier to write given the switches themselves continue to be very impressive. The fairly unique housing that helps minimize switch wobble as well as the well-lubed stem and spring add positively to the user experience. The nylon/POM composition is also nice to see here, and the longer stem employed makes this a full-size mechanical switch that stops slightly under the typical 4.0 mm travel most such Cherry MX-style switches have. It doesn't make a significant difference in practice however, and neither does the slightly lower actuation distance relative to the usual 2.0 mm. What matters more is knowing this is a medium-force linear switch with a rated actuation force ~50 gf and peak force at bottoming out of 60 gf meaning it's not a fatiguing switch to type on and yet you are very likely to bottom out once you actuate the switches. The extremely stable and smooth travel is a real pleasure here, and multi-strokes are no issue either considering the quick debounce on offer. The larger keycaps work out well in practice courtesy the thick ABS and lubed stabilizers, to where there is no mushy feeling when pressing down on them, although the same switches used in the MOONDROP DASH75 were better to type on given we get denser PBT keycaps as well as screw-in stabilizers that are also better lubed.


Here is what this specific combination sounds like when typing at ~105 WPM, and keep in mind that the sound profile is heavily influenced by everything. Even the aluminium case matters, with cases out of plastic, acrylic, or wood changing things drastically, too. The presence or absence of sound-dampening foam is also quite the factor, which is why it's best to compare switches with the same case, plate, and keycap combination. I did bottom out constantly, which isn't surprising for the reasons mentioned above, but I can tell you right away that these switches sound great in person, and the foam-filled tray mount kit design also helps. Based on a quick comparison, the switches sound quieter than on standard plastic or plate-mount kits, and end up sounding deeper than the individual switches by themselves. There isn't any pinging from the downstrokes and the overall sound signature is dampened to favor lower frequencies too. There is still scope for improvement as mentioned above and, for context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with linear switches.