Switch: Gateron Ink Blue

What's this? Finally a non-linear switch? Somehow, I ended up going with four linear switches in a row. As the name would suggest, this is a tactile and clicky switch that relates to the Cherry MX Blue, as well as the many other Gateron Blue switches. Given this is part of the Gateron Ink series, we see a translucent blue top and housing paired with an opaque blue stem. This time, we go back to the traditional cross-point stem design, and I think this is the best-looking switch of the lot so far. I am sure it has nothing to do with blue being my favorite color, either! On a funny note, I will mention that Gateron refers to this switch as an Ink Green rather than Blue switch on both the English and Chinese website. I am sure it is the language barrier at play, though, as this is obviously the Gateron Ink Blue switch.


Disassembly actually reveals a change not just with the stem design, but also the spring. Gone is the dark black coating on the spring, with the Gateron Ink Blue instead getting a lighter coat on the springs. The springs themselves still feel fine, so it might just be a case of Gateron choosing not to go with a black coat here? The stem has more white plastic added similar to the Gateron Ink Silent Black, albeit completely on the outside this time around, and replacing the slider on the linear switches. This allows for a pronounced tactile bump as part of the feedback mechanism, as well as the click with the metal leaf. There is no click bar, which is the thing I had hoped Gateron would add here.


The switches look amazing assembled too, with a really nice contrast against the white case and plate. As such, I now have four different colors on the plate, and if Gateron ends up making an actual Ink Green switch for some reason, we would have a different take on RGB keyboards, too. As for keycaps, I retained the default base kit for all but another vanity Esc keycap with a flower design on top.


Ah, we saw this before on the Ink Red switch owing to the mix-up on Gateron's part. But this time, it is in the right place, with the force-travel curve showing a tactile bump around 1.7 mm of travel and 60 gf to get through, followed by a dip past the bump to where you will inevitable actuate at ~2.1–2.2 mm and a rated actuation force of ~50 gf. Peak travel is again 4.0 mm, with a bottoming out force of ~70 gf. These force values are really similar to the three prior switches, so much so that the springs might well be the same considering Gateron has a massive +/- 10 gf error bar here. In practice, everything is much closer to the rated value, but I also don't feel any difference when typing on the Gateron Ink Blue compared to the standard Gateron Blue, which itself was decent to begin with. There's a nice tactile bump you will absolutely notice here, and the lack of a click bar means the bump occurs considerably earlier than actuation.


Interesting, I was not expecting this. I knew that the Ink switch housing deepens the sound signature based on everything so far, but I still thought the click would overpower it. As it turns out, this is among the best-sounding clicky switches to me. The Kailh BOX Navy comes to mind first, albeit this is quieter than that loud housing, of course. The clicky feedback is also well isolated from other sounds, making for a switch where the sound is simultaneously pleasant and audible. What this makes me want to do is adopt the Ink Blue casing with a Kailh BOX Jade stem, spring, and click bar. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with tactile and clicky switches.

At this point, I will also mention that there appears to also be a Gateron Ink Kangaroo tactile switch, but very few vendors seem to offer it. Additionally, there are at least two different versions for logo placement on the switch, but I can't say any more about it since I do not have them here to try out.